Does body-centered counseling use touch? If so, how is it incorporated into the work?
Yes, body-centered counseling sometimes uses touch as a tool to open you up to parts of yourself that you may not be aware of. Touch used in conjunction with mindfulness has the capacity to greatly deepen the quality and depth of a session. The touch used in this approach is distinctly different from the touch used with therapeutic massage. With massage, you are passively receiving the healing touch. Whereas the touch used with body-centered counseling will invite you to use mindfulness to actively study your inner-experience. The therapist will always introduce the use of touch within the overall context of your session. The therapist will only proceed once you understand and agree to the intention behind the touch. For example, the therapist might physically take over the feeling you have of your shoulders being heavy and rounded forward. You will then be asked to carefully notice what happens in your experience as he/she does that.
