The body holds our emotional patterns

Emotional Release Bodywork

Psychosomatic bodywork uses touch, breath, voice and other techniques to access emotional trigger points and bring the client into better awareness, balance, physical and psychological health. The modality utilises the connection between mind, body and soul–feeling and spiritual life is impacted as much as flesh and thinking. There are many forms and styles of bodywork; I was privileged to interview an expert in one particular stream, Emotional Release Bodywork.

Bianca Moeschinger is a very experienced practitioner and trainer, working in both Australia and Switzerland. She explained to me how defensive patterns show up in the body, and why trauma recovery must address the physical. Bianca stated that, “while much of psychology is brilliant, [the release] has to move through the chemistry and go to that physical level–that’s where it’s anchored and reinforced, deep within the body.” Trauma recovery has to include work on the physical because it is “the base of everything that’s here.”

In Bianca’s psychosomatic approach, she will ask the client and their body to “show me where you’re out of balance, show me what you need from me. Don’t be afraid of the symptom or the pain that’s coming to the surface, but be with it as equally as the pleasure or the joy or the unraveling.” She was describing the acceptance process being applied at the root, physical level. “It could be trauma, something that says I’ve been feeling really crap for such a long time, and now I'm validating it.” Same healing principles; root system focus.

For Bianca, the goal of healing work is to allow life to flow again. According to her, there is “life within our body that wants to be effervescent. It wants to move. It wants to actualize itself. It wants to feed and nourish us.” By supporting the body to release any holding or tension, we can “fully surrender and feel life. It’s more than the function of the breath, more than the flow of the circulatory system. Every part of us wants to be fully alive.”

In my personal experiences with bodywork, I have gained significant, enduring shifts in my emotional and mental state through the shifting of body armour. Whatever stream of bodywork you are drawn to, I believe it is a powerful support for our trauma recovery journey.

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, Trauma Survivor to Soul Warrior: Reconnect With Your True Self (due to be published Manuscripts Press, September 2025). Learn more about my book.

Learn more about Bianca's work.