Frequent Questions

Body-Centered Counseling (BCC)/Movement Therapy (MT)

• What's the difference between Structural Integration (SI) and Body-Centered Counseling (BCC)/Movement Therapy (MT)?
• What's the difference between BCC/MT and other forms of counseling?
• How can bringing awareness to my body and moving my body help with depression?
• Say more about a "process-oriented appreach—what does it mean?
• How many and how often are the sessions with this process-oriented counseling?
• What do you mean by "embodyment"?
• What do you mean by "the body doesn't lie"?
• Does Movement Therapy mean if I come for an appointment I have to dance or do something weird with my body?
• What is The Naropa Institute?

What's the difference between Structural Integration (SI) and Body-Centered Counseling (BCC)/Movement Therapy (MT)?

Well, they each have different intentions and different means and tools for achieving them.
Energy is a vibratory phenomenon that comprises the whole universe. When energy in the form of emotions or fluids (blood, lympth, etc.) is moving in our bodies, we feel healthy and alive. When energy is blocked and obstructed we feel disturbed, malaise, and/or disease. My job as a practitioner of BCC/MT is to help my client to explore the nature of the energetic blockage and to reconnect with their energetic flow, i.e., their aliveness.

Secondly, SI uses a form of physical manipulation or bodywork that focuses on releasing and balancing the connective tissue. BCC/MT uses verbal dialogue and nonverbal exchanges that identify energy blockages, evoke movement from within the blockage, stimulate self-regulation, and shifts core beliefs.

What's the difference between BCC/MT and other forms of counseling?

Most forms of counseling are talk therapy based on theories and take place sitting in chairs. First of all, BCC/MT is process-oriented, i.e., we follow the client's process in both their body and mind. Secondly, with BCC/MT we may begin sitting and do use verbal dialogue, and we also intentionally cultivate and utilize non-verbal exchanges, which often entails moving, using props, and utilising the whole room. We believe that the body and mind reflect one another—ultimately are one. As Candace Pert says in Molecules of Emotion (1997): "My research has shown me that the body can and must be healed through the mind and the mind can and must be healed through the body." Furthermore she says the way to do this is through "the so called alternative therapies that focus on somatic-emotional release or body psychotherapy."

How can bringing awareness to my body and moving my body help with depression?

Depression, as the name implies, means that energy—usually anger—has been depressed and turned inward, rather than expressed. You may know when that happened as well as how many times, etc. but that cognitive understanding is not enough to heal. The next step is to find the blockages held in the body and release them through movement...then turn attention to the core beliefs that allowed the depression to occur. Finally, you learn to self-regulate, which refers to the ability of an organism to adjust its emotional and physiological equilibrium through feedback. That is, you acquire new strategies and ways of being in your body and relating to other bodies that allow you to deal with anger in the moment. That's how moving can help with depression.

Say more about a "process-oriented approach" — what does it mean?

Traditional Western therapy offers the client an agenda and/or interpretation based on a structured system of analysis, diagnosis and interpretation that follows a fairly prescriptive model. Process-oriented therapy follows what is going on within the client in the moment. Process-oriented therapists, in alignment with the client's intention and requirements, are trained to track the client's physical, mental, energetic, even spiritual and transpersonal cues to allow the process to unfold naturally. As Jungian and process-oriented therapist Arnold Mindell writes: "A process-oriented therapist studies and follows nature, while a therapist programmes what he thinks should be happening (1985)."

How many and how often are the sessions with this process-oriented counseling?

That depends on the client and what their intentions and goals are. For a client with a well defined short term goal, three or four sessions may suffice—for someone else wanting to deal with deeper issues, sessions over a year or so might be what is needed. Usually we begin with a session every week or every other week and if the sessions continue over a year or so, we often have longer intervals between sessions as feels appropriate to the client.

What do you mean by "embodyment."

Most people tend to spend most of their time in their minds, especially dwelling in the past or worrying about the future. As many spiritual masters have pointed out, this is the root of suffering and unhappiness because people are unable to be in "nowness". To be in the present, to be "in the moment", is to be in our bodies and still be connected to our minds. To be joyful is to connect with one's fundamental aliveness—on all planes and in all dimensions. To me embodyment is about bringing mental, emotional, spiritual, and even transpersonal bodies or consciousness fully into our physical bodies so that we vibrate with aliveness.

What do you mean by "the body doesn't lie"?

Well, a couple of things really. First, when we tell or hear a lie, our body literally contracts. And since some of us grew up in "dysfunctional families" where secrets and suppression were common—"No, you don't feel that." "Never tell anyone this..."—we developed contractions or energy blocks which definitely restricts our aliveness. These contractions eventually create a structure or body language that tells the truth. Second, sometimes my clients say "Oh, you must be psychic," but I'm just reading their bodies and body language. That's the other way that I mean the body doesn't lie. No matter what great persona or character structure we've created to get along in the world, our bodies tell the truth of what really happened!

Does Movement Therapy mean if I come for an appointment I have to dance or do something weird with my body?

No, again, how the sessions look, and how they progress, is determined by the client's feeling of what is safe and appropriate for them. I like to work with people's edges—that place they want to go but just can't quite- which for some people might be to move freely and for someone else to feel comfortable in relationship. As well, some sessions a client wants to go over an edge, other sessions they may just want to nudge up against an edge.

What is The Naropa Institute?

The Naropa Institute of the 70's and early 80's was an exciting, cutting edge school that operated primarily in the summer and drew artists, musicians, body/mind therapists, ecologists, and spiritual leaders as teachers. Slowly it developed full programs and became an accredited college where I received my MA in Body Psychology in the 90's. Naropa was started by Trogyam Trungpa to resemble a Tibetan University called Nalanda, which existed a long time ago and represented a great flowering of learning on many levels. For me it was imperative that I be able to learn in all my bodies and Naropa not only allows that—it requires it!

Ann Answers Questions about Rolf Method of Structural Integration

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