Body and Soul
Ivy Griffin
If you have been to a counselor or therapist, you may have experienced something like this: you are invited to describe what brings you in. There’s a barrage of inquiries about your personal life and healthcare history. Perhaps you’re given a questionnaire and a number value is assigned to your symptoms. At the end of the session, you might be offered a tip on developing new habits or coping strategies; a new way of thinking about your problem; maybe even a referral to a prescriber for medication to ease your symptoms. After several more sessions you find yourself opening up and talking. You feel heard, validated, more comfortable articulating how you feel.
But as the weeks go by, your struggles — depression or anxiety; grief from the loss of a loved one or a broken relationship; a struggle with substance use or trauma— linger on. Is there something missing?
It’s important to remember that mainstream approaches of talk therapy, while evidence-based and effective for many people, have their limits. There are other approaches that can augment our treatment, involving more than simply discussing issues with our therapist a couple of times a month. This is where the body comes in.
In his Handbook of Innovative Therapy, Raymond Corsini devotes a whole chapter to body therapies. Traditional Eastern spiritual and medicinal practices like yoga, martial arts and acupuncture have found their way into Western psychotherapy. Research and personal testimony provide promising results and highlight the deep holistic connection between mind and body.
Studies from 2019, 2020 and 2021 all pointed to positive mental health outcomes when exercise, martial arts and acupuncture are engaged in or used to supplement a person’s existing mental health treatment plan.
Depression, anxiety and other mental health concerns are marked by a withdrawal from life. Our once-vibrant lifestyle shrinks into a small handful of pleasureless behaviors: the familiar feeling of spinning our wheels and going nowhere. At the same time, diverse neural pathways wither and fade, leaving behind monotonous patterns of thinking and feeling. If you’re in therapy, you probably started by addressing these on the cognitive level, by talking with your counselor. That’s a great place to start! But if you need to add another dimension to your treatment — that is, you want to do better as well as feel better — you might try consulting with your therapist on how to incorporate movement and body work into your treatment. It’s one way to begin healing your whole self.
Warmly,
Joe Boyle, APCC # #10514
Supervised by Alexandra Garton, LMFT #84263
Thrive Therapy & Counseling
916-241-3287
http://thrivetherapyandcounseling.com/joe-boyle