Eric Servat
Integrative Body Psychotherapist
I have undergone a 7 year professional theory & practice training and personal therapy to graduate in Integrative Psychotherapy. I am finalising my accreditation as a European Body Psychotherapist through paid practice with clients on Postural Integration under regular supervision.
What is Integrative Body Psychotherapy?
This is a holistic, therapeutic approach to healing that integrates several complementary modalities to increase your awareness of how the body and the mind relate and, as such, of their reflexes and defences that interfere with your self-development. Within this unified & non-invasive approach, it draws on several modern psychological and scientific streams such as Gestalt, object relations, W. Reich bioenergy, J. Painter postural integration, and Jungian psychology.
Who can benefit from Integrative Body Psychotherapy?
You may come with any presentation of disrupted wellbeing, wether it emotional, mental or physical. My approach often includes working with a person's experience of intimacy concerns or other relationship difficulties. Helping them discover what patterns have stalled intimacy or other aspects of their relationships. Some of these patterns result in stress or make people feel as if they were perpetually in fight, flight, or freeze mode. Some of my clients were unable to shift out of the tensions and belief systems that they held in their body and minds. Others wanted to move from low movement in their life to greater flexibility, more centredness, dynamism, and enhanced creativity.
What is a typical session like?
The direction of the session depends upon your needs. Your body is a sensitive unit full of stored memory, and the way to tap into feeling and memory differs from person to person. Usually, each session combines both body touch and verbal therapy. The differentiation and value add of my practice lies upon the integration of::
- Body work on muscles and connective tissues surrounding the muscles and trigger points to enable the release of body restrictions. I incorporate breathwork to help raise energy.
- Emotional release work, through a range of expressions and facilitation of deep inner-listening of emotional processes.
- Mental/symbolic work, through Gestalt awareness dialogue and exploration of your dreams to support your movement towards life.
To ensure both sustainable and lasting release of your tensions and bodily integration, it is recommended that you commit to engaging in a series of sessions (i.e., a minimum of 15 sessions). For most people, it has taken them years to develop habitual patterns that do not serve them well. Therefore, it will take time, awareness and practice to develop new healthier ways of being. Indeed, it is a brave and continuous process for you to become who you really are through such creative sessions.
Testimonies
"I was struggling in my professional career when, on the advice of a friend, I contacted Eric. I felt I was side-lined at work. My relationship with my wife was also a source of tension. The sessions with Eric helped me discover that I had a body that I had never cared about. I was able to reconnect to my sensations and emotions, rediscover the pleasure of our couple-hood and to gain confidence for new adventures. " Steve.
What are the theoretical ideas behind my practice?
- A body restriction or rigidity contains the history and meaning of its traumatic origin, and it may at times trigger blockages that interfere with one’s path to well-being and vitality.
- An integrative psychotherapy encourages and supports spontaneous bodily impulses and experiences, in the expectation that these will lead to some emotional release and discharge.
- In this secure environment, one can be comfortable with one’s own energies and surrender to them, letting go of voluntary efforts to control one’s needs, wants, desires ... and life.
- Paradoxically, it is through staying with & fully experiencing unpleasant, painful bodily states that one can gradually understand the deeper meaning of the holding of one’s defence patterns.
- Integration by a person means that old dimensions of oneself are being transformed into a unity and unrealised potential becomes actualised.
My professional training
- Body psychotherapist trained at IFCC, Strasbourg, with E. Jung (2018-2022).
- Executive coach trained at the London Academy of Executive Coaching (2011).
- Certificate in Psychology, Applied Psychology, Gestalt Therapy trained at London Met (2013-2016).
- Certificate in Eco-psychology trained in England by J. MacKewn and MJ. Rust (2015-2016)