Body Psychotherapy

What is Body Psychotherapy

Body Psychotherapy is a style of psychotherapy that explores the interaction and unity between your mind and body. It may also go under the names Somatic Psychotherapy, or Somatic Therapy as “soma” means body, Mind-Body Psychotherapy, Body Centred Psychotherapy, Body-Oriented Psychotherapy and Process-Oriented Psychotherapy,

Our Body Psychotherapy at Energetics Institute in Perth, Australia is both an expressive and experiential therapy based on the principles and practices used in Integrative Body Mind Psychotherapy™ which is an affect focused body psychotherapy method that encompasses groundedness and psychoanalysis. Body Psychotherapy addresses all aspects of your being including your body, mind and emotions. Body Psychotherapy also embraces a spiritual aspect if that is shttps://energeticsinstitute.com.au/integrative-body-mind-psychotherapy/omething of relevance and importance to you. It works with your feelings, impulses, reactions, and adaptations your body has made in response to influences that shaped it.

Accessing the Root of the Issue – an Integrative Approach to Healing

Treatments focusing on talking about the issues, learning skills or relying purely on psychodynamic relationships, without psychodynamic or mind/body awareness or psychological interventions, are helpful for some time. The therapist often emphasizes the focus of brain problems in a client, often assuming that mental or thought patterns cause a psychological problem. Of course, sometimes it isn’t “just in your mind” and isn’t always related to anxiety or depression. Our Somatic Psychotherapy is very effective at addressing and healing the underlying causes of many conditions, where Traditional Psychology and Counselling may be more limited.

The tagline of Energetics Institute is “Your Body and Mind are One”. Our Somatic Psychotherapy is a Trauma-Informed Psychotherapy that uses a bottom-up and top-down model to address trauma from both body and mind-based perspectives. The bottom-up approach focuses on somatic experiences, allowing the body to process trauma through techniques like breathwork, movement, and sensory awareness. The top-down approach engages the mind, using cognitive and talk therapies to reshape thought patterns and emotional responses. Together, these methods provide an embodied framework for healing, integrating the mind and body in the recovery process

What are the Benefits of Body Psychotherapy

Body Psychotherapy integrates your body with your mind in a holistic way, treating all aspects of your being. It makes sense that any form of therapy must include and cannot exclude or discount your body and its reactions and produced responses. Somatic Psychotherapy has a wider scope of inclusion and is aligned to how you have your human experience. The cause of your issue is most likely to be found if your whole of self is treated in the therapy process.

Traditional psychology or counselling only treats the mind and cannot directly treat the manifestation of symptoms in your body. Body Psychotherapy is often better able to the uncover causes and dynamics which may be contributing to your bodily symptoms. Your healing has a potentially higher rate of success, when using a technique which promotes more body awareness than found with conventional treatment approaches.

Click here to book your Body Psychotherapy Somatic Therapy Perth Session.

What can Body Psychotherapy treat?

There are many conditions that the International Body Psychotherapy Journal (click here) discusses. At the Energetics Institute, our body psychotherapists use a somatic psychology approach ​to treat many conditions including:

• generalized anxiety disorder and anxiety symptoms
• posttraumatic stress disorder
• chronic pain or physical pain
• psychological trauma
• childhood abuse
• chronic depression
• psychological distress

What Techniques are used in Body Psychotherapy

Body Psychotherapy starts with exploring your reason for coming to therapy, as well as aspects of your clinical history. Your therapist will discuss any past injuries or issues, and also the current state of your body. Your breathing, Autonomic Nervous system, posture, voice, and language are all noted by the therapist. This data gathering also focuses on your body and so is a departure from conventional approaches such as counselling or psychotherapy.

A history of trauma, abuse, or accidents is regarded as shaping or formative events or patterns. Your therapist will note where your body may reveal or hold a defense pattern. Your body is the doorway into your mind and your mind is a doorway into your body.  Our therapy plan takes into account your history, your body, your levels of trauma, and is customised to you and your needs.

How We Complete Body-Oriented Psychotherapy

When you start body-oriented psychotherapy, your somatic psychotherapy specialist will observe your body and get you to use your body as part of the Body Psychotherapy Treatment session. Body-Oriented Psychotherapy may include many movements and activities such as:

• Grounding your consciousness in your body via movement
• Breathwork which brings energy into your body and stimulate nervous system arousal
• Link your body and mind through visualization and tracking sensations through your body
• Associating your bodily reactions to images, memories, thoughts
• The physical release of your anger, rage, grief, and terror using body-centric emotional release
• Physical techniques including body touch to bring attention and awareness to a numb or tense area
• Bodywork and other physical techniques to promote the release of a defensive posture by musculature in your body
• Symbolic and therapeutic touch such as a hand touch to signal support or sympathy
• Postural significant triggering such as an outstretched hand to signal NO.

What’s Involved in Body Psychotherapy

A Somatic Psychotherapist believes that the body is the subconscious mind, so will treat many conditions in an embodied way, targeting the mind, body and emotions. For a therapy approach to be successful, it needs to work on all levels of your being as a person, so there needs to be integration of body and mind.

Body Psychotherapy encompasses a lot of different therapy modalities including:

• Psychodynamic Therapy
• Talk Therapy
• Somatic Experiencing
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
• Bioenergetics
• Core Energetics
• Reichian Therapy
• Breathing techniques
• Somatic Awareness
• Eye Movement Desensitization
• Body Experience

Are There any Concerns using Body Psychotherapy Perth

You may come into therapy with either a history of abuse, trauma, or poor personal boundaries. As such, a touch of your body may trigger trauma or alarm. Body Psychotherapy must be selectively used by qualified and certified therapists who are properly trained in abuse and trauma dynamics. The therapist must also practice good personal boundaries and be sensitive to you as a client. Our certified Somatic Psychotherapists at Energetics Institute in Perth, Australia are experienced professionals and have the experience and skills to guide you in your therapy process.

Caution around touch is always primary in the mind of a Somatic Psychotherapist. This is especially the case if you regress, dissociate, and leave your body when touched. At the same time, Somatic Psychotherapy can re-introduce you to your body. If you have felt abandoned or lack good personal boundaries with others, touch and bodywork may be a critical part of your healing. Both benefits and risks may exist with using Body Psychotherapy.

We are happy to answer any questions or discuss any of your concerns directly with you.