Hi. Neil and I are delighted to get the site up and running and just wanted to say a few words about the paper we’re currently working on.
It’s working title is ‘On anger: The martial arts and embodied distress tolerance in psychological therapy’. In it we argue that the martial arts may be a useful adjunct to traditional psychotherapy in the sense that such training has been associated with increases in positive self-image, in the ability to tolerate pain and enhance self-regulation.
The martial arts can also help develop personal virtues such as courage, temperance, wisdom and benevolence which may be highly relevant to therapy too. Training in the martial arts involves risk, and courage enables action/responsiveness in response to fear, as well as the ability to continue despite pain. Moreover, it has been found that martial arts students report reduced aggressiveness, potentially in light of their instructors modelling self-control and moral behaviour in class.
It may be important to distinguish traditional martial arts, exemplified featuring an emphasis on the psychological, spiritual, and non-aggressive elements of the particular style from more modern arts (for example mixed martial arts), which tend to downplay such elements in favour of skilful aggressiveness and competition. The jury is still out on this one!
In relation to the traditional arts an interview study of Psychotherapists experienced in Aikido, noted that “[Martial arts] practice is a practice to learn a certain state of being. Aikido is no longer what you do on the mat, Aikido is what you do. In Aikido you have some crazy attacker coming at you, and your goal is to be relaxed and centered and calm and able to absorb and join with, just be there with that energy, in a way that can accept and redirect it. A lot of what you do in therapy is the same thing – just be there and not be overwhelmed by what’s going on, and that has a very calming effect.”
In particular the potential for Aikido to help therapists remain centred while also available to the patient is a familiar theme across the therapy literature. Therapists are encouraged to be physically, emotionally, and relationally ‘with’ clients. Some have alluded to the ‘total relationship’, or to ‘being present’ or with an ‘evenly suspended attention’ during therapy. As in the martial arts, a sense of centre can lead to a more appropriate and perhaps, we argue, a compassionate response in therapy.
Do watch this space for further news over the coming weeks.
