Methodology →
Some basic principles involved in the Bodybrains therapy framework are provided here. This is to orient you in terms of what the approach is, and the reasoning behind it.
1 - Start with the body
Our bodies are central to forming our mental, emotional and relational life. So, ideas about how bodies work can provide frameworks for making sense of things.
Concepts like plasticity, the role of sensory systems in modulating experience, and memory are often useful as signposts. We don’t need to talk about these concepts to make use of them (but we can if you want).
2 - Introduce creative action
Creativity is a highly effective multi-tool for exploring what’s going on, taking things apart, and putting them back together, as well as test driving experiences of not-knowing, surprise, and novelty that can pave the way for change. There are lots of ways to develop and apply creativity.
Creativity can include thinking, speaking, relating and behaving. You don’t necessarily need any materials, although you probably do need a body, which is why we start there.
3 - Add more possibilities
Possibilities expand when we notice our ability to influence what happens next - even in very small ways - and we can leverage this to make unexpected routes from A to B. In many cases, this can be a bridge between effective use of creativity and increased capacity.
Adopting and inhabiting an ‘art mindset’ is one way to practice adding more possibilities, and to get a feel for being able to do this.
4 - Move towards increased capacity
Think of ‘capacity’ as available volume, space or bandwidth. Increased capacity means that overloading is less likely to happen. A common outcome of therapy is noticing and cultivating our capacity for ‘doing life’ in ways that are meaningful, rewarding and in keeping with our values.
This step is generally important to clinical processes for keeping things on track towards intended outcomes - usually by defining functional goals and indictors of goal progress.