Talk:Somatic psychology
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[edit] Merging with body psychotherapy
Body psychotherapy is a subset of Somatic Psychology, which is the broader subject area. Somatics is a better fit for the interdisciplinary subject that includes prenatal and perinatal developmental periods where mind/body and character begin to take shape. I recommend redirect body psychotherapy to this page after merging. My agenda is to get the Pre- and perinatal psychology article up to encyclopedic standard in order to support and be supported by the article on body or somatic psychotherapies, since body begins its journey in the womb. Mico I have changed the merge by adding to and from so that the discussion will all take place on this page, seems a quick revert but it struck me as easier to start here than have a discussion running parallel on two pages-- Ziji (talk) 22:49, 16 May 2007 (UTC)
- I appreciate the added challenge of having to deal with two talk pages simultaneously for the same discussion, however, that is a common practice on Wikipedia, and one reason for that is probably to avoid bias in the discussion. I personally would think that Body Psychotherapy would be the natural resultant article after the merge. I do propose that we do not rush any decision since this topic may not be visited as often as many other topics, leaving perhaps a month at least for infrequent contributors to have a chance to voice their opinions. __meco 07:53, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
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- I agree about the timing. You may well be right about the natural resultant article but this quote from here: 'Somatic Psychology is the study of the artistic and scientific bases of body-centered psychotherapy (dance therapy and body psychotherapy) suggest the balance can go both ways. Either way I will continue to strengthen both articles awaiting a consensus-- Ziji (talk) 10:14, 17 May 2007 (UTC)
- Psychology is a science and psychotherapy is a practice, though unscientific theories have been presented as facts under the banner of psychology. Somatic (or Body) Psychology should be about the theories that body psychotherapy draws from, while Body Psychotherapy should be about body or somatic psychotherapeutic processes and should refer to body psychology for more information and vice versa. The term body or somatic psychology may be confusing, because understanding of the physiology behind psychology is expanding dramatically with neuropsychologists teasing out the meaning of fMRI's and other methods of measurement. The more psychology is understood in physiological terms, the more body psychology may seem quaint as a term. Thus, there should be some commentary to help the reader understand the boundaries of body psychology and how they are changing. It would be helpful to include the distinction that body psychotherapy and body psychology are evolving as practitioners draw from the growing body of science. At the same time, there is increasing accountability placed upon psychotherapists to use methods shown in research to be effective. Thus, the increasing base of research that supports various aspects of body psychotherapy methods should be addressed. It should also be considered that there are methods that stimulate the body through more than words, but may not be thought of as fully belonging to the category of body psychotherapy. Consider EMDR, which uses bilateral stimulation and often elicits reactions from clients that resemble those of other body psychotherpy methods (cathartic responses). Consider so-called energy psychology methods, that use stimulation of acupunture points in the course of procedures that bear some resemblence to reprocessing. It would be helpful to describe the place of body psychtherapy methods in the toolbox of eclectic psychotherapists, as eclecticism (or integrative psychotherapy) is increasingly widespread and well-informed. I hope this is helpful. I have a lot of experience with body psychotherapy, and was initially trained at the Rosenberg Rand Institute for Body Psychotherapy. I'm a licensed therapist. Robert A. Yourell
[edit] "Somatic" versus "body"
Since body psychotherapy already is difficult to understand for most clients it is questionable if more confusion is advisable. It should be taken into account that all the associations are using "body": United States Association for Body Psychotherapy European Association Body Psychotherapy Swiss Association Body Psychotherapy etc. Christian Herold June 17, 2007
[edit] No NPOV
The article is not written neutrally, and rather makes a number of statements which would be considered pseudoscience.
- I have tagged it for the moment, without deleting anything MatthewTStone 01:51, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
I found the article to be ridiculously biased, somatic psychology has been marginalised and with good reason in mainstream psychology. The article should reflect that. Effectivly somatic psychology is not recognised by the psychological community due to it's very abstract nature. It troubles me that somatic psychology is almost being 'promoted' in this way
Somatic psychology's appeal to bioenergetic fields exposes this whole undertaking as another form of pseudoscience. The NIH website describes the use of therapies involving putative biofields as one of the most controversial of CAM practices, the putative biofields being undetectable by any biophysical means, and the therapeutic effects undemonstrated. In addition, the quantum effects that CAM practitioners appeal to do not operate at the level claimed. The use of Wikipeda in the dissemination of disinformation that could have potentially harmful results on a credulous general public should be vigorously discouraged. Pastor Jennifer
Whole sections of this article (Education, in particular) are being used for personal promotional purposes and as such have no place in a supposedly encyclopedic context. —Preceding unsigned comment added by PastorJennifer (talk • contribs) 15:04, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
