What Is Body Therapy and Why Is It Needed?

You’ve probably heard of the mind-and-body connection. The idea is no longer new or intriguing. However, if you don’t know what body therapy is, we definitely need to talk about it — because, guess what? We can all benefit from body therapy approaches, especially if you’re not a fan of traditional psychotherapy and want to try something slightly unconventional like acupuncture or myofascial release. Here is what body therapy is and why you might want to add it to your healing journey.

What is body therapy?

Body therapy is a set of therapeutic methods and practices based on the idea of mind-and-body connection. Your daily mood, which you might track with mental health tools (as described in the Liven app review) and try to improve with medication, exercise, and diet, actually shows up in your body. For instance, anxiety comes with headaches, rapid heartbeat, and muscle tension, while depression causes fatigue, stomachaches, and brain fog.

But the mind-and-body connection works both ways, which means you can change your physical processes to improve your mental health. 

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Still don’t believe us? How about the well-known fact that your body stores memories, emotions, and tensions? 

In The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk explains how the body stores trauma. Often, your conscious brain remembers nothing, but your body continues to carry tension, pain, and unresolved emotions. That’s why, in terms of trauma, you can heal your mind by healing your body first. 

The body therapy approaches include:  

• Yoga therapy
• Acupuncture
• Massage therapy
• Myofascial release
• Breathing exercises
• Somatic experiencing, and others 

Let’s take a look at the ways body therapy actually helps.

#1: Body therapy helps you heal emotional wounds 

Your body stays stuck in the ‘fight-or-flight’ mode long after the danger is gone, which is very common in PTSD. It’s like you can’t move on from the traumatic event and keep relieving it again and again. Meanwhile, your nervous system is on alert, constantly scanning for danger in your environment.

Body therapy helps release these trapped responses, making sure your mind and body finally process the event. Somatic techniques, breathing exercises, and gentle movement help shift your nervous system from sympathetic (“fight-or-flight”) to parasympathetic (“rest-and-digest”) mode, calming your heart rate, breathing, and muscle tension, and reducing self-sabotaging symptoms that keep the body stuck in stress patterns.

Other techniques like massage and myofascial release relax tight muscles and fascia, which in turn signals the nervous system that the threat has passed.

Interesting fact: Studies show that somatic therapies can reduce PTSD symptoms by 20–30%. 

#2: Learn effective emotional rcegulation techniques 

Body therapy also teaches you to connect with your physical sensations and notice/regulate emotions because as we’ve already learnt, our mind and body are connected. 

You learn how to check in with your body, recognize the feeling, and then identify the problem. Over time, this improves emotional intelligence and impulse control. 

On the biological level, this awareness modulates brain activity: it calms  the amygdala (the brain’s threat detector center) and strengthens the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s area responsible for logical reasoning.

Interesting fact: Neuroimaging studies show that people who practice mindful movement like yoga have increased connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, which means better emotional regulation.

#3: Alleviate chronic pain and muscle tension

Constant pain heightens activity in the brain regions responsible for emotional regulation and threat detection, such as the anterior cingulate cortex. It literally rewires your brain and often comes in hand with mood disorders like anxiety or depression. The worse your anxiety or depression, the worse your chronic pain gets, and it’s a vicious cycle.

Body therapy helps you break this cycle: you release physical tension, signaling to your nervous system that you’re safe, and create new body-based safety experiences. Body therapy helps you break this cycle: whether you’re dealing with chronic back pain, muscle tightness, or even pain on right side after C-section, these techniques release physical tension, signal to your nervous system that you’re safe, and create new body-based safety experiences.

Interesting fact: Myofascial release therapy decreases pain scores in patients with chronic musculoskeletal conditions by 30–40%.

#4: Improve sleep quality 

Racing thoughts, muscle tightness, or restlessness all result from tension and unresolved emotions. Meanwhile, body therapy helps you put your nervous system into a safety mode, lower stress hormone levels, and release more melatonin, the sleep hormone. In the end, it’s easier to fall and stay asleep.

Interesting fact: Acupuncture improves sleep quality in patients with insomnia by 25–40%.

#5: Increase self-awareness

With body therapy, you increase interoception or interoceptive awareness, the ability to sense internal body signals. This, obviously, improves your self-awareness and decision-making. 

When you’re in tune with your body, you notice early signs of stress, fatigue, or anxiety before they escalate.

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Interesting fact: People with high interoceptive awareness show lower stress hormone levels and report better overall wellbeing.

#6: Support better posture and movement

Trauma and chronic stress also show up in posture — you’d easily notice tight shoulders, shallow breathing, or a collapsed chest. 

Body therapy helps strengthen your posture muscles, release stored tension, and restore natural breathing patterns. As a result, you get physical relief and improved confidence. 

Interesting fact: Research shows that an upright posture improves mood and reduces fatigue in people with mild-to-moderate depression.

#7: Complement other therapies for more holistic approach

Body therapy works best as a complement to psychotherapy, medication, or lifestyle interventions. 

With such a multimodal approach, you can effortlessly tackle emotional, physical, and mental health simultaneously. For instance, body therapy boosts medication effectiveness as it reduces stress and inflammation levels. In turn, this improves overall brain chemistry and responsiveness.

Interesting fact: Studies show that body-based approaches combined with talk therapy  improve treatment outcomes in PTSD, anxiety, and depression.

Final thoughts 

Trauma, stress, or tension don’t just leave in your head. They also reside  in your muscles, nervous system, and posture. Meanwhile, body therapy helps you unlock those areas, release stored tension, and improve both mental and physical health. We also advise you to add body therapy to other psychotherapeutic approaches for a more holistic, whole-person healing. You’ve got this!