Photo by Bethany DoyleThe Narrows in Newfoundland... Bioenergetics is a voyage in self discovery.
Atlantic Canada Society For
Bioenergetic Analysis
Founded by Alexander Lowen, M.D. bioenergetics is a further development of the psychoanalytic work of Wilhelm Reich.
Bioenergetics combines work with the body and work with the mind to create an in-depth understanding of who the person is, and what s/he needs in order to be fully alive and vibrant.
Photo by Bethany DoyleThe Narrows in Newfoundland... Bioenergetics is a voyage in self discovery.
Four major bodywork interventions in bioenergetics:
1. Awareness Experiences
What is Bioenergetic Analysis?Bioenergetic Analysis is a holistic form of psychotherapy
that works with the physical, emotional, and mental patterns
of men and women to reduce emotional stress and help with the
challenges of living. It is a way of understanding personality
in terms of the body and its energetic processes.
Bioenergetic theory is based on the premise that there is no
fundamental separation between the mind and the body: that
psychological stress reflects and creates what is happening
physically, and physical/somatic events both reflect and
create mental and emotional states. Emotional stress from
many areas - relationships, family crises, jobs, health, etc.
produce tension in the body. Contractions in the muscular
system are often the result of carrying unresolved emotional
tension. These contractions can have a direct effect on the
energy level of the individual, on the capacity for spontaneous
and creative self-expression, and on feelings of well-being.
Bioenergetic Analysis seeks to bring about the conscious
integration of mind and body. Therefore, the focus is on both
the psychological issues presented and the manifestation of
these issues as shown in the individual's body, energy, and
movement. Patterns of muscular tension reflect an individual's
emotional history and include such things as early childhood
relationships with caregivers, physical and emotional traumatic
experiences, and the degree to which self-development
was possible.
By addressing conflicts at a cognitive, emotional, and physical level, Bioenergetic Analysis seeks to help the individual gain greater understanding and awareness of old patterns of action and reaction, enlarge the capacity to tolerate and resolve old pain, and increase the ability to experience joy and pleasure. In addition to cognitive and emotional processing, Bioenergetics includes the following four major types of body work interventions to achieve the goals of your therapy.
Excerpt from the IIBA Ethics Committee
Awareness Experiences:Body awareness interventions are designed to assist you in attending to your experience of your body. The focus is on areas of muscular tension, posture, breathing patterns, and the ways in which physical and emotional tensions, behavioural patterns, and mental states are related. Methods of increasing body awareness may be suggested and encouraged.
Excerpt from IIBA Ethics Committee
Physical Interventions:Physical interventions are used to help bring more aliveness and movement to your body. These movement experiences may focus on areas of your body that have chronic muscular tension, poor circulation, lower levels of awareness, or restricted movement abilities. They may include stretching exercises to enhance the tone of your muscles, breathing skills to charge the body or create states of relaxation, or stress reduction tools to expand the range of states you are able to experience. The purpose of these interventions is to increase energy, charge, and feeling by reducing chronic muscular tension and increasing the capacity for movement and self-expression.
Excerpt from the IIBA Ethics Committee
Directed Expression:Difficult or traumatic material from your past is sometimes the focus of therapeutic work, and the release, understanding, and integration of these feelings through procedures that facilitate emotional expression can be a therapeutic goal. To assist you in moving toward this goal, your therapist may suggest directed experiences in emotional expression. You may be asked to participate in body movements, exercises, and experiences that can deepen emotional expression and help you clarify your feelings. In turn, these experiences are designed to support an expanded range of feelings and a deepening of emotional awareness.
Excerpt from the IIBA Ethics Committee
Touch:In Bioenergetic Analysis, touch is sometimes used to help bring awareness to your body, to release the tension in chronically held muscle groups, to support you during the release of past traumatic material, or to assist you in making new movements outside your usual restricted range of motion. The guidelines for the use of touch include asking your permission when touch is involved, respecting your personal boundaries and preferences in the use of touch, and staying within the guidelines for the use of touch designated by your therapists licensing board and professional association.
Excerpt from the IIBA Ethics Committee
Further Information:The effects of utilizing bodywork as part of your therapeutic approach are very individual and will depend on which procedures you choose to use, and the nature of the therapeutic problem you are attempting to solve.
A. Like other forms of therapy, Bioenergetic Analysis can heighten awareness of the past and present. These procedures can serve to bring up memories, images, and sensations that have been previously unconscious. They can also intensify feelings or emotional experiences that are connected to past traumas. Bodywork can also bring existing muscular tension patterns and physical limitations to your attention. Although the goal of such increased awareness is to help resolve emotional conflicts, there may be times during treatment, as in other forms of psychotherapy, when the feelings may be uncomfortable or intense. A Bioenergetic therapist will work with you to understand these experiences and help you to focus and integrate them.
B. Bioenergetic Analysis can result in the intensification of feelings toward friends, relatives, or the therapist. These feelings can be either positive or negative and relate to established patterns of emotional connection and bonding as well as what is occurring in the present. The interpersonal dimension of the therapeutic part of the process can be better understood and new, more satisfying ways of relating can be achieved.
C. Bioenergetic Analysis involves the exploration of the established boundaries around the self experiences - the boundaries of the body that are felt if touch is applied, the boundaries of the emotional self that are stimulated when contact is made with others, and the interpersonal boundaries that are affected when deep emotional issues are shared with others. The goals of Bioenergetic Analysis include an exploration of the way these boundaries create and maintain the patterns in the experience of the self and in relationships. Out of this exploration, changes can be facilitated to promote greater self development and well-being.
Excerpt from the IIBA Ethics Committee
Who Would Benefit?
Bioenergetic Therapy Provides:
safety and support
an integrated understanding of the whole person
a help to opening one's heart to love and life
a path to in-depth healing
Bioenergetic Therapy Treats Problems Such As:
depression
anxiety
self-esteem issues
emotional difficulties
stress related illness
relationship difficulties
loss and grief
sexual abuse
Therapy for Therapists:
Over the years, we have found that Bioenergetic therapy has
a unique appeal to professional psychotherapists, whether
or not they practice mind-body therapy with their own clients!
As a personal therapy for professional therapists,
bioenergetics offers an opportunity to explore on a body level,
issues that verbal therapy may not have reached or resolved.
The bioenergetic therapist possesses in their use of body-related
techniques, a second language with which to communicate with their
clients. This second language often speaks to preverbal experiences
that haven't been reached by traditional verbal therapies.
When therapists deal effectively with these personal issues in
therapy, they are better equipped to identify and work with
these issues with their clients.
Personal bioenergetic therapy prepares the therapist to move
into deeper clinical work, to understand how their own issues
(countertransference) interact with the client and to more clearly
identify and use the client's transference as a tool rather than
a resistance. The increased ability to work with deeper clinical
issues is a benefit of completing one's own therapy.
Excerpt from the IIBA Home Page
Services Available:
