Minding the Body: Clinical Uses of Somatic Awareness

by Donald Bakal

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New York, NY: Guilford Press 2001  228 pp.  $23.00

Donald Bakal  presents  an outstanding discussion on mind-body and body-mind awarenesses. Of particular interest is a discussion of people who are densely insensitive to their bodies and to their mental and emotional connection with their bodies. Where many people who are suffering pain or other symptoms can productively answer the question, “What do you think/feel your body is saying?” these people may even be unaware of the possibility that their bodies may be symptomatic due to psychological tensions in their lives. When asked about factors that might contribute to their symptoms, they draw a complete blank.

The fact that their bodies are complaining about disharmonies in their lives may be grossly evident to caregivers, but it may be extremely difficult or impossible for caregivers to raise the body awareness of these people to a point that they can deal with their body problems in any way other than physical interventions. These people prefer medications and surgery – i.e. to have others “fix” them – rather than the spectrum of wholistic approaches that is the focus of the IJHC.

This suggests that people may self-select into treatment modalities that are consonant with their beliefs and awarenesses.  Counselors may be treating a very different population from those seen in a chirpractor’s or acupuncturist’s office – despite the fact that the symptoms presented by these populations may be similar.

Bakal has good discussions on a variety of interventions that help wholistically, addressing the meaning behind the symptoms. His approach is from the body side of the spectrum, rather than from the psychological side – which makes for interesting reading for those who are coming from the opposite side of this continuum.

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