Do Not Be Shy! Examine Your Body - Self-development

2023 Author: Oswald Adamson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 20:18

Body-oriented therapy (TOP) is one of the areas of psychotherapeutic science. With its help, you can diagnose and solve psychological, somatic and psychosomatic problems at the physical level. How do you know if this type of therapy is right for you?

The "Psychotherapeutic Encyclopedia" gives us the following definition: "A group of psychotherapy methods focused on the study of the body, the patient's awareness of bodily sensations, on the study of how needs, desires and feelings are manifested in various bodily states, and on teaching realistic ways to resolve dysfunction in this area ".

The original, more accurate and capacious term body work is translated simultaneously as “work with the body” and as “work with the body”. One of the tasks of body-oriented psychotherapy is "returning to your own body, finding it."

Modern man is not complete, he has little access to his body, which means he cannot get pleasure from it. In our culture, traditionally, the body is taboo and the mind is encouraged. The vast majority of psychotherapeutic techniques are very rational. Thus, in traditional psychoanalysis, not only physical, but also visual contact is unacceptable.

Body-oriented psychotherapy proceeds from the unity of the body and the psyche, overcoming the barriers between the "spiritual" and "base", forbidden and conscious. Working in bodily techniques helps a person gain access to his body. She develops the ability to feel and pay attention to deep bodily sensations, his language, needs; how feelings, thoughts, desires are encoded in the body.

By accessing the body, a person acquires an additional source of information about himself. Working with the body, we give the opportunity to change the ideas about our body closer to reality, to get in touch with our body.

If a person comes into contact with his body, he inevitably comes into contact with his feelings and experiences

Body-oriented therapy methods are used both in individual-client work and (recently) in group trainings.

There are many psychotherapeutic techniques in the world. According to rough estimates, their number has gone well over a hundred. However, only a few are officially recognized by the European Association of Psychotherapists. And body-oriented therapy is one of them

Body-oriented psychotherapy has experienced an unprecedented rise in the past three decades. More and more adherents of this direction appear. Almost all modern types of psychotherapy use work with the body. There are about 30 registered associations (the most representative is the European Association for Body-Oriented Psychotherapy - EAPP, or in the English transcription EABP) related to bodily work. More and more special literature is coming out, more and more modern trends and schools of body-oriented psychotherapy are being born.

The development of body-oriented psychotherapy is due to a number of reasons

• First, the culture of corporeality has clearly grown in connection with the change in the social standard of living. An increasing number of people can afford to develop their body.
• Secondly, all over the world there is an ever more powerful fusion, interpenetration and complementarity of the Western and Eastern culture of corporeality. Penetration into Western schools of such directions as qigong therapy, Ayurvedic techniques for working with the body and through the body, the chakra approach, the Tibetan techniques for healing the soul and body (tsalung) and others, have introduced a lot of new things and have generated completely new techniques and approaches in the modern oriented psychotherapy.
• Thirdly, the extraordinary spread of psychosomatic illnesses has an impact. And often they require compulsory work with the body.

Directly within the body-oriented therapy itself, a number of schools are distinguished, among which, first of all, we should mention V. Reich's somatic vegetative therapy, A. Lowen's bioenergetic analysis, D. Boadella's biosynthesis, R. Kurtz's hakomi-method, Feldenkrais's method, Alexander's method, primary therapy Yanova and others.

You can learn more about the various areas of TOP at the Festival of Body Practices of Psychotherapy, which is organized by the Caucasian Association of Body-Oriented Psychotherapy

On October 10-13, 2019, in the city of Batumi (Georgia), an international festival of bodily psychotherapy practices will take place. About 30 presenters from 10 different countries will take part in it. The languages of the festival will be English, Georgian and Russian. Anyone can participate in it, not only professionals.

The experience of going through bodily psychotherapy practices helps to better feel your body, understand and accept it.

Details on the festival website