Integrative Approaches To Recovery

The amount of stress and life pressures that we experience in the world today is beyond what any of our ancestors could have imagined. It is no wonder that we carry many burdens and unhealthy strategies in order to get through life. And at their extreme, they leave us lifeless and exhausted. Thousands of years ago, when the classic texts of Chinese medicine existed, most people lived simple lives. Anxiety and depression were not as common. Some of the ancient tools that have been long forgotten were essential keys to personal growth and healing. These long forgotten methods can be most eloquently expressed in the creative use of body-centered psychotherapy and the utilization of the acu-points in bodymind acupressure.

I practiced traditional psychotherapy for many years before my exposure to Body-centered Psychotherapy and Chinese Medicine. What exactly are these approaches and how can they be helpful to our healing processes?
First, these approaches are integrative because they use various approaches (psychology, meditation, psychoanalysis, bodywork, breathwork, body focusing techniques, eastern concepts and theories) in a unifying manner. It is somatic because it focuses on body experiences that are important in shaping the individuals experience. It is psychotherapy because it uses verbal interventions between the body and the psyche. And finally, it also integrates touch therapy and expressive movement.
Much has been learned recently about the body and its relationship to the mind. New studies show the transformational effects of these therapies on a body, mind, and spiritual level to be mind provoking. The acu-points have been said to be “doorways” to blocked experiences, memories, and feelings. In the hands of a trained practitioner, the gentle touch to the points and slow noninvasive movement can be used to uncover submerged feelings and emotions which have been locked away in the bodysystem. Clients may talk with their practitioner, and share memories, images, and feelings that surface during the session. The aim of this work is to move the client out of their head and into their body while gradually releasing the armouring in different parts of their body. In this process, whether through bodywork or psychotherapy, the client becomes increasingly aware of the bodymind connection. Pain and tension begin to be seen as messages from the inner self, while the client gradually recovers emotional responsiveness.
Recently, I had a very powerful experience working with a client who had come to me with issues around an eating disorder. She had lost a tremendous amount of weight, had weakness in her limbs, lost her ability to feel hunger and was emotionally locked into persistent “patterns and strategies” that didn’t serve her.
My responsibility as a practitioner of integrative approaches was to recognize her own personal disharmony and set up a treatment strategy. From a Chinese perspective, her stomach was asleep and the nourishing aspects of the fluids in her body were depleted. I choose acu-points from what we call the “earth” points on the body and held them in a gentle and noninvasive way. During the treatment, she relaxed in a deep enough way to create awareness around the armouring in her solar plexus and experienced an “unwinding” sensation in her abdomen as the session progressed. I encouraged her to allow this feeling and anything else that may come to the surface. Through our sessions we processed her experience and came to know many of her unhealthy parts via the body experience. As time as progressed in our future sessions, she now reports that a new sensation has developed in her abdomen. It is no longer “gripping” but more expansive and open. She claims it has been closed since she was a child. She also has a new profound sense of awareness in the bodymind connection and finds this helpful in communicating with her healthly and unhealthly parts.
In my work, I really came to see how we interfere with our healthly selves by investing a lot of energy into these defenses both physically and mentally via the body as well as the mind. The same inner power that we have to grow and become healthy is used instead by our survival mechanisms and our life “strategies.” Thus, creating bodymind blockages. By becoming mindful of our interference with our growth, it becomes possible to free up this armoured energy and begin a transformation. Using these bodymind approaches, increases the power of our interventions and the opportunity for change.
A typical session would involve the client relaxing while the practitioner guides them through a bodycentered exploration either through psychotherapy or acupoint bodywork. In my clinical experience, clients report feelings of deep relaxation, restoration, and a deeper sense of connection to themselves. This is very benefical in itself because it allows the body chemistry to reset and neurological impulses to reorganize. It also reduces muscle tension, creating an opening for the breath, and the weakening of defenses gives the client a deeper connection to “Self.” Thus creating a calling back of parts that have been lost or disassociated. The effects on a psychological level are also seen in the restoration of balance and harmony to the emotions. This restoration completes a transformative relationship between body, mind, and the vital functions of the body.

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Mari Richko has twenty years experience in asian bodywork and uses shiatsu and bodymind acupressure in conjunction with a holistic approach to psychotherapy. She has a masters degree in psychology, is a licensed psychotherapist and naturopathic doctor. Her training in bodycentered work includes Hakomi Psychotherapy, IFS(Internal Family Systems), and studies of indigenious cultures including eastern philosophy and Toaism. She is active in expanding the dynamic learning process by integrating these different forms of medicine into her work in the community as well as her private practice.