MABT
Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) combines manual, mindfulness and psycho-educational approaches to teach interoceptive awareness and related self-care skills.
MABT History and Development
Cynthia Price developed MABT. In practice as a bodyworker and body-psychotherapist for 20 years, she worked extensively with individuals who were disconnected from their bodies due to stress, trauma, and pain. With body disconnection people are typically not fully aware of their feelings, the links between physical and emotional sensations, and how to engage in self-care and regulation in response to stress and emotional triggers. To facilitate client health and healing, she developed the MABT approach to promote client capacity to attend to and process somatic awareness and experiences. Inspired by Focusing, an experiential psychotherapy approach of present attention to the “felt sense,” Cynthia developed MABT as a mindfulness-based approach for use in body-centered therapy practice. The MABT protocol and training manual were created for research during her PhD to examine the role of body awareness in health and healing. MABT is now an empirically-validated protocol for interoceptive awareness training to promote health. Unique in its focus on teaching fundamental skills of interoceptive awareness, MABT is designed to facilitate embodiment, to promote healthy behaviors and self-care, and to increase emotion regulation. The MABT components can be easily integrated into clinical care by practitioners and therapists in different disciplines.
MABT Approach
Mindful Awareness in Body-oriented Therapy (MABT) combines manual, mindfulness and psycho-educational approaches to teach interoceptive awareness and related self-care skills. Interoceptive awareness is the ability to access and process sensory information from the body. Interoceptive awareness and self-care skills can be particularly helpful for individuals living with chronic physical or mental health conditions, or in recovery from trauma or chemical dependency, as they provide alternative coping strategies to the bodily disconnection and experiential avoidance that can be quite prevalent and distressing for individuals with these health challenges.
MABT also promotes well-being in healthy individuals, important for preventative health care. Through skill training and practice, MABT helps to integrate sensory and cognitive processes, facilitating embodiment through cultivation of inner connection and an expanded sense of self. MABT practice facilitates self-awareness and emotion regulation, and thus can useful for coping with stressful life events, symptom management, and health promotion.
An interview with Cynthia Price on Liberatedbody PODCAST provides an excellent overview of the MABT approach, how it is delivered, and how it helps promote health.
“I tried meditating over the years and I was never able to concentrate. With MABT, I was able to slow my mind down and then follow what she (the therapist) was saying, concentrating on a body part, and what I was feeling and afterwards talking about that. Eventually, I learned to do that by myself. This is why I thought this approach was amazing because it taught me to meditate. Now I meditate every night. The difference is having someone lead me into learning how to do it first.”