Association of childhood maltreatment with adult body awareness and autonomic reactivity: The moderating effect of practicing body psychotherapy.

Abstract

Research shows the disruptive effects of early maltreatment on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning in adulthood. Psychotherapists not only tend to report higher rates of personal experience with early maltreatment, but also fewer mental problems and disturbances in adulthood, as compared to other professions. However, the role of the ANS in these processes has been understudied despite the relevance of the therapist’s psychological state and related nonverbal communication for the therapeutic alliance. By comparing body psychotherapists to the general population, the present study aimed to explore the effects of practicing body psychotherapy (BPT) on the link between early maltreatment and autonomic reactivity in adulthood. An online study included 570 body psychotherapists from 35 countries (54% from the United States, Mage = 52.92, 81% of females) and 592 participants from the U.S. general population (Mage = 51.89, 78% females). We first inspected the factorial structure of the Body Perception Questionnaire–Short Form (Cabrera et al., 2018) in the specific population of BPT practitioners, confirming the three-factor model with one body awareness and two autonomic reactivity factors. Compared to the general population, BPT practitioners reported higher levels of childhood maltreatment, but fewer autonomic symptoms in adulthood, better differentiation of body awareness and autonomic reactivity, and a weaker association between childhood maltreatment experiences and present-day autonomic symptoms. Results are discussed in the framework of polyvagal theory (Porges, 1995, 2011).

Association of Self-Reported Autonomic Symptoms With Sensor-Based Physiological Measures

“…This general structure has been replicated in subsequent studies with Italian and Chinese translations (26–28). It has also been found to be stable in mind-body practitioners who are trained to attend closely to body sensations, suggesting that experience with body noticing does not affect psychometric properties such as factor structure (29).…”