This is an exciting book, if only because it covers an area of psychology often overlooked in the psychotherapy world and thus has the power of opening new vistas there. One of the contributors, Barbara Holifield puts it well,

Attending to the bodily-felt experience of living can be significant in multiple ways in psychotherapy. Perhaps most obvious is the contribution this makes to healing the dualism of the culture by shifting the predominant emphasis on the mind to allow for a fuller experience of self. The implications of this are vast.

I feel I am a casualty of that cultural dualism and often wish to experience my body and its role in my life better, and work on healing that area.

The book is a collection of only nine, very individual papers but it covers, in-depth, a great deal of material from different bodywork approaches. In addition to practices such as Rolfing, Alexander Technique, and Aston-Patterning; practice fields such as dance, theatre and grief work are explored. I especially enjoyed Holifield’s paper, “Against the Wall/Her Beating Heart: Working With The Somatic Aspects of Transference, Countertransference, and Dissociation.”

However, most papers had an almost nostalgic, historic flavor that not everyone might enjoy. Because the somatic psychology field is not as mainstream and accepted as others, most of the contributors went into detail about how they came into the field and their own personal histories. I remember the 1960’s and a great deal of the background to Rolfing as well as references to Big Sur and Essalen but the personal reminiscences sometimes distracted from, rather than adding to, the point of a paper.

The book is written entirely from somatic psychotherapists’ perspective and I found myself wishing for input from clients. Somatic experience is not only hands-on but refers also to the thinking about and discussion of bodily-felt experience. Presumably therapists have more words and skill in articulating about their area of practice than others outside it and I was wishing for descriptions of experience from “my” side of the interactions. I sometimes had difficulty writing this review because of my lack of practice thinking about or discussing bodily-felt experience. I have the same difficulty discussing myself or even my weight problem with my therapist in my own traditional psychotherapy sessions.

I found the book especially valuable in triggering thoughts, feelings and further questions and ideas to explore in and with myself. I also felt a sense of confirmation for some personally held beliefs and perhaps the affirmation needed to act on them. This book provides a great reading experience.

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Categories: ClientReviews, Psychotherapy, MentalHealth