The President of USABP, Beth Haessig, recently responded to an article in the New York Times magazine, about a body-centered approach to treating trauma.

I was happy to read the article entitled A Revolutionary Approach to Treating PTSD, referring to the Pesso Boyden System, used by trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk, as one of many fabulous body-centered modalities whose aim is to bring people into direct contact with the experience their bodies are having in the very present moment. By helping people Be Here Now, rather than with the thoughts and stories of their minds, we as practitioners in the field of Somatic Psychology, are able to help our clients access a wisdom that goes beyond the conditioned, mind/thinking patterns–and land in the very present moment of body-based sensation, intuition, and awareness. Through body-based techniques and practices along with Pesso Boyden (such as Somatic Experiencing, Bioenergetics, Focusing, Core Energetics, Hakomi) the practitioner is able to guide the client in a process of knowing what is true, what was true (in a traumatic event), and what needs to be healed, at the very moment an event occurred…because the body remembers. The author calls this approach “revolutionary” but we have been around in various forms, for more than fifty years!