But new discoveries in fields such as brain science, psychoneuroimmunology, and exercise physiology have shown how much our mental health is related to our experience of our physical bodies. This Reading Course offers a perspective on how to incorporate more of a mind-body connection into clinical practice. Mary Sykes Wylie traces the growing trend among therapists to help their clients tap into the wisdom and healing resources of their bodily experience. Rob Fisher offers concrete guidelines for bringing awareness of body-centered experience into the consulting room. Christine Caldwell shows how increased body awareness can lead therapists to better self-care. Barbara Goodrich-Dunn examines what the somatic psychotherapies can teach talk therapists. Richard Simon profiles body psychotherapy pioneer Ilana Rubenfeld and explores with her the do's and don'ts of touch in psychotherapy.
Course Readings
Listening Hands: Ilana Rubenfeld Believes that Touch Can Be a Powerful Tool for Talk Therapists by Richard Simon
Beyond Talk: Using Our Bodies to Get to the Heart of the Matter by Mary Sykes Wylie
A Different Presence: Bringing Body-Centered Experience into Your Work by Rob Fisher
Caring for the Caregiver: The Art of Oscillating Attention by Christine Caldwell
Therapy in 3D: Lessons from Body Psychotherapy by Barbara Goodrich-Dunn
Learning Objectives
1. List 4 physical signals that indicate a client's inner state
2. Compare the verbal messages and the body messages a client sends
3. Plan interventions based on a client's body messages




By Rich Simon As therapists, many of us practice in two different worlds. In the first, we see polite, well-behaved, articulate clients with solid values. They engage fully in therapy, talk cogently about their problems, listen attentively to our responses, make reasonably good-faith efforts to follow our suggestions, and sooner or later get better. No wonder we genuinely like these people!
By Rich Simon A thousand years ago, during the palmy days of generous insurance reimbursement, therapists could maintain the illusion that, since therapy was paid for by an unseen hidden hand, clinical practice was somehow untouched by the tacky subject of money. Even the style of therapy reflected this disjunction: 

