Treating Psychosomatic Patients: In Search of a Transdisciplinary Framework for the Integration of Bodywork in Psychotherapy

Abstract

Treating Psychosomatic Patients: In Search of a Transdisciplinary Framework for the Integration of Bodywork in Psychotherapy offers a conceptual and therapeutic framework for all therapists who have to deal with the psychosomatic ‘conflicted’ body, as presented in anxiety and depression, stress and burn-out, medically unexplained symptoms and trauma.

The book introduces the transdisciplinary framework 'experiential bodywork' (EBW), drawing on theories and scientific findings drawn from clinical psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, psychotherapy and myofascial therapy. EBW provides a roadmap for a better understanding of the processes that underpin body psychotherapy and body-mind therapies. On a practical level, EBW challenges the therapist to marry the power of psychotherapeutic techniques with the richness of hands-on bodywork and hands-off movement expression. With the 'armoured' body as an entry point, patients learn to feel their body from within and listen to what it tells them. In the sharpness of this awareness they discover a freer way of speaking, moving and being present in the world.

Through EBW, Treating Psychosomatic Patients offers a transdisciplinary, scientifically based framework for the integration of bodywork in psychotherapy, ranging from psychosomatics to trauma, and will be of great interest to psychologists, psychotherapists and counsellors in a variety of settings. EBW also helps somatic therapists, such as physical therapists or osteopaths, to better understand the richness and layeredness of deep bodywork from different psychological, developmental and 'embodied' perspectives.