How to Change Your Body: Interoception, Social Connection, and Healing Through the Mind-Body Relationship

Interoception, or awareness of internal bodily signals, is presented as a crucial but often overlooked part of mental health and healing. The book connects conditions including depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD with disconnection from the body and from social relationships. Saga Briggs combines peer-reviewed research, interviews with scientists, somatic practitioners, and artists, and personal reflections on recovery from alcohol dependence. It examines how social connection, synchronous movement, energy work, somatic practices, and psychedelic-assisted therapy may deepen bodily awareness, strengthen relationships, and support emotional healing. The central argument is hopeful but exploratory: returning attention to the body and rebuilding connection with oneself and others may offer an important complement to conventional approaches to mental health.