Getting in Touch: The Guide to New Body-Centered Therapies

Book Overview

More and more people are turning to new mind-body therapies to address physical and emotional ills. But which type of body-centered therapy is best for each type of problem? And how can we choose the right therapist to meet our particular needs? This comprehensive collection brings together for the first time the founders and current leaders in the emerging field of body-centered therapy to explain how they developed their methods, what happens during a session, and who can best benefit from the technique. Learn how Hakomi can help you become mindful of the inner meaning of body sensations from founder Ron Kurtz. Explore 'The Moving Cycle' with Christine Caldwell, 'Dreambodywork' with Arnold Mindell, 'The Body Process' with Carolyn Braddock, 'The Relationship Dance' with Kathlyn Hendricks, and many more. Chapters on the ethics of touch in psychotherapy and on choosing a somatic therapist round out this fascinating and useful survey.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0835607615
• ISBN13: 9780835607612
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: Quest Books (IL)
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Getting in Touch: Guid eto New Body Centered Therapies

I really enjoyed reading this book and learning new ways of using body movement to aid in the mindbody healing process. Full of helpful information

Excellent cross section of the body-centered therapies

As we are learning rather slowly, the mind-body separation is largely an idea whose time has passed. Even consciousness and thinking are linked to the body more than anyone has ever imagined. Authors like Damasio write extensively on this and Candice Perk has also pushed this frontier forward as well. It is not an area a lot of people have heard about, but the techniques are powerful and I have experienced them first hand as well as using some of them in my own psychological practice. This book contains individual chapters written by the founders of various popular movements within this rapidly evolving field. Almost all of the techniques are based on the principle "you can heal what you feel" and getting in touch with the body is the royal road to fully experiencing your feelings. These techniques are powerful and they are probably not used more because they just haven't caught on. Christine Caldwell's essay at the beginning does a good job of explaining this movement toward body-centered therapies and positioning the various schools within an overall context. This is a good introduction to this area of study and contains essays from the major writers. If you are interested in the mind-body connection, you will enjoy this book and learn a lot about how we disown the body, how to use the body for emotional healing and how to reconnect with feeling.

Compehensive Resource

This is a strong compilation of bodywork techniques written by the founders of each technique. Accessible and thought-provoking, it provides theoretical as well as practical bases for each type of therapy. The book presents a wide range of options in a non-judgmental way, neither endorsing nor discounting them. This allows the reader to choose the method most appropriate for his or her needs. It is excellent for trauma survivors who wish to reclaim ownership of their bodies, either in conjunction with or separate from talk therapy. However, one does not need to have experienced trauma to benefit from bodywork. Therefore, I strongly recommend it to all audiences.