Use Body Psychotherapy, Somatic Therapy, Body Work to Improve Your Self-Esteem
In the 1980’s Body Psychotherapy was becoming popular in the USA and has since faded away. Somatic Therapy Training is still available at alternative schools like Naropa University. Psychosomatic Medicine could also be considered part of the small group of professionals exploring how to help people achieve better holistic health, mental health and emotional health.
Chakra Healing, Spiritual Therapy and Body Psychotherapy are Effective
Unfortunately, traditional psychologists in the USA did not think the science and research were good enough to allow Body Psychotherapy to become main stream. I wanted to take Continuing Educational Workshops in Body Psychotherapy and none were allowed. Therefore, I studied and learned about Body Psychotherapy on my own.
For traditional psychology to discourage the use of Body Psychotherapy is most unfortunate since the body is a permanent part of a person. Your physical form is not going away anytime soon. Not including the body and the laws of physics in therapy means TalkTherapy and Psychotherapy are extremely limited in what they can accomplish.
I just read an article in the NYTimes this Sunday, August 28. 2023 that said Cognitive Behavior Therapy was only effective 40% of the time. My goodness, the evidence based science of traditional psychology thinks this is good enough? If you want better mental health, you must include the reality of your body as well as the laws of physics.
Your body is as important as your mind in terms of mental health and mental illness. Your body gives you a solid reliable solution to mental illness. So, if psychologists don’t start including the physical matter that we live in, in their treatments, they are going to be left in the dark ages. Body Psychotherapy is effective.
In 1981, I saw with my own eyes, the power of touch in releasing and healing emotional trauma at the Feminist Therapy Collection when a Body Worker gave a treatment to one of our members. The loving, safe touch, released a flood of tears that is rarely seen in Talk Therapy. The person receiving the touch continued to cry, with her whole body, as our group sat around her on the floor in silence, protecting her from judgment.
Stunned with the results and power of the body and touch, I began to add theses power tools to my knowledge of learning research, Behavior Therapy, Feminist Therapy and Sex Therapy. Since mental illness occurs when you remove yourself from physical reality, it is common sense that you must return to physical reality in order to treat mental illness. The only way to return to physical reality is via your body. Body Psychotherapy is the future of psychology.
The major mistake current psychologists are making is ignoring the laws of physics in their treatments of mental illness. Not using the basic laws of physics to explain and understand anxiety and depression seems backward when you step back and look at what is needed for mental health.
The major mistake current psychologists are making is ignoring the laws of physics in their treatments of mental illness. Not using the basic laws of physics to explain and understand anxiety and depression seems backward when you step back and look at what is needed for mental health.
Your body is the instrument that exists in the physical world to registered what exists outside of your body and inside of your body. Your Temple is the battleground because it is full of conflicts and traumas. To ensure you are working on the physical plane, add Body Psychotherapy, Somatic Therapy, Body Work, massage and somatic treatments as needed at any point in time.
The Healing Temples in Classical Greece included the body because the Greeks were Holistic. Not only was the body included in their treatment, becoming aware of the invisible energy of spirit was also considered the treatment of choice. The Holistic Greek Temples were placed far away from the cities in beautiful nature. The word therapy comes from the Greek word, therapia, the work of the gods.
In recent times, Freud’s brilliant disciple, Dr. William Reich, was the first male to include the body in his therapy. Reich’s work on the body and energy flow are the foundation of the current Body Psychotherapy movement. No matter what Reich’s faults were, he was correct about how emotions are stuck in the body and must be released from the body in order to achieve mental health.
Each time your body relaxes and releases the emotions that are stuck in your tissue, you become more whole and alive. This is a natural process that happens over and over again as you engage in personal growth and transformation. Until your body relaxes, you have not resolved your issues. When you achieve wholeness your body lets go and you relax at the physical level.
The Holistic New Psychology knows that you need to work on the mental plane, emotional plane, physical plane and spiritual plane in order to achieve wholeness. Nothing short of the whole, works. Learn from the Greek Healing Temples with the words “Know Thyself” placed above the entrance. Your job is to discover your True Nature. Seek to know your Mind-Body-Spirit.
If you cannot find Body Psychotherapy, you have to create your own Somatic Therapy program. Look around and use the resources you have available to work on your body at the same time as you are working on healing your emotional self. What you need this year will be different from what you need next year. Weekly massages have been part of my regular routine since seeing the results of touch to help me make sure I am feeling my Temple and increasing my awareness of my home on planet earth.
Love your body, no matter what anyone says.
Reading Reich’s biography, Fury on Earth, is a wonderful way to discover Reich’s work. You also discover some of the reasons his work made the authoritarian fathers so afraid and anxious they did everything they could to shut him up and destroy his discoveries. Reich died in a Pennsylvania prison in 1957 of a broken heart. Body Psychotherapy threats the governments and religions. They still want to keep your body and its sexual energy controlled. The fear and anxiety around your body seriously slows down the forward movement of achieving better mental health and emotional health for all of us.
