Interpreting physical sensations to guide health-related behavior : An introductory review on psychosomatic competence


Author: Christian Fazekas1, Dennis Linder2,3, Franziska Matzer2, Josef Jenewein2, Barbara Hanfstingl4

Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Department of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 3, 8036, Graz, Austria. christian.fazekas@medunigraz.at.

<sup>2</sup> Department of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 3, 8036, Graz, Austria.

<sup>3</sup> Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.

<sup>4</sup> University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria.
Conference/Journal: Wien Klin Wochenschr
Date published: 2021 Dec 10
Other:
  Special Notes: doi: 10.1007/s00508-021-01988-8.   ,  Word Count: 138  
    From a biopsychosocial perspective, maintaining health requires sufficient autoregulatory and self-regulatory capacity to both regulate somatic physiology and manage human-environment interactions. Increasing evidence from neuroscientific and psychological research suggests a functional link between so called interoceptive awareness and self-regulatory behavior. Self-regulation can, again, influence autoregulatory patterns as it is known from biofeedback training or meditation practices. In this review, we propose the psychosomatic competence model that provides a novel framework for the interrelation between interoceptive and self-regulatiory skills and health behavior. The term psychosomatic competence refers to a set of mind- and body-related abilities which foster an adequate interpretation of interoceptive signals to drive health-related behavior and physical well-being. Current related empirical findings and future directions of research on interoception and self-regulation are discussed.



Keywords: Autoregulation; Cognitive ability; Health behavior; Interoception; Self-regulation.



PMID: 34893940 DOI: 10.1007/s00508-021-01988-8