Embodied Approaches to Psychotherapy

Why does psychotherapy need to be viewed as an embodied process?

This paper argues that the therapist’s own body forms the constitutional foundation of our capacity to experience and communicate in the therapeutic situation. The therapeutic process is seen as a continuous process of registering, feeling, sensing, what is happening and changing in the therapist’s body as s/he interacts with the patient – a process that largely proceeds beyond the bounds of conscious awareness. It is argued that therapeutic action is fundamentally dependent on the therapist’s ability and freedom to respond immediately – verbally and nonverbally – to the patient’s e-motions, actions and verbalizations. The importance of reflective thought is acknowledged, and is seen as resting on the analyst’s ability to gain awareness of unconscious bodily relational experiences. On the basis of these assumptions, it is suggested that training and supervision, in addition to its traditional emphasiz on exchange of words, should focus on sensitising therapists to embodied experience and expression.