So what exactly is Kinesiology and Mind-Body Medicine?

Hey look i’m going to be honest with you! I hadn’t heard of these two terms until 3 years ago when I was in Australia, my working holiday visa was coming to an end, and an ad popped up on Facebook advertising a course in them both at the College of Complimentary Medicine.

I know Facebook works on an algorithm, but when I clicked on the ad and read about the course I generally thought I’d hit the jackpot. I felt like I had finally found a course that was able to provide me with a tool to tie all that I had learned previously in the field of Psychology with being able to utilise the body.

Prior to becoming a Kinesiologist and Mind-Body Practitioner I didn’t have direct access of working with the body. For me intuitively I knew that my work would ultimately combine working with both, and low and behold this was my missing piece in the jigsaw.

So back to the title of this blog…. What actually is Kinesiology & Mind Body Medicine?

Firstly both of them are based on the principles that we inherently have an innate ability to heal ourselves, that our mind and body are one, and that our emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing is determined by our ability to connect inwards and express outwards, and any imbalances that arise due to stress or trauma.

Kinesiology as a modality is a holistic health therapy that originates from the study of body movement (Human Kinetics). In essence it uses the body (via gentle muscle monitoring) to communicate with the nervous system, the brain and the subconscious to identify any imbalances that may be impacting the bodies ability to heal itself.

Holistic Kinesiology works in combination with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) whereby any imbalances can be identified in relation to muscles, organs, meridian channels and the gland system.

As the mind and body are considered one in TCM it provides a framework whereby in combination with Kinesiology any imbalances can be identified to help get at the root cause of a particular symptom in relation to whether there may be stress on a energetic, emotional, psychological or physical level.

So to strip it right down the purpose of Kinesiology is to get information from the body and to access the clients own innate awareness so that any stressors or blockages can be identified that might be preventing the bodies innate healing mechanism.

Kinesiology is quite simply a therapeutic tool that is then often combined with other complimentary therapies such as acupressure, counselling, integrative psychotherapy, nutrition & diet, & mind-body medicine.

To give an example of how Kinesiology is used a person might come in with a physical issue e.g. pain in their left shoulder and muscle monitoring would be used to assess whether there is an emotional, psychological, energetic or structural imbalance in relation to this issue and what might be going on from a TCM perspective.

This is the part that blew me away when I first got into Kinesiology because it’s not often that we associate a physical injury with an energetic, emotional or psychological issue. Often we take it at face value and dive right in and just look at the physical symptom and work with that. But no this is a different approach, this takes into account the WHOLE being often called ‘holsitic’, and enables one to look below the surface.

Now time to throw in Mind-Body Medicine.

Well Mind-Body Medicine "‘aims to self-empower clients through helping them understand and connect to themselves; listen to their body with new awareness, and to encourage expression of their innate self in order to embrace wellness and wholeness’ (taken directly from my course manual).

Mind-Body Medicine encompasses a whole range of modalities that support the mind and body such as inner child work, breathing, somatic body work, movement, Kinesiology, holistic counselling, body psychology and acupressure. Mind-body Medicine also incorporates TCM and utilises what is known as the 5 Element Theory which is a framework that helps to identify the relationship between muscles, organs, emotions, psychological patterns and virtues.

So as a whole Mind-Body Medicine helps to tie everything together. It provides an array of complimentary tools to suit the needs of the client and also allows one to get to the core motivator of a behaviour which may be underlying their symptoms, illness or disease.

For example if a person has difficulty with people pleasing, they may also be experiencing overthinking, digestion issues and anxiety because they are constantly thinking about others and not being able to focus on their own needs which is driven by their core need to be loved, or to be wanted - a very common pattern that we see.

Shining a light on these patterns moves them from the subconscious into conscious awareness and that is when one can feel empowered to bring about change to their life and healing.

So to summarise…. I am incredible grateful to have stumbled across Mind-Body Medicine and Kinesiology when I did, as it has provided me with the opportunity to tie all the modalities that I have learnt into one and work how I intuitively felt called to work, not just solely with the mind (as I was first taught in Psychology) but also the body to encompass both the energetic, emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing of a person as well as bridge the gap between a Western and Eastern approach to support.

At GLD Space we use all of these modalities both online and in person to suit the needs of our clients.

Ultimately sessions are led by you, your body and your subconscious so are entirely unique to you.

To book a session click here.