Formative (or Somatic) Psychology in Psychotherapy, Brighton & Hove

Formative (or somatic) psychotherapy is a process of forming the emerging Self, through becoming aware of and engaging the body. Formative psychology (as developed by Stanley Keleman) describes how we ‘form’ ourselves in response to events, by shaping our bodies. These shapes, when repeated often, develop into patterns of muscular and emotional holding or releasing, which can both help and hinder us in becoming the adults we are meant to be. For example:

If I regularly experience violence as a child, I may learn to rigidify my muscles to protect myself. This becomes how I ‘shape’ myself every day. As an adult, I may then find it hard to undo the rigidity enough to be physically intimate with a romantic partner.

Formative Psychotherapy helps a person explore how the patterns they make with their body create the experience they are having in the present moment. By using a simple ‘bodying process’, (by doing the shape more and then less), it is possible to learn how to create different experiences, by altering how we hold ourselves physically.

Formative psychotherapy is a deeply empowering form of body psychotherapy. It can be especially effective in working with panic attacks, anxiety, headaches, intimacy, sexual issues, anger management, physical discomfort, attitude, emotional expression, stress, trauma, and many other areas of difficulty.

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