Bodywork

Contents:

Bodywork

Bodywork is a term used to describe any therapeutic, healing or personal development process (work), which involves some form of touching, energetic work or the physical manipulation of the body. Bodywork can be a very important component of emotional release and healing. Unreleased or unexpressed emotional energy gets locked up in the muscles of our bodies during stressful events and there are many nurturing bodywork techniques that help release this tension.

When combined with psychotherapy, ‘Bodywork’ is often called Somatic (which means “body”) Psychotherapy. We have embraced the work of Peter Levine, which is known as Somatic Experiencing. Simply put it is a reconnecting of our minds with our bodies. Our combined experience at The Sanctuary ~ Lane Cove reflects his, which is that effective therapy must include processing stored energy held in the body.

Our bodies all have an inner wisdom. We recognize this and support the body to use its innate wisdom to complete the process of healing it might have begun but that had been stopped in some way.

Sometimes, we have found that people are medicated to prevent their bodies discharging the energy of the trauma. For example, they may have been raped and are now taking tranquilizers to stop shaking in their hands. When this shaking is simply allowed and supported, all the excess energy held in the hands is discharged and the shaking stops on its own. We, in no way, say this to discourage people listening to the advise of their physicians, we are simply stating what we have observed over years of experience.

Once the body is permitted and supported to move in ways that allow the release of the trauma it does so beautifully and completely. Often this can look a bit scary as there might be muscle twitching or other kinds of ways the muscles discharge energy and we might make sounds that were not made during the trauma. This is often the last piece in the healing though and our clients report a huge feeling of relief and lightness after some focused bodywork.

In nature, animals are severely stressed everyday yet they do not suffer from stress-related illnesses. Peter Levine explored the following question ~ “why don’t they?” and came up with some simple yet profound answers. If you are interested, we encourage you to go to his website and read further, (http://www.traumahealing.com) and see the pages in our resources section on trauma and the arousal cycle.

 

Above is an extract from National Geographic's 'Polar Bear Alert' where you can see how a traumatised polar bear naturally shakes off and releases the stress energy that we tend to hold onto or suppress.

Why BodyWork?

We have found that the essence of resolving trauma and other unresolved events that still affect our lives, is to reconnect ourselves with our bodies. The symptoms of unresolved trauma will occur on all the same levels they were experienced on, mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. Healing must occur on all four levels also.

For ease of understanding here’s an example; Say a person has a serious car accident. The trauma occurs on a physical level when they have a broken shoulder, on a mental level when they have repeated thoughts about the accident, on an emotional level as they are now scared to drive again and on a spiritual level when they begin to isolate themselves from others because they don’t feel safe outside their home anymore.

At The Sanctuary, we will process ALL the thoughts, ALL the emotional feelings, ALL the physical feelings and ALL the spiritual disconnections that might have occurred as a result of this accident. Some traumatised people have tried several or many, different types of therapy with limited results. When we add in processing the trauma held in the muscles of the body they make progress that had eluded them up until then.

When a trauma occurs we tend to disconnect from our physical body as that’s where we feel the pain – even emotional pain is often felt as a body ache or pain, such as a heavy heart when we lose a loved one or pet. As time goes on and no resolution is achieved this disconnection expands and includes a disconnection from ourselves, then others, and finally our environment. This is also known as disassociation. Rebuilding the lost connections is key to moving forward. Bodywork assists in that process.

At the Sanctuary ~ Lane Cove, we often incorporate some type of bodywork into our workshops. Our skilled Bodywork practitioners are also available for private sessions either before or after the workshop commences. (click here for more info about our Bodyworker's)

Somatic disciplines of bodywork

Most forms of bodywork are listed under Somatic disciplines. Some of the best known forms of bodywork are: Yoga and pranayama breath work, Body-Mind Centering, Hakomi Therapy, Feldenkrais method, Rolfing, Trager Approach and Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing. Other methods involve voice, movement or dance. Often bodywork is combined with other methods for personal development and body-psychotherapy, especially with Gestalt therapy and Psychodrama, all of which we use at the Sanctuary ~ Lane Cove.

Massage and BodyWork

One form of bodywork is deep tissue massage therapy, and the terms massage and bodywork are often used interchangeably. However, while bodywork includes all forms of massage techniques, it also includes many other types of touch and healing therapies that additionally incorporate vast assessment techniques and tools that may, for example, allow a client to benefit their posture and/or aim to enhance their awareness of the 'mind-body connection'.

If you are interested in BodyWork and Somatic Psychotherapy here’s a reading list.

Somatic Psychotherapy Approaches Reading List

  • Aposhyan (2004). Body-Mind Psychotherapy: principles, techniques, and practical applications. Best Seller
  • Bakal (1999). Minding the Body: clinical uses of somatic awareness.
  • Braddock (1997). Body Voices: using the power of breath, sound and movement to heal and create new boundaries.
  • Eckberg & Levine (2000). Victims of Cruelty: somatic psychotherapy in the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
  • Fosha (2000). The Transforming Power of Affect: a model for accelerated change.
  • Gendlin (1998). Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy: a manual of the experiential method. Goodwin & Attias (Eds.) (1999). Splintered Reflections: images of the body in trauma.
  • Halprin (2003). The Expressive Body in Life, Art and Therapy: working with movement, metaphor and meaning.
  • Johnson (1995). Bone, Breath, & Gesture: practices of embodiment.
  • Johnson (1997). Groundworks: narratives of embodiment.
  • Johnson (1998). The Body in Psychotherapy: inquiries in somatic psychology.
  • Keleman (1985). Emotional Anatomy: the structure of experience.
  • Keleman & Hendrix (Eds.) (1987). Embodying Experience: forming a personal life.
  • Levine (1997). Waking the Tiger: healing trauma. Best Seller
  • Macnaughton (2004). Body, Breath, & Consciousness: a somatic anthology.
  • Nijenhuis (2004). Somatoform Dissociation: phenomena, measurement, and theoretical issues. US edition of a book previously published in europe.
  • Pesso & Crandall (Eds.) (1991). Moving Psychotherapy: theory and application of Pesso System/Psychomotor therapy.
  • Rothschild (2000). The Body Remembers: the psychophysiology of trauma and trauma treatment. Best Seller
  • Rothschild (2003). The Body Remembers Casebook: unifying methods and models in the treatment of trauma and PTSD. Best Seller

"Energy" & other New Approaches

  • Benor (2001). Spiritual Healing: scientific validation of a healing revolution.
  • Benor (2002). Spiritual Healing: professional supplement.
  • Brennan (1993). Hands of Light: a guide to healing through the human energy field.
  • French & Harris (1999). Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR).
  • Gallo (Ed.) (2002). Energy Psychology in Psychotherapy.
  • Gallo (2000). Energy Diagnostic and Treatment Methods.
  • Gerbode (1996). Beyond Psychology: an introduction to metapsychology.
  • Hartung & Galvin (2003). Energy Psychology and EMDR: combining forces to optimize treatment.
  • Oschman (2000). Energy Medicine: the scientific basis of bioenergy therapies.
  • Phillips (2000). Finding the Energy to Heal.