Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment by Courtenay Young Introduction: T his article follows on as a second distinct part to an article I wrote with the same main title (Young, 2005a). I would now like to go into the subject a little more detail. In that first article, I looked at why we might need to be much more clear about why, when, how, and where we touch. And I also looked at various techniques that we can use that essentially come from within body-psychotherapy, but none of which involve touch. I now want to go a little wider and deeper. I would like to explore the concept of ‘embodiment’ or (as we shall see) the process of re-embodiment. David Boadella spoke eloquently, at the 2006 4th Biosynthesis Conference in Lisbon, about 4 different levels or types of integration and how the therapeutic relationship or alliance is the containment for the process of integration. I want to look at the goal or intention of body psychotherapy and the purpose that I believe underlies the therapeutic alliance in body-psychotherapy. I believe that – as a body psychotherapist – I am working to assist the client get a better sense of, or achieve a better state of ‘embodiment’: by that I mean a felt sense of self within one’s body, when one feels centred, grounded, autonomous, empowered, in contact with one’s authentic feelings and with a healthy boundary to others and the outside world. This concept is not unique to any one method of body-psychotherapy, but – I believe – is probably common to all, though the language varies considerably from method to method. Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up, Egon Schiele, 1917 36 Courtenay Young Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment
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