Unlike traditional ‘talk therapy’ or ‘cognitive therapy’ or other ‘ labelled’ psychotherapies, Somatic Psychology (or Body Psychotherapy) tends to be much more experiential and existential and attempts to work much more at an authentic or ‘felt’ level, working with the person and their ‘felt sense’ of Self. ![]() This type of therapeutic work is not just purely about the mind, or our thoughts, or our feelings, or our behaviors, or about ‘labels’, ‘diagnoses’, or ‘pathologies’, but it is about something that is deeply rooted and felt within us, in our bodies, in our feelings, and also (sometimes) in our spirits. The basic body-oriented (somatic) ‘therapy’ – however you may call it – is often one-to-one, but sometimes happens in group therapy – and it focusses much more on: ‘How we are in this world’ or ‘ … at this moment’ and ‘How we relate to ourselves – and thus to others’ and ‘What do we really (deeply) feel about ourselves – and others’. The terminologies of ‘Somatic Psychology’ are – essentially – an American (trans-Atlantic) equivalent to the terminologies of ‘Body Psychotherapy’ in Europe. ![]() Instead – “I am – because I exist in a thinking and feeling body – This is Me!” (or something like that). Our bodies are not just vehicles for carrying our heads around – as some psychologies and psychotherapies seem to indicate our bodies are an essential part of an intricate, indivisible and interrelation component of our whole ‘body-mind’ or Self, In effect, Descartes (I think, therefore I am) is dead! ![]() ‘Body Psychotherapy’ – as a label or signifier – tends towards a slightly more European description of the general ‘field’ of … a form of psychological therapy with people from a body-oriented perspective … that respects and utilizes the powerful and intricate connection between the person’s body and their mind.
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