The Present Moment, Trauma, and Relational Somatic Psychotherapy.

In this paper, I discuss how life is lived in the present moment, and how this is connected to living a joyful life. I show that living in the present moment is related to embodied living and connecting to the body. The role of relational trauma in disconnecting from the body is then examined. The parts that early bad object relations play in the inability to live in the present moment are examined from the perspectives of object relations theory and neuroscience. The healing role of the good object - that is, the therapist - is discussed, and a technique based on insights from relational somatic psychotherapy is presented that may shorten the therapeutic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]