by Alice Kahn Ladas, Ed.D., CBTBioenergetic AnalystCo-author The G Spot and Other Recent Discoveries About Human Sexuality
@ Alice Kahn Ladas, l998

Bioenergetic Analysis is a body psychotherapy which treats body, mind and spirit as inseperable. Therefore it integrates work directly with the body together with the verbal analytic work that characterizes more traditional  psychotherapies. All psychotherapies inevitably involve both the relationship between the therapist and client and the bodies of both. How conscious practitioners are about both aspects of their work depends on their training. Most psychotherapists are well trained in relational, cognitive, or analytic psychotherapy but have little training in working directly with the body. Bioenergetic Analysts are thoroughly trained in all areas.

Feelings, thoughts, words and attitudes take place within our bodies.
Distortions in the body, feelings and ideas are initially caused by
difficulties in relationships (barring genetic problems, accidents or physical illness). These relational difficulties may be due to important individuals, such as parents, siblings, teachers etc. or they may be due to outside cultural pressures (e.g.from peers, school). As the Consumer Reports study of l995 revealed, the relationship with the therapist is the truely healing aspect of any psychotherapeutic endeavor. In the absence of a trusting relationship which includes clarity on the part of the therapist about where his/her own issues may distort perceptions, healing and growth is less likely to occur.

Why is it important to work consciously with the body as well as words?

Because as Professor Bessel Van der Kolk of Boston University says: The Body Keeps the Score...Talking about how you feel doesn`t really change how you are...You need experience in the body that resets it?. While there is no dispute about the huge role the mind plays in bodily responses or that cognitive insights can bring about large changes in peoples? behavior, no amount of insight will alter a chronically constricted breathing pattern or help a flaccid unmuscular body become stronger and more energetic. Why are breathing patterns important? Because inhibition of breathing is one way we initially learn to control our feelings. We hold our breath in fear, when we want to control anger or tears. Over time, the patterns become fixed and deprive us of energy.

Even more important, many people have traumatic experiences when very young for which there are no words...for example, children exposed to unconfrontable abuse by a parent or other adult on whom that small person depends for love. The results of such experiences may persist, without awareness, into adulthood. The words, memories and feelings attached to these experiences can  often be retrieved once the body begins to move again. Only then can the accompanying feelings be expressed in words.  Many areas  cannot
be penetrated by talking until certain tensions in the body have been
released.

There are a number of ways in which Bioenergetic Analysts may involve the body. Some are used by other types of psychotherapists but many are not.

• The therapist may ask the client to observe what is happening in his/her body, to talk about the bodily sensations and note when changes occur. For example, a client may say she/he feels a lump in the throat, or a knot in the stomach, furnishing the therapist with clues about what is going on. Many psychotherapists pay attention to the body in this way.
   

• The therapist may notice some habitual gesture, such as foot tapping or cuticle biting and ask the client to exaggerate that movement. Other psychotherapists may also work in this way.
   

• The therapist may note what is going on in her/his body and use the sensations not only as clues about what may be happening to the client but also what is happening to her/himself. These may reflect the therapist`s issues (technically known as countertransference) but it is also possible that the therapist`s body may be picking up clues about what the client is unable to express verbally. Well trained psychotherapists of many persuasions also pay attention to these bodily feelings. For example, the therapist may feel a sense of sadness while the client is describing a situation while smiling.
   

• The Bioenergetic Analyst pays careful attention to how the client?s body is structured, how the client carries him/herself and how the client moves. These observations are used for diagnostic purposes to understand the core issue presented by the client. Combined with a careful history and verbal communication, they help the Bioenergetic Analyst to clarify the basic problem and plan the optimal therapeutic approach. Psychotherapists who work primarily with words may make similar observations, either consciously or instinctively, but they are not trained to incorporate this valuable data diagnostically. The founder of Bioenergetic Analysis, Alexander Lowen, M.D. has an exceptional ability to "see the person" by reading the body and all Bioenergetic programs teach this skill systematically. Are the client?s shoulders hunched forward, is the structure top heavy, does the client appear to have his feet on the ground or his head in the clouds? Is the body well developed or does it look like the body of a small child? Bioenergetic Analysts draw conclusions from such observations about when trauma halted development and what kinds of defenses are used today. For example, a heavily muscled body has probably been interfered with at a later time in life, has different defenses and will require a different treatment strategy than a body which is underdeveloped and fragile.
   

• Bioenergetic Analysts use the same bodily observations for treatment as well as diagnosis. Noticing where the body is immobilized, perhaps frozen in fear or anger, they help clients learn how to relax that part of the body and move it again. Noticing where a group of muscles are chronically contracted or overly flaccid, they help the client release the contractions or mobilize the underdeveloped areas. Thus the client becomes able to feel more and to express these feelings in life where appropriate. Clients may be asked to kick, hit, move their hips, or bend backwards over the breathing stool. Sometimes these actions are performed simply to increase energy and deepen breathing, but they may also be employed when they are appropriate to what is presently going on in therapy. Kicking the legs, for example, will get breathing going. It will bring more vitality to the legs. But it may also bring out what the client
  needs to kick about. On occasion, kicking may lead to a deeply felt expression of emotion that has been surpressed such as rage or deep crying. Another example: if the client?s eyes express fear ( of which the client may be unaware), the Bioenergetic Analyst may invite the client to open the eyes really wide thus exaggerating or emphasizing the fear. This type of body intervention is another area where Bioenergetic Analysts depart from the way in which most psychotherapists proceed.
   

• The Bioenergetic Analyst may also touch the client but not without permission from the client making sure not to take advantage of the therapist`s position of power to gain assent that is not truely meant. For example, the Bioenergetic Analyst might ask to put pressure on either side of the nose when a client is holding back tears; or might hold the hand of a client who is walking, sensing his/her relationship to the ground...thus offering support to a shaky client. Most psychotherapists feel that touch is off limits except in a formal way like shaking hands when a client arrives or departs.
   

• The Bioenergetic Analyst may also use more of his/her body in relation to the client when that is what the client wants and needs. He/she might hold the head of a client who has lacked very early support, or stand with his/her back to the back of a client, thus literally backing her/him up. The therapist may also hold the client. These actions are done with appropriate care for clients who may just be learning how to reach for what they want or to deflect contact they do not wish. Most psychotherapists do not engage in this kind of bodily contact.

Dealing with the body directly as well as with words is more dynamic, more complex and more demanding than dealing with words alone. It has the potential of freeing the musculature and breathing in such a way that the client has greater energy and becomes more alive. Helping the client handle these changes constructively in the service of the client?s own goals requires keen theraputic skill. For this reason, the training of a certified Bioenergetic Analyst takes five to six years minimally. It is exceptionally thorough, extensive and includes in-depth training in analytic, relational and cognitive skills in addition to work with the body.