Utilizing a mind-body approach to therapy involves focusing on the various ways an individual has created to adjust and "embody" the world from experience. Our society teaches that we are "walking heads", separate from our bodies. The mind-body connection is the perspective that the various aspects of mind and body are dynamically effecting each other, and in that sense are a single system.

It is common for a person to have become "numb" and lost some of their bodily sensations. A person may speak about their body as an "it". Utilizing the unified mind-body theory involves increasing ones awareness of their physical experience to allow a more fully alive human. Once a person gains awareness, they may choose to accept things as they are or to change and learn new and enhanced ways to embody their experience of the world.

The use of mind-body approaches should not be considered a "cookbook" of how to fix "the body". Instead a person increases their awareness of who they are and expands their way of being in the world. I also offer training to other clinicians on this subject.

Whether your perspective is rooted in "hard core" empirical science or includes eastern or new age ideas, all can agree that the body's various systems are complexly interwoven and mutually interdependent. The various functional areas of the brain and central nervous system link directly to glands, endocrine function and other organs. The more cognitive parts of the brain are linked to the emotive centers. The body has complex signaling systems, both chemical and electrical that cause one part of the body to adjust another part's activities. Thus, the mind--body connection is becoming part of the standard way of thinking about the human condition.

Web Links:

    Overview of mind-body connection

    Background article

Suggested reading:

"Body Process: Working with the Body in Psychotherapy"  James Kepner (1987) 

    see this book

    Amazon.com

"The Body Reveals"  Ron Kurtz and Hector Prestera (1976)

   go to the author's website

"Emotional Anatomy: The Structure Of Experience," Stanley Keleman, Center Press, 1986.

   see this book

Articles by the author:

   Dreams and the Body

   The Organizing Process

   The Body We Are

   an interview with the author