SATURDAY, 11^th SEPTEMBER 2021

09:15-09:30 Body, Soul and Music

SESSION III –The Fullness of Body Psycotherapy
Chairman – Carlota Benitez

9:30-10:30
“The biology of love and the chemistry of intimacy”
Sue Carter
Love is deeply biological. It pervades every aspect of our lives and has inspired countless works of art. Love also has a profound effect on our mental and physical state. A ‘broken heart’ or a failed relationship can have disastrous effects; bereavement disrupts human physiology and might even precipitate death. Without loving relationships, humans fail to flourish, even if all of their other basic needs are met.

As such, love is clearly not ‘just’ an emotion; it is a biological process that is both dynamic and bidirectional in several dimensions. Social interactions between individuals, for example, trigger cognitive and physiological processes that influence emotional and mental states. In turn, these changes influence future social interactions. Similarly, the maintenance of loving relationships requires constant feedback through sensory and cognitive systems; the body seeks love and responds constantly to interaction with loved ones or to the absence of such interaction.

Without loving relationships, humans fail to flourish, even if all of their other basic needs are met

Although evidence exists for the healing power of love, it is only recently that science has turned its attention to providing a physiological explanation. The study of love, in this context, offers insight into many important topics including the biological basis of interpersonal relationships and why and how disruptions in social bonds have such pervasive consequences for behaviour and physiology. Some of the answers will be found in our growing knowledge of the neurobiological and endocrinological mechanisms of social behaviour and interpersonal engagement.

10:30-11:00 Coffee break

11:00–12:00
“Making sense of sensations. Embodied perception in psychotherapy”
Ulfried Geuter
Consciousness arises in the embodied interaction of the individual with the environment. The environment is perceived by living beings in its subjective meaning. We make sense of the environment by feeling and recognising sensations. If I lift an object I feel the weight of the object in my muscular system. If I am angry about somebody I feel how this person hurts me through somatic sensations of my stomach, intestines, or my heart. The body constitutes felt meaning.
The more we are open for our body perception, the more we notice the world around us and the more we realize what this world means to us in the present moment. The more bodily sensations and thinking become congruent the more a feeling of coherence emerges.
The basis of body psychotherapy is thus to foster embodied perception and awareness for the present moment in relation to the dynamic changes in us and around us, in other words to become mindful and bodyful. In my talk I will approach this topic both theoretically and clinically.

12:00–13:00 Round Table
S. Djordjevic
F. Carbonari
R. Kignel
F. Lewin
Chair: Carlota Benitez

13:00–14:45 Lunch

14:45–16:15 Workshops session III and Round Table

14:45-15.00 registration General Assembly EABP-part II

15:00 18:00 General Assembly EABP – part II

16:45–18:45 Workshops session IV