My working style

Body psychotherapeutic work takes place on different levels

At the somatic (body) level we will have a look at how your life history is embodied. What kind of resources do you bring to the work and what areas of your life would you like to change?
I work with each person in an individual way, tailoring specific body exercises to contact and help release tensed body tissue and restricted emotions.

I encourage and support each client to take responsibility for continuing the therapeutic practice in between sessions.
Relational patterns become known as the therapeutic process deepens, enabling old patterns to be recognized and processed in a way that invites new possibilities for growth and development.

What happens in a typical therapy session?

As you share your current concerns with me, together we will discover the connections between your present life situation and your life history. Our personal history is embodied therefore I open myself to the impressions of your body posture, noticing the ways in which your individual body has developed. This gives me valuable information, for example, I may notice how solid you stay in this world. By allowing my senses to be open when meeting you, I can be touched by preconscious or unconscious messages emerging from your body.

This careful process of “tuning in” enables me to make contact with the deeper layers of your psyche and its emotional states. I often sense this process as a “treasure” hunt, because there is lots of creative potential to be discovered! Usually I will communicate my perceptions to you and this experience of being seen generally leads to a sense of enhanced self-contact. On the bodily level, this can be perceived through a feeling of warmth and/or heightened emotional states.
I find that initially the deeper parts of the personality need greater attention, esteem and positive resonance for they may have been ignored for a long time. In order to foster and strengthen these areas, the next step may be for me to offer a body expression or contact exercise.

Meine Arbeitsweise / Körperübungen

Contact and touch

Questions that often come up during the work revolve around the issue of appropriate contact between therapist and client. How much closeness versus distance is necessary for healing? During any given lifetime we all put on a protective coat. Some have been badly hurt and, afraid of being hurt again, find it difficult to be physically touched.

Arbeitsweise

In body psychotherapy we work intentionally with physical touch, but know that this is not always appropriate or beneficial for the therapeutic process.

I strive to find the kind of touch that deepens my client’s capacity to integrate and express emotion in a healthy and life-giving way. This becomes a learning process for both therapist and client.