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NYC Psychotherapist Blog

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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Experiential Psychotherapy and the Mind-Body Connection

In recent years, increasingly, many psychotherapists have come to realize that mind-body oriented psychotherapy offers opportunities for healing that regular talk therapy alone often does not offer. 

There are different types of experiential psychotherapy, including clinical hypnosisEMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), Somatic Experiencing, all of which I have used in my psychotherapy private practice in New York City.

Many Experiences of Talk Therapy, But No Change:
Many clients come to see me feeling discouraged. Often, they have made many attempts on their own and attempts in regular talk therapy to make changes in their lives, but these attempts have not resulted in change.

Experiential Psychotherapy and the Mind-Body Connection

Often, clients in regular talk therapy develop intellectual insight into their problems, but there is no emotional insight. They can explain why they have the problems that they have, but no healing has taken place.

Why is this? Usually, it's because regular talk therapy alone often doesn't penetrate beyond our conscious minds. It involves our intellect which, of course, is important for any type of change that we might be contemplating. But for many problems, this isn't enough. The treatment needs to go beyond the surface to a more visceral level.

Why is Experiential Psychotherapy More Effective Than Regular Talk Therapy?
Mind-body oriented psychotherapy will often access deeper levels of consciousness because we can feel the treatment occurring on a visceral level. 

It's not just a matter of talking about the problem on an intellectual level. Mind-body oriented psychotherapy helps clients to change from the inside out. Clients are taught how to recognize where they feel their emotions in their body, and this helps them to access deeper levels of consciousness as well as enabling them to change at a deeper level.

I'm not saying that regular talk therapy doesn't ever work. My early training is as a psychoanalyst and I still practice psychodynamic psychotherapy. However, for many problems, this type of therapy is not enough, which is why so many psychoanalysts and psychodynamic psychotherapists have learned various types of mind-body oriented psychotherapy.

About Me
I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR therapist, and Somatic Experiencing therapist.

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.