Concentrative movement therapy as body-oriented psychotherapy for inpatients with different body experience

Restricted body experience is frequently found in psychotherapeutic inpatients. Therefore, body-oriented psychotherapy is often applied as an adjuvant method. The authors investigated whether the quality of body experience influences the therapeutic process in concentrative movement therapy (Konzentrative Bewegungstherapie [KBT]) and treatment outcome. Sixty-two inpatients were assigned to 3 different types of body experience based on cluster analysis of their answers in the Assessment of the Own Body Questionnaire. The therapeutic process in KBT was studied using the Group Experience in KBT Questionnaire. A score for global treatment outcome and KBT treatment outcome was multidimensionally determined. The results show that different qualities of body experience do exist but do not have predictive value for (a) treatment outcome, (b) patient differentiation during the course of treatment, and (c) the connection between group experience and treatment outcome. The results do not confirm the clinical opinion that patients show different courses and results in body-oriented inpatient psychotherapy because of different quality of body experience.