Basic Body Awareness Therapy

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Jacques Dropsy, Gertrud Roxendal · 1960 · Paris, France

What it is

BBAT is a physiotherapy method, not a psychotherapy in the strict sense. It grew out of the movement-awareness system of Jacques Dropsy (1938–2018), a Paris-based movement educator and psychotherapist who developed it in the 1960s. From the mid-1970s Dropsy taught in Sweden and Norway. Gertrud…

Format

• BBAT has no fixed sequence of numbered phases in the sources used. Its structure is a course of repeated movement-awareness sessions, framed by assessment and a treatment contract. Within each movement, the Movement Awareness Learning Cycle runs as a small process of its own.
• Course structure (the phase labels are synthesis; the contents are from the sources):

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• B. Movement awareness training. Individual or group sessions. Each session works through movements in the basic positions, each followed by reflection. Goal: better contact with the ground, the vertical midline, the movement centre and the breath, with less effort and more presence.
• For psychotherapists. In Scandinavia BBAT is taught to and delivered by physiotherapists, with IATBBAT-linked teacher training and university curricula. Whether non-physiotherapists can enter formal BBAT training, and under what title they may practise, was not confirmed. A psychotherapist can use the principles and the reflective dialogue described below. Claiming to deliver "BBAT" should wait until you have done…

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?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• 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

• Practice that becomes another performance demand. Shrink it rather than drop it.
• Collapsing or rigid upright holding. Success shows as an easy uprightness and a breath that moves freely.
• The patient copying your form rather than finding their own. Move to verbal invitations and stop demonstrating.
• Rumination, dissociation or rising anxiety in stillness. Keep the eyes open, shorten the period or return to movement.
• Shame, strain or pushing for volume. Keep it optional, and offer the option of humming alone or along with the therapist.

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.