The Psychodynamics of Mindful Strength Training

Join me for this pre-recorded 3-hour webinar to explore the psychological impacts of regular mindful strength training and how this can support a psychodynamic therapeutic approach.

Modifications to exercises will be offered to account for different movement capacities.

One aspect of my movement practice I never give up is mindful strength training — for many reasons. I know how different I feel psychologically when I move in a way that brings more feeling back into areas of my body that need greater balance, given how I live my life.

I know my joints and spine need stabilization and mobilization, and my fascial system needs to constantly be supported through strength work to stay in optimal tensional balance. The health of our psyche is also dependent on optimal tensional balance. I see bio-tensegrity on both a myofascial level and in the anatomy of the psyche.

Biotensegrity — biological structures such as muscles, bones, fascia, ligaments and tendons, or rigid and elastic cell membranes — are made strong by the unison of tensioned and compressed parts. Optimal bio-tensegrity in our fascial systems, our key organ of communication between our inner and outer worlds, inherently impacts how we process information from inside of us and how we filter outside stimuli and other people.

How our fascial system takes shape is a clear expression of our inner psychic states, whether exacerbated by chronic or traumatic stress or influenced by the temperament we are born with. I believe that we can shift our minds from a bottom-up approach. I witnessed the profound psychological shifts that happened when clients felt more agency and empowerment by experiencing healthy stress on their bodies — repeatedly having an embodied experience of their strength, to whatever degree was available to them on any day.