WHY CHOOSE EMBODIED THERAPY?

Because it works! Somatic approaches to psychology, psychotherapy and education are trending in part because we have come to the end of the Enlightenment belief that our mind is separate from our body. Mindbody approaches work faster and more effectively in the long run because our consciousness is embodied.

Today we know a lot more about the mindbody connection. For one, we know our mind is not the leader of our pack. Our heart is. And our gut intuition plays a key role as well. Did you know our body sends more messages to our brain via the Vagus Nerve than our brain sends to our body?

I think we all know in our heart that we will never be healthy and whole sitting in a chair thinking the way we’ve been thinking about how we got where we are today. Not today? Didn’t see it coming? Won’t happen to me? Isn’t there a pill for this? We don’t know what’s causing it? Sound familiar? These area common defense mechanisms driving our postmodern condition of chronic mindbody illness, unhappiness and social disconnection.

There is a simple remedy easily at hand taught me by my mentor Ilana Rubenfeld, creator of the Rubenfeld Synergy Method® for hands-on somatic-emotional release work. Ilana provided a practical solution—put the body into the therapeutic conversation by using empathetic listening touch as an extension of empathetic listening. She called her method The Listening Hand. And to the delight of her Jewish immigrant frugality, her mindbody approach was cost-effective and time-saving. As a client you could see one holistic practitioner rather than a bodyworker to help you with your body and a talk therapist to help you with stuck emotions and dysfunctional thought patterns.

I am proud to continue the practice of hands-on body psychotherapy and psychophysical education that Ilana devoted her life to. I was honored to co-author with her the chapter “Somatic-Emotional Release Work among Hands-on Practitioners” in The Handbook of Body Psychotherapy and Somatic Psychology published in 2015, a few years before her passing in 2022. You can find more information there about the history of somatic-emotional release work, foundational concepts and evolving methods.

"Our bodies and brains house all of life's experiences. We may not be able to remember them, but they are imprinted in our unconscious. They are there, as much a part of us as our bones, heart, and bloodstream."

— Ilana Rubenfeld