Hello body, are you there? Its me Margaret.

So, if you aren’t a woman, you might not get the title reference! Anyway, this is a little information about the benefits of bodywork.

In my practice, both professionally and personally, I do bodywork. If I am working with someone in the psychotherapy realm, this means I watch their body movements for clues to what is happening with them subconsciously. I notice if a person moves their hands or turns their head or raises their voice or physically tightens in some way. Those are signals that the body gives us indicating a reaction to a trigger – a word, a memory, a sensation. I see those signals as important to discovering more about how we process information and our perceptions about ourselves and the world.

In a psychotherapy session, I may gently interrupt what the person is saying and ask if they noticed their body while they were sharing their story. Usually a person will notice if they are tense, but they will not know that they have used their hands to communicate what they are sharing. If the person is willing, we then do an ‘experiment’ to gather more information about what the body may be sharing with those movements or with the tension/holding. I like to use imagery to help gather this information. Imagery is simply closing your eyes to decrease the stimuli around you so you can check in with your internal self. Sometimes the body movements can be used literally or figuratively to decipher a more subtle message about the persons experience.

Here is an example. A person is having anger issues. As they are sharing their experience they might hold their hands in fists. When we ‘experiment’ with this, I ask them to close their eyes and hold their hands in fists and see what they notice. To either exaggerate the fists or hold them loosely depending on the situation. They notice their stomach clenches and their jaw is tight as they hold their fists. Those are defensive strategies that the body automatically does to protect us. We might even ask if her stomach, jaw or fists have a message to share. We honor the body as a separate entity for a moment to filter out the storyline and focus on the impact of the story. That is really the main point. All the story does is separate us from our present experience. The story is our head trying to put the emotional responses into categories so we can move on and not truly feel.

Sometimes when a person seems stuck in their intellectual processing we will do imagery to access the body’s wisdom about the experience. People will come in and say, “I am not sure why this particular experience feels so bad/hurtful, etc”. We go into the body and recall a memory related to that hurtful experience and investigate the reactions around it to gather information.

See, the body has no filter. It is quite blatant in its messaging. Its like your crazy aunt that just tells you like it is. We are so much in our heads that we have learned to tune it out. We don’t pay attention to it until it is screaming and we are often physically in pain. The body is constantly telling you how you ‘feel’ about what is currently happening to you. Being aware of your body is being mindful of another part of you that processes your environment. If you don’t pay attention to your body it is like working with half a brain.

When I work with people doing Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (which is described in detail on the website) we are focusing on the body first because we are moving the body in yoga postures. When I am moving a person’s body I can often feel a subtle hesitation or a kink or a congested area. I will ask them if they notice anything in that area as well. It is incredible how much the body can share during one of these yoga sessions. There is so much literal and figurative relating from the body to a person’s daily life.

For example: a person has difficulty letting go of their leg as I am moving it for them. I feel resistance and I ask them if they notice anything as I move their leg. They may say they notice they are helping me move their leg. I ask them how that same pattern shows up in their daily life. They might make the correlation between how it is difficult for them to let go of anything or how they don’t easily accept support. All that with just a leg lift!

Hopefully that helps in understanding how I use “bodywork” in my practice. It is a direct route to information and often people find they feel more connected, more confident and more alive after they have paid attention to their body’s perspective.