Somatic Psychology - Wiki

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Somatic psychologyFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Somatic psychology is an interdisciplinary field involving the study of the body, somatic experience,and the embodied self, including therapeutic and holistic approaches to body. The word somatic comesfrom the ancient Greek root - somat- (body). The word psychology comes from the ancient Greekpsyche (breath, soul hence mind) and -logia (study). Body Psychotherapy is a general branch of thissubject, while Somatherapy, Eco-somatics and Dance therapy, for example, are specific branches of thesubject. Somatic psychology is a field of study that bridges the Mind-body dichotomy.

Pierre Janet can perhaps be considered the first Somatic Psychologist due to his extensivepsychotherapeutic studies and writings with significant reference to the body (some of which pre-dateFreud). It is only gradually that the body entered into the realm of available techniques that could beused in a psycho-dynamic frame, following the explorations of Sndor Ferenczi and his friend GeorgGroddeck, than Otto Fenichel and his friend Wilhelm Reich. Wilhelm Reich is the first who tried todevelop a clear psycho-dynamic approach that included the body, but he soon found out that it could notbe done.[1][2] He then developed his own way of combining body and mind and the somatic regulatorsthat connect these two dimensions.[3] Reich was a significant influence in the founding of BodyPsychotherapy (or Somatic Psychology as it is often known in the USA & Australia) - though he calledhis early work "Character Analysis"[4] and "Character-Analytic Vegetotherapy"). Several types of body-oriented psychotherapies trace their origins back to Reich, though there have been many subsequentdevelopments and other influences (ref: entry on Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology is ofparticular interest in trauma work.[5][6]

There is increasing use of body-oriented therapeutic techniques within mainstream psychology (likeEMDR, EFT, and Mindfulness practice) and psychoanalysis has recognized the use of somaticresonance, embodied trauma, and similar concepts, for many years.[7]

Historically, there are early practitioners, for example, the Persian physician Avicenna (980 to 1037 CE)who performed psychotherapy only by observing the movement of the patient's pulse as he listened totheir anguish.[8] This is reminiscent of both traditional Tibetan medicine and current energy therapiesthat employ tapping points on a meridian. As a contrast to the Western separation of body/mind, somewriters describe the "body as a slow mind" [9] and this re-examination of the fundamental mind-bodydichotomy has coincided with research into neuroscience, embodiment and consciousness, and anunconscious mind that 'speaks' through the language of body.

Dance therapy or (Dance Movement Psychotherapy) also reflect something of this approach and areconsidered a study and practice within the field of somatic psychology.[10][11][12][13]

Contents

1 Principles2 Applications3 History4 See also



5 References

PrinciplesAs a field of study, somatic psychology has been defined as: 'the study of the mind/body interface, therelationship between our physical matter and our energy, the interaction of our body structures with ourthoughts and actions.'[14]

The primary relationship addressed in somatic psychology is the person's relation to and empathy withtheir own felt body.[15] It is based on a belief, from the principles of vitalism, bringing sufficientawareness will cause healing.

ApplicationsA wide variety of techniques are used in somatic psychotherapy including sound, touch, mirroring,movement and breath. An individual records life experience during a pre- and nonverbal periodsdifferently than during a verbalized and personal narrative period. Working with the client's implicitknowing[16][17] of these early experiences, somatic psychology includes the non-verbal qualities thatmark most human communication, especially in the first years of life. This understanding ofconsciousness, communication and mind-body language challenges some traditional applications of thetalking cure.[18]

Practitioners in this field believe psychological, social, cultural and political forces support the splittingand fragmentation of the mind-body unity. These pressures affect an individuals mental, biological, andrelational health. For example, the writer Alice Miller in her recent book 'The Body Never Lies'[19] says,Ultimately the body will rebel. Even if it can be temporarily pacified with the help of drugs, cigarettes ormedicine, it usually has the last word because it is quicker to see through self-deception than the mind.We may ignore or deride the messages of the body, but its rebellion demands to be heeded because itslanguage is the authentic expression of our true selves and of the strength of our vitality.

HistoryWilhelm Reich's pre-eminence as founder of the modern field is open to question. His teacher and thefounder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, explored the role of body in neurosis, as well as undertakingresearch on the therapeutic effects of cocaine (beginning on April 24, 1884, when he ordered his firstgram of cocaine from the local apothecary).[20][21] Freud also showed an interest in the nasal reflexneurosis and in vital periodicity, explored during a significant relationship with Wilhelm Fliess between1887 and 1902.[22] Wilhelm Fliess believed that the nose was the centre of all human illness through itsstructural deviations to the passage of breath.[23][24]

In addition, the early history of clinical psychology points to somatic psychotherapy first practiced inPersia around 930 CE.

See also

Bioenergetics



Body psychotherapyExpressive therapyHakomiHealth applications and clinical studies of meditationMindbody interventionsPsychoneuroimmunologySomatic ExperiencingSomaticsStructural IntegrationTrager approach

References1. Heller, M. (2012) Body Psychotherapy, W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 97803937066972. Geuter, U., Heller, M. C., & Weaver, J. O. (2010) Reflections on Elsa Gindler and her influence on Wilhelm

Reich and body psychotherapy, Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy, vol. 5, 1, pp. 59733. Boadella, D. (1991). Organism and organisation: the place of somatic psychotherapy in society, Energy &

Character, vol. 22, pp 21-234. Reich, W. (1933/1974). Character Analysis, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, ISBN 97803745098045. Moskowitz, A., Schafer, I., & Dorahy, M.J. (Eds)(2008) Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation: Emerging

Perspectives on Severe Psychopathology. Wiley, Blackwell.ISBN 978-0-470-51173-2 (See esp. Chap. 7., reP. Janet on hallucinations, paranoia, & schizophrenia.)

6. Ogden, P., Minton, K. & Pain, C. (2006) Trauma and the Body: A sensorimotor approach to psychotherapy.W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-70457-0

7. Church, D. (2013) The EFT Manual, 3rd ed. Energy Psychology Press, pp. 74-8. ISBN 978-1-60415-214-28. Afzal Iqbal & Arberry A. J., 'The Life and Work of Jalaluddin Rumi' page 949. Friedman, L., Moon, S.I.S. & Friedlander, L. (1997) Being Bodies: Buddhist women on the paradox of

embodiment. Second Story Press, ISBN 978-1-57062-324-010. Meekums, B. (2002) Dance Movement Therapy: a Creative Psychotherapeutic Approach. London: Sage,

ISBN 978-0-7619-5767-611. Chodorow, J. (1991) Dance Therapy and Depth Psychology. London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-04113-312. Lewis, P. (1991; 1988) Theoretical Approaches in Dance Movement Therapy. Vols I & II, USA:

Kendall/Hunt, ISBN 978-0-8403-3994-2 & 978-084034648313. Payne, H.(ed).(2006)Dance Movement Therapy: Theory, Research and Practice (2nd edn).

Tavistock/Routledge, ISBN 978-1-58391-703-914. C. Caldwell. (1997) This body opens, in C. Caldwell (Ed.) Getting in touch: The guide to new body-

centered therapies. Wheaton, IL: Quest, (p.1).15. Gendlin, E 'Focusing-oriented Psychotherapy' Guilford Press 199616. Rolf 'Two Theories of Tacit and Implicit Knowledge' retrieved from [1]

(http://philosophyandinformatics.org/cms/images/AutumnMeeting2004/rolf_slides.pdf) May 20, 200717. Knowledge (Implicit Explicit) Philosophical aspects retrieved from [2]

(http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.117.3015&rep=rep1&type=pdf), May 20, 200718. Wilberg, P 'From Psycho-somatics to Soma-semiotics' New Gnosis Publications 200319. Miller A. 'The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effect of Cruel Parenting' W. W. Norton & Company (May



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19. Miller A. 'The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effect of Cruel Parenting' W. W. Norton & Company (May2, 2005) ISBN 0-393-06065-9 ISBN 978-0-393-06065-2

20. Freud and Cocaine -- The Deal retrieved from [3] (http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/cocaine/) May22, 2007

21. Freud and cocaine (http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/cocaine/)22. Chiriac J translated by Mihaela Cristea retrieved from [4] (http://www.freudfile.org/fliess.html) May 22,

200723. Louis Breger. Freud: darkness in the midst of vision. John Wiley & Sons, 200024. Dominic Streatfeild. Cocaine: An unauthorized biography. Dunne Books, June 2002

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Somatic Psychology - Wiki