A day exploring the relationship between body type and personality based on Lise Bourbeau’s five wounds theory, featuring Valerie Mohen of Listen to Your Body School
On tense days, the shoulders rise first. After hearing something hurtful, the chest curls inward. Everyone has experienced a moment when the body reacts before the mind has time to recognize what is happening. Perhaps the body quietly remembers the years we have lived through.
A daylong program will offer a chance to calmly examine that longstanding intuition. The Korea Somatic Psychology Education Association, chaired by Jo Ok-kyung, will host its first International Somatic Psychology Workshop, 〈BodyBTI: Your Body Type Is Your Personality〉, online via Zoom from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 21. Valerie Mohen, an instructor at Listen to Your Body School, a personal-growth education institute founded by author Lise Bourbeau, will speak at the event.
What is BodyBTI? Reading personality through the body
The name BodyBTI evokes the MBTI personality test. But instead of asking about thoughts and preferences, it examines personal tendencies through physical clues such as body type, posture and movement. The association said it has continued to offer workshops and intensive training on somatic psychology, yoga, somatics and energy healing, and prepared this program to make somatic psychology easier and more concrete for a wider audience.
The poster features five body types: the fleeing persona, the dependent persona, the enduring persona, the controlling persona and the rigid persona. Participants will use a checklist to determine which type they most closely resemble, then form small groups with others of the same type to share their experiences.
Lise Bourbeau’s five wounds bring somatic psychology into everyday language
The workshop is grounded in the five wounds theory of Lise Bourbeau, an author from Quebec, Canada. Bourbeau categorizes the principal emotional wounds people experience as rejection, abandonment, humiliation, betrayal and injustice. Her view is that when the masks people adopt to protect themselves from those wounds are repeated over time, they leave traces in body shape, posture, facial expressions and the way people interact with others. The association cited her signature work, 《Every Wound Leaves a Trace》.
People who make themselves smaller so they will not be rejected, who repeatedly check their connections so they will not be abandoned again, or who tightly contain their bodies and emotions to hide vulnerability. As readers move through the examples presented by the association, familiar faces begin to come to mind—and in the end, it is usually their own.
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 reached more than 3 million readers. Somatic psychology has steadily developed in the West since Wilhelm Reich, through the work of Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos, but it remains unfamiliar to much of the Korean public. The association described Bourbeau as someone who explains the relationship between the body and the mind in language that anyone can apply to their own life, rather than confining it to specialist theory.
A program unfolding through five stages: understanding, discovery, exploration, deepening and integration
The program is structured in five stages: understanding, discovery, exploration, deepening and integration. At 10 a.m., chairperson Jo Ok-kyung will open the event with a lecture titled 〈The Unconscious Speaks Through the Body〉. Beginning at 11 a.m., participants will use a checklist to identify their own BodyBTI in a period of self-exploration.
After lunch, from 1:10 to 2:40 p.m., participants will take part in an in-depth exploration in small groups organized by type. They will share their experiences and examine how bodily traits connect with personality, emotions and relationship patterns. From 3 to 6:40 p.m., Valerie Mohen will lead a lecture titled 〈Heal your WOUNDS and find your true self, Healing inner wounds and restoring my true self〉. The event will conclude at 7 p.m. after a question-and-answer session and closing remarks.
Speakers Valerie Mohen and Chairperson Jo Ok-kyung
Valerie Mohen is a life coach and conflict-mediation expert. 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 a professional instructor there 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, holds a doctorate in psychology from Korea University and is a meditation instructor and health-psychology specialist who previously taught at Seoul University of Buddhism and Buddhism. The Junior Healer group, or JuniHeal, whose members have studied body-based self-exploration within the association, will also help run the event.
The question that matters more than finding a type: What is my body saying?
The association stressed that the workshop’s goal goes beyond identifying a type. Participants will learn to read the body as a source of information and examine the experiences and defenses behind the person they have come to believe they are. 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 with greater compassion. This workshop recommends the mirror. While organizing the information, the writer found herself straightening her curved back and relaxing her shoulders. The message from the body was closer than expected.
Who can attend and how to register
The workshop is intended for psychotherapy professionals, bodywork professionals and specialists in integrated mind-body healing, but anyone interested in the field may participate.
Mohen’s lecture will be conducted in English with consecutive interpretation by a professional interpreter. Lecture materials will be provided in advance, and participants will have access to a recording for one week after the event. Participants will receive a certificate of completion issued by the association. The association said the workshop could be 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: Your Body Type Is Your Personality〉
● Date and time: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, 2026
● Format: Online via ZOOM
● Organizer: Korea Somatic Psychology Education Association
● Audience: Psychotherapy professionals, bodywork professionals, specialists in integrated mind-body healing and anyone interested
● Registration fee: General admission 140,000 won; early bird 120,000 won through Oct. 31; association members 100,000 won, plus a separate 10,000 won membership fee
● Included: Professional consecutive interpretation, advance delivery of lecture materials, one week of access to the recording and a certificate of completion
● Registration: https://forms.gle/64hQgAkciTNTsbaG7
● Association membership: https://forms.gle/E4xrLoh2mjrHjyuh7
● Contact: 010-7657-6802