Awareness of the Body in Mental Health Care

Abstract

In mental health care, the body takes an undeserved, modest place. It is precisely the body that you can use you to test the beliefs of patients on functionality. Dysfunctional beliefs lead to dysfunctional emotions and corresponding response representations in the body. This is entirely in line with the therapeutic elaboration of Lang’s emotion theory. That is, linking existing stimulus representations to incompatible response and meaning representations. This practical paper introduces readers to body-oriented counter conditioning techniques and how to apply the principles of counter conditioning in various anxiety and mood disorders. A report is done from a short mindfulness group training for cardiology patients with anxiety and mood complaints.