" The Relationship between strong affect, deep bodywork, and psychic and interpersonal dynamics "

Principal author: Scott Baum, Ph.D. ABPP
In collaboration with: Vivian Guze; Danita Hall, LCSW; Anita Madden, MSN; Ron Panvini, Ph.D.; Emma Rhoads, LCSW; Jodi Schneider, LP, LMHC; Judy Silberstein, LCSW; Elaine Tuccillo, Ph.D.

Copyright: New York Society for Bioenergetic Analysis, 2011 - https://bioenergetics-nyc.org/

This article has been translated in Chinese by Yang Li (China BA Group) - Check  ...  here !

Psychotherapy, as it is practiced today and for the last 100 years, is a medium of transformation. Individuals come to psychotherapy seeking to manage and, if possible, to heal their pain and suffering, hoping to find understanding of and refuge from inner torment, grief, confusion and conflict. The revolutionary core of psychotherapy is in its fundamental technique and goal of self-awareness. Psychotherapy, at its best, places change in the hands and body of the person. Through self-knowledge, leading to self-confidence, self-assertiveness and the possibility for autonomous choice, the person is empowered to take those steps that will make life more meaningful, more truthful, and more pleasurable. Bioenergetic Analysis was founded in the early 1950’s in this revolutionary tradition. Grounded self-awareness was then, and is now, the fundamental method of transformation and healing. This is its central and radical emphasis. As Bioenergetics has evolved, the belief in helping the developing person to become the change agent in his or her own life has become more profoundly embraced through an integration of modern concepts and technique.

Bioenergetic Analysis recognizes each individual as possessing an underlying structure of personality and motivation, which has evolved from a unique and complex pattern of factors, including genetic disposition and early environmental influences. Early relationships with parents and significant other adults, and the mechanisms of identification, internalization and other patterns of attachment that take place within these early relationships, are understood to be central to the development of self and identity. It shares this view with all schools of psychodynamic theory. It has also, from its inception as a therapeutic modality maintained the principle that somatic and psychic structures and processes are different aspects of the same underlying unified energetic functioning. Patterns of emotional response, belief, and understanding are structured into people’s personalities, and into our bodies, in ways that can be studied and used to help ourselves and others change in constructive and productive ways.

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