A day exploring the relationship between body shape and personality through Lise Bourbeau’s five wounds theory, with Valerie Mohen, an instructor at Listen to Your Body School, as guest speaker
On tense days, the shoulders rise first; after hearing something hurtful, the chest curls inwards. Everyone has experienced moments when the body reacts before the mind has had time to notice. Perhaps the body silently remembers the time we have lived through.
A day has been set aside to examine that longstanding intuition calmly. The Korea Somatic Psychology Education Association, chaired by Jo Ok-kyung, will hold its first international somatic psychology workshop, 〈BodyBTI: Body Shape Is Personality〉, online via Zoom from 10am to 7pm on Saturday 21 November. Valerie Mohen, an instructor at Listen to Your Body School, the personal-development education organisation founded by author Lise Bourbeau, will speak at the event.
What is BodyBTI? Reading personality through the body
The name BodyBTI recalls the MBTI personality test. The difference is that, instead of asking about thoughts and preferences, it examines personal tendencies through physical clues such as body shape, posture and movement. The association said it had continued to run workshops and intensive training programmes on somatic psychology, yoga, somatics and energy healing, and had prepared this programme to help more people experience somatic psychology in an accessible and practical way.
The poster features five physical types: the fleeing persona, the dependent persona, the enduring persona, the dominant persona and the rigid persona. Participants first use a checklist to identify the type they most closely resemble, then form small groups with others of the same type to share their experiences.
Lise Bourbeau’s five wounds: putting somatic psychology into everyday language
The workshop is grounded in the five wounds theory of Lise Bourbeau, an author from Quebec, Canada. Bourbeau divides the main emotional wounds people experience into rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal and injustice. Her view is that when the masks people adopt to protect themselves from these wounds are repeated over time, they leave traces in body shape, posture, facial expression and the way people relate to others. The association cited 《All Wounds Leave Traces》 as Bourbeau’s major work embodying this perspective.
People who make themselves smaller to avoid rejection; people who repeatedly check their connections so they will not be abandoned again; people who tighten their bodies and emotions to conceal vulnerability. Reading the examples given by the association, familiar faces gradually come to mind. Usually, the last one standing there is oneself.
Bourbeau’s work has been read in countries around the world. According to a press release distributed by publisher Editions E.T.C. in November 2025, her 2000 book on the five wounds has been translated into 25 languages, including Korean, and has reached more than 3 million readers. Somatic psychology has continued to develop in the West through Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos since Wilhelm Reich, but it remains an unfamiliar field to the general public in South Korea. The association described Bourbeau as someone who has explained the relationship between body and mind in language that anyone can apply to their own life, rather than confining it to experts’ theories.
A programme in five stages: understanding, discovery, exploration, deepening and integration
The programme is structured in five stages: understanding, discovery, exploration, deepening and integration. It opens at 10am with a lecture by chair Jo Ok-kyung, 〈The Unconscious Speaks Through the Body〉. From 11am, participants will use a checklist to identify their BodyBTI as part of a period of self-exploration.
After lunch, an in-depth exploration in small groups by type will take place from 1.10pm to 2.40pm. Participants will share their experiences and examine how physical characteristics are connected with patterns of personality, emotions and relationships. From 3pm to 6.40pm, Valerie Mohen will give a lecture entitled 〈Heal your WOUNDS and find your true self, Healing inner wounds and restoring your true self〉. The day will end at 7pm after a question-and-answer session and closing remarks.
Speakers Valerie Mohen and chair Jo Ok-kyung
Valerie Mohen is a life coach and conflict-resolution specialist. According to the association, she has studied the five wounds and the dynamics of human relationships at Listen to Your Body School since 2012 and has worked as one of the school’s professional instructors since 2022. She has led workshops addressing fear, anger, stress and relationship difficulties through the lens of the five wounds.
Jo Ok-kyung, who will deliver the opening lecture, is a meditation instructor and health psychology specialist who holds a doctorate in psychology from Korea University and previously taught at Seoul University of Buddhism and Buddhism. Juniheal, a group of junior healers who have studied body-based self-exploration within the association, will also take part in the event.
The question that matters more than finding a type: what is my body saying?
The association stresses that the workshop’s aim goes beyond identifying types. It is about learning to read the body as information and examining the experiences and defences behind the person one has assumed oneself to be. The question “How have I protected myself?” leads to another: “What are my resources?”
A type can become a label that confines a person, or a mirror that helps them understand themselves more generously. This workshop recommends the mirror. Even the writer, while putting the article together, found themselves straightening their bent back and relaxing their shoulders. The message the body was conveying was closer than expected.
Who can attend and how to apply
The workshop is open to psychotherapists, bodywork practitioners, professionals working in integrated mind-and-body healing, and anyone interested in the field.
Mohen’s lecture will be delivered in English with consecutive interpretation by a professional interpreter. Lecture materials will be provided in advance, and the recording will be available to watch again for one week after the event. Participants will receive a workshop completion certificate issued by the association. The association said the event could provide a good starting point for people who want to study the body but do not know where to begin.
Event details
● Event: First International Somatic Psychology Workshop 〈BodyBTI: Body Shape Is Personality〉
● Date and time: 10am–7pm on Saturday 21 November 2026
● Format: Online via ZOOM
● Organiser: Korea Somatic Psychology Education Association
● Who can attend: Psychotherapists, bodywork practitioners, professionals working in integrated mind-and-body healing, and anyone interested
● Fee: General 140,000 won; early bird 120,000 won (until 31 October); association members 100,000 won (membership fee of 10,000 won payable separately)
● Included: Professional consecutive interpretation, lecture materials provided in advance, access to the recording for one week, and a completion certificate
● Registration: https://forms.gle/64hQgAkciTNTsbaG7
● Association membership: https://forms.gle/E4xrLoh2mjrHjyuh7
● Enquiries: 010-7657-6802