Blog

When a client feels stuck, bringing attention to their movements can help to mobilise imagination. Inspired by a recent walk with her nephews, embodied movement psychotherapist sissy lykou considers the role of movement in communicating patterns, expanding process and allowing the unconscious to lead the way – and shares how two clients reached breakthroughs by developing their movement awareness.

If the shaping of experience in therapy is a creative act, then what part is played in this by primary and fundamental movements – both the therapist’s and the client’s? Ruella Frank is a gestalt psychotherapist, founder of the Center for Somatic Studies in NYC, and author of a new book about the bodily roots of experience. Here she explains how therapists of all modalities can begin to integrate the dynamics of movement into our work – starting by noticing our own subtle bodily engagements in the world of the session.

How can we best support young people in today’s demanding world? Through rebuilding their relationship with their moving and feeling body, argues Kimberley Pena. A dance movement psychotherapist, she explains how neuromuscular pathways are shared by gestures and emotions, making the moving body vital in improving children’s mental health.