The Body Awareness Rating Scale (BARS) was developed to evaluate the treatment process of the Body Awareness Group Therapy. The BARS subscales proved to have high interrater reliability. A factor analysis revealed two factors which seemed to measure one awareness and one movement dimension. The BARS was sensitive to change. As hypothesized, the BARS improvement enlarged with increasing duration of treatment. At discharge the good BARS outcome patients had improved significantly more than the poor BARS outcome ones, both concerning symptoms and global psychopathology.

The aim of this paper is to describe the Body Awareness Group Therapy (BAGT) designed for patients with personality disorders. The BAGT is a body-oriented small group therapy conducted by a physiotherapist and a cotherapist. The aim is to foster personal growth and development by use of individual and group exercises. The therapy is a synthesis of earlier clinical experiences, mostly based on works of Reich, on elements of encounter and of eastern body tradition.