Each patient I see has a body. Has a whole experience divinely distilled into chemical and biological bonds in the 35 trillion cells of their body. Those cells express themselves through an equally divine coordination across the patient’s nervous system. A body guided approach knows this. My role is to be guided by my patients’ whole selves. To listen. To notice. To ask my patients to notice, too.

A body guided approach asks us to get to know the whole of ourselves. Not just our thoughts, our visual and auditory memories, but also our sensations, our pulse, our breathing, and our habitual movement. Working with the whole of a person encourages me to ask more questions, beyond how is your mood? (an important question nonetheless). For example: what is the first sign you are getting angry? When you are sad, where do you feel it? I may ask for a pause during a visit so my patient can notice different parts of their body, and what sensations may dwell there. By asking for this kind of attention, both my patient and myself develop new language intrinsic to our bodies. This language allows us to more precisely discuss our experiences and more creatively assess their impact on us.

A body guided approach creates a framework that helps patients choose the direction of their own transformation. My body has taught me that there is not one path to healing. Perhaps, that there is no such state of being as ‘healed.’ Rather, there is change, and sometimes there is the ability to guide that change. I have found that the more I include my whole self in the moments of life the more possibilities there are for me. To be guided by our bodies means to find the intuition of our gut, the desires of our hearts, and the curiosity of our minds. Our body is the sum of all of this. The entirety of what makes me who I am is what will make me who I become.