Bodylistening – a practical introduction to body psychotherapy
This programme is presented in four weekend modules:
Fundamentals of deep bodywork and body psychotherapy.
Introductory concepts and theoretical background to Neo-Reichian Bodywork and body psychotherapy, including links to attachment theory, development of character, models of contact, and embodied-relational therapy.
Safety: How to create and maintain a safe working environment for bodywork. Self-regulation and the relational field. Boundaries, orientation, and safety protocols. Taking risks.
Bodylistening skills: how to talk to the body and encourage its responses. Working with parts and channels. Body-gestalt techniques. Listening to my own body.
Body dialogue and process work
Bodylistening means listening to the body and taking its messages seriously. This involves a dialogue between the client and the therapist, and a process of change and growth. We will explore ways in which we make contact with the ‘mind’ of the body and create the conditions for it to relax, release, and move into the healing process. The work draws on Process-Oriented Psychology, Gestalt, Embodied-Relational Therapy, Mindfulness… and your own creativity, gut instinct and inspiration.
Topics include:
- Creating and maintaining safety.
- Exploring dialogue.
- Channels: Image, Movement, Breath, Emotion, Sensation, Thought.
- Working with resistance.
- The meaning of symptoms.
- Somatic countertransference.
- Contact, Movement and Touch in Therapy.
We learn who we are, we learn how to be, by moving in and out of contact. As our nervous systems develop over the first few years of life, the way we contact the world, and the way it responds, sets up deep patterns which are reawakened in therapy. We make contact through our eyes, our words, and our bodies.
Touch is a powerful form of contact. Traditionally, the talking therapies avoid touch, but used with awareness, it can be an important channel for the therapeutic process. Bodyworkers know that touch can contact directly places in our bodymind which aren’t easily accessed by talking. Like any verbal intervention, it can be used sensitively or abusively, respecting boundaries or overwhelming them.
By bringing attention to movement, gesture, posture and proximity, we open new possibilities in the client-therapist relationship. Movement disciplines such as Authentic Movement can engage the transpersonal realms, bringing new understanding and meaning to self-exploration. They can also be valuable tools for developing therapeutic presence.
Topics include:
- What kind of contact, where, and when?
- Exploring proximity and reactions to contact.
- Seven different styles of touch, and their shadow aspects.
- Authentic movement and therapeutic presence.
- Working safely and respectfully.
- Working with trauma.
Understanding trauma and helping it to release through the body is a fundamental skill. Modern neuroscience research now shows the way in which the body ‘remembers’ past traumas. Painful or difficult experiences can trigger a shock response which remains frozen in the body. Whilst trauma theory often emphasises shocking events, it can also explain long-term chronic developmental difficulties. As therapists, we don’t need to go looking for trauma – it will surface sooner or later. We need to welcome it as an important aid to process, and give the body space and time to tell its story directly.
This isn't a 'trauma training'. We will be looking at how early attachment forms a somatic imprint, which shows itself in the way we hold ourselves, move, and make contact. It's a way into the therapeutic process which gets straight to the heart of early wounding.
Topics include:
- The trauma model as a basis for the therapeutic process.
- Shock trauma and developmental trauma.
- How to spot trauma and work with it.
- Mindfulness and tracking sensation.
- Hyper- and Hypo-arousal, and self-regulation.
- Avoiding retraumatisation.
- Dealing with overwhelm.
Workshop dates:
2025
- 11 & 12 October
- 29 & 30 November
2026
- 31 January & 1 February
- 21 & 22 February
Please note, you need to attend all eight training days.