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Psychodynamic Foundations of Bioenergetic Analysis

Experiencing, Understanding and Healing the Body and the Mind
2-1 Body-Interventions | Körperinterventionen
Volume 1 Part 2: Body-Work in Practice Chapter 2.1

Body-Interventions

Renate Schwenk

This article shows the essential role that body-interventions play in the therapeutic context, and which objectives they can pursue. In order to structure the manifold possibilities of body-intervention in Bioenergetic Analysis in a comprehensible and clear way, they are arranged according to time windows in which they can be used with priority in the course of therapy. First, interventions are presented that can be helpful at the beginning of therapy and for the initial diagnosis, then those that are suitable for the preparation of more in-depth therapeutic work and finally body-interventions for the advanced phase of therapy. For the last time window, a distinction is made as to whether the client is assumed to have a neurotic, a developmental traumatic processing pattern or a traumatization. In addition, the special requirements that the therapist is confronted with when applying bodywork with or without touch are addressed.

Link to the original publication at Routledge

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  • In BA, the therapeutic process is conceived as a body-dialogue. Attention is primarily focused on the relational dynamics between client and therapist, with a constant eye on the corporality of the participants.
  • The importance of body-interventions arises from the assumption of the functional unity of character armor and muscular hypertonicity and from the possibility of gaining access to content from the preverbal developmental phases. In addition, body-interventions play an essential role in trauma work and in establishing a new basis for reality through bodily experiences in the Here and Now.
  • Body-interventions arise organically from the current events in the therapeutic relationship. They stem from the therapist’s perception of the client’s impulses and from resonance events. They include all interventions that target the sensory, movement and emotional levels. They can be used verbally or by means of direct bodywork, with or without touch.
  • The concept of catharsis has transformed significantly over time. Nowadays, the aim is not a breakthrough, but a discharge tailored to the client’s ability to regulate their affects, whereby the therapist must ensure that the client can integrate the associated experiences into their self-experience.
  • Body-interventions that are well suited for diagnostic purposes are, for example, questions about the client’s body-history, how they deal with their body or how they experience their body. The therapist can also provide the client with their own observations and then reflect on them together. Other options include asking the client to draw a body picture or inviting them to walk together.
  • The ground for a deeper therapeutic work is prepared by body-interventions that serve grounding and/or the ability to perceive oneself in a differentiated way (e.g., through Downing’s Inner Techniques or interventions to clarify body contours/boundaries) and/or the development of self-reflexivity. Breathing exercises and the recognition or naming of affects play a central role in this.
  • In the case of body-interventions for the advanced therapy phase, the therapist must clarify whether a neurotic processing pattern, a deficient (or developmental-traumatic) processing pattern or a traumatization must be assumed.

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Renate Schwenk
Renate Schwenk

Renate Schwenk, business economist (mag.rer.soc.oec.), dynamic group psychotherapist, teaching therapist for Bioenergetic Analysis (DÖK – Die Österreichische Gesellschaft für körperbezogene...

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