By Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R, CCATP & Amir Levine, PhD, LCSW-R, Co-Founders, Bhava Therapy Group
When people think of therapy, they often imagine sitting across from someone, talking through feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. While talk therapy is essential, it’s only part of the picture. At our practice, we believe true healing happens when the mind and body are treated as one—because they are. This belief is at the heart of our signature approach: the Bhava Method.
Grounded in decades of clinical experience, evidence-based practices, timeless wisdom traditions and neuroscience, the Bhava Method blends integrative psychotherapy with embodied healing practices to support deep and lasting change. We’ve seen firsthand how addressing the body’s needs—alongside emotional and cognitive exploration and narratives —unlocks transformation in ways traditional talk therapy often can’t.
Understanding the Mind-Body Connection in Therapy
Science has increasingly affirmed what holistic practitioners have long known: the body holds emotional experiences. The nervous system plays a central role in how we store and process trauma, regulate emotions, and connect with others. When we ignore the body in therapy, we risk missing critical information—and crucial healing opportunities.
Research shows that approaches integrating body-based and somatic techniques—such as mindfulness, movement, breathwork, and somatic tracking—improve outcomes for anxiety, depression, PTSD, and stress-related disorders. One of our Bhava therapists put it perfectly: “When clients learn to create space for and how to listen to their bodies, we begin to see shifts that talking alone never seemed to touch.”
The Four Pillars of the Bhava Method
We designed the Bhava Method around four essential pillars that support and are vital for mental and emotional health. Each pillar addresses a core aspect of the mind-body system and offers accessible tools to bring the whole self into alignment.
1. Sleep: The Foundation of Emotional Resilience
Quality sleep is a non-negotiable for mental wellness. Without it, emotional regulation, memory, and mood all suffer. We guide clients in bringing awareness to and noticing sleep habits and the role they play in their lives. Improving sleep hygiene can be a complex process including increasing understanding of individual circadian rhythms, addressing common barriers like rumination and screen-time overload and making a plan to make realistic incremental change. There are times in a person’s life, such as when bringing a new baby home, when quality sleep is negligible. Our approach accounts for all aspects of real life that can have a significant impact on one’s sleep.
2. Nutrition: Fueling Your Mood and Mind
What we eat profoundly impacts how we feel. The gut-brain connection is real—our microbiome affects neurotransmitter production, inflammation, and emotional stability. While we are not licensed dietary nutritionists or dieticians, we educate clients on basic brain-supportive nutrients, mindful eating, and realistic dietary shifts to enhance the work they are doing in therapy. And if need be, we recommend seeking further guidance from licensed dietary nutritionists.
3. Movement: Regulating the Nervous System
Movement is medicine for the mind and soul. Whether it’s walking, stretching, dancing, playing a sport or yoga, physical activity helps process emotion, reduce anxiety, and restore nervous system balance. Our bodies were designed to move us through life. Bringing awareness to how our bodies carry us through life and how we inhabit them is essential when we are working towards mental health awareness, healing and balance. At Bhava, we help our clients feel more embodied and help them find forms of movement that are accessible and that feel good, not forced, and integrate them into their healing process.
4. Mindful Consumption: What You Take In Shapes You
It’s not just food that nourishes—or depletes—us. The media we consume, the environments we inhabit, and the sensory inputs we engage with all shape our inner landscape. We work with clients to create more intentionality around digital use, create better boundaries where needed, curate nourishing inputs, and explore creative and spiritual practices that restore the soul.
Implementing the Bhava Method in Your Life
Change doesn’t require an overhaul. Start by asking just a few simple questions:
- How aware do I feel of my body throughout the course of my day?
- How has my sleep been lately?
- Do I feel nourished by the food and media I consume?
- Have I moved my body in a way that feels good this week or today even?
- Where might I be storing stress in my body and how can I bring more caring and attuned attention to my body?
- Am I making space for true rest, creativity, or meaningful connection?
From there, small adjustments can have a big impact. We can recommend a few apps that while we have no affiliation with, we have tried out ourselves and life – apps like Calm (for meditation sessions and sleep support), Insight Timer (for sleep and meditation), YouAte (for mindful eating), and StretchIt (for gentle movement routines). Discuss these pillars with your therapist—many clients find that this integrated approach opens doors into themselves that they had previously never fully noticed.
A Story of Transformation
One of my clients, Sam (name changed), came to us feeling chronically stuck—plagued by anxiety, insomnia, and low self-worth. While therapy sessions helped surface insight, naming some deeply held and stultifying core beliefs, progress was slow.
Once we introduced the Bhava Method and began exploring Sam’s sleep patterns, nutritional habits, and screen-time overload, and additional life habits, things began to shift. Through simple changes—consistent bedtime routines, gentle morning, midday and evening stretches, introducing binaural beats for work time and ambient music and meditation at bedtime as well as limiting late-night scrolling—Sam began to feel calmer, more focused, and more empowered in therapy. That momentum carried into deeper emotional work and, ultimately, a profound transformation.
In Closing
The Bhava Method reminds us that healing is holistic. By supporting the whole person—body, mind, and spirit— and doing so incrementally, over time and in realistic and digestible ways, we create the conditions for resilience, self-awareness, and sustainable growth.
You don’t have to change everything at once. Choose one pillar to explore today. Take a mindful breath at different intervals throughout your day. Get up and stretch before sending a reactive reply to a snarky email, Take a short walk. Turn off notifications. Whatever it is, start small—and notice what changes for you.
When mind and body work together, and consistently over time, transformation becomes not just possible, but inevitable.
If You’re Thinking About Making a Change…
The journey toward true healing begins when we honor both mind and body. At Bhava Therapy Group, our holistic psychotherapy approach has helped hundreds of New Yorkers find relief from anxiety, depression, trauma, and chronic stress.
Take Your First Step Today:
- Schedule a Consultation: Speak with one of our new client coordinators who will assist in scheduling an initial consultation with a Bhava therapist who specializes in mind-body integration
- In-Person or Virtual: Choose between meeting a therapist in-person at either our Manhattan office or soon to open White Plains office in Westchester County or meet via secure online sessions
- Insurance Options: We work with several major insurance providers including Aetna, Cigna, HealthFirst, MetroPlus and United Healthcare
- Personalized Approach: a treatment plan tailored to your unique needs and goals
Don’t wait to begin your healing journey. The integration of mind and body isn’t just a philosophy—it’s the path to lasting transformation.
Call (646)-389-5801 or message us at newclients@bhavatherapygroup.com to schedule your initial consultation
Our team is ready to support you with compassionate, evidence-based care that addresses your whole self—not just your symptoms.
Resources:
Alessia Giampà. “Embodied Online Therapy”: The efficacy of somatic and psychological treatment delivered digitally. Advances in Medicine, Psychology, and Public Health, 2024, 1 (3), pp.164-169. https://hal.science/hal-04536049/
Dana, D. (2018). The Polyvagal theory in therapy: engaging the rhythm of regulation (Norton series on interpersonal neurobiology). WW Norton & Company.
Dicks, L. M. T. (2024). Our Mental Health Is Determined by an Intrinsic Interplay between the Central Nervous System, Enteric Nerves, and Gut Microbiota. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25(1), 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25010038
