About Dirk Marivoet
Dirk Marivoet is a European Certified Psychotherapist (ECP), psychomotor therapist, body psychotherapist, and founder of the International Institute for Bodymind Integration (IIBI) in Belgium.
He began his professional career at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), where he worked for eleven years as a Psychomotor Therapist and Body Psychotherapist within psychiatric hospital settings. This early clinical work provided a strong foundation in the treatment of psychological distress, psychosomatic disorders, trauma, and the relationship between bodily expression and emotional life.
For more than four decades, he has worked with individuals, couples, groups, and professionals, exploring how emotional experience, bodily expression, relational patterns, and developmental history become organized within the living body.
His professional background integrates body psychotherapy, somatic psychotherapy, Postural Integration®, Core Energetics, developmental psychology, trauma-informed practice, Polyvagal-informed approaches, and contemporary understandings of embodiment and nervous system regulation.
Throughout his career, Dirk has been particularly interested in the relationship between breathing, movement, emotional expression, fascia, relational contact, and the organism’s natural capacity for self-regulation and transformation.
He is also the founder of Core Strokes®, an integrative body-oriented psychotherapy approach that explores the dynamic relationship between breath, fascia, emotional process, embodiment, developmental experience, and relational presence.
As a teacher, trainer, and international presenter, Dirk has contributed to the ongoing development of body psychotherapy through clinical practice, professional training, research, writing, and experiential education.
About This Website
BodyPsychotherapy.info was created to provide clear, accessible, and evidence-informed information about body psychotherapy, somatic psychotherapy, and the role of the body in psychological healing and human development.
Body psychotherapy explores how emotions, trauma, attachment patterns, movement, breathing, posture, and bodily experience shape our lives. Rather than viewing mind and body as separate, it understands human experience as an integrated bodymind process in which thoughts, feelings, physiology, relationship, and embodiment continuously influence one another.
This website offers articles, educational resources, and professional information about:
- Body psychotherapy
- Somatic psychotherapy
- Trauma and nervous system regulation
- Attachment and developmental processes
- Embodiment and emotional healing
- Body-oriented psychotherapy training
- Professional training pathways in Europe
The Purpose of This Website
The purpose of BodyPsychotherapy.info is to offer an accessible introduction to the field of body psychotherapy and somatic psychotherapy for both professionals and the general public.
Whether you are seeking information about trauma, embodiment, attachment, emotional healing, professional training, or the history and practice of body psychotherapy, this site aims to provide reliable, practical, and professionally grounded resources.
The intention is not only to explain concepts, but also to support a deeper understanding of how psychological experience is expressed, organized, and transformed through the body.
Further Resources
Readers interested in more advanced theoretical, clinical, and professional material can explore additional resources developed by Dirk Marivoet:
Bodymind Integration
For in-depth articles, theoretical perspectives, and clinical reflections on body psychotherapy, trauma, embodiment, developmental process, and relational healing.
Core Strokes®
For information about the Core Strokes® method, professional training programs, breath-based approaches, fascia-informed psychotherapy, and embodied transformation.
This work is grounded not only in theory, but also in more than forty years of clinical practice, teaching, research, and direct experience with the body as a living, responsive, and continuously developing system.