Touching the Relational Edge by Rolef Ben-Shahar Asaf;

Author:Rolef Ben-Shahar, Asaf;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

PART III

CLINICAL

Teach me, god, to bless and pray

For the shine of ripened fruit, for a leaf in decay,

For this freedom: to see, to sense, to breathe,

to know, to yearn, to fail and stray.

Teach me tongues to sing your blessing and praise

For each cycle of moon, for renewal of days,

Lest my day today is as it was before.

Lest my life is spent in habitual haze.

—Poems at the End of the Road, Lea Goldberg (1973, p. 154).

Traditionally, bodywork and body psychotherapy were primarily recommended to clients for whom “talking” psychotherapy was inappropriate (“difficult” clients, or those who were uncomfortable with verbal therapy), or for clients with rigid defence mechanisms, for whom words easily lost their meaning. Contemporary body psychotherapy has become much more sophisticated, subtle, and updated with psychotherapeutic advances on the one hand, and somatic content on the other. New research, for example, suggests (Rothschild, 2000, 2004) that body psychotherapy is highly suitable for trauma work. Attention to body sensations, to breath, and even gentle touch might provide clients with a sense of safety, security, and grounding—all essential for recovery (Eiden, 2011). Body psychotherapy can also be the modality of choice for clients who could not speak or for those whose speech was not coherent (Zack, 2013). And it can even be a powerful modality for couple therapy (Keleman & Adler, 2000; Kessel, 2013).

The vertical (intrapsychic) entry point into body psychotherapy proved easier for many practitioners who were interested in somatic practices yet apprehensive about integrating these within their clinical work. However, relational interventions in body psychotherapy are more overreaching than procedural somatic exercises or effective trauma techniques. Body psychotherapy is an appropriate modality for a variety of clients who seek (want/need) to undergo a significant exploratory therapeutic process and wish to incorporate their bodily experiences within it; to engage in the language of the body alongside their cognitive and emotional engagement.

Part III (Clinical) opens a window into the body psychotherapist’s clinic. Chapter Eight will allow us a rare glimpse into sessions of six experienced body psychotherapists, each bringing their unique voice and therapeutic style, demonstrating part of the theoretical and clinical richness offered in body psychotherapy. The other chapters in this Part will demonstrate some of the basic clinical skills of the body psychotherapist, through case vignettes accompanied by discussion. Part III (Clinical) exemplifies and brings life, body, and spirit into the theoretical discussions of Part II. You are cordially invited to engage with the material through thinking, moving, feeling, and sensing, and I hope you will enjoy getting to know my dear colleagues, and me.

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