Bioenergetic analysis is a therapeutic approach that sets out to restore the free flow of energy between body and mind. Unresolved childhood conflicts are thought to block that energy and print themselves on the body as muscular tension, aggression, mood disorders or anxiety — an idea that is not far from traditional Chinese medicine and its circulation of Qi.
What exactly is bioenergetic analysis?
It is a psychodynamic psychotherapy that works on four dimensions at once: the psychic, the emotional, the interpersonal and the somatic, meaning the body. The approach holds them together, giving energy and physical form equal attention throughout the course of therapy.
Where does bioenergetic analysis come from?
It draws first on Freudian psychoanalysis — childhood conflicts, resistance, defences — and then on the character analysis of Wilhelm Reich. For Reich, character was above all a form of narcissistic protection: a psychic and physical defence built from childhood, whose bodily expression he called the “muscular armour”.
Alexander Lowen, Reich’s student and patient, went on to build a typology of character tied to the successive stages of development.
When growth is thwarted, a person builds defensive strategies, psychic as much as somatic, to protect the self from future injury — and in doing so loses some of the capacity to express certain emotions.Freely translated from Baum, 2015, via Universalis.fr
The bioenergetic analysis Lowen designed seeks to give back that potential for vitality, by restoring the expressiveness this defensive system holds down.
What happens in a session?
Listening closely and reading the body, the therapist looks for what was at stake for the patient at key moments of development, and for the way those moments shaped body and mind alike. Link by link, present experience connects back to old conflicts.
Who is this therapy for?
| Detail | |
|---|---|
| Indications | Psychological and emotional disorders (stress, depression, anxiety, insomnia) and psychosomatic disorders (joint pain, ulcers, impotence) |
| Contraindications | None, apart from severe personality disorders that require specialist care |
