ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some of the basic concepts in body psychotherapy. Whether we search for a physical, biological, psychological, or spiritual explanation for the concept of energy, the clinical applications of energetic evaluation of the client, the therapist, and the therapeutic process are central tenets in the work of many body psychotherapists. The body psychotherapist assumes that embodiment allows for a more comprehensive processing of her life experiences, and that it could encourage fuller surrender to her own vitality. Body awareness (or somatic awareness) includes both sensory and motor awareness, as well as the ability to communicate this awareness to another person through symbolic means (verbally), or via subsymbolic conversation. Body psychotherapy has a unique way of relating to psychosomatic pain, categorically different to both classic psychoanalysis and medicine. The body psychotherapeutic understanding of psychosomatic phenomena is directly connected with Reich's functional identity.
