Chapter 1
The Psychological Life of the Body
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Key Terms
• embodied cognition
a comprehensive approach to and framework for the
study of the mind, elevating the importance of the body
in explaining cognitive activities and emphasizing that
the body is crucial to mental life; treats cognition as a
tool evolved by organisms for coping with their
environments
• bodymind
term describing the unity of body and mind
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Key Terms
• intervention
any action, verbal or nonverbal, on the part of the therapist that changes the course
of a session
• bonding
the development of a close, interpersonal relationship
• attachment
a relationship with an emotional connection
• attachment theory
the psychological theory used to describe the emotional connection between
individuals
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Key Terms
• paradox of healing
although the client consciously desires change, he may also
unconsciously dread it and thus resist the process
• tension patterns
neuromuscular contraction that has settled into a habitual pattern
that inhibits the client’s emotional expression and full range of motion
• recontraction
when the client unconsciously believes that the pattern protects her
from intolerable emotions; thus, she will (also unconsciously) attempt
to reestablish it session after session
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Key Terms
• armoring
any chronic pattern of involuntary tension in the body that dampens or blocks
emotional expression, alters perception of the outer world or inner psychological
world, diminishes or eliminates kinesthetic awareness, and restricts range of motion
• emotional release
a phenomenon in which a client, during a massage therapy session, begins to
spontaneously express emotions, such as sadness, anger, or fear
• therapeutic alliance
an alliance between the therapist and the client to support the client’s physical and
psychological health and progress. In forming a therapeutic alliance, the client
agrees and commits himself in some form to contribute his active involvement in
the therapeutic process, acknowledging that the therapist cannot undo his tension
patterns without his participation
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Connected Mind and Body
• Seeing the mind and body as separate entities has been
the predominant viewpoint of psychology from the time
of its emergence as a separate field of study until
recently
• At the same time, others outside the field of psychology
have believed in the unified nature of the mind and body
• Science is increasingly supporting this view
• Recent research has been producing evidence that the
mind and body are indivisible
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Studies Supporting the Connection
• Kurt Goldstein studied psychological and physical trauma
to determine that the nervous system works as a whole
• Candace Pert’s studies revealed the biochemical system
of emotional communication in the entire body
• Antonio Damasio’s studies showed that consciousness is
located within the entire body
• Discovery of “mirror neurons” and our ability to read and
feel others’ emotions
• Physical evidence of the connection between the mind
and body is shown through the C tactile fibers’ signals to
the part of the brain that processes emotion
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Embodied Cognition
• The mind and body work together during interactions
with others to decode intentions and emotions
– Neural circuitry engages in unconscious tasks like
mirroring
– Seeing a smile or reading the verb “to laugh”
activates the facial muscles that make a smile
• Jostman: “How we process information is related not just
to our brains but to our entire body. We use every
system available to us and come to a conclusion and
make sense of what’s going on.”
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Psychology and Massage Therapy
• The psychological life of the body affects the therapistclient relationship
• The client’s need to be touched is related to his or her
psychological needs
• Listening to the emotional needs of your client will
improve your practice
• Massage is an intervention in the flow of the bodymind; it
is more than physical
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Development of Touch
• Touch is the earliest sensory function to develop
• It is the most developed sensory modality among
newborns
• When a human embryo is under an inch long and less
than 2 months old, the skin is already highly developed
• The skin and its embedded receptors make up the largest
of the sense organs
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Role of Touch in Survival
• Infant mammals must be touched to initiate various physiological
functions
• The development of child care in America demonstrates the
importance of touch
–
Dr. Luther Emmett Holt’s view that infants should be handled
minimally contributed to a 100 percent mortality rate among
children under 2 in orphanages
–
Dr. Fritz Talbot witnessed the power of touch in a German
orphanage and led the charge to recognize the importance of
touch in the United States
–
By the late 1920s, the mortality rate had dropped significantly
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Role of Touch in Growth and
Development
• Numerous studies show the benefits of extended skin-to-skin contact
• Before the age of 2, touch is the primary means by which a parent
and child communicate
• Very young children are able to recognize the connections between
emotions and events and emotions and actions
• Attachment theory (the study of emotional connections between
individuals)
–
“Primary object clinging”: a need for intimate contact
–
Harry Harlow’s analysis of love response in primates
• Showed that nurturing touch is more important than feeding
and interactive nurturing touch is essential to healthy
development
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Benefits of Massage
• Studies show that nurturing touch can help repair
damage done by touch deprivation
– Infants receiving mechanosensory stimulation
averaged 47 percent greater weight gain per day
than those who didn’t
– Other studies show that touch facilitates growth and
development
• Touch can relieve pain
– Infants who were touched or held during a heel lance
procedure cried 82 percent less and had lower heart
rates than those who were not touched
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Role of Touch in Social Interaction
• Physical contact conveys intimacy
• Touch can influence behavior and response
– Various studies show that touch increases helpful
response, leads to greater persistence, increases sales
rates, affects a person’s impression of another person,
encourages compliance and attention, promotes
generosity, and so on
• In a health setting, touch leads to clients speaking longer with
therapists and disclosing more
• Emotions are communicated through touch
– People can recognize compassion and other emotions in
touch even when they can’t see the person touching them
• Touch has a calming effect, as evidenced by several studies
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Role of Touch in Emotional Healing
• Touch can change a person’s emotional response and
promote healing
• Feelings take place in the body as well as in the mind
– The body is the vehicle for expression
• Touch can disrupt patterns of muscular tension that
inhibit emotions
– This changes the person’s emotional responses
• The massage client has to be ready to have his or her
emotional response changed
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Paradox of Healing
• Massage is a requested intervention, but the client may still resist
• The client may consciously desire change, but he may
unconsciously dread it and resist the process
• The client may fear that the core of the self may be wounded if it
is exposed to the world
• A client who feels threatened may start canceling or forgetting
appointments or otherwise similarly “acting out”
–
In most cases, this is not intentional, and the client may not
even be aware of the lack of cooperation
• Encountering the paradox of healing does not mean the therapist
is doing something wrong
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Tension as Defense
• Tension, when employed in the service of psychological
defense, is used to protect oneself from emotional pain
• A tension pattern is a neuromuscular contraction that has
settled into a habitual pattern that inhibits emotional
expression and a full range of motion
• These emotional blocks fade into the background of a
person’s awareness and are only brought into the
foreground when there is a triggering event
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Try This Exercise to Explore Tension
Patterns
• Hold your breath
• Notice the tension required to keep holding your breath
• Notice the number of muscles needed
• Now try breathing while maintaining this tension pattern
• This is what happens in chronic tension patterns—the
person learns to block emotions or pain and adapts to
function with the block, e.g., in this exercise you quickly
figured out how to breathe even though you were
maintaining a tension pattern
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Recontraction and Armoring
• Recontraction occurs when the tension patterns reform after
being worked on and presumably cleared
• Armoring is indicated by recontraction
– A chronic pattern of involuntary tension that blocks
emotional expression, alters perception, diminishes
kinesthetic awareness, and restricts range of motion
– It attempts to undo the effects of massage and
reconfigures tension patterns
– Armoring is a defense against feeling pleasure
• Massage requires surrender
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Emotional Release
• Occurs when the client begins to spontaneously express
emotions such as sadness, anger, or fear
• Release can be dramatic or subtle
• Occurs when the pattern of tension has been disrupted
– Emotions held by the tension pattern are released, and the
outburst results
• In many cases, the inhibition of emotion began in the client’s
past
• Release enables the appropriate expression of previously
suppressed emotions
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
The Therapeutic Alliance
• Encountering emotionally based tension patterns can be
surprising and frustrating
– Simple application of techniques is not enough to
permanently disrupt them
• Client must be actively involved in the process – the massage
therapist cannot undo the client’s tension patterns without his
or her participation
– Contributes his or her awareness and commitment to
forming the therapeutic alliance
• Active participation takes work and learning
– When the client finds that the emotions being blocked are
tolerable, very often the unconscious mind can more easily
let go of the tension pattern
Copyright © 2013 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins