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USABP Journal Vol. 2, No. 1
Body Awareness in the Pre-personal World: Working with Strain Trauma
Alexis A. Johnson, Ph.D.
Abstract: This article explores an integrated approach to early childhood development and therapy with two different clients. While one client dissociates and the other is hyper-vigilant, both suffer from strain trauma and its consequences. This integrated approach involves the therapist paying particular attention to his own bodily sensations and emotions and facilitating that same awareness in the client. The healing journey is delineated by the kinds of questions the therapist can ask the client. Clarifying questions allow the therapist to mirror the client's immature narcissistic needs. Leading questions narrow the client s focus and allow the therapist to have more of an agenda. Relational questions address what is happening in the present and in the relationship. Even though these clients gather the capacity to trust and change only slowly, the therapist must hold hope and see the client's wholeness. This combination of seeing wholeness, body awareness and good questions offers an exciting therapeutic map for the pre-personal world.
Interactional Shaping within Therapeutic Encounters: Three Dimensional Dialogues
Penelope A. Best, PGCE, MCAT, ILTM, SRDMT
Abstract: This paper suggests that within therapeutic encounters, and explicitly within body therapies, there is relational shaping between the body of the client and body of the therapist, and between the body of therapist and body of the supervisor. This mutual shaping is both active and passive and takes place both consciously and unconsciously in the spaces in between individuals and between individuals and contexts. This improvised relational dance consists of interactions in which the players influence each other, and each other's stories, over time. The present paper introduces and defines the concept Interactional Shaping, as a frame for conflating dance therapy, movement observation and social constructionist discourses. It presents supportive qualitative data from a dance therapy supervision research project. It also locates the concept of Interactional Shaping within other related theoretical perspectives and gives a rationale for offering another viewpoint for observing relationships. Whilst the context for this paper is set within dance therapy, the focus upon mutual influence within relationships is relevant for any professional working within therapeutic, caring or education sectors.
Carl Rogers: Body-Oriented Psychotherapist
Peter S. Fernald, Ph.D.
Abstract: Carl Rogers's person-centered approach is essentially body-oriented. This thesis is considered in four contexts: 1) the moments and dimensions of change in psycho-therapy; 2) person-centered theory; 3) Rogers's activities as psychotherapist; and 4) similarities between Rogers's and Wilhelm Reich's thinking about human nature. . . . psychotherapy is a process whereby man becomes his organism ¾ without self-deception, without distortion ... (It) seems to mean a getting back to basic sensory and visceral experience (Rogers, 1961, p 103).
Moving Clinical Work into Research: Study Preparation, Design, and Implementation
Cynthia Price, M.A.
Abstract: There is growing interest among bodywork therapists and body-psychotherapists, as well as among other health care providers, in bodywork and body-psychotherapy research. Therapists who choose to become researchers will draw from their clinical expertise while entering the world of conceptual framework and linear models. It is important that clinician-researchers have access to conversation and resources about the preparation and implementation process of intervention research in this field. At this time, there is very little literature of this kind available. This article provides a brief account of a doctoral student's learning process as she develops and oversees a body psychotherapy intervention.
USABP Journal Vol. 2, No. 2
Panic, Biology, and Reason: Giving the Body Its Due
Peter A. Levine, Ph.D.
Abstract: The key both to developing and healing traumatic symptoms resides in our primitive physiology. The involuntary and instinctual portions of the human brain and nervous system are virtually identical to those of mammals and even reptiles. Since the parts of the brain that are activated by life threatening situations are the parts we share with animals, much can be learned by studying how prey animals avoid traumatizaqtion even though their lives are threatened on a routine basis. When faced with what is perceived as inescapable or overwhelming threat, humans and animals both use the immobility response. The important thing to understand about this function is that is is involuntary. This simply means that the physiological mechanism governing this response resides in the primitive, instinctual parts of our brains and nervous systems, and is not under our conscious control. This is why the study of wild animal behavior is vital to th eunderstanding and healing of human trauma.
Transference and Resistance: A Case Study in Bioenergetic Analysis
Elizabeth Rablen, M.D.
Abstract: The theory of tranference is explored as well as the basis for the integration of bodywork and psychoanalysis. The historical roots of bioenergetic analysis are presented. The case study demonstrates how using the bioenergetic stool brings defensive structures and strong feelings into the patient's awareness. Agression expressed in exercises of kicking on or hitting the bed break through psychological an dmuscular inhibitions, elucidating the role of muscle blocks and transference. Exerciese in learning to say "No" while hitting the bed help the patient discover and correct early experiences of this right denied. With boundary exercies the patient becomes aware of violations to his boundaries and learns to protect them.
Shadows on the Moon: The Neglect of the Soul and the Feminine in Body-Psychotherapy
Katherine Brown, MA
Abstract: This paper, originally a talk in Lindau at the 1991 EABP conference, deals with the unique challenge to every body psychotherapist to remain true to his/her inner self in the role of psychotherapist and never to be straitjacketed by what the mind or rational ego has been taught by others. Women body psychotherapists who imitate the masculine orientation in terms of its dominant logos and spiritual warrior modes that affirm the will primarily betray the feminine soul. We must learn to trust the slower, quietly pervasive energy flow which emanates through our dominant chest and belly regions from endodermal depths. This flow connects us intuitively by way of immediate feeling resonances with the client's longings for personal growth and encourages the latter to explore and discover the natural healer within.
Common Threads: Stories of Life After Trauma
Marcel A. Duclos, M.Th., M.Ed. and Connie Robillard, MA
Abstract: In this article, a girl and a boy who grow up to become body-focused psychotherapists reveal the inner experience of their personal world. The common threads of trauma and recovery are woven into the ethics of self-care. The reader is first introduced to their adult voices, and is then led to reflect upon the implications of two of their respective childhood stories. Without the use of formal and clinical language, the article invites the reader to self-assess the implications of abuse and trauma in the conduct of body-psychotherapy.
Recent Body-Centered Publications Based on the Psychology of C. G. Jung
Aline LaPierre, Psy.D.
Abstract: This review presents nine body-centered Jungian-based publications addressing four important themes that are in the foreground of body symbolism: 1) the body in archetypal symbolism, 2) the body as intutitive sacred ground, 3) the body as respository for unarticulated feelings, and 4) illness as metaphorical source of insight motivating the individuation journey. Books are reviewed to succinctly expose their core ideas and relevant Jungian concepts are explained so that the reader who is unfamiliar with Jungian approaches can becvome more conversant in Jungian theory.
In Evan's Case: Reflections on the Different Bodies of Psychotherapy
Scott Baum, Ph.D.
Abstract: This article provides case material as a way of exploring two related themes. The first is the use of a theoretical and technical model in psychotherapy which embraces and builds on a somatopsychic viewpoint. The second focuses on the dynamics of father son relatedness in individual men and as a social force. The article remains mainly rooted in the work of this particular therapeutic outlook, but also attempts to draw conclusions relevant to the field in general. The dynamics which infuse the therapy of this particular man are seen as reflections of his relationship with his father. Those dynamics are also examined for their relavance to social forces which are part of the formation of the structures which contain and shape the interpersonal relationships which give expression to those same dynamics in the world.
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