What's the Somatic Psychology?

What's the Somatic Psychology?

Somatic psychology, also referred to as body psychotherapy, is an interdisciplinary field involving the study of therapeutic and holistic approaches to the body, somatic experience, and the embodied self. It is based in psychological, neurological, developmental, medical, social and cultural sciences. The word somatic comes from the ancient Greek somat (body). The word psychology comes from the ancient Greek psyche (breath, soul hence mind) and logia (study). Wilhelm Reich was the first to bring the body into psychoanalysis, and to physically touch the client.[1] The only reference to the body in psychotherapy had previously been physiological and neurophysiological. Some credit Reich as a singlehanded founder of somatic psychology (though he called his early work character analysis). Many body-oriented psychotherapies trace their origins to Reich, yet in mainstream psychology his work remains marginalised.[2] However, there are earlier practitioners for example, the Persian physician Avicenna (980 to 1037 CE) who performed psychotherapy only by observing the movement of the patient's pulse as he listened to their anguish.[3] This is reminiscent of both traditional Tibetan medicine and current energy therapies that employ tapping points on a meridian. Some writers describe 'body as slow mind'[4] and this has coincided with research into embodiment and consciousness, and an unconscious mind that 'speaks' through the language of body. Dance therapy reflects this approach and is included in the field of somatic psychology


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somatic_Psychology










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