Posted by ShelliR on February 23, 2001, at 19:09:50
In reply to Re: Part of Me Doesn't Want to Get Well, posted by ksvt on February 23, 2001, at 12:20:44
> > >Shelli - I've never heard of body therapy. What is it and what's the theory behind it? K
>The professionals that provide body therapy have both a background in massage and a advanced degree in social work or counseling. So they understand your body, but also have been trained as a therapist. At least that's been my experience.
When you get your body worked on (for me, mostly my upper chest) feelings come up that you may or may not want to talk about. On a really basic level body therapists can help you release blockages in your body, that have been created out of your experiences, or out of your emotions. I look at it sort of circularly; things very early in my life happened to me that I was not able to express so alot of that went into my body, and just stayed there. Also, I think depression itself causes you to constrict parts of your body, which reinforces the depression. So body therapy is an opening up process and I think it is a very good augmentor to therapy. I am especially drawn to it because I experience most of my depression in my chest. Talking therapy (at this stage) helps me in a more cognitive way, and body therapy helps me in a more emotional way when I am being touched. For example, sometimes I cry, and I don't know why I'm crying (I generally don't cry very often except for in movies).
So, after all that, I guess body therapy assumes that depression (and other emotions) are going on inside that can be worked on in a physical way as well as a psychological way. shelli
poster:ShelliR
thread:4784
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010209/msgs/4801.html