Body Sense: The Science and Practice of Embodied Self-Awareness

by Alan Fogel

Overview

The science and practice of feeling our movements, sensations, and emotions.

When we are first born, before we can speak or use language to express ourselves, we use our physical sensations, our “body sense,” to guide us toward what makes us feel safe and fulfilled and away from what makes us feel bad. As we develop into adults, it becomes easy to lose touch with these crucial mind-body communication channels, but they are essential to our ability to navigate social interactions and deal with psychological stress, physical injury, and trauma. Combining a ground-up explanation of the anatomical and neurological sources of embodied self-awareness with practical exercises in touch and movement, Body Sense provides therapists and their clients with the tools to attain mind-body equilibrium and cultivate healthy body sense throughout their lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393708660
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/29/2013
Series:	Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	735,777
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Alan Fogel is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He is the recipient of numerous teaching and research awards, a fellow of the American Psychological Association, and has been a Fulbright fellow. He has been an active contributor to research on social and emotional development for the past 33 years. Read his "Body Sense" blog at Psychology Today.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix

Chapter 1 Rediscovering the Lost Art of Sensing the Body 1

Chapter 2 Feelings from Within: The Emergence of Embodied Self-Awareness 29

Chapter 3 Links and Boundaries: Locating Ourselves 71

Chapter 4 Out of Touch with Ourselves: Suppression and Absorption 102

Chapter 5 Shelter from the Storm: The Effects of Safety and Threat on Embodied Self-Awareness 141

Chapter 6 In the Flesh: Moving and Touching 186

Chapter 7 Catching Our Breath, Finding Our Voice 227

Chapter 8 Coming Home to Ourselves: Restorative Embodied Self-Awareness 269

Glossary 307

References 323

Index 383

Editorial Reviews

"The field of what has been termed somatic psychology has burgeoned in the past two decades. In Body Sense: The Science and Practice of Embodied Self-Awareness, psychologist and therapeutic body worker Alan Fogel has highlighted the neurophysiological underpinnings of body-based therapy by offering us an accessible but encyclopedic presentation of how the brain and body work together to create self-awareness. He makes a powerful case for therapists to enlist clients’ body state perceptions in order to clear the mental and emotional debris that accompanies trauma. Fogel’s use of science and compelling clinical case studies to illustrate his ideas make this a unique and dynamic contribution to the field."

Robert Scaer

"With self-help exercises, case vignettes, neuroscience research, and more, this creative, interactive book provides a sophisticated yet down-to-earth perspective on what Fogel calls 'embodied self-awareness.' Readable, wise, lucid, simple and engaging, Body Sense is a timely and valuable contribution to the field."

Pat Ogden

"Alan Fogel leads us on an informative journey to “rediscover” our body’s ability to feel and maintain awareness of our movements, sensations, and emotions. This innovative book uncovers important components of our biological directive to improve quality of life and explores strategies to satisfy that directive by reconnecting with our bodily selves. Through a greater understanding of "embodied self-awareness," we can counteract the consequences of the common developmental trajectory from an infant state of awareness of our bodily processes to a state of assumed maturity in which, as adults, we are insensitive to bodily feelings."

Stephen W. Porges

"This book is a rare work in its crossing of two worlds: the intricate, technical world of psychological and biomedical research, with its increasingly sophisticated technologies and languages; and the lived world of becoming mature adults. Alan Fogel succeeds in weaving together these disparate worlds with his lucid writing grounded in his thorough understanding both of the importance of embodied self-awareness in our ordinary lives and the sciences that make sense of that dimension of our being. It is an eminently practical book, providing many clues for how we might expand the benefits of embodiment in negotiating the challenges of our lives and, at the same time, gain a familiarity with the scientific basis for their efficacy, thus counteracting inevitable tendencies toward self-doubt and cynicism."

Don Hanlon Johnson

"[O]ffers a convincing argument to support embodied self-awareness as an essential ingredient in maintaining homeostasis. . . . This book will be of interest to somatic practitioners and offers a comprehensive body-based perspective to verbal psychotherapists."

Therapy Today

"Fogel writes with a depth of knowledge and understanding that is admirable and which offers the reader a trustworthy and encyclopaedic reference text for gaining a better sense of how to both re-cognise and stay in contact with our embodied selves."

Contemporary Psychotherapy

"Fogel draws widely on multidimensional research...all the while addressing these processes with great understanding and ease. . . . Fogel goes further than understanding the complex neurobiology of the human mind by bringing a wealth of information and understanding to the neurobiology of the body and its interconnectedness with the mind. He skillfully shifts the domain of conversation from processes of the mind/brain to the felt sense of the lived somatic experience."

Rosen Method International Journal

"It is a truly revolutionary act to render our vague, instinctual knowledge about the body and self-awareness into something understandable, urgent, and applicable to everyday life. In so doing, Alan Fogel has laid a solid and comprehensive foundation for far-reaching changes in psychotherapy, medicine, and our daily lives."

Daniel N. Stern

"This book is creative and eclectic in that it investigates embodied self-awareness from many different angles, demonstrating the intricacy and nuance of the subject, and reinforcing the fact that expanding embodied self-awareness is a lifetime journey, as opposed to a straight-forward healing process."

International Journal of Psychotherapy