Blog

Treating the Mind-Body Connection

In graduate school, I had the privilege of sitting across a holistic healing psychotherapist. Her philosophy was rooted in a body-centric and meditative modality, with guidance from ancient healing systems and contemporary neuroscience. I remember speaking to her about a difficult experience of mine—she urged me to rock back and forth. She wanted me to move in such a way that there would be a release for my body of the trauma within.

So, I swayed. I swayed for the next hour. I remember walking out of that session and feeling like I had “moved my mindset”. Psychologically and physically, I felt a shift. Then I read Dr. Van der Kolk’s book, The Body Keeps the Score, and that is when things clicked for me both personally and as a therapist, who sought to tease apart wellness and get to the heart of holistic health. He conceptualizes holistic health as “the body being the vehicle to the mind.” 

From his perspective, the mind and the body are not meant to be considered separate entities. And from a scientific standpoint, there are biochemicals of emotion that will communicate information within us at an unconscious level. This unconscious data is then sent up to the brain so that it can deconstruct this data and turn it into conscious material. 

Now let me clarify, I do not look at the mind and the brain as the same thing. They are not interchangeable. The brain is a structure. The mind, on the other hand, is a term that encapsulates the relationship, and understanding, between the brain and the body. To get super philosophical, I think of the mind as what facilitates the once unconscious becoming conscious. Therefore, when Dr. Van Der Kolk says “the body is the vehicle to the mind,” I see it as an equation: body + brain = mind. 

Okay, my philosophy lecture is over. But the point remains. We can’t rely on our brains to make sense of our emotions when our body is so deeply part of the equation—the thing that helps us achieve understanding. Our bodies are mapped with meaning and memories. Some have been stored for years—repressed, suppressed, denied, or forgotten. I once heard it described as a ‘biochemical energetic blockage.’ As a result, to include the body in therapeutic work is essential to release the blockages in a safe and comfortable environment and promote emotional healing.

A previous mentor of mine used to say: “Natalie, we must remember to regulate before we reason.” I have made that my mantra in the office and outside of it. We cannot expect our brain to reason and rationalize through our worst thoughts if we are ignoring the body of data (pun intended) that we are sitting on. To further explain, if we do not regulate body first, it will continue to send us mixed signals rooted in fear, anxiety, frustration, or confusion. These mixed signals may be expressed through muscle tightness, tension, headache, dry mouth, trembling, vision impairment etc. If not attended to, these signals will impair the ability to thoughtfully manage irrational thoughts. Essentially, the mind and body will continue to be at war with each other if we do not attend to the body in conjunction with the mind.

How many times have you ignored what your body was trying to tell you about your emotional and mental state? Physical release increases the possibility of attaining sustainable emotional healing because the triggers wouldn’t continue to exist in your body. 

So, my dear readers, I urge you to use your brain and your body as you navigate the stressors of your life. This is accomplished by including your body in the dialogue between thoughts and feelings. If you tend to your body, you will undo those energetic blockages, physical triggers, (e.g. tension, shaking, pain, soreness, tightness) that continue to keep your mind at war with your own self. You want relief. Your mind wants relief. You are working your brain hard to find rational thought, but if you don’t include your body in that equation, it will be the odd one out that continues to keep negative, cyclical, thought patterns alive via physical triggers. 

Whether it be through yoga, painting, pottery, walking, or the ease of a sway—we all have our unique and favorite ways of cultivating physical forms of release—this is the key factor for achieving wellness. The body can not and should not be ignored. You are a whole person, treat yourself as such, and you will discover the healing capabilities you have right at your fingertips.

At Elle, we believe strongly in the mind-body connection and offer our clients the ability to supplement Mental Health Therapy right alongside Mindbody Therapy. Learn more about this program that teaches coping mechanisms for the body, tailored to specific mental health needs.