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The Healing Arts – Forging Alliances of Arts & Medicine

International Society for Arts and Medicine (ISfAM)
18.-20.06.2026
Berlin

Meeting Abstract

The BodyMind Approach for managers with distressing bodily symptoms: An embodied approach for coaching

Ozlem Lale Kaleli - University of Hertfordhire, The School of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences
Helen Payne - University of Hertfordhire

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Somatisation or medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are distressing bodily symptoms for which tests and scans always come back normal. Chronic headache, back/joint/muscular pain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and vertigo is some of the examples for these conditions. Often accompanied with anxiety and/or depression MUS cause significant disruptions to feelings, thoughts and behaviour, leading to poor performance, quality of work and social life and wellbeing. MUS are common worldwide and also in the workplace. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of The Bodymind Approach (TBMA), an evidence-based, arts-driven embodied learning approach, designed and applied for patients with MUS in the NHS in UK, for managers distressed with MUS in Turkey. In this study, TBMA is adapted and delivered in a coaching context, through a 12-week group coaching intervention for self-referred managers. The study was designed as a randomised control trial with the hypothesis that coaching through TBMA would produce positive effects in symptom distress and overall wellbeing for managers with MUS when compared to a waiting list. A mixed methodology was employed. Quantitative findings showed strong and statistically significant improvements in symptom distress and overall wellbeing . Qualitative findings supported the quantitative results, with participants describing coaching through TBMA as a transformative learning experience that enhanced symptom/body and self-awareness and facilitated new coping strategies. In conclusion, coaching through TBMA employing embodied methods and arts practices can act as a method for developing self-management of MUS and improve wellbeing.