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Boxing psychotherapy
Boxing training has recently been combined with psychotherapy for the treatment of refractory PTSD and for patients suffering from underlying trauma and negative experiences in childhood. Boxing psychotherapy (BPT) is a highly effective complement to existing forms of therapy for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses.
The setting of the boxing ring and boxing school plays an important role in our therapeutic practice. Treatment does not take place in a psychotherapist’s office but in a gym. This has a threatening as well as destigmatizing and normalizing effect. Technical boxing in a ring opposite a professional boxer is an uncomfortable situation. This helps to get patients moving both physically and mentally. The boxing trainer is not a psychotherapist or counselor. He behaves like a fighter. It is precisely this unhelpful but confrontational attitude that exposes pathology more quickly, creating space for the psychotherapist outside the ring to interpret and intervene. The psychotherapist directs the game and observes, interprets, interjects, corrects, stops, gives orders, suggests, and asks the questions.
The aim of this project is to understand how the triangular relationship of patient, boxing trainer, and psychotherapist creates therapeutic opportunities for patients.
Publications:
Book: M. Otter & D. Denys (2024). Psychotherapie in Beweging: De Helende Kunst van Boksen
