Looking for free interoception resources?

Check out our FREE printables that will help you in your interoception journey.

Yes, please! Count me in!
Background Artwork

Unlocking the Body-Brain Connection: What Important Role Does Interoception Play in Mental Health?

girl thinking about interoception

So, what’s the deal with interoception and its impact on mental health? Well, think about interoception as your body’s personal news broadcaster, constantly on air, monitoring, and reporting on the state of affairs from head to toe. It’s like a continuous live stream of information from areas such as your heart, stomach, muscles, and even your eyes, all to help your brain understand how your body is feeling.

This livestream airing from all your body parts provides clues to your emotion and body states in any given moment. Perhaps the livestream is indicating that your heart is racing, your stomach has a tingly feeling, and your muscles feel shaky. Your brain can use that incoming information as clues to what body or emotional state you are feeling. Is it anxiety? Fear? Hunger? And so forth.

The key to managing how we feel is understanding how we feel first which comes from a reliable interoception connection. When we’re in sync with these body signals, we can better understand and manage our reactions and adapt to stress. However, not noticing or misreading these signals could lead to the persistence of mental health issues like anxiety, depression or PTSD. Understanding interoception’s significant role in mental health can open up new ways to approach and improve our overall well-being.

Notice, Connect and Regulate Body Signals: The Interoception Curriculum

To effectively address mental health challenges, we need to take a more holistic approach that includes our bodies and our interoceptive experiences. We need to learn to notice, connect with, and regulate our body signals. This can be done through a variety of body-based therapies, including the evidence-based framework provided in The Interoception Curriculum.

The Interoception Curriculum consists of 25 lessons, divided into 3 sections:

thinking icon

Section 1: Body Lessons 1-16 are designed to teach the learner to notice body signals. Each lesson plan is focused on a single body part and encourages the learner to notice and describe signals within that single body part. Because positive practice during daily activity is an essential part of this curriculum, several strategies are provided to facilitate these practice opportunities in between lessons.

heart in brain icon

Section 2: Emotion Lessons 17-20 are designed to teach the learner to connect body signals to emotions. The theme in this section focuses on using body signals as clues to emotions–it is different for each person. Again, because positive practice during daily activity is an essential part of this curriculum, several strategies are provided to facilitate these practice opportunities in between lessons.

body signal icon

Section 3: Action Lessons 21-25 are designed to teach the learner to discover and use actions to regulate their body signals. The focus of the section is on finding individualized feel-good strategies, thus completing the body-emotion-action connection.

the interoception curriculum

The Missing Piece: Interoception in Therapy

 An unclear inner experience is found to be a common underlying area impacted across a majority of mental health diagnoses. For example, many people with anxiety, depression or PTSD report higher rates of interoception differences. This can include:

  • an inner experience that is muted or intense, resulting in a breakdown in noticing body signals
  • difficulty interpreting body signals
  • and/or difficulty regulating body signals effectively

Given the importance of this lesser-known sense, there has been a surge of interest to gain more insight. Interoception has been declared a research domain of priority by the National Institutes of Health.

Interoception could be the missing piece in mental health supports. Recognizing how our bodies uniquely feel and respond to different situations can offer valuable clues about our mental health status. We can better understand and regulate our emotions by tuning into these signals.

The Power of Interoception Activities

Interoception is not fixed; it’s a highly changeable process. Our various activities and supports centered on nurturing interoceptive awareness have shown promising results in supporting mental health. Many of our resources are adapted forms of body mindfulness—in an attempt to make an often complex and abstract process more successful and accessible to more people. Check out some of our interoception resources below:

Interoception yoga card

Interoception Yoga Cards

$49.00 USD – $69.00 USD

Interoception exercise card

Interoception Exercise Cards

$49.00 USD – $69.00 USD

On-Demand Courses for Mental Health Providers: Learn More About Interoception 

Our most popular resource, The Interoception Curriculum, provides a structured process for mental health practitioners seeking to incorporate interoception into their practice. This curriculum offers a step-by-step guide to nurturing interoceptive awareness in clients, promoting a curious and non-judgmental exploration of body signals.

The Interoception Curriculum can be used with clients of all ages (3-103 years) and can be adapted to meet a wide variety of learning needs and session styles.

Incorporating interoception-based supports into mental health care can open up new avenues for understanding and improving mental health. It’s not just about the mind but also the body.

Interested in learning more about interoception and its role in mental health? We invite you to explore our resources, including courses like these:

On-Demand Course: An Interoception-Based Approach for Supporting Traumatized Learners

On-Demand Course: An Interoception-Based Approach for Supporting
Traumatized Learners

$79.00 USD

On-Demand Course: Interoception Supports for Chronic Pain, Health Management & Emotional Well-Being in Adults: It is Never Too Late!

On-Demand Course: Interoception Supports for Chronic Pain, Health Management & Emotional Well-Being in Adults: It is Never Too Late!

$79.00 USD

On-Demand Course: Modern Emotion Regulation Supports for Neurodivergent Learners: Are you Keeping with the Times?

On-Demand Course: Modern Emotion Regulation Supports for Neurodivergent Learners: Are you Keeping with the Times?

$79.00 USD

A 3 Step Approach to Nurturing Interoceptive Awareness

On-Demand Course: A 3 Step Approach to Nurturing Interoceptive Awareness

$149.00 USD

On-Demand Course: Implementing a Neuro Affirming Model: Come Get Your Shift Together!

On-Demand Course: Implementing a Neuro Affirming Model: Come Get Your Shift Together!

$79.00 USD