Body Psychotherapy

MA in Somatic Counseling Psychology

Our bodies are the center of our experience. They are the tool of our perceptions, the vessel of our feelings and the vehicle for our actions. Body psychotherapy assumes that a functional unity exists between the body and the mind and that therapeutic change occurs through direct experience of the present moment.

In the Body Psychotherapy degree concentration, the body, movement and sensorimotor tracking are brought intimately together in the process of psychotherapy, where they are studied and practiced in order to stimulate body-based awareness, repattern ill fitting constructs and organize more fulfilling behaviors to heal the body, mind and spirit as an energetic whole.

Students learn to use their own bodies as a vehicle for seeing and knowing themselves and others.

In general, the first year of the Somatic Counseling Psychology program focuses on the development of body psychotherapy theory and skills, while the second year and beyond focus on refinement, application and meeting the larger world with this theory and practice. All classes are oriented toward developing the student’s competence as a skilled body psychotherapy clinician.

As students of the Body Psychotherapy degree concentration, you are highly encouraged to become affiliated with the United States Association for Body Psychotherapy (USABP). More information is available at: www.usabp.org.

Upon completion of the three-year degree program, graduates will receive an MA in Somatic Counseling Psychology with a concentration in Body Psychotherapy.