Body-Based Psychotherapy in Brighton: What Happens?

Sometimes words are enough. Sometimes they are not.

We may understand something intellectually and still find ourselves repeating the same pattern. We may know that we need to say no, yet notice our voice becoming quieter when we try. We may be able to describe an experience perfectly, while something in the body tells a different story.

This is one of the reasons I work with body-based psychotherapy in Brighton. I don't see the body as separate from psychological experience, or movement as something that needs to be added to talking therapy. I see movement, sensation, posture and rhythm as part of the way we experience ourselves and relate to others.

What does body-based psychotherapy mean?

Body-based psychotherapy is a broad term for therapeutic approaches that recognise that our psychological lives are experienced not only through thoughts and words, but also through the body.

Our bodies are constantly involved in how we experience relationships, emotions, memories and situations.

We might notice tension when we are with someone. We might hold our breath when something feels difficult. We might become very still when we want to disappear, or find ourselves moving towards someone when we feel safe.

These observations are not a code that needs to be deciphered. They are another part of the person's experience.

For me, the question is not simply “What does this movement mean?” but:

“What is happening here, between this person, their body, their experience and me?”

That question brings the body into the therapeutic relationship rather than treating it as an object to interpret.

I don't believe that we need to choose between talking and the body.

Words can help us make sense of our experience. They can give shape to something confusing and allow us to think, reflect and communicate.

But there are moments when we can understand something without quite being able to feel that understanding.

Movement can offer another route into experience.

For example, imagine saying:

“I find it difficult to take up space.”

The words tell us something important.

But perhaps, while saying them, the person's shoulders become smaller. Their arms move closer to their body. Their voice becomes quieter.

We don't need to interpret these movements or decide what they mean. We can simply become curious about what is happening.

The body becomes another way of listening.

Why bring movement into talking therapy?

What is Dance Movement Psychotherapy?

Dance Movement Psychotherapy (DMP) is a form of psychotherapy that uses movement and dance within a therapeutic relationship.

The word dance can sometimes make people imagine choreography, performance or having to be good at dancing. This isn't what DMP is about.

There is no right way to move and no dance ability is required.

Movement might be very small: a change in posture, a shift of weight, a gesture, walking through space, noticing a rhythm, or becoming aware of what happens when we pause.

Sometimes movement happens spontaneously. Sometimes I might invite someone to explore a particular movement. Sometimes we might simply notice what is already happening in the body.

The movement itself is not the goal.

The therapeutic meaning of movement is what matters.

This is where my own work becomes particularly interesting to me.

My background is also in Transactional Analysis (TA), a relational psychotherapy that gives us ways of thinking about patterns in relationships, ego states, scripts, injunctions, drivers, strokes and the ways we organise our experience of ourselves and others.

TA gives us a rich psychological language.

But sometimes I find myself wondering:

What happens when we don't only think about these concepts, but experience them in the body?

For example, we might understand the Driver Please Others intellectually.

But what does Please Others actually feel like?

Does the body lean towards another person? Does it become smaller? Does the movement become faster? Is there difficulty taking up space or saying no?

And what about Be Strong?

What happens to the breath? The shoulders? The face? The impulse to ask for help?

These questions don't replace TA theory. They bring it closer to lived experience.

I sometimes describe this as coming down from the balcony.

We can stand on the balcony and observe our psychological processes. We can name them, understand them and think about them.

But embodied work invites us to come down from the balcony and notice what those processes actually feel like from inside.

For me, this is one of the most valuable possibilities of bringing DMP and TA together.

What happens when Transactional Analysis meets the body?

What does embodied listening mean?

Embodied listening is not about becoming an expert at reading bodies.

It is about developing a more finely tuned awareness of what happens in ourselves and in the therapeutic relationship.

As therapists, we listen to words, but we also encounter rhythm, gesture, posture, movement, stillness, distance and changes in energy.

And we are not outside this process.

Our own bodies respond.

We might notice an impulse to move closer or further away. We might suddenly feel heavy, restless or still. We might become aware of a change in our breathing.

These experiences need careful reflection. They are not automatically information about the client.

But they can become part of our therapeutic curiosity.

This is what I mean by embodied listening: allowing the body to become part of the conversation without allowing it to replace thought, words or clinical reflection.

From thinking about the body to listening through it

My work sits at the meeting point between talking psychotherapy, Transactional Analysis and Dance Movement Psychotherapy.

Sometimes we need words.

Sometimes we need movement.

Sometimes we need both.

And sometimes the most interesting therapeutic work happens in the space between them.

This is also the starting point for my workshop Embodied Listening: Body, Relationship and Attunement in Psychotherapy, which I am running in Brighton from January to March 2027.

Across eight experiential sessions, we will explore Transactional Analysis through movement and embodied experience, with particular attention to self-awareness, attunement, relationship and somatic countertransference.

It is not a dance class, and there is no performance involved. You don't need to have any dance experience.

It is an invitation to explore what happens when we bring the body into concepts we may already know — and begin to experience them from the inside.

More awareness. Deeper attunement. A fuller presence in the therapeutic relationship.

About Sabine

I am Sabine Tendas, a Counselling Psychologist (HCPC), Certified Transactional Analyst Psychotherapist (UKCP) and Dance Movement Therapist (ADMTE). I work with adults, children, families and couples in Brighton and online, integrating talking psychotherapy with embodied and movement-based approaches where appropriate. I am also an Embodiment Tutor at The Metis Institute, where I teach embodied approaches within Transactional Analysis.

Contact

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Email

psy.sabinetendas@gmail.com

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