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Background: This article reports quantitative results from a pilot study in primary care (PC) undertaken from 2004–2007. The intervention programme, derived from movement psychotherapy, was termed ‘Learning groups: the BodyMind approach (BMA),’ and emphasised a verbal and non‐verbal integrated model, awareness of the inter‐relationship between body and mind and a self‐managing framework. Aim: To evaluate systematically the outcomes of a 12‐week group BMA intervention programme with patients suffering from anxiety/depression with at least one chronic (over two years) medically unexplained symptom (MUS), another term for a psychosomatic condition or somatoform disorder. Method: A mixed method was applied to a single‐case design. Outcome measures completed at baseline, mid‐, post‐ intervention and three‐month follow‐up were the Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile (MYMOP) and the Counselling Outcome Routine Evaluation (CORE). Results: Increased activity levels and well‐being; more effective coping/functioning strategies; reduction in anxiety/depression, GP‐consultation and medication usage, and symptom distress. All changes were maintained at three‐month follow‐up.

This article documents an experience of providing an innovatory clinic in the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. Delivering anything new even if based on previous research is problematic particularly when negotiating within the context of the changing NHS England. An evidence-based intervention, offered by a University of Hertfordshire's new spin-out company Pathways2Wellbeing, is called Symptoms Groups to patients and The MUS Clinic to health professionals. The groups use The BodyMind Approach (TBMA)® 1 , based on a bio-psychosocial model derived from dance movement psychotherapy, which has been specifically researched with patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). These patients have no specific pathway for supporting their wellbeing and are high health utilizers at the interface of primary and community care. They suffer with chronic, physical symptoms or conditions which do not appear to have an organic, medical diagnosis. An overview of the pitfalls/challenges and some of the methods which were designed to overcome these is provided in this article together with two case studies, GP guidance for referral and an overview of the patient journey.

Interpersonal experiences have been focus of philosophy and developmental psychology for decades. Concepts of self and self-other relatedness seem to have an onset in early interaction patterns during dyadic relating. Phenomenologists consider the embodied, that is the intercorporeal, dialogue the base of self-other relating. Developmental psychologists have shown during many studies that the responsiveness a child is met with during early phases of life is a very subtle process. Kinetic intersubjectivity is introduced as a perspective on dyadic relating. Kinetic attitude during dance duets is taken as an example of active nonverbal attunement between movers. Shared movement situations will serve as a case to explain how a sense of intersubjectivity and self-other differentiation can be perceived and developed through movement structures. Shared movement intervention could offer a new perspective for psychotherapeutic intervention in disorders with a disturbed self, like in autism.