Somatotherapies (Meyer)

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Richard Meyer · 1982 · Strasbourg, France

What it is

"Somatothérapies" is not one therapy. It is Meyer's umbrella term for all body psychotherapies, meaning every attempt to bring the body into psychotherapeutic work. He chose a Greek/Latin-rooted name to give hundreds of methods a shared scientific frame. His own method within that field is…

Format

• Socio-somatanalysis: the group form. Meyer used his groups as a research "laboratory". He notes that body methods are mostly practised in groups.
• Psycho-somatanalysis: individual work, patient with therapist. Meyer holds that deep treatment needs individual work.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Pushing through pain, and comparing with others. It is working when participants can map their own limits without judgement.
• Dizziness, so sit down. It is working when participants report more stability and an easier choice between holding and releasing.
• Reading too much into one change. Check it with the patient. It is working when the patient starts noticing their own breath stops and naming what they were holding back.
• Contagion of affect, pressure to "perform" emotion, and scapegoating. It is working when members recognise their own patterns in others' work and try new transactions with each other.
• Re-traumatisation if the enactment is of trauma. Use stabilisation first and keep the enactment at a reduced "dose". It is working when the block becomes visible and linked to its history.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.