Knowra Body psychotherapy Body psychotherapy Body psychotherapy integrates attention to bodily sensations, movement, posture, and expression with psychological methods to address emotional and relational difficulties.
Somatic experiencing : A body-oriented approach to trauma that tracks physical sensations to support regulation and gradual processing. It exemplifies a structured method for working with bodily responses to trauma.
Wilhelm Reich : An Austrian psychoanalyst who developed theories of character and muscular armor and influenced body-oriented psychotherapy. His work helped establish the idea that emotional defenses can be expressed in bodily tension.
Somatic marker hypothesis : A theory that bodily signals associated with past outcomes help guide decision-making. It connects bodily states with choices, extending the focus beyond symptom relief.
Cognitive behavioral therapy : A structured psychotherapy that targets relationships among thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. It typically emphasizes cognitive and behavioral change more directly than bodily expression.
Bioenergetic analysis : A psychotherapy developed by Alexander Lowen that links muscular tension, breathing, movement, and emotional expression. Its exercises make the body’s role in emotional patterns explicit.
Alexander Lowen : An American psychotherapist who founded bioenergetic analysis, developing Reichian ideas through movement and bodily expression. He turned Reich’s bodily emphasis into a distinct therapeutic system.
Emotional regulation : The processes by which people influence the intensity, duration, and expression of emotions. Many body-based techniques aim to change emotional arousal through sensation and movement.
Psychodynamic therapy : A psychotherapy that explores unconscious patterns, emotional conflict, and relationships across past and present. It shares attention to emotion and relationship but need not center bodily experience.
Focusing : A therapeutic method in which attention is given to a vague bodily sense connected with a concern. It shows how attending to felt bodily meaning can guide psychological exploration.
Gerda Boyesen : A Norwegian psychologist who founded biodynamic psychology, an approach combining psychotherapy with attention to bodily processes. Her method became a notable European branch of body psychotherapy.
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