Moving Between Identities : Cultural Competency and Somatic Awareness for Bodyworkers and Therapists

This trauma-informed approach to bodywork explores the ways in which varying facets of identity and culture manifest in the body, allowing a much more nuanced, person-centred approach to client care.

Marcia Warren describes how our bodies interpret our identities, often informed by cultural norms, communication styles, trauma, and systems of power and oppression. Therapists and bodyworkers reading this book will have the opportunity to engage personally and professionally, learning to build on their own neuroplasticity in order to engage with compassionate curiosity rather than resistance when confronted with identity-based differences.

Each chapter uses the Embodied Identity Feedback Loop, a mechanism representing three entry-points we use to process information: sensation, interpretation, action.

This pioneering tool allows readers to examine their own somatic experiences, beliefs, behaviours, and choices, all of which is supplemented with journal prompts and questions. In guiding readers in how to interpret the body's expression of identity, this unique guide maximises the potential of therapists to foster change, increase empathy, and nurture connection through trauma-informed, somatically aware bodywork.