Bodywork
In therapeutic bodywork we learn how the body is the psyche. If you are alert and observant enough you can see the client's inner world as it projects outward to their periphery. Splits and dissociation are demonstrated in movement, posture, facial and bodily expression, asymmetry, incongruence, and inconsonance.
Therapeutic bodywork may be done standing, sitting, lying, with physical contact or sitting opposite each other, or with no physical contact at all. Breathing is the starting point. How deep, how rapid, how rhythmic, how long, how regular -- each of these questions tell you about your client's emotional state.
Study the two sides of their face. Often one is alive and bright and the other deadened and drawn back. You can have your client cover their eyes, each one in turn and speak to you from the eye that remains uncovered. They tend to have different emotional-energetic experiences from each eye.
Watch your client's face and head. Do they turn the left or right side of their face toward you, all the time, some of the time, alternating, or full-face. Same with the crossing of legs, arms, and leaning forward or backward in the chair. All this gives you information.
Listen to the tone and timbre of their voice as they speak. The voice can waver and change in tone, sometimes abruptly. Listen for giggling, laughing, changes in tempo and intonation. Who is speaking? Is there a split or splits in the talking?
Another way I like to start, particularly with new clients, is having them walk around the room. Notice how they walk, what feelings are evoked as you watch them. Notice their balance, alignment, and ease of movement. With your hands on their back, chest, or abdomen gently experience the movement of their energy in its relationship to emotions, holding, and contraction.
Bodywork is discussed in more detail in module 6 of Sacred Attention Therapy Online Training, Level 1: Emotional Suppression.
Excerpt from SAT Online Training, Level 1 lecture manuscript
https://www.centerforhumanawakening.com/SAT-Online-Training-Is-It-For-You.html
Serving your personal journey toward enlightenment
7 年“Listening with the whole self to the soul of the other” is one of the foundational principles in Richard Harvey’s Sacred Attention Therapy. And one of the ways this transcendent approach to healing can manifest is through therapeutic bodywork. When working with clients in the therapeutic setting, we are not merely focused on what the client is saying (or not saying), but on the whole being in front of us. This wholeness can be revealed to us through our awareness of how the client’s body is communicating with and to us. The body is merely a conduit for communication of the Divine. What is the body saying? The words we speak are often not what we either think, feel, or want to communicate. The body never lies, however. The body will always tend toward revealing the truth. This is because the body is a conduit for divinity and will always lean in the direction of truth. The therapist can pick up on this communication from the divine by observing the client’s breathing and movements, their gestures and mannerisms, their bodily tendencies and preferences. At the end of the day, the body is merely a symbol of the ego; just as the ego is a symbol of our separation from the Divine. Working with the body can reveal important insights on the client’s healing journey. Through bodywork in the therapeutic setting we gain insight to that which the client wants to reveal and heal. The therapist’s ability to observe this communication, work with it in an inviting and trusting way, can usher in a transformation for the client. Not all clients are open to therapeutic bodywork, however. Be sensitive and always meet the client where they are. Where opportunities present themselves to integrate therapeutic bodywork into your sessions, go with humbleness and reverence for the divine communication unfolding.