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conscious assumptions. Having been raised in a has been prevalent in scientific thought, is now
conservative Christian family, I had thought of beginning to lessen. Thanks to breakthroughs
my body as simply a vessel for my spirit and not in neurobiology we better understand how de-
intrinsically intertwined with my soul. In this eply our thoughts, feelings, and sensations are
transformative learning process, I came to un- intertwined, and how much they impact the
derstand that the fundamental purpose of body structure and functioning of our brains. “How
psychotherapy or somatic psychotherapy is to many mental health problems, from drug ad-
support a client’s whole being in their journey diction to self-injurious behavior, start as at-
towards wellness, health and wholeness. tempts to cope with the unbearable physical
pain of our emotions? If Darwin was right, the
Background of Somatic Psychology solution requires finding ways to help people al-
The field of body psychotherapy or somatic ter the inner sensory landscape of their bodies.
psychotherapy is mostly attributed to Wilhelm Until recently, this bidirectional communicati-
Reich (1897-1957), one of Freud’s students who on between body and mind was largely ignored
became very interested in pursuing the study of by Western science, even as it had long been
how energy gets trapped in our physical systems central to traditional healing practices in many
and the ensuing constrictions or armoring this other parts of the world, notably in India and
can cause in our physical, mental and emotional China.” 5
health. Reich credited the influence of Salvador Antonio Damasio has developed a somatic
Ferenczi’s description of the impact of child- marker hypothesis that demonstrates the in-
hood on muscle tone and posture in his deve- terconnection between our limbic system and
2
lopment of bioenergetics. His explorations and our prefrontal cortex. His work is based on
teachings influenced many others who further “experiments that seem to show that the inabi-
developed the field of somatic psychotherapy. lity to experience emotions results in a severe
Others point to how the very origin of psycho- impairment of rational decision-making. In an
logy understood the connection between the experiment conducted by Bechara et al. (1997),
3
emotions, the body and the mind. Freud’s in- healthy controls and patients with emotional
vestigation into hysteria led him to initially ex- deficits had to perform a gambling task which
plore the impact of early childhood trauma. He required a rational decision for the most ad-
proposed that the memory of trauma which the vantageous strategy in order to gain as much
patient fails to confront, because it will cause money as possible. The controls started with
them too much mental anguish, can be “con- an emotional reaction, then they adopted the
verted” into physical symptoms. “The term hy- advantageous strategy before they were finally
steria was dropped when the influence of a psy- able to tell what the advantageous strategy was,
chodynamic theory of mental ill health, with its a few trials later. Patients, by contrast, showed
concepts of unconscious mental forces affecting no emotional reaction and continued to use the
behaviour, fell out of favour in psychiatry. But disadvantageous strategy throughout the expe-
while they turned to more measurable features riment, although they also realized what the ad-
and symptoms, the condition remains in what is vantageous strategy was.” 6
now called “conversions disorder”. 4 This knowledge of our inherent unified being,
In recent years the divide, emphasized by De- which the scientific community is validating
scartes between the mind, body and spirit that in recent years, has been the foundation of the
field of somatic psychotherapy and practices for

2 Mead, Veronique. “An Introduction to the history, back-
ground, and theoretical perspectives of Somatic Psycho-
logy.” p. 2 Accessed June 20, 2019 www.veroniquemead. 5 Van der Kolk, B. A. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain,
com Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York:
3 Ibid Viking, 2014.
4 Nicholson, C. “Why Freud was right about hysteria” 6 Pauen, M. “Emotion, Decision, and Mental Models”
The Conversation November 16, 2017 Accessed June 21, Advances in Psychology. Volume 138, 2006, p. 173-188.
2019. https://theconversation.com/ Accessed June 20, 2019.
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