Bioenergetic Analysis is a mainstream psychotherapy which believes there is no real separation between the mind and the body. It therefore works with both body and mind within the therapeutic relationship.
Working with your body may mean helping you become more aware of the areas of tension or blocking in your body, e.g. in your diaphragm, shoulders, neck and jaw; more aware of your posture, e.g. locked knees, pelvis tucked forwards or backwards; more aware of your breathing patterns, e.g. shallow breathing or just breathing into your chest and not your tummy.
As a person tells their life story and becomes more acquainted with their deeper feelings and emotions, they are often quite surprised to discover how their bodily tensions, posture and breathing patterns support the suppression of their emotions (usually of sadness, anger and fear), reinforce “unliveable” belief systems (e.g. other people’s needs are more important than my own, therefore I won’t even feel my own needs) and hide their shame (I’m useless, don’t deserve to be loved, everything I do is doomed to failure, etc.).
Image credit: Schroeter & Thomson. 2011
And with the hard work of discovering these feelings and old somatic (body) holding patterns in a supportive relational setting, there can be the exciting discovery that the expression of emotion and the loosening up of bodily tensions results in a feeling of well-being, joy and a new zest for life.
Sometimes this therapeutic work takes a long time to achieve the “hard-work miracle”, as there may be very early childhood and relational traumas involved. At other times people can achieve quick insights that help make life more liveable and joyful.
Read more on Bioenergetic Analysis >> "Modern Bioenergetic Analysis"
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Case study
“Jane” (fictitious name) quickly saw that her “subservient” role in her current family paralleled the rescuing role she had in her family of origin, and that the tightness in her chest, neck and jaw reflected the stiffening she had to do to suppress her own life force, her frustrations and her grief when she was a child. As a child she rigidly controlled her own natural exuberance as her mother was constantly depressed or having rageful outbursts, and needed Jane’s constant companionship to make her feel better. In her therapy, by playfully accessing how “tight and controlled in her body” she could be, Jane was able to identify how she was continuing to enslave herself by tightening her chest, neck and jaw. She was then able to access the power of her own aliveness, and then to process her strong feelings at being her mother’s slave and not having her own voice. A sense of joy and fun emerged, as well as an actual expansion in her ribcage as the intercostal muscles between her ribs, and the other deep muscles in her chest, relaxed. She could now breathe more fully and naturally. This freed her to be much less of a slave in her current family situation. This work lightened the energy patterns for everyone in her current family, balanced the marital relationship towards more mutuality, and the whole family had a sense of being able to engage more easily and joyfully in life.