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Body Psychology

Body Psychology

Picture

Body, Mind, spirit Integration

Body-Centered Therapy

A wholistic approach to resolving unrest in our body/mind/spirit

Learn to heal yourself by bringing your life into focus


You are Sunshine.
Nothing is worth thinking about to cover it up.
Cover it up and you will toil within.
The only reason you are on Earth is to enjoy the Beloved within.


Statement

"The purpose of Body Psychology and my work is to promote true understanding of ourselves, others, and life in kindness and to end unnecessary pain and suffering. I am committed to who you first are. I bring focus, detail, openness, and warmth to my work."
"One only has to read the most basic of the literature on the function of the brain, the nervous system and the physiology of stress, to understand that the mind and the body are undeniably linked."
- Babbett Rothschild

What is Body Psychology?

Don works with the body-mind connection with a modality he named, Body Psychology. The aim of Body Psychology is to work with your body and mind simultaneously.

Most fundamentally the purpose of Body Psychology is to help you discover and release what is being held in your body/mind/spirit. It combines both bodywork and body-centered psychology techniques to help you accomplish this. During a Body Psychology session the touch will vary from very light to deep depending on your interests and needs. With Don's help and guidance you will be invited to first become aware of the sensations, feelings, and beliefs that are being held in your body, explore them as needed, and then in a gentle, natural and organic way let them go.

On a deeper level, the focus of Body Psychology is to assist, guide, and partner with you to discover, explore, and witness the depths and breadths of your inner-world, with gentleness and respect. This inner world, its anatomy, consist of such things as our inherent nature, stillness, flow, beauty, love, ancient realities, new realities. There is not limit to what can be discovered.

However, most of us keep ourselves protected from this inner reality. In Body Psychology we aim to find out what patterns and ancestral patterns are unconsciously being used to block yourself from this inner stillness and flow.

It begins with getting reacquainted and strengthening your connection with source, our innate innermost true nature, within you. This is your anchor.  From here, while anchored in your true nature, discovering, exploring and then integrating the issues, our misunderstandings, that are being held in the tissues of body / mind / spirit. And then as an amazing and wonderful unforeseen but reliable occurrence, healing happens naturally and organically.
There is a specific way that the body holds onto the past, its background and experience. This experience is held or "locked-up" in the cells as cellular memory. When treated with kindness and respect the body will reveal its past: its hopes, dreams, fears and ultimately its connection with the universe. Learn to understand the language your body and of the wounded parts of your body in order to unlock the old cellular memory leaving room for the new.

Body Psychology is an integral way to heal, that works. It resolves your symptoms by taking care of your core, (the root), in a respectful, gradual, and gentle way. It is a highly educational and experiential process by which you learn and experience step-by-step healing and how healing occurs. It gives you the fortunate and wonderful opportunity to take back the responsibility for healing and life.


Body Psychology is a conglomeration of numerous healing modalities. Some of the primary influences include Neo-Reichian Breathwork (www.goodtherapy.org/reichian-breathwork.html), Trauma Energetics(www.traumaenergetics.com) , Somatic Experiencing, (www.traumahealing.com), Reference Point Therapy (www.referencepointtherapy.com), and Family Constellation therapy (www.ConstellationCurrents.ca).  Most of these modalities comes out of the body-centered psychotherapy field where the body is the focus of the work. The body is used as the access to and source of information and platform for change, instead of our thoughts, beliefs, or life story. The body stores a vast amount of information and it always tells the truth, unlike the common use of the mind. The body is the way to enter the energetic holding pattern of tension and this is how and where the healing takes place.

The other significant influences to Body Psychology comes from some of the wholistic educators including Carl Rogers (www.nrogers.com/carlrogersbio.html), and Byron Katie(www.thework.com).


Everything is an act of love or a call for love
-  A Course in Miracles


The 4 F's - Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn Response

Learn about the 4Fs (Fight, Flight, Freeze, Fawn) Response. Commonly found with people suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is discussed here by Peter Walker, M.A. in his paper: A Trauma Typology in Complex PTSD. Click here to read
Or this link: http://www.pete-walker.com/fourFs_TraumaTypologyComplexPTSD.htm

You can also learn more about the Fight , Flight, Freeze response in Peter Levine's Book Waking the Tiger - In his work Somatic Experiencing - http://www.traumahealing.com.
​Peter Levine explains int this you tube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByalBx85iC8
When inward tenderness
finds the secret hurt,
pain itself will crack the rock and Ah!
let the soul emerge.

 - Rumi

Ring of a Tree and the depths of the Iceberg
Under Construction

Related You-Tube's / Ted's / Web Sites

On Body Awareness of Oneness
Jill Bolte Taylor - My Stroke of Insight – Ted Talk -
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

On Happiness / Depression
"Happy angle" - A One minute Short -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFaKrdjCjiI&feature=player_embedded
(In the deepest darkest pit within us lays an angel - a reason to have trust have faith and courage).

On Death and Dying
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross - On Death and Dying -
http://www.psicoterapia-palermo.it/PDFS/On%20Death%20and%20Dying_Kubler%20Ross%20Elizabeth.pdf
On Life and Death
Byron Katie - to read this short note click here


On loss of the feminine
A definition of PTSD or to De-sacralize

On Pain
Lormimer Moslie -Why Things Hurt - Why is your body giving you a pain response? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwd-wLdIHjs
Neil Pearson - Brain Plastisity - http://www.lifeisnow.ca - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66LP2XdyDxA
Silje Endersen Rme - Back Pain study: Major contributor life circumstances / stress - https://youtu.be/tiwmVTScusg
John E. Sarno, M.D. - 30 years of clinical experience of how we hold our stress in our back – (The Mind-Body Connection)
                                 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B2IE0o7diU
                                 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjG-8GE2Wf4
                                 -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRXCRxNMN_Q
                                 - ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYIOOURMuS0

On Mindfulness and Pain Management - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLQJJDrbj6Q&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkTC6jrtbfY

On Trauma
Two Simple Techniques That Can Help Trauma Patients Feel Safe with Peter Levine
https://youtu.be/G7zAseaIyFA

Nature's Lessons in Healing Trauma: An Introduction to Somatic Experiencing
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgxmZVFzWtcvxbpzkgJjDlvXXKMQf?projector=1

Understanding how trauma gets lodged in the body
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByalBx85iC8
​https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=290985218159015

On Trauma Release - (TRE - Trauma Releasing Exercises) - https://traumaprevention.com/
Explaination - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67R974D8swM
How to - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQBUpMZajv8&t=1838s
Example - the military - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WReAjA7Nx4M&t=255s

On Vulnerability - Brene Brown
1.      
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/ger/brene_brown_on_vulnerability.html
2.       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UoMXF73j0c

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
 - Rumi

Related Books

​Tara Barch – Radical Acceptance - https://www.tarabrach.com
David Berceli PHD – Revolutionary Trauma Release Process - (Transcend your toughest times)
Michael Brown - The Presence Process
Donald Epstein - The 12 stages of Healing – (a Network Approach to Wholeness)
David Hawkins - Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender
Donna Jackson Nakazawa - The Last Best Cure (Healing chronic illness through mindfulness and meditation)
Jon Kabat-Zinn - Full Catastrophe Living - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkTC6jrtbfY
Peter A. Levine PhD. - Waking the Tiger
                                       - In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness
Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett - A House in the Sky(A women held hostage & her story of forgiveness & spiritual triumph)
​Gabor Mate - In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction
                       - When the body says no
Laurel Mellin - Wired For Joy - a Revolutionary Method of Creating Happiness from Within
Alice Miller - The Drama of the Gifted Child
                       - For your own Good
Mark Nepo - The Book of Awakening
Frank Ostaseski  - The Five Invitations - Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully - Budhist perspective
Eckhart Tolle - The Power of Now
William Redpath - Trauma Energetics - a study of held energy systems
John E. Sarno, M.D. - Healing Back Pain – (The Mind-Body Connection)
                                 - The Mindbody Prescription Healing the body - (Healing the Pain)

                                 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B2IE0o7diU
                                 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjG-8GE2Wf4
                                 -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRXCRxNMN_Q
                                 - ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYIOOURMuS0
Susanne Scurlock-Durana - Full Body Presence - (view and work with body-mind)
Pete Walker - Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving: (A Guide and map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma)
http://www.pete-walker.com

Why Choose Body Psychology?

Resolve Unnecessary Tension
You can find relief from unnecessary tension, stress, anxiety, suffering and chronic pain being held in the body/mind/spirit.  

Heal Physical and Emotional Trauma
Find relief from physical or emotional trauma and abuse being stored in the body/mind/spirit.  This could include depression, anxiety, phobias, and birth trauma.

Chronic Pain Relief
This could include: Chronic aches and pains in the joints such as head, neck, shoulders, elbows, spine, hips, knees, ankles and feet this can also include headaches, migraines and toothaches.  

Rehabilitation

Recover from an injury, accident, or surgery.  Examples of this include sport injuries, falls, and accidents including automobile.

The Body-Mind Connection

  • Deepen your body-mind connection, strengthen your self-awareness, self-confidence, and discover and trust in the vast terrain of your internal anatomy that is your body.
  • This is an educational process. You will learn how discontent gets lodged into the body, how it continues to reside there, and how to gently release it.
  • This is a deepening process. You will have the opportunity to experience, recognize and see greater meaning in your life and to life itself.
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The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart

Quotes

"So the pain-body doesn’t want you to observe it directly and see it for what it is. The moment you observe it, feel its energy field within you, and take your attention into it, the identification is broken. A higher dimension of consciousness has come in. I call it presence. You are now the witness or the watcher of the pain-body. This means that it cannot use you anymore by pretending to be you, and it can no longer replenish itself through you. You have found your own innermost strength. You have accessed the power of now.”
- Eckhart Tolle

“That which haunts us will always find a way out. The wound will not heal unless given witness. The shadow that follows us is the way in.”
- Rumi

“This being human is a guesthouse, every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of it’s furniture, still, treat each guest honorable. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
- Rumi

" There is no coming conscious without pain. People will do everything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.  One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
- C.G. Jung


"The Obstacle is the path"
- C.G. Jung

"When it is dark enough you can see the stars"
- From a coffee table in Kelowna BC

​
Walt Whitman….From Passage to India - Click Here for Poem

Testimonials

"On a family member’s recommendation, I started seeing Don Bruce to help with my problem with night terrors. I had suffered from them my entire life, but at that time they were getting particularly intense. Through Body Psychology, Don was able to help me all but eliminate the problem. The healing of mind through body work, something physically therapeutic, all on its own, was truly incredible. While I was forced to end the therapy earlier than I would have liked, due to my having to move for work, the foundation that was laid has continued to help me in all aspects of my life. I heartily recommend Don’s wholistic approach to anyone seeking to address whatever difficulties they might face, mental or physical."
-  Dylan


" I began sessions with Don when I felt other modalities were not reaching the chronic aches, pain and tightness in my body. Through the Rolfing and Don's sensitive, compassionate and personal approach, I was able to release that tension. And just as important, I began to make connections and develop an awareness of how my body has reacted to such things as emotional pain, fear and grief. I gained insights into the effect that some of my past and present experiences and relationships have had on my body. Knowing that I don't have to live with the tightness and aching has been a relief. And the openness and softness that I now have in previously tight areas of my body is transferring to an openness in my outlook, my life and my relationships."
- Donna M


"I was referred to Don Bruce by a massage therapist because my body was so tight. I had been having trouble with some movement and wondered if something was seriously wrong.  Working with Don on a physical and emotional level, through the combination of bodywork and talking, has been enormously helpful and valuable.  I have recommended others looking for someone to work with, either on a physical level or for body-mind work, to Don Bruce.  I continue to be grateful that Don offers this work to us in Edmonton."
- Anonymous

"After suffering for years with pelvic pain and all-over pain as a side effect, I decided to pay a visit to Don.  I didn’t really know what I was getting into, but at that point, I was willing to try anything.  The amazing and intuitive work Don does with body psychology freed a lot of emotional holding that was going on, which finally set the stage for the healing to move to a new plateau.  I would go as far as to say that not only did he begin my healing journey, but the healing of those who are close to me as well."  
- Anonymous


“Being a molested child, I have sought all kinds of therapy for many years. Sessions with Don have changed my life profoundly; it is the best therapy I have experienced. I used to feel that I didn’t belong in the world, that I was a mistake somehow. I was scared to answer the phone -- the doorbell sent me straight into a panic attack. Since working with Don, I feel like I can go to the grocery store and it is OK for me to be there. I feel I am no better but no worse than anyone else, and that I belong on the planet.”
- Anonymous



I want to thank you Don for your help and your input, you were really helpful and encouraging, and introduced me to some different views which I find very interesting and am now using in my understanding of both myself and others.
- Gerry C

Don Bruce is one of my most highly valued and recommended practitioners.  He is knowledgeable, sensitive, intuitive, wise and a really nice guy! 
- Lesley M


Related Topics

Shadow Work - Eating your shadow -
https://toko-pa.com/2012/10/04/dreamspeak-eating-your-shadow
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-healing-crowd/201011/eating-the-shadow

Spiritual Bypassing -  http://www.realitysandwich.com/spiritual_bypassing
​
Invictus
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
 
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
 
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
 
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
 
William Ernest Henley
Picture
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
~ Adapted from Psalm 46:10

Therapeutic References

Dr. Allan Abbass is professor, psychiatrist, and founding Director of the Centre for Emotions and Health
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LFP4fvGgOU
​
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  • Body Psychology
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  • Booking
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  • Post 10 Rolfing Sessions
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  • Related Links