Bioenergetic psychotherapists believe that there is a correlation between the mind and the body. The individual is viewed as a psychosomatic unity. What affects the body affects the mind; and what affects the mind affects the body. The psychological defenses one uses to handle pain and the stress of life - rationalizations, denials, and suppressions, are also anchored in the body. They appear in the body as unique muscular patterns that inhibit self-expression. These patterns can be identified and understood by a bioenergetic psychotherapist who knows how to look at the structure, movement and breathing patterns in a person's body.

Bioenergetic Analysis (also called Bioenergetic Therapy, or Bioenergetics) is a somatic psychotherapy which combines work with the body and the mind to help individuals resolve emotional problems and to increase their potential for pleasure and joy in living.

Based on the premise that there is no fundamental separation between the mind and the body, Bioenergetic Theory is a way of understanding personality in terms of one's body, its form and movement; i.e., the body and mind are one and interact with each other as a whole.

Emotional stress from many areas of one's life relationships, family, work, health produce tension in the body. The body reacts to stress by contracting. 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 Therapy seeks to bring about the conscious integration of mind and body by working with the special relationship between various levels of experience: cognitive, emotional, physical, spiritual and energetic.

What To Expect In Bioenergetic Therapy

In Bioenergetic Therapy, the focus is on both the psychological issues presented and the manifestation of these issues as shown in each individual's body, energy, and movement. The verbal work focuses on an examination of an individual's past, dreams, associations and current behaviors. It also focuses on the relationship between the client and the therapist.

Work with the body involves addressing disturbances in breathing and chronic muscular tension through a variety of movements, positions, and exercises. Bioenergetic Therapy facilitates change on a deep body level.

By addressing conflicts at a cognitive, emotional, spiritual and physical level, Bioenergetic therapy works with the whole person. It 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 pleasure and co tactfulness in living feeling connected to oneself, to others, and to one's surroundings

Breathing and Grounding

In Bioenergetic Therapy, special attention is given to breathing and what is called grounding.

Breathing is essential to living and to feeling. Simply stated, breathing provides the oxygen which is the basis of our energy production. Restricted breathing will limit our energy.

Breathing is also intimately connected to our emotional state. Since we suppress emotion by holding our breath and tensing our muscles, we find that with every emotional disturbance one will find a disturbance in the pattern of breathing. The chronic muscular tensions caused by unresolved emotional conflicts inhibit full and free breathing. Bioenergetic therapists work with the client to raise awareness of one's breathing patterns and to remove the chronic tensions which inhibit free breathing. At times, deepening one's breathing will release held emotions and memories, facilitating the resolution of these emotions and/or memories can then become possible. To breathe deeply is to be fully alive.

Grounding is understood as the quality of one's connection with oneself, one's body and one's surroundings. To be grounded is to have identity and security in who you are. These metaphors express groundedness: holding one's ground, having your feet on the ground, being sure-footed, having a standing in the community, and standing on one's own two feet.

Most people know the experience of being ungrounded to one degree or another. These metaphors reflect being ungrounded: being a pushover, having your head in the clouds, being weak kneed, losing ground, or being hung up. A primary goal in Bioenergetic therapy is to become more grounded in oneself and in one's environment.

Bioenergetic Psychotherapy: A Client's Perspective

"I had been in therapy for problems in my marriage several times over the past five years. My partner and I had seen two different therapists, each of whom helped us explore the issues that were causing problems in our relationship. We learned how to better communicate and listen to each other. Skills to better manage our time, our stress level and our financial disagreements were offered. Things always improved, for a time. But eventually we found ourselves back in the rut of discord and discontentment. Could it be that each time a new or related problem arose, we would need to return to therapy? Something didn't make sense to me. It seemed as if we were addressing the surface problems, one at a time, like pulling weeds. But, somehow, the roots were never dealt with and those weeds returned in months or years. I was ready for a deeper exploration of myself and my issues that seemed to cause problems in my life over and over again.