Embodied Approaches to Psychotherapy

The Advantages of an Embodied Approach to Psychotherapy

Many people agree that the mind is embodied and that there is no meaningful way to think of them as separate, but what – Katherin Stuaffer asks – does this mean in clinical practice? This presentation begins by examining what we understand by body-mind unity. She proposes that a developmental theory, in which the psychological growth of the child is inseparable from the process of gaining control and possession the body, offers much insight to the task of psychotherapy and that body sensation is a crucial component of any thought process. By elaborating the therapeutic advantages of this stance, she proposes that the client’s body can be used to regulate, deepen and contain material, particularly when that is rooted in trauma. Bodywork enables access pre-verbal material and extra fine attunement through somatic resonance. Case examples, and demonstration illustrate this talk.