About a Body by Corrigall, Jenny; Payne, Helen; Wilkinson, Heward;

Short description:

About a Body documents the most recent thinking and research about the embodied mind in psychotherapy, and addresses the fundamental questions raised by the use of the body in clinical practice.

Long description:

How does our body reveal us to ourselves?

The body can inform the work we do in mental health. This unique collection invites the reader to consider the way we think about the embodied mind, and how it can inform both our lives and our work in psychotherapy and counselling.

The body is viewed as integral to the mind in this book, and in the approaches illustrated in it. Instead of splitting off the body and treating the patient as a body with a mind, contributors from a variety of approaches ask the reader to consider how we might be with, and work with, ‘bodymind’ as an interrelated whole. Subjects covered include:

• the application of affective neuroscience understandings to life as well as to clinical issues








• the body in psychotherapy with a person who is facing death








• the history, significance and scope of body psychotherapy today








• psychoanalytic approaches to working with the embodied mind








• authentic movement groups in the development of wellbeing in our bodymindspirit








• the body and spirituality

This book is unique in its pluralism: it includes a wide range of differing views of the importance of the body in psychotherapy, both in theory and in practice, and it relates these to the latest discussions in affective neuroscience. It will be invaluable for those working in, or studying, psychotherapy and counselling, and will also interest those working generally in the mental health field.

Table of Contents:

Wake, Foreword. Wilkinson, Touching Each Other Yet Being Other. Panksepp, The Core Emotional Systems of the Mammalian Brain: The Fundamental Substrates of Human Emotions. Panksepp, Examples of Application of the Affective Neuroscience Strategy to Clinical Issues. Carroll, A New Era for Psychotherapy: Panksepp’s Affect Model in the Context of Neuroscience and its Implications for Contemporary Psychotherapy Practice. Orbach, Carroll, Contemporary Approaches to the Body in Psychotherapy: Two Psychotherapists in Dialogue. Young, One Hundred and Fifty Years On: The History, Significance and Scope of Body Psychotherapy Today. Mollon, Implications of EMDR and Energy Therapies: The Limits of Talking Therapy. Soth, What Therapeutic Hope for a Subjective Mind in an Objectified Body? Boyesen, How I Developed Biodynamic Psychotherapy. Herbert, Healing from Complex Trauma: An Integrative 3-Systems’ Approach. Payne, The Body as Container and Expresser: Authentic Movement Groups in the Development of Wellbeing in Our Bodymindspirit. Schaverien, Transference and the Meaning of Touch: The Body in Psychotherapy with the Client Who is Facing Death. Sills, ‘In This Body, a Fathom Long..’: Working with Embodied Mind and Interbeing in Psychotherapy. Zabriskie, When Psyche Meets Soma: The Question of Incarnation .