Imagine loving yourself and feeling comfortable again in your body. Isn’t it time? Often, individuals don’t consider how they relate to their bodies as a source of their mental health issues or even substance abuse problems. How we feel in our own skin and react with our body not only expresses what our thoughts and feelings are but also prompts how we act. So, when you wonder ‘What is body-centered therapy?’ consider it a form of treatment dealing with this. At Integrative Life Center, we understand there is an intimate and immediate connection between an individual’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves. Our body-centered therapy focuses on the physical to address the other areas and how the other areas impact the physical.
What is Body-Centered Therapy?
Body-centered therapy incorporates a person’s mind, body, spirit, and emotions in the healing process. At Integrative Life Center, our body-centered therapy includes various approaches used to enhance coherence between body, mind, and spirit. Approaches include unique approaches to address issues sprouting from trauma. For example, we provide the following therapies and treatments to deal with trauma centered in the body:
- EMDR
- Brainspotting
- Comprehensive Resource Model
But understanding what is body-centered therapy doesn’t stop at trauma-informed care. It involves practical experiences such as experiential therapy. This approach helps patients identify and change subconscious beliefs through activities such as role-playing, movement, guided imagery, and a range of other active experiences. Experiential therapy is dynamic. Often it is thought of as the opposite complement to talk therapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. Some other therapeutic services and treatment programs we offer include:
- Somatic Experiential Therapy (SomEx)
- Breathwork (an approach that uses breathing practices to improve mental, physical, and spiritual health)
- Yoga
- Massage/bodywork
- Meditation
- Acudetox and Acupuncture
- Nature-based groups
- Expressive (art, music, movement) approaches
These different techniques are used to increase awareness of body sensations, behaviors, emotions, and thoughts so the client can learn the relationships between them. This holistic form of therapy engages the body in the therapeutic process. Although relatively new to most treatment programs, body-centered approaches have a long history and are grounded in valid theoretical practices. Many body-centered therapists believe the body holds valuable knowledge to a patient’s condition as the body holds physical and emotional stress and injury that may not be in our conscious awareness. As a result, our bodies can have a powerful impact on how we think, feel, behave, and view ourselves.
Integrative Life Center
By turning to the body as an additional resource in the therapeutic process, a patient can work through many of their issues. They can learn to become a self-healer. At Integrative Life Center, we believe there is a connection between the mind and body. Physical ailments are not only felt by the body, but they also have an impact on the mind as well. Thus, for individuals struggling with substance use disorder or mental health issues, looking to the body itself can be an effective means of treatment and healing. Body-centered therapy addresses this connection and considers all factors concerning a patient at one time.
These approaches to group and individual therapy help you identify and change negative habits. Also, patients are given the skills to identify patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions, that are contributing to their issues. By recognizing them, patients are in a better position to not only cope but resolve them. Ultimately, it is a therapeutic service which leads individuals to begin to change how they perceive and experience the world. So, if you or a loved one is struggling with substance abuse or mental health issues, then reach out to us today. Our expert counselors and therapists are waiting to provide the support needed to heal. Contact us at [Direct] to explore what we have to offer.
