Integrative Body Psychotherapy (IBP) is a therapeutic model that attends to the essential and intrinsic wholeness of the human experience; body, mind and soul (spirit) to awaken and strengthen well-being and aliveness.
Clients in IBP therapy learn to access a state of well being, and become accustomed to increasingly living life from this state of increased awareness, energy, and groundedness. As clients become accustomed to being in connection with their own energized and grounded state of well-being, there is an increased awareness of when they are disconnected (or fragmented) from this state of true self. IBP teaches many tools for recognizing, understanding, and shifting out of these states and returning back to a state of wellness. The more accustomed we become to our states of wellness or “core self”, the more obvious and uncomfortable our past habitual states of anxiety, depression, confusion, and exhaustion become. With IBP, we have a path and a set of tools - to live from and return to a place of connection to self, wellness, and energy.
Some IBP therapists and clients connect with IBP following significant experience with talk-based therapies, but report that while they have gained a great deal of understanding through talk therapy, they continue to experience the emotions and physical issues connected to their original concern. IBP is an experiential therapy that allows us to make sense of our original concerns and also to anchor our new awareness and insight into shifts in our bodies, our muscular holding patterns, and our sense of energy. Following IBP therapy, many people report greater understanding of their original issues and concerns, but also a sense of feeling different in their bodies, often reporting old tensions and holding patterns have released, and reporting a greater sense of well-being, awareness of their bodies, and aliveness.
In IBP therapy as in most therapies, the client-therapist relationship is a key and central part of the process. In a safe and supportive relationship, clients can expect increased awareness of their body experiences and emotions, and the connection between them. IBP therapy comprises a combination of talk therapy, exploration of a client's underlying emotions, attachment themes and past experiences, and how these show up both in the body and in their relationships. There is significant attention paid to body sensations, breath, and movements. This therapy teaches somatic self-release techniques that allow the body to contact and release past trauma and old beliefs. There is also a significant focus on the breath, and teaching breath techniques to self-regulate, calm, become more present, and raise energy.
INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS
Sessions are typically 60 to 90 minutes long, are physically non-invasive, and take place sitting or lying down. These techniques combine with an understanding of development and attachment experiences and how they show up in the muscular holding patterns of the body, and an emphasis on mindfulness and Eastern Philosophy.
IBP Therapy offers exceptional tools for maintaining mental health including journaling tools, physical self-release exercises, presence exercises, and mindfulness exercises to return to and live from a place of health and authenticity. These tools allow clients to tune in to the present moment and to the truth and wellness within their own body.