The Institute for Bodymind Integration

14/12/2025

I’m pleased to share that my lyrical essay “The Poetics of Unnamed Emotion: From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows to Core Strokes®” has just been published in Somatic Psychotherapy Today.

In this piece, I explore the subtle meeting point between language and body — how poetic terms like sonder, opia, or monachopsis echo the felt truths we encounter in the therapy room and in our fascia. Inspired by John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, I reflect on how unspoken emotional states become visible through breath, touch, and the textured language of Core Strokes®.

This essay is an invitation to feel words as living tissue — to experience sorrow not just as pain, but as a potential doorway to resonance.

SPT Magazine is pleased to share Dirk Marivoet's “lyrical essay” entitled, The Poetics of Unnamed Emotion: From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows to Core Strokes®

Dirk playfully and skillfully explores the kinship between John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and the somatic language of Core Strokes®. Through the meeting of word and fascia, he reveals how both poetic naming and therapeutic touch give voice to unspoken emotion. A meditation on breath, empathy, and embodiment, Dirk invites readers to feel language as a living tissue where sorrow transforms into resonance.

You can read his essay on our website at www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

09/11/2025

With Somatic Psychotherapy Today – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

07/11/2025

Dirk Marivoet shared a recent interview with Hana Hniličková where he talks about "the Energetic Breath Cycle, the possibility to meet oneself on deeper level when working with fascia (connective tissue of the body) and the healing power of relational presence." He speaks slowly and softly, each word carrying meaning, making it easy to understand his words and work. We appreciate his sharing this teaching moment with our readers.
You can find his interview on our website at www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

With over 35 years of clinical experience, Dirk developed his own method: Core Strokes™ — an integrative approach that bridges fascia-based bodywork, psychod...

07/11/2025

With over 35 years of clinical experience, Dirk developed his own method: Core Strokes™ — an integrative approach that bridges fascia-based bodywork, psychod...

07/11/2025

Dirk Marivoet shared a recent interview with Hana Hniličková where he talks about "the Energetic Breath Cycle, the possibility to meet oneself on deeper level when working with fascia (connective tissue of the body) and the healing power of relational presence." He speaks slowly and softly, each word carrying meaning, making it easy to understand his words and work. We appreciate his sharing this teaching moment with our readers.

You can find his interview on our website at www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

19/09/2025

Something essential emerges as people begin to feel their breath again, rather than controlling or manipulating it. Dirk Marivoet’s “The Energetic Breath Cycle™: Phenomenological Layers of Respiratory Experience” moves beyond static techniques, offering a pathway of being, of deep listening, of attunement.

SPT Magazine is pleased to share Dirk’s work with the Energetic Breath Cycle™. This article builds upon his earlier work on the Fascia Texture Typology™ (2025), where tissue qualities were described as diagnostic and therapeutic signposts. In a similar spirit, the Energetic Breath Cycle™ expands Reich’s or**sm formula into a more differentiated map of respiratory phases, each linked with developmental tasks, character adaptations, and relational dynamics. While empirical research in respiratory psychophysiology, polyvagal theory (Porges, 2011), and affect regulation (Schore, 2012) provides critical foundations, the clinical dimension presented in this article emphasizes what therapists directly observe and engage with in real-time.

19/09/2025

Learn more about "What Sustains" Dirk Marivoet on our website. This conversation is part of Serge Prengel's Proactive Mindfulness Podcast Series, which explores the process of mindful change. The podcast features stimulating discussions with therapists, mindfulness practitioners, and other thoughtful people.

19/09/2025

Dirk Marivoet, MSc, PT, PMT, ECP, CCEP, founder of Core Strokes and director of the International Institute for Bodymind Integration in Belgium, introduces a clinically derived fascial texture typology—a tactile language that captures the unseen but deeply felt states of the living body. Rooted in somatic psychotherapy and trauma-informed bodywork, the typology identifies distinct patterns in fascial tone, responsiveness, and energetic presence that reflect character defenses, developmental wounds, and healing potentials.
Textures such as Streaming Silk, Sticky Honey, Cold Wax, and Wilted Leaf offer therapists a new lens for reading and responding to the emotional landscape encoded in connective tissue. By integrating contemporary fascia science, polyvagal theory, and Reichian breathwork, this approach bridges the gap between structure and story, anatomy and attachment. It is a call for a new embodied science—one that honors presence, resonance, and the relational field as valid tools of diagnosis and transformation.

To read Dirk’s article, please visit www.SomaticPsychotherapyToday.com

07/07/2025

Dear friends,

I’m happy (and a little proud) to share that my new article has just been published in Somatic Psychotherapy Today (SPT)!

In this piece, I explore the Fascial Texture Typology™ and how it integrates with character structures, breathing patterns, and somatic psychotherapy practice. I also introduce elements from Neurofascial Encoding™, the Neurofascial Transformation Process™, and other frameworks I’ve been developing over the years.

My intention is to offer a nuanced, embodied perspective on how fascia acts as a living, expressive matrix — deeply connected to our emotional, developmental, and relational patterns.

👉 You can read the article here: Somatic Psychotherapy Today

Beyond this publication, I’m also excited to invite you to upcoming workshops and trainings:
✨ Introductory workshops in France (early September) and Prague (November)
✨ Core Strokes™ Modules in Normandy (September), Corsica (October), and more modules next year

All details and registration info can be found on bodymind-integration.com.

I hope the article sparks new reflections and offers inspiration — whether in your professional practice, your personal journey, or your own embodied exploration of life. I warmly welcome your thoughts, comments, and questions. And if you feel curious or called, you are warmly invited to join one of the workshops or Core Strokes™ modules — perhaps this is the perfect moment to deepen your connection with yourself and others.

With warm regards,
Dirk

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