On Learning to ‘Hit with Love’: The Martial Arts and Therapy

Abstract

In this paper I consider the metaphorical connections between the arts of therapy and the martial arts. While there are many differences between martial arts and therapy, there are also many potential connections. Both can be considered as attempts to identify principles for responding creatively to conflict. Different forms of therapy and different forms of martial arts can be distinguished by their various attempts to describe methods of training and practice that promote the possibility of ‘competence’. This paper also considers the extent to which existential phenomenological therapy may have metaphorical connections to the ‘internal’ or ‘soft’ martial arts while cognitive behavioural therapy can be seen to be connected to the ‘hard’ or ‘external’ styles such as karate.