The Inner Dimension of Bodywork

29 Jun 2016
Read time: 3 min
Category: Archive

The Mind/Body Gap

The intimate connection between the “mind” and the “body” too often goes unrecognized by psychotherapists and bodyworkers. When the mind is seen as some disembodied entity with its own independent imbalances, and the body as merely physical, the essential wholeness of a person gets ignored, and fractionalized treatment can be ineffective, and even make things worse.

The latest findings of psychoneuroimmunology help to bridge the mind/body gap. The discovery of the vast inner neuropeptide network, that contains and relays our emotions, inner images, and even beliefs, lays the common ground for doctors, bodyworkers, and psychotherapists to collaborate and formulate a new holistic approach and language to healing. Deep feelings held in the body outside of conscious awareness are the lock. Touch is the key.

Touch is the Key

Touch is our mother tongue, the original and only language of the body. As mammals we rely on skin contact and warmth to awaken our digestive, circulatory, and nervous systems. Kittens not licked or caressed at birth, die. Gentle touch stimulates the hormone thymopoeitin, which nurtures the budding immune system into readiness, and helps us be safe in the world as separate beings. In his groundbreaking book, Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, Ashley Montagu says: “The communications we transmit through touch constitute the most powerful means of establishing human relationships, the foundation of experience.”

Touch is emotional. Although bodyworkers primarily focus on the treatment of the soft tissue of the body, they are in fact treating the whole person, and often encounter an expression of emotion and/or memories triggered by touch. The science of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) investigates the mind/body link and offers a model that bridges the connection. Holistic treatment calls for the bodyworker to be familiar with the concepts of PNI to help understand the emotional component of his or her work in order to better facilitate positive changes that last over time.

So if you like to synthesize approaches of heart, mind, and body to get healthy, or help your client get there, and want to be up on the latest mind/body holistic science-based approaches, my book is for you.

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Hippocrates’ psychotherapist, Andy Bernay-Roman, also licensed as a Registered Nurse and Massage Therapist, has written a book, Deep Feeling, Deep Healing: Mind/body Wisdom for Bodyworkers, about the mind/body connection and the latest discoveries in the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI). He offers a user-friendly model to help body therapists better understand how they are not just treating the soft tissue of the body, but rather, the whole person.

Knowing how bodywork impacts the emotional body helps therapists bring more awareness and compassion to their clients.

Available on Amazon in both print and Kindle versions:

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