Working with the body can prove to be a breakthrough in the psychotherapy process. It unlocks, sensitises people to their own physical and psychological needs. It can prove supportive where other methods do not suffice. Body work is often used in Gestalt psychotherapy, among others.
Table of contents:
- How is the body addressed in contemporary psychology?
- What role does body work play in Gestalt?
- How can we influence mental processes through the body?
- Why is it then worth investing in the body?
- What are the effects of working with the body in the Gestalt approach?
How is the body dealt with in contemporary psychology?
Psychology refers to blockages or tensions stored in the body as a result of experiences taking place early in life. Even then, our body reacts to contact with significant others, creating tensions that impede natural flow and development. We block ourselves in this way to prevent ourselves from fully feeling and experiencing. In life, we often use this survival system unconsciously, and we can find out about it by observing the symptoms - for example, in the form of chronic muscle pain, throat illnesses, hunching, difficulty breathing, coldness in the arms, legs.
According to one of the forerunners of bodywork, the American therapist James Kepner, if we talk about bodily sensations in the third person we are detaching the body from the 'I', diminishing and weakening the self, losing touch with the basis of existence and agency. The unacknowledged aspects of the 'I' exist within us through connections to bodily functions and process, but because for various reasons we cannot fully experience them, we alienate ourselves from the body part in question and become solely the thinking Self, split from the bodily, feeling Self.
What is the role of body work in the Gestalt movement?
In the Gestalt approach, the human being is approached holistically - every aspect of one's existence in the world: emotions, corporeality, intellect and building relationships with the environment are equally important and constitute an area for exploration during the therapy process.
In Gestalt, everything matters - it is psychotherapy through 'touching' - contact with the other person. It starts with a look, a handshake, a reaction to each other. Noticing these reactions is important, this experience is corrective and healing - in the here and now I can be with the client and their suffering that is written in the body - give support, suggest that they take a different position or give a blanket and cover them. I pay attention to the way he breathes and step by step support his capacity to let out closed air or inhale more air. Working with the body is integrated with what the client brings and experiences, it is not a technique in itself, but a 'touching' of the other person in joy and suffering. As a result of this work, the client has the opportunity to change the way they bodily respond to their environment and learn a new way of responding. He expands the possibilities of himself and his body - he changes.
Why body work is important, photo shutterstock
How can we influence mental processes through the body?
The body reflects arrested psychological processes, so through body work there is an opportunity to develop sensory sensitivity, to rebuild a sense of the bodily self, to integrate the body into the area of consciousness. This, in turn, leads to inner integration and an expansion of the possibilities for self-regulation, i.e. meeting needs and maintaining balance in constantly changing conditions.
Change at the level of the body is linked to change at the psychological level, in line with the idea that our entire history, personality and emotional state are contained in our body, and through working with the body a process of inner integration and healing takes place.
When someone suppresses anger for years, for example, the body cooperates in this by clenching the throat, the stomach, the jaws, maybe the fists. We do not feel the anger, whereas various symptoms from the body appear. By working with the body we have the opportunity to unblock aggression, essential to life as movement, the energy to act. By working in the throat area, the client has the opportunity to reduce tension in the throat, to express what has long been unheard by the client, sometimes existing in imagination and thought. Only by working in this way does the client have the opportunity to choose what I want to express and what I don't. When we get stuck in what is bodily inaccessible, we have no choice but to act as we have become accustomed to - it determines our lives.
All it takes is for us to sit differently - to better seat our pelvis on a chair - we naturally straighten our spine and this already introduces a different perspective.
Using the head rest relaxes the tension in the base of the skull, and this has an effect on the tension or relaxation of the throat, the jaw, reduces or eliminates headaches. In the Gestalt approach this is done in contact, the therapist reacts to what he sees. He or she calls it together with the client and makes a seemingly simple gesture, for example, passing a pillow under the client's head. This is followed by reliving the moment and the experience, which ultimately reduces the client's suffering.
So why invest in the body?
If we do not identify with certain aspects of the body, do not recognise our corporeality or particular aspects of it, we lose sensitivity to the signals that the body sends us. As a result, it happens, for example, that we overfeed our bodies, overwork them, exploit them with intensive physical exercise. We often do not recognise the first signs of illness and it is only when the symptoms become intense that we identify with our own corporeality, not least because we have no other choice.
Therefore, shifting our attention to the body and increasing bodily sensitivity contributes to improving the functioning of the autoimmune system and to a more harmonious functioning.
Through increased body awareness there is a stronger grounding in a sense of coping and confidence in life, our sense of agency and influence increases, we find it easier to define our needs and set boundaries. Increased body awareness translates into a process of inner growth and integration.
Working with the body is an internal lift, like taking a good amount of vitamins or having a cosmetic procedure. Working with the body has a long-term effect - we walk and move better, putting less strain on ourselves and our spine; metabolism improves, so we retain less water, menstrual pain decreases and menstruation becomes less severe; by being closer to ourselves - our body - we notice more quickly what is harming us.
What are the effects of working with the body in the Gestalt approach?
In people with eating disorders, a common effect of such work is the gradual restoration of integration with the physical, contact with oneself, closeness to oneself. With blocked anger, the focus is on working on blocked throat, arm movement, leg movement, frame and abdominal sensation, leading to the unblocking of anger, the release of aggression as a movement to - identical to that of depressed people. If the client tends not to pay attention to their body, has difficulty understanding symptoms, signs, and wants to function more fully in the environment, to reach out to the world more often, to express themselves - development is brought by contact with the therapist and a shared focus on the messages coming from their body.
Everyone needs to be noticed, to be contacted, to be stroked or cuddled, to have sore spots in the body that need care and ones that have been forgotten. Bodywork offers an opportunity to revitalise these forgotten places, to give fluidity to our body, that is us. It serves both depressed people and people who live a fast-paced life without time to stop with themselves.
