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When a client mentions it · IV-085

Body-ego technique

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Trudi Schoop · 1963 · California, USA

Full guide

What it is

What can be confirmed. Body-ego technique was a movement-based approach to hospitalised patients with schizophrenia developed by the Swiss dancer and dance-therapy pioneer Trudi Schoop (1904–1999) and colleagues. Schoop worked at Camarillo State Mental Hospital, California, where UCLA…

Format

  • session count, length or frequency;
  • individual or group format;

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?
  • Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
  • 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?

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.