9 Somatic Shifts to Stay Present with Your Clients with Bioenergetics Expert Vincentia Schroeter

You can better understand your psychotherapy client’s story and personality with  bioenergetics therapy training. One of our newest online therapist courses Engaging the Body in Psychotherapy: Contemporary Bioenergetic Analysis with Laurie Ure, Robert Coffman, and Vincentia Schroeter, gives you unique insight into how to observe and better understand a client’s body, its energetic processes, and how the unconscious works on the somatic level.

But what about your own somatic experience as a therapist? How can you better notice, understand, and utilize your own body’s wisdom when working with others?

Vincentia Schroeter, PhD, MFT, CBA, one of our online therapy training presenters, shares some great tips and practices below to help you engage your own body from the perspective of bioenergetics in psychotherapy. 

9 Ways Therapists Can Use Their Own Body Sensations In Sessions (PART 1)

Vincentia Schroeter, PhD, MFT, CBA

“When I am with a client, I feel things in my body all the time, but I don’t know what to do with that.” These words were shared with me by a trauma therapist. 

How can you use what you notice in your body, while in a session? 

There are two ways to use your physical sensations as a therapist:

1. You can use your body awareness to shift your own state.
2. You can share your state with the client if you think it has therapeutic value. 

In this article I will talk about how to use body awareness to shift your own state, while in a session.

What should a therapist do when feeling reactive? 

Here is what I hear from therapists in my supervision work:

• I feel frustrated when a client won’t do the homework.
• I feel bored when the client tells the same stories over and over.
• I feel lost when I don’t know where the client is going.
• I feel scared when the client is combative and critical of me.
• I get spaced out when a client’s trauma is severe.

When you have these feelings, your body wants to protect you, so it will automatically go into fight/flight mode. The danger here is that you can get so dysregulated that you lose empathy for your client. The more defensive you feel, the further your thinking goes off-line. If you go all the way into a freeze state, you can disappear right when the client needs you to be the most present. What can you do?

“How do I regulate and get back in my body during a session?”

1. Press your feet into the floor. 
2. Press your back against the chair. 
3. Look down and take two slow breaths. 
4. Notice any tension in your body and focus on that spot; place your hand and/or send your breath there.
5. Slowly breathe 2 – 3 more times. 
6. Trust that your defensive system is doing its job, and thank it, as you re-center in your body. 
7. Continue to press your feet down and your back into the chair until you feel more present. 
8. Stay attentive as you may get some insight about you or your client. 
9. Blink a few times, and check if you feel more tolerant and open-hearted. 

Getting back in your body can unlock key psychotherapy insights.

Sending energy into a tight area can loosen it. When there is more energy, or charge in a tight area, you can often create a shift in attitude. Once that happens, an insight may pop up that helps you move more effectively through the session. 

Stayed tuned for part two of this essay where you’ll learn more about using your body reactions to intervene with your clients.

To learn more about working more somatically as a therapist, dive deep into the psychoanalytically-based, trauma-informed, and relational model of contemporary Bioenergetic Analysis, visit our course page: