Body Psychotherapy Bristol

About Body Psychotherapy?

About Body Psychotherapy

All too often our bodily sensations and feelings are pushed aside as being inconvenient or inappropriate, maybe even regarded as an inferior part of ourselves. The resulting mind-body split can be the source of much emotional and physical suffering.

Body Psychotherapy opens the possibility of exploring feeling in the physical here and now, perhaps temporarily freed from some of the habitual traps and delusions that language can lead us into. The split between the body and the mind that is endemic in modern society is at the root of most of the mental and emotional-physical suffering that we experience.

People may come to psychotherapy for a very wide range of reasons, frequently connected with some crisis in their outer and/or inner lives. They may be overwhelmed by feelings, perhaps of panic or anxiety, or experience a disturbing sense of detachment. They may have experienced a crisis in their lives that causes them to question the way they live. They may experience their lives as a constant struggle that they can no longer sustain. Or they may have come to feel that they need to change the way in which they handle relationships. It's difficult to overstate the breadth of human experience and the wide range of difficulties that may be encountered.

It's also difficult to describe a typical session because sessions vary enormously and unpredictably in response to what a client brings and what is needed in the process of reaching towards healing and resolution. A client may be requested to notice the location of body sensations connected with their emotional experience, to breathe deeply into a feeling of emptiness or blockage, or just to sit and talk. These are just a few of many possibilities; the choice being always led by the needs of the client.

I am a registered member of UKCP (United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapists) and hold a Certificate in Body Psychotherapy from the Chiron Centre in London. I am a member of the Chiron Association of Body Psychotherapists (CABP) and abide by their standards and code of ethics. These latter documents are of course available for you to view on request.

If you are interested in exploring Body Psychotherapy the first step is to book an initial consultation in which we can discover if what I am offering will suit your needs and whether we are suited to working together.

Body Psychotherapy recognizes and works with the physical tensions, energy flow and internal processes which result from the long-term containment of emotions and explores the internal conflicts which may prevent full expression.

People come to Body Psychotherapy for many reasons:

because they find that words are not enough
because they recognise that, for them, physical symptoms are associated with emotional distress
because they feel detached from their body and their feelings and want to reconnect
because they find themselves overwhelmed by floods of emotion and wish to find ways of dealing with this
because they feel that Body Psychotherapy may be the best way to deal with their particular problem, whether it is depression, anxiety, past trauma, feelings of rage or whatever

from curiosity to see if this form of psychotherapy is suited to their needs and personal development

and for many other diverse and compelling reasons.

Integrative Body Psychotherapy recognizes the importance of physical emotional charge and discharge, while also taking into account many of the insights and techniques of the humanistic and psychodynamic approaches.

It is difficult to describe a typical body psychotherapy session because sessions vary enormously and unpredictably in response to what a client brings and what is needed in the process of reaching towards healing and resolution. A client may be requested to notice the location of body sensations connected with their emotional experience, to breathe deeply into a feeling of emptiness or blockage, or just to sit and talk. These are just a few of many possibilities; the choice being always led by the needs of the client.

The foundations of Body Psychotherapy were laid in the early 20th century by Wilhelm Reich who provided many insights into the relationship between mind, feelings and physiology which still seem fresh today. This field has been the subject of constant development ever since. Now the findings of neuroscience, immunology and physiological psychology are beginning to corroborate many of the insights which have been gained over the years.