BIOENERGY (A.
Lowen)
or body/mind/emotions harmonisation
Some
traumatic emotional experiences, which often take
root in early
childhood, can lead to a contraction of certain
muscle regions at the
same time as a "devitalization of the
emotional state to protect
the soul".
According
to the concept of the functional identity of body
and mind,"the
energetic process of the body determines
what happens in the mind
just as it determines what
happens in the body."
Bioenergetic
analysis considers the person as a
"psychosomatic unity":
what happens in the body also
happens in the mind, and inversely.
This
therapy consists of reducing the structured
neuromuscular defences in
the body in the form of chronic
contractions, to better circulate the
"blocked energies"
through physical or breathing exercises;
which allows
patients to reconnect with their personality and the
vitality
of their body and to reduce possible psychological neurosis
by improving their "vital energy" and their free emotional
expression.
The
goal is the development of new forms of self-expression,
initially
non-verbal, through the use of postures or
movements to highlight
body tensions. Emotional discharge,
in the form of screams, cries,
can be requested after the
tensioning and before the integration
phase with a view to
possible verbalization.
The
body work undertaken consists first of all in developing
attention to
sensations. Then, with the help of breathing
exercises, postures,
movements and manual pressure from
the therapist, we promote
awareness of old muscle tensions
that have become chronic. The
objective is to discover the
defences that the patient built as a
child to face difficult
situations, then to make them more flexible
and reorganize
them.
Emotions
are considered here as the "spontaneous
movements of the
organism".
It
is an "approach to the depths" that does not only consist
in
making symptoms disappear, but also in helping the person
to meet,
to tame himself and to reorganize the very
structure of his
personality.