The therapeutic world seems saturated with a multitude of modalities and approaches, but many of them are now incorporating the mind-body connection and mindfulness techniques.
If you're wanting to understand a little more of what the mind-body connection is and how it supports deep healing and personal growth, then read on.
A little psycho-education can go a long way to inspire you to explore your inner world with curiosity and courage, expand your sense of self, grow your self-compassion, and eventually establish a peaceful mind and a happy life.
What is Mind-Body Therapy?
It is an approach which is rooted in the interdependent and intra-dependant relationship between the mind and the body.
Working with the mind and mindfulness as a tool to navigate the felt sense in the body, may help to heal:
- Stress
- Trauma
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Addiction
Mind-Body Therapy uses various techniques to help release stress, trauma, and tension that has become locked in the body. By learning to self-regulate, clients are able to grow their capacity to be with uncomfortable/painful/disturbing feelings. This growing window of tolerance, leads to a safe grounded state, from where a deep understanding of past experiences can be established and compassion for the wounded parts of self, then leads to profound and lasting healing.
In the 1970s, when Dr. Peter Levine developed Somatic Experiencing, which partly came from Jungian therapy, he proposed the idea that when humans experience trauma, they can get stuck in the ‘freeze’ mode of the fight, flight, or freeze response. Remaining ‘frozen’ causes the negative energy to stay in the body, which can lead to physical and mental problems.
The theory of Mind-Body Therapy is that the things that happen in a person’s life, including negative experiences, are not only stored in the brain but in the body as well. Thoughts are connected to bodily sensations.
The mind and body are not separate or independent. The way a person thinks impacts the way they feel, and vice versa.
Likewise when a person is experiencing negative thoughts, it may impact their body and if a person is enduring some physical malady, then this will affect their thoughts and emotions.
The main goal of somatic therapy is to help a person increase awareness of the felt sense in the body, which connects to mind states/emotions and to use this awareness to build capacity to stay with sensations/feelings and eventually, or sometimes quite quickly, process or digest tension, stress, and trauma and to heal. This is not to say that the body doesn’t also experience illness and injury, despite/independent to our mind state, but certainly the mind can affect the body and once the body is ill or injured, this will also affect the mind and emotions.
Who can experience the benefits of mind-body therapy?
Here's the great news! Anyone who feels stuck and is wanting to; dissolve tensions; find new ways of experiencing life; grow in capacity to feel all feelings without discomfort; reduce fear and anxiety; to thrive; and is curious to learn, can experience a Mind-Body therapy session and find some benefit.
It does not require great physical fitness or stamina and can be conducted in-person or online.
What happens in Mind-Body Therapy?
A therapist may use techniques like breathing exercises, postures, gestures, and other forms of movement to help release these feelings. Massage therapy, acupuncture, Reiki, osteopathy etc, can also be considered as body-mind therapies.
How often should I do Mind-Body Therapy?
The frequency and length of time for mind-body therapy depend entirely on the individual and their needs.
Some people find it helpful to go weekly, while others may prefer to space out their sessions for a few weeks.
How long does it take to work?
Many people feel differences immediately after their first session.
For others, it may take a few days or weeks, it varies based on each individual.
It can be hard to know what to expect, as each individual experience is unique.
What is the role of the body in healing?
The body has an amazing ability to heal itself, both physically and mentally.
When a person goes through a stressful or traumatic experience, the body goes into survival mode because it is faced with danger.
The body works to protect you and is constantly in communication with the brain to try to maintain a balanced state.
How does Mind-Body healing work and what are the benefits?
By helping the client identify and acknowledge the bodily sensations that are connected with difficult feelings or traumatic events, a deeper understanding of the internal systems and processes is found. Through this understanding, compassion for the wounded parts starts to grow and as one’s capacity to be with the difficult feelings, the wounded parts, increases, then the healing starts. This is because the greater Self expands and embraces all the smaller aspects of self, the parts which have been working so hard to survive. These parts can then relax and know there is safety, that their efforts were valid but are no longer required.
Over time, a new feeling of hope rises, as the client integrates their internal parts, softens around previous survival strategies and protective barriers. With this hope, comes the possibility for growth and lasting positive change.
As we come to understand and be grateful to the trauma response(s), a new calmness and awe comes, so that being in the present moment, feeling fully alive and thriving, becomes the predominant experience.
Any future shocks to the system, will be handled in a more equanimous or balanced way. It will become easier to ride the natural ups and downs of life.
Throughout therapy, a person can find healing through the release of physical sensations and energy that is trapped in the body.
The therapist will guide the individual through a variety of different techniques to help digest/process the trauma or stuck feelings.
What is an example of a Mind-Body technique?
Yoga is a common example. In yoga asana (postural and breath practices), the mind-body connection is strengthened to build awareness and assist in shifting blockages and healing. Likewise the Yogic techniques of breath, internal locks, moving energy within the body and chanting, can all contribute to healing and renewed wellness.
What is the neuroscience of Mind-Body and trauma?
Research shows that exposure to trauma leads to a number of different changes in biology as part of the physiological stress response.
When someone experiences a shocking event or ongoing threatening experiences, it will alter the brain chemistry, the nervous system and affect brain functions.
The fight-or-flight response is a physiological response to a potentially harmful or stressful event. These may show up as aggression or escapism.
The freeze response can happen both in the brain and physically, as well as fawning, where appeasing behaviour and passivity, can be employed to protect the vulnerabilities.
These can all affect key functions like taking action, decision-making, remembering important information, planning responses, connecting to others, thriving etc.
Mind-Body therapy can help a person relieve emotional and bodily stress that is trapped in the nervous system, by bringing awareness to the sensations and potentially using describing words, analogies, archetypes, touch or intentional movement to understand these felt sensations. Through understanding, ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ what the body needs to be express, there will come a release of tensions.
Polyvagal Theory suggests that the autonomic nervous system has evolved to adopt behavioural strategies to stay safe and survive.
Mind-Body therapy, especially EP integrates polyvagal theory and this further helps to understand and release trauma both emotionally and physically.
A client is able to work with their nervous system rather than fight against it in a safe and healthy way.
What happens in a Mind-body EP Therapy session?
Sessions are unique to each individual but will involve some talking and some form of physical movement or at least physical awareness. Usually movement will start to happen spontaneously, as the session deepens. It might be as simple as a client shifting their posture in their seated position or wanting to stretch their arms or roll their head... these are all signs the body is trying to shift something.
Sessions may include techniques for:
- Body awareness
A person can learn to identify and acknowledge the areas of the body that feel tense and also recognize what is calming and relaxing to them. - Grounding
Grounding involves connecting your body and the earth. It can help a person calm their nervous system by feeling the energy from the ground. It may also involve breathing exercises. - Pendulation
With pendulation, a therapist helps guide the individual between safety or relaxation towards the difficult or stuck feeling. Slowly pendulating to and from these sensations, builds capacity and digests difficult feelings. - Regulation
A therapist will always guide the client back to a safe, regulated nervous system state. Eventually the client will be able to access this calm state independently.
- Resourcing
Resourcing can help a person recognize what makes them feel safe and self-regulated. It might be reflecting on certain relationships, places, or things that bring calmness. It might be a way to sit or a clasping of the hands or self-hugging. Any of these can help with nervous system regulation, emotional balance and peace.
What are the benefits of Mind-body practices?
Individuals or groups, who have experienced threatening, painful, shocking events and the resulting trauma may find the new found skills include:
- Enhanced emotional regulation
- Managing chronic pain
- Increased self-awareness
- Managing anxiety or depression
- Ability to process and deal with life experiences
What are signs the body is releasing trauma?
- Shaking
- Crying
- Sweating
- Changes in breathing
- Muscle tension
- Heart pounding
- Body relaxes and softens
- Sighing
When the body releases trauma, a person may feel freer, lighter, expansive, joyful, hopeful and happier.
Questions you may want to ask me in our initial free consultation
- How often will we meet?
- What is a typical session with you like?
- Do you give your clients homework?
- What certifications do you have?
- Have you worked with clients that have similar situations to mine?
- How can I prepare for my first session?
Mind-body Therapy and Embodied Processing may heal trauma and can expand your consciousness, to realise you are truly limitless.
If you want to understand yourself, why you have certain patterns of behaviour, to gain freedom from behaviour strategies that are holding you back and to welcome all parts of your inner world and move forward with hope in your heart, I am available in-person and remotely.
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