The body is central to all living processes. Without a body there is no life, as we know it. If the body is indeed central to living experience then it surely must have significant value in the psychological healing process. There are many different approaches and methods for engaging the body as part of the psychotherapeutic process. Although different from each other, all share a common belief that it is clinically useful to include the body in psychotherapy. This article addresses, from a Psycho-Physical Therapy perspective, the question "Why and how is it therapeutically useful to include the body?". To answer this question we will look at four important topics: The Body as Vessel, The Body Reveals, The Body as Access, and The Body as Resource. We will then address the therapeutic environment needed for integrative healing, the continuity of body and mind, and the ways that the body is included in Psycho-Physical Therapy.

o The Body is a Vessel of Life

The body is our container. It is the vessel we live in. The body is the vehicle that generates our movements, gives form to our expressions, and facilitates our interactions with the world around us. The body is not just a structure that houses and serves the needs of the mind. It is rich with its own innate intelligence. The body is a dynamic unified complex system. All of its parts are interconnected and interdependent. Body and mind function inseparably. They are mutually influential and interactive. Because of this interconnected functioning, psychological issues affect the body and, conversely, the quality of physical interaction has an affect on psychological functioning. This concept is common knowledge but is often underutilized in psychotherapeutic work. To actively work from this concept means to continually look for and engage the interactive dynamics of mind and body in all stages of the therapeutic process. In Psycho-Physical Therapy this is more than just an idea or technique; it is a deep-seated value that shapes the way we work.

o The Body Reveals Psycho/Physical Organization

Psycho/physical interaction can be observed by tracking the body. Psychological patterns influence how the body organizes. Physical patterns influence how we think and feel. We can see evidence of psychological issues in a person's posture and movements. For those therapists that can read the body, these patterns reveal important psycho/physical information about a client's organization and ways to proceed with the therapeutic work. The basic concept is that the body reveals the functioning of the mind and the interactions of body and mind. To actively work from this concept requires a therapist to have basic skills in tracking and assessing postural and movement patterns, qualities of stability and mobility, tonicity, autonomic responses, etc. With these skills a therapist can recognize and more fully explore a client's psycho/physical patterns of dissociation, defense, resistance, excitement, etc. The therapist can determine if the client is collapsing, contracting, withdrawing, resisting, mobilizing, integrating, etc. Assessment of the best therapeutic approaches for working with these patterns can then be made more effectively.

o The Body is a Significant Vehicle for Accessing and Processing Psychological Material

The body reveals evidence of psychological organization and so doing points to where therapeutic focus and interventions might be engaged. The body will reveal through its patterns, especially movement, where an access route to core material may be available. The body's response to this accessing inquiry will bring forth important information about processing and transforming psychological issues. To actively engage this concept requires skill in tracking the body and an understanding of how to work with what is being presented both physically and psychologically. Accessing and processing psychological material by working back and forth across the mind/body interface is central to Psycho-Physical Therapy.

o The Body as Resource; The Body as a Source of Psychological Support

The optimal performance of basic physical functions is important for psychological health. Physical functions like locomotion, balance, support, containment, orienting, etc. are important resources for over all psycho/physical well-being. We call these somatic resources. These resources are the anatomical and physiological qualities and actions that support a physically felt experience of self, of competency, and of well-being. When these functions of the body are not adequate then psychological functioning can be affected. For example, if a person lives in a state of chronic spinal flexion it is common to also find psycho/emotional issues about devalued self-identity. With the changing of spinal alignment, from chronic flexion to a more upright posture, a client's internal experience of their physicality begins to shift. This in turn facilitates a change in psycho/emotional perception. A new quality of identity is encouraged. We call this, "building somatic resources". Building these more effective somatic resources supports psychological change. Developing both healthy physical and psychological resources is an essential part of psychological transformation. To fully help a client build resources requires a therapist to have the knowledge and skill to track the body. The therapist needs to be able to assess the quality of existing psycho/physical resources. The therapist also needs to have an understanding of how to support a client in building new psychological and somatic resources.

The Context of Wholeness, the Environment of Psycho/Physical Healing

The cultural and personal environments within which we live have a significant influence on us. From an early age and from many directions the cultural context informs us to look externally for an image of who we are and how we are to behave. We lose connection with the internal compass by which we understand our being and our calling. Within this environment of disconnection the experience of wholeness starts to disappear. Mind separates from body. Identity shifts from a connection with essential inner nature towards external projections.

In the optimal human condition we experience the self as complete, whole, and dynamic. Our true nature is to be awake, at peace, content, and satisfied within our self. Sometimes, however, wounds and traumas happen that cause the awakened life to shut down, to close its doors and windows. It is possible, maybe even necessary at times, to hide one's self so completely that a person loses a sense of who they are. Both purpose and direction may partially or completely disappear. No matter what the depth of a person's wounding, as long as they are alive, there remains within them a spark of dynamic energy, an ember of beingness that waits re-kindling. We are not the person our wounds tell us we are. We are not the person our culture informs us to be. Our essence is not an external image or superficial indulgence. We are not fragments. We are not a diagnosis or pathology. At the core of our being we are alive, vital, integrative and creative. The truth about one's basic nature may be lost to the person who is reaching out for help in therapy. The first task, and often the greatest task, for a client in therapy is to "wake up". Awaken into the present moment, to become mindful of the here and now, the moment where life happens, the moment where the body lives. This present moment is where change is possible. Body consciousness brings us back in touch with the here and now. The physical body, living in the moment, becomes the grounded foundation of healthy psychological functioning.

The tasks for a person in therapy are: to release the grip of past wounding, to re-discover the true nature of their inner beingness, and to build the optimal resources needed to live their life fully. To accomplish this, therapist and client together must create a therapeutic environment that moves away from the fragmented and externalizing cultural context and establish an environment that supports presence, introspection and integration. This environment needs to embrace the body as an integral part of the therapeutic process. To not do so is to perpetuate dissociation of body and mind modeled by the cultural context.

The physical and psychological qualities of the therapeutic environment are an important part of the healing process. In collaboration with a client the therapist works to create a physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual context within which the client can begin to let go of the holding patterns that keep the wounding alive. The contexts of our wounding and the corresponding psycho/physical constrictions or dissociations are linked together. The therapist's full acceptance of the client's physical reality is an essential part of the healing context. This acceptance is undermined when the therapist does not reference or include the client's body as part of the therapeutic process.

The Continuity of Body and Mind

Mind and body are interconnected and interactive. There is continuity between the physical and psychological aspects of our experience. They mutually influence each other. This continuity can be seen in the way a person's body responds to a habitual thought pattern or the way beliefs are influenced by their physical patterns. For example, the person has an ongoing negative judgment that they cannot accomplish a particular activity. Every time they attempt the activity the negative thought dominates them. Their body constricts accordingly and the task has to be aborted. The belief has an affect on the physical function. A different example would be the person whose posture is in habitual flexion. A tension pattern which, restricts full respiration and affects the person's availability of energy. They experience depression and believe their life situation is hopeless. The postural pattern in this case has an affect on psycho/emotional function. These psychological and physical patterns are, of course, very complex. They mutually affect one another forming feedback loops that create deeply interwoven psycho/physical patterns. Working with the body is a direct way of influencing these patterns.

It is because of the continuity between physical and psychological experience that the body is a rich source of information about what is happening for a person psychologically. For the same reason the body can be a source point for psychological transformation. What affects the body will influence the mind. The converse is also true, psychological change influences the physical structure. Understanding how to work back and forth across the interface between mind and body gives the therapist valuable tools in expediting the therapeutic process. By engaging the body as an active part of the therapy the client is supported in making physical shifts that parallel the psychological transformations that are happening. This integrative process assures a greater capacity for the client to assimilate and integrate the changes being made in therapy. The therapist facilitates awareness of mind/body continuity by directing focused awareness to what is occurring physically, what is occurring psychologically, and the interactions between the two.

What Does a Psychotherapist Need to Learn about Working with the Body?

There are many levels of including the body in the psychotherapy process. On a most basic level it is important for a therapist to know how to facilitate somatic awareness and presence, work at the mind/body interface, and support the development of somatic based resources. It is valuable for the therapist to learn to read the body and its movements, to have a basic understanding of the relationships of postural and movement patterns as they interact with psychological patterns of organization. It is important to know how to help a client build somatic based resources, which will support progress towards their psychotherapeutic goals. Building somatic based resources requires the ability to track the body and support the client in developing more optimal physical functioning. These basic somatic therapeutic skills will significantly improve a therapist's effectiveness in integrating the body with the psychotherapy process.

This does not mean that the psychotherapist must engage in a complex re-training process. The therapist does not need to be able to perform complicated physical therapy techniques. It does not mean that the therapist must engage in physical contact with the client, although touch can be a very significant therapeutic intervention. The knowledge and skills needed to work somatically in these ways can be learned in short professional trainings and supervised practice. The inclusion of the body in psychotherapeutic practice deeply serves the client's growth and transformational process. Including the body in therapy first of all requires a shift in attitude, a valuing of the body as a key component in healing.

The Inclusion of the Body in Psycho-Physical Therapy

Psycho-Physical Therapy is a therapeutic method that actively integrates approaches of both psychotherapy and body therapy. Actively, means that the therapeutic work directly engages the body at all stages of the therapy process. The therapy does not just passively reference the body or use it solely as a source of information. This is truly a body-centered approach. The therapeutic work is continually integrating the physical with the psychological and vice versa. A client's physical, mental and spiritual issues are all seen as parts of a complex interactive system, where all parts are inseparable from the whole. The body is seen as the container of this interactive system.

The body is viewed as a primary vehicle for the therapeutic process, where psychological and physical interventions are continuously overlapping. All therapeutic actions either include the body or are integrated back to the body. Psychological work is grounded in the body. Spiritual work is embodied. Body therapy methods and techniques are used throughout the process. These may include somatic awareness, physical patterning and education, movement work, hands-on bodywork, etc. The style of body interventions is dependent on what is emerging in the session, the appropriateness for the client's process, and the training of the therapist. This integrative mind/body approach helps a client deepen and sustain transformational changes realized in their therapy.

Physical experience happens in the present moment, so the therapeutic work stays focused on the here and now as much as possible. Rather then exploring historical wounding as the central attention of the work; the Psycho-Physical Therapy approach is to stay present, deepen awareness, build needed psycho/physical resources that support transformation, and integrate new changes into the clients daily life. We acknowledge the wounding with out attaching to it. Accessing and processing historical issues and memories may be necessary but it is not the main focus of the work. Regressive or historical based work runs the risk of keeping a client focused or fixated on the past. This can become a long and arduous path. The here and now is where transformation occurs. Making peace with what is in the present moment, letting go of the restrictive hold of the past, and opening to new and creative possibilities is the work of Psycho-Physical Therapy. The body is the most effective vehicle for creating present moment consciousness. The body exists only in the moment. The transformation of psychological wounding is realized in the same moment.

The building of psycho/physical resources is a central to the process of Psycho-Physical Therapy. Resources are those things, actions, and qualities we can draw upon for aid in times of need. They are the awareness and abilities that support a person in maintaining a sense of self and a feeling of competency, regardless of what is occurring in his or her environment. There are many different categories of resources: psychological, emotional, intellectual, relational, artistic, spiritual, somatic, etc. In Psycho-Physical Therapy we explore the interface of two resource categories, the psychological and somatic. We ground the resourcing process in the body by focusing the therapeutic work on the building of somatic resources.

The body is at the heart of this method of psychotherapy. This is psychotherapy through the body. We keep coming back to the body because it is what brings us most efficiently into the transformative moment. We believe that it is important to ground the therapeutic work in the client's daily life. That daily life occurs in a body.


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