Techniques
Techniques
Grounding refers to establishing a strong connection with the earth so that you have both feet firmly on the ground. In other words, it means connecting with Mother Earth physically, psychologically, or spiritually. We do this, among other ways, through a physical posture or by directing your attention and energy from your head down into your body—and especially into your legs and feet.
Bioenergetic exercises—developed primarily by Alexander Lowen—are physical exercises designed to help you become more aware of your body. By having your body assume various postures while breathing more deeply, you come into contact with tensions and emotions that you’ve locked away in your body (because you didn’t want to feel them or couldn’t express them). By feeling and expressing these tensions and emotions—through movement and with your voice—you can release them. This gives you, both literally and figuratively, more peace, space, and relaxation. Furthermore, the trapped energy is released (both the energy of the emotion itself and the energy it takes to hold it back). Your energy can thus flow freely again.
The theory of bioenergetics is part of the basis for emotional bodywork and the body-oriented psychotherapy.
Bonding is a Janov primal technique that takes you back to your earliest experiences. Through this technique, you can explore the nature of the bond—or lack thereof—you had with your mother during your early childhood.
Centering means focusing your attention entirely on yourself—on your center—so that you are in touch with yourself and your body.
These techniques are primarily aimed at helping you become aware of the relationship between your thoughts, your feelings, and your actions. Negative thoughts (often unrealistic or unfounded) cause unpleasant feelings, which in turn influence your actions. If you become aware of those—often barely noticed, automatic, and fleeting negative—thoughts, and then examine whether they’re actually true, you can replace them with more realistic or supportive thoughts. It may also be necessary to explore the origin of those thoughts, or the underlying core belief on which they are based.
Beck (along with Ellis, the founder of this form of therapy) also describes what is known as “primal mode”: this is the basic response pattern you tend to use when reacting to a situation. The situation triggers a schema within you, consisting of certain thoughts, feelings, and actions. However, this schema is often inadequate for the current situation because it is an old schema, based on past situations (often from childhood). The goal is to develop a more appropriate, flexible, and mature way of thinking and acting alongside this “primal thinking.”
Dancing is a simple and fun way to get in touch with your body. It helps you channel your energy downward—from your head to your torso, legs, and arms. You’re moving, you tend to breathe more deeply, and you can use your body to express what’s going on inside you. Dance is a recurring element, especially in group sessions.
Emotional bodywork is a body-oriented therapeutic method that uses physical exercises and introspection to improve mental and physical health. Emotional bodywork has its origins in the work of Alexander Lowen and Wilhelm Reich. Emotional bodywork shares many common characteristics with bioenergetics.
Key components of bodywork include breathing exercises, exertion, release, and relaxation exercises, and voice work. You’ll learn to set goals in life and identify the obstacles you want to overcome.
In a family constellation, you can literally map out your family (or another system) in the space with the help of representatives. This makes the dynamics of the system visible. For more information, see setups.
In a guided imagery session, the therapist uses relaxation techniques to guide you into a light trance in which you connect with your inner child. He takes you on a visual journey, sometimes accompanied by background sounds or music. Within the story, there is room for your own interpretation—images that you create or conjure up yourself: your story. These images usually come from deeper parts of yourself: your wounded inner child, your original joyful child, your subconscious. Often, they are beautiful metaphors that reveal what is going on inside you.
The founder of Gestalt therapy, Perls, was inspired by Zen Buddhism. The core of this form of therapy is therefore: awareness, meditation, and the here and now. The focus is not on the question “why?” (as with his mentor Freud), but on the question “how?” It’s not about insight (reason, the mind), but about the direct emotional experience—of being in touch with ourselves, our environment, and others. That connection is only possible in the “here and now.” Even if what is happening may be the result of a deeper pattern, you focus primarily on: how does it feel right now, and how do you react in that situation at that moment? With the techniques used, you therefore explore a single specific event. Instead of an event, you can also explore a specific part within yourself (a subpersonality or a body part) by tuning into it and letting it speak. You can also go further and facilitate a dialogue between different parts within yourself (see also inner dialogue).
Imagination is the process of creating a mental image of, for example, a situation or a person. It can be used, for instance, to explore in more detail the feelings, thoughts, and physical sensations you experienced in a particular situation.
In inner child work, we assume that every person has an “inner child.” This means that we have a part of ourselves that still lives in the old feelings and beliefs of the child we once were. As long as we are not aware of this, these old feelings and beliefs can have a very strong influence on our emotions and behavior in the present. By becoming aware of them and (re)experiencing them, you can let them go and move more fully into the reality of your adult life in the present. For a detailed explanation of this, see Primal Rebirth Therapy.
The inner dialogue is a gestaltA technique in which you create a dialogue between two parts of yourself. For example, a dialogue between your inner child and the adult you are today. In doing so, you also literally move from one spot in the room to another, each time adopting the body posture and mood that correspond to that spot.
Body-oriented psychotherapy is an umbrella term for various forms of treatment based on the premise that the body, thoughts, emotions, and feelings are interconnected, and that this interconnectedness offers pathways to improving a person’s well-being.
In Western psychotherapy, this approach is relatively new; in Eastern traditions, however, the idea that physical and mental health influence each other has in fact been a widely accepted theory for thousands of years.
The principal founder of body-oriented psychotherapy is Wilhelm Reich. Other pioneers in this field include Moshé Feldenkrais, Alexander Lowen, Stanley Keleman, and John Pierrakos. Reich discovered areas of stiffness in the body in the form of muscle tension and blockages, which he believed were the body’s response to repressed feelings. He called these “body armor.” Reich also developed a theory of character based on earlier work by his teacher Sigmund Freud, which incorporated not only the psyche but also the body. He observed that certain character structures also expressed themselves physically, such as in physique, motor skills, and expression. According to Reich, psychotherapy should not only focus on the psyche but also on the body through intensive breathing, movement, and expressiveness. This gave rise to forms of therapy such as: bioenergetics, core energetics, emotional bodywork, rebirthing, Rolfing, postural integration, and primal therapy.
Meditation is an essential part of my approach. Meditation isn’t really a technique. Meditating is simply observing your body, your emotions, and your thoughts. Observing what’s going on inside you without interpretation or judgment. Without getting caught up in it, holding onto it, or pushing it away because you don’t want to feel it. In this way, you become a witness to everything that is within you, including your inner child. From your own center, in deep connection with yourself and with the here and now, you observe—as it were, from a distance—what is happening within you. Awareness. This brings peace, stillness, and clarity.
There are many different ways to meditate. We also often practice active meditation. This means we move while meditating. The idea behind this is that it’s difficult for Westerners to immediately find stillness amid their busy lives. In active meditation, there is therefore first an opportunity to express our restlessness through sound or movement, so that space is created for silence and meditation.
Mindfulness is a term that’s very popular right now. However, what you do when practicing mindfulness isn’t new—it’s been practiced for centuries under the name “meditation.”
Mindfulness is, therefore, a modern term for meditation. For a description of it, see meditation.
NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. “Neuro” refers to the premise that the nervous system plays a central role in everything we think, feel, do, and experience (sensorily). “Linguistic” indicates that people organize their impressions using language. This creates a coherent system of ideas, memories, expectations, and beliefs. This system also organizes and processes new incoming information. Most NLP techniques are aimed at bringing people back to the direct experiences that underlie their ideas, memories, expectations, and beliefs—that is, from thinking back to direct experience. “Programming” refers to our ability to determine for ourselves how we organize our subjective experiences. A different way of “programming” (organizing, structuring, processing) the same sensory impression leads to a different experience, to new thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Various relaxation techniques are used to achieve (deeper) relaxation. This is done, for example, by focusing on the breath and/or the body.
Rebirthing is a simple yet intensive breathing technique that connects you with your own life energy. You link the inhalation with the exhalation in a continuous, relaxed rhythm, eliminating the pauses in your breathing. By breathing in this relaxed, continuous, full, and deep manner, you come into closer contact with yourself. You become aware of the blockages in your breathing and your body. Through a series of guided sessions, the goal is to free your breath from blockages, allowing for natural, full breathing. This allows you to breathe more fully and deeply, opening up blockages and releasing associated emotions. Through this process, you can revisit and resolve past experiences. This provides a sense of space, relaxation, and usually a boost of energy as well.
Reichian bodywork (developed by Wilhelm Reich) is a combination of deep breathing and bodywork. It is a gentle method for exploring and releasing blockages and tension in your body through your breath and your body. (See also rebirthing).
Drawing is used because it’s yet another way to express your feelings. It also allows you to capture the feeling of that moment.
A visualization can take the form of a guided fantasy or a imagination.
