being? This is relatively easy: it is helping them towards (often) a known, remembered, experienced or glimpsed place. Even if they did not experience it as a child, it is ‘known’ in the sense of this is what should have happened: we have the seed, acorn or kernel of existential experience in our soul; we have a sense of what life should have been. Yet, one can argue – and I do – that this is essentially a regressive experience. What I would like to do is to help my clients towards is a progressive experience – but it is, as yet, an unexperienced and unknown place. It is the position that accepts that the Cartesian split has happened, that the client has lost contact – a bit or a lot – with their sense of self, their body – and that the client is now trying to move forward to a new balance, a new embodiment. They are not re-finding embodiment again; but re-embodying themselves into a new balance or reorganisation that will take them forward. I would therefore like to think that this is a progressive development that hopefully extends long after they stop having therapy and forms the basis for the rest of their life. So I hope that they can continue to enjoy their journey of re-embodiment. This is your body, your greatest gift, pregnant with wisdom you do not hear, grief you thought was forgotten, and joy you have never known. Body work is soul work. Imagination is the bridge between body and soul. Marion Woodman REFERENCES Aalberse, M. (2001) Graceful Means: Felt Gestures and Choreographic Therapy. In Heller, M. (ed) The Flesh of the Soul: The body we work with, pp 101-132. Azari, S.A. (2006) Working with Refugees: a personal experience. International Journal of Psychotherapy, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp 54-61. Bowlby, J. (1997) Attachment & Loss. London: Pimlico. EABP Bibliography (2006) The EABP Bibliography of Body-Psychotherapy, v.2.1 on CD-ROM. Amsterdam: EABP. Edelman, G.M. (2002) From brain dynamics to consciousness: how matter becomes imagination. Paper presented at 23rd Jean Piaget Society Conference: The Embodied Mind and Consciousness: Developmental perspectives, Philadelphia, 6-8 June. Heller, M. (ed) (2001) The Flesh of the Soul: The body we work with. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. Keleman, S. (1985) Emotional anatomy. Berkeley: Center Press. Liedloff, J. (1975) The continuum concept. London: Duckworth. MacLachlan, M. (2004) Embodiment: Clinical, critical and cultural perspectives on health & illness. Maidenhead, Open University Press (McGraw-Hill Education). Courtenay Young has been Vice-President, (2001-2002) and President of EABP (2002-2006). He is a fully accredited and registered Psychotherapist with around 25 years of professional experience. He works in several different modalities, has experience in a number of different clinical settings, and with a wide range of different client groups. He is actively involved in several professional associations in psychotherapy, leads workshops internationally, and has written several articles, chapters and books on psychotherapy, as well as writing poetry. His various other articles about Body Psychotherapy can be accessed through his website: www.courtenay-young.com. Macnaughton, I. (ed.) (1997) Embodying the mind & minding the body. Vancouver, Integral. Marlock, G. & Weiss, H. (2001) In search of the embodied self. In Heller, M. (ed) The Flesh of the Soul: The body we work with, pp 133-152 McLuhan, T.C. (ed.) (1971) Touch the earth: A self-portrait of Indian existence. New York: Promontory. Morgan, E. (1990) The scars of evolution. London: Souvenir. Ogden, P., Minton, K. & Pain, C. (2006) Trauma and the Body: A sensorimotor approach to psychotherapy. New York: Norton. Rothschild B. (2000) The body remembers: The psychophysiology of trauma and trauma treatment. New York: Norton. Sachs, O. (1984) A leg to stand on. London: Picador. Sachs, O. (1985) The man who mistook his wife for a hat. London: Picador. Shaw, R. (2003) The embodied psychotherapist: The therapist’s body story. Hove: Brunner-Routledge. Van der Kolk , B.A., MacFarlane, A.C. & WEisaeth, L. (eds) (1996) Traumatic stress: The effects of overwhelming experience on mind, body, and society. New York: Guilford Press. Winnicott, D.W. (1971) Transitional objects and transitional phenomena, in D.W. Winnicott (ed.) Playing and Reality. London: Tavistock. Young, C. (2005a) Doing effective body psychotherapy without touch. Energy & Character: The international journal of Biosynthesis, Vol 34, Sept. Young, C. (2005b) A physiological theory of evolution. Unpublished; draft available on www.courtenay-young.com. Young, C. (2006) One hundred and fifty years on: The history, significance and scope of body psychotherapy today. Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy: AN international journal for theory, research and practice. Vol 1. No 1. Profile of the author 46 Courtenay Young Doing Effective Body Psychotherapy without Touch: Part II: The Process of Re-embodiment
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