Management of Distressing Bodily Symptoms in Health

The BodyMind Approach using a Biopsychosocial Model

Helen Payne, Susan Brooks

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040364413
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychiatry & Mental Health
• Index: Psychology

Somatisation or medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are distressing bodily symptoms for which tests and scans return normal. They can be incredibly debilitating conditions and people seek health care frequently due to their distress. They are common worldwide – yet there are few interventions available to help those suffering with the physical and emotional pain they cause. This book presents a solution to this problem by providing a comprehensive introduction to The BodyMind Approach (TBMA), developed by Helen Payne, and outlines guidance on applying TBMA principles to facilitated groupwork with patients/clients.

Readers will learn how TBMA's biopsychosocial learning model can be used to support patients in their self-management of anxiety associated with body distress disorder, as well as their accompanying bodily felt experience. Chapters explore:

• Adult learning theories and The BodyMind Approach
• An overview of medically unexplained symptoms/body distress disorder
• The BodyMind Approach
• The BodyMind Approach Programme
• Training of The BodyMind Approach facilitators
• Qualitative research on The BodyMind Approach
• Somatisation and adult attachment theory
• The BodyMind Approach to support students in Higher Education
• Somatisation, The BodyMind Approach and chronic stress

This unique book is essential reading for healthcare professionals and mental health practitioners as well as those who are, or wish to train, as a TBMA facilitator. It will also be a compelling read for a variety of other professions, including, but not limited to, dance movement psychotherapists, art psychotherapists, counsellors, health coaches, clinical psychologists, GPs, pain clinic staff and nurses.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Disclaimer
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Adult Learning Theory and The BodyMind Approach
• Chapter 2 Overview of Medically Unexplained Symptoms and Body Distress Disorder
• Chapter 3 The BodyMind Approach
• Chapter 4 The Programme
• Chapter 5 Training of Facilitators
• Chapter 6 A Qualitative Study of Patients’ Views on The BodyMind Approach: (An earlier version of this chapter was first published in Frontiers in Psychology [2020] 11:554566).
• Chapter 7 Addressing Insecure Attachment Patterns: (A version of this chapter was first published in Frontiers in Psychology [2019] 10:1818).
• Chapter 8 Student Stress, Somatisation and Mental Health: (A version of this chapter was first published by Payne, H. [2022] entitled The BodyMind Approach to Support Students in Higher Education: The Relationship between Student Stress, Somatisation and Mental Health in Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 59(4), 483–494)
• Chapter 9 Somatisation, Chronic Stress and The BodyMind Approach
• Chapter 10 Epilogue
• Appendix
• List of Abbreviations
• Glossary of Terms
• Author and Subject Index