Various psychotherapeutic methods are summarized under the term body psychotherapy. These treat the psychological and physical experience of the person equally.
What is body psychotherapy?
The term body psychotherapy serves as a collective term for psychotherapy methods that involve the body in treatment. The term body psychotherapy serves as a collective term for psychotherapy methods that involve the body in treatment. In this process, feelings are expressed through the body. Body psychotherapy is also called body-oriented psychotherapy. In body psychotherapy, it is assumed that the psyche and the body cannot be separated from each other and represent a unity. The various body-oriented psychotherapeutic methods have a depth-psychological or humanistic orientation in common with each other. Thus, they use the perception of the body as an opportunity to uncover unconscious processes of the psyche. In the process, these processes are made conscious. At the center of the treatment is the sensation of the body during the course of therapy. Body psychotherapy has its origins in the psychoanalysis of the early 20th century as well as in the reform movements of dance and gymnastics. The German gymnastics teacher Elsa Gindler (1885-1961) exerted a strong influence on the method. The same was true of the Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Raich (1897-1957), who laid the foundation for body psychotherapy with the development of vegetotherapy. Until the 1990s, however, body-oriented psychotherapy led rather a shadowy existence in the medical world. Thanks to new neuroscientific research results, however, interest in the procedures of body psychotherapy has increased in recent years.
Function, effect and goals
Body psychotherapy aims to treat the psyche and the body at the same time. In this way, inner conflicts of the patient can be solved more efficiently. According to body-oriented psychotherapy, the human body, mind and spirit do not exist separately, but as a unit. Therapy directions, which are under the influence of depth psychology, start from the effects of unconscious psychological processes on human thinking, feeling and acting. If one succeeds in making the unconscious processes conscious, this forms an important basic prerequisite for the healing process. Thus, body psychotherapy aims to gain access to the unconscious through the body. In body-oriented psychotherapy, it is assumed that in the body of an adult person there is emotional data that originates from early childhood. This may be core beliefs, which include, for example, the belief that one is not good enough. According to body psychotherapy, the human body stores these core beliefs, which determines the person’s continued beliefs about the world. This core belief persists regardless of what the person has already accomplished, or what has been acknowledged by the person’s mind. According to body psychotherapy, a belief that has been anchored emotionally can only be changed by other experiences that occur on a felt physical level. The reality-based directly felt alternative experience is also called “antidote”. For example, a person who previously thought he was not good enough believes he is good enough after all because of the antidote. There is a wide variety of techniques within body psychotherapy, which makes them not easy to keep track of. In total, three different technical categories are distinguished. These include working with the help of body mindfulness, working with physical exercises, and working through physical touch. Depending on the body-oriented psychotherapy method, the individual techniques differ. For example, there are extremely gentle touches of the body, but also massive procedures. They all serve to bring about physical change as well as awareness. Within the framework of physical exercises, among other things, stress positions, in which a strong tension takes place, are taken. There are also minimalist experiments. In these, the therapist examines the effects that even the smallest changes in the body have on the person’s consciousness.Body mindfulness is when the patient’s attention is focused on the inner as well as the physical experience. Mindfulness is a state of consciousness in which the patient becomes a witness of the current experience without making an inner judgment. There are numerous body-oriented methods that fall under body psychotherapy. These include Albert Pesso’s psychotherapy, Structural Body Therapy (SKT), Biodynamic Psychology and Bodywork, Bioenergetic Analysis, and Integrative Body Psychotherapy. Other methods include vegetotherapy, functional relaxation, analytical body psychotherapy, and depth psychology-based body psychotherapy.
Risks, side effects, and dangers
Side effects as in other psychotherapeutic methods, in which medication is taken, do not exist in body psychotherapy. Thus, in most methods, there is no taking of medications. Nevertheless, there is a certain risk of side effects in some patients, such as anxiety patients or people suffering from depression. Thus, any psychotherapy interferes with the patient’s usually complicated entanglements. As a result, there is a risk that further psychological complaints will occur or that new ones will be added. Sometimes those affected also feel overwhelmed or dependent on their therapist. Some people experience confusion or exhaustion after attending a session. Another problem is the effectiveness of the individual body-psychotherapeutic methods, which varies from method to method. In Germany, body psychotherapy is not yet one of the methods recognized by the statutory health insurance funds that comply with the psychotherapy guidelines. For this reason, body-oriented psychotherapy is not billed as a sole procedure in this country. However, therapists are allowed to incorporate individual elements of body psychotherapy into their work.
