Body-oriented techniques, affect and body consciousness

Abstract

Traditional clinical perspectives consider body-oriented approaches controversial, in particular the ones using physical contact. In the present work, among the several reasons for such credit, we investigated the one concerning non-specific effect. The aim was achieved by analysing what 36 adults familiar with body-oriented works reported about their affective state and their body consciousness levels, recorded both at the beginning and at the end of two classes planned to enhance their levels of well-being. At the end of each class, most of the participants’ responses tended to be affected by the nature of the technique, and by the index, the responses assessed differ. Results suggested that specific techniques may affect specific psychological domains.

Keywords:

• Body-oriented psychotherapy
• affects
• body-consciousness

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Giuseppe Rizzi, director of the Centro di Psicologia e Psicoterapia Funzionale in Padua (Italy) for the help provided in the embryonic stages of the manuscript.

Notes

1. Being a non-common term, the meaning of the term dysfunctional deserves some clarification. The term finds its philosophical origins within functionalism, a psychological perspective that considers humans mental and behavioural products in terms of personal achievements. Both the humans’ mental and behavioural products can thus be functional or dysfunctional, according to the results they allow the person to get. If the results are congruent with the aim that guided the person, the actions he carried can be defined as functional; otherwise, if the distance between the goal and the results is too wide, the actions the person carried reveal themselves as dysfunctional.