We generally start in the chairs facing each other. We may initially start like many other approaches talking about your past and current life and hopes and wishes for the future concentrating on patterns that are getting in the way and where you want to be.
I will be attending to you by bringing my awareness to what I perceive to be happening in your body and from time to time I might feed this back to you, I encourage you to direct your attention as non- judgementally as possible to what is happening so we can together gather information and begin to make links to psychological patterns.
From time to time, I use more active body based interventions such as touch, movement, sounding, massage, breath awareness, drawing and psycho-drama to help you feel more embodied. For example, if someone has come for psychotherapy for anxiety or depression I may invite them to lie on a mattress and together we will observe and pay attention to bodily experience such as excitation or numbness and see if we make connections to patterns in the person’s life. Paying attention to the body in the present, you may gain insight which leads to more helpful pattern. It is most important that you feel safe and you will never be asked to do anything that you do not feel OK about.
There are a whole host of techniques from Body Psychotherapy that can be used but since each person is unique I tailor the work to suit the individual and suggest whatever I feel might be useful. Research has shown that the relationship between the therapist and the client and the client’s willingness to work are more reliable indicators of success rather than particular techniques.