Healing happens when we feel safe, supported and enabled to face our life. When we acknowledge our self doubts, insecurities, fears and anxieties as well as our strengths and love, we are then ready to share our strength and love with others. In a supportive and caring environment, we can slowly heal from the inside out. Real stories of real people show us how we can heal through loving touch.Our body does not lie. When we listen to the messages we receive from our body (aches and pains, injuries in specific organs, discomfort, dis-ease), we discover what we really want and need in our life. Once we know, with certainty and clarity, we can go out into the world fearlessly living with our integrity intact. We can then share loving relationships with others.In this book, we explore the healing potential of body therapy which includes talk, often known as body oriented psychotherapy or body psychotherapy. The healing is revealed through stories of real people's lives. These stories are excerpts of actual case histories, therapy sessions, emotional responses, and eventual healing that took place in my office. Names and identifying personal characteristics have been altered to protect anonymity. None of my clients will be able to say with certainty, "That's me!" Yet, as we read these stories, each of us may recognize something familiar within ourselves.We meet with our body psychotherapist at the level of our soul. There is no judgment, shame, good or bad, weak or strong. There is only love, truth and pure connection. The forces that have kept us in a state of fear seem to miraculously lose their power and disappear. Once we have experienced soul connection in a private body psychotherapy session, we can then go out into the world transformed, seeking that same soul connection with others.Our body reveals us to the world, to each other, and to our self. Through our energy and through touch, with or without words, we are known. As we discover that hiding is an illusion, we begin to relax our defenses. We discover that we are all longing to be accepted and loved. Scientists who study the universe, from the tiniest particles to the vastness of infinity, ultimately discover that love, attraction and repulsion rule the universe. Through body psychotherapy, as we learn to love and accept our self and others, intimacy becomes our natural way of being.Our body does not lie. The way we hold and move our body is the key to understanding our self and reaching our full human potential. When we recognize and express our deepest feelings, the cells in our body respond accordingly. Our tissues soften, our posture lengthens and widens, and we view our world with greater clarity.In body psychotherapy, both therapist and client are on a sacred healing journey together. We not only touch each other, we also explore together the deeper psychological, symbolic and interpersonal meanings in our life. When we are touched, we are no longer the person we pretend to be, want to be, or perceive our self to be. Feelings sometimes intensify, but over time the intensity gradually diminishes. We build a solid base of self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-love.Body psychotherapy is about life, your life, my life, and our lives together on this earth. Being willing to feel and express our raw emotions, we have the rare opportunity to release the pain and anguish inherent in the human condition. We can actually live the remainder of our lives in a state of peaceful joy, more readily willing to acknowledge, accept, and love our most intimate partners.
