To t t o n BODY PSYCHOTHERAPY An Introduction Body Psychotherapy is a holistic therapy which approaches human beings as united ‘bodyminds’, and offers embodied relationships as its central therapeutic stance. Well known forms include Reichian Therapy, Bioenergetics, Dance Movement Therapy, Primal Integration and Process Oriented Psychology. This book examines the growing field of body psychotherapy. Body Psychotherapy a n i n t r o d u c t i o n •It surveys the many forms of body psychotherapy, •Defines the central concepts of the field, and the unique skills needed by practitioners, •Is accessible and practical, yet grounded throughout in current research. Body Psychotherapy: An Introduction is of interest to practitioners and students of all forms of psychotherapy and counselling, and anyone who wants to understand how mind and body together form a human being. cover design: Kate Prentice Nick Totton originally trained in Reichian therapy in the early 1980s. Since then he has worked as a psychotherapist and trainer based in Leeds, gaining further experience in several forms of work, notably Process Orientated Psychology, and taking an MA in Psychoanalytic Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University where he now teaches. He is the author of four books, including Personality and Character Types (with Michael Jacobs) and The Water in the Glass: Body and Mind in Psychoanalysis. Body Psychotherapy •Describes what may happen in body psychotherapy and offers a theoretical account of how this is valuable drawing in current neuroscientific evidence, The cover image represents a synapse between nerve fibre and muscle fibre. ISBN 0-335-21038 9 780335 210381 N i c k To t t o n BODY PSYCHOTHERAPY An Introduction BODY PSYCHOTHERAPY An Introduction Nick Totton Open University Press Maidenhead · Philadelphia Open University Press McGraw-Hill Education McGraw-Hill House Shoppenhangers Road Maidenhead Berkshire England SL6 2QL email:
[email protected] world wide web: www.openup.co.uk and 325 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA First Published 2003 Copyright © Nick Totton 2003 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording