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Psychodynamic Foundations of Bioenergetic Analysis

Experiencing, Understanding and Healing the Body and the Mind
Bioenergetic Analysis and Attachment Theory
Volume 2 Part 1: Psychodynamic Theory for Bioenergetic Practice Chapter 1.3

Bioenergetic Analysis and Attachment Theory

Dorota Wejner

This essay traces the developments of Bioenergetic Analysis and Attachment Theory, and presents their respective basic concepts in terms of their similarities and differences. The author describes in detail how the different attachment styles correspond to the bioenergetic character structures, and how Bowlby’s concept of the Inner Working Model can play an important role in bioenergetic work. She makes concrete suggestions as to how therapists can support their clients in understanding their Inner Working Model and then expand it flexibly so that they can experience closeness and security in their lives.

Link to the original publication at Routledge

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  • Bioenergetic Analysis (BA) and Attachment Theory (AT) have their roots in Psychoanalysis, and both recognize the existence of intrapsychic processes while focusing on different areas. Therefore, they offer complementary perspectives for psychotherapeutic work.
  • Both BA and AT believe that a child’s early experiences with its primary caregivers are the main cause of mental disorders. While BA defines important maturation stages from 0 to 6 years of age in terms of child’s rights, AT focuses on the quality of the relationship with the primary attachment figure in the first three years of the child’s life.
  • BA is a dedicated psychotherapeutic approach. Character structures are defined and tools provided to specifically address the individual disorders in the psychotherapeutic work. AT, on the other hand, belongs to the field of developmental psychology. It distinguishes and defines attachment styles that enable empirical research in the area of human attachment development.
  • AT postulates the primacy of an instinctual striving for attachment, while BA places the striving for the joy of life at the center of its psychological considerations.
  • From an AT perspective, all of BA’s character structures are associated with insecure attachment styles.
  • The main goals of BA, i.e., to help the client to develop their self-regulatory abilities, experience autonomy and improve their reaction flexibility, correspond to the secure attachment style of AT. Therefore, fostering affect and relationship regulation skills can be decisive for the success of a bioenergetic therapy.
  • Based on the attachment style that emerges from the Character Analysis work, individual ways must be found for each client to expand their specific affect regulation skills, so that they can integrate the bioenergetically mobilized affects into their self-experience.

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Dorota Wejner
Dorota Wejner

Dorota Wejner, MA in Economics, is a Certified Bioenergetic Therapist (IIBA/CBT), TRE® Provider and Certified Practitioner in Psychogenealogy and Transgenerational...

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