The Embodied Psychotherapist: The Therapist's Body Story

Robert Shaw (Brunner-Routledge) 2003
(www.brunner-routledge.co.uk)
(From cover) The therapists body is a vital part of the therapeutic encounter , yet there is an inherent inadequacy in current psychotherapeutic discourse to describe bodily phenomena. Until recently, for instance, the whole area of touch in psychotherapy has been given very little attention. (This book) uses accounts of therapists own experiences to address this inadequacy in discourse, and provides strategies for incorporating these feelings into therapeutic work with clients.  Drawing on these personal accounts, it also discusses the experiences that can be communicated to the therapist during the encounter. The description and exploration of the ways practitioners use their bodily feelings within the therapeutic encounter will be valuable for all psychotherapists and counsellors.
Robert Shaw first trained as an osteopath, later as a counsellor and psychotherapist.  he now works in private practice as an integrative psychotherapist, supervisor and osteopath in Derbyshire, UK. He is also a freelance lecturer specialising in the body in psychotherapy, and qualitative research methods for psychotherapists, and currently teaches on masters abd doctoral courses in the UK and in Europe.