Self-acceptance is body-oriented therapy. Basic concepts of body-oriented psychotherapy. Main concepts and practical application. Influence on spiritual development
Today's article is an interview that I gave to Pharmacy Business magazine. We can forget children psychological trauma but the body will never forget them. How to learn to stay in your own body here and now, free it from fears and clamps - I tried to tell about this in our conversation with Olga Alekseeva.
Thanks to Olga for asking interesting questions and preparing this material for release.
So, the method of bodily oriented psychotherapy...
OA: If you try to explain in simple terms, what is body-oriented psychotherapy (BOP)?
I.S. First of all, it is psychotherapy. The goals and objectives here are the same as in any other direction in psychotherapy: there is a client's problem that he wants to solve - the so-called "request". What distinguishes psychotherapeutic areas is the way to solve this problem.
Working in line with TOP, we solve a psychological problem by involving the client's body. The body acts as a means of both psychological diagnostics and psychotherapeutic transformation. Unlike doctors, we do not work with the body, but through the body. The body gives us access to the psychological world of the client.
Therefore, a specialist with a basic psychological education, and not a medical one, can work in line with the TOP. 
O.A. What is the corporal approach based on, what are its possibilities and main postulates?
I.S.: The basic law of the TOP says: "Bodily and psychological are equal." Figuratively speaking, the client's body is a map of his soul. The body can tell the story of a person: key traumas, upheavals, psychological portrait, psychosomatic risk zones (in which dysfunctions are most likely to occur), individual life strategy, resources… It's about not about genetic characteristics, but about those disorders that are formed during life, in accordance with the experience gained.
So, in response to an emotion, a bodily reaction necessarily occurs. If someone long time experiencing a certain experience, it is fixed in his body. For example, chronic fear, insecurity make you press your head into your shoulders, while the shoulders seem to roll forward, a collapse forms in the chest. And this posture becomes habitual.
Accordingly, according to the usual postures, movements, posture, facial expression, muscle condition, we can make a psychological portrait. And acting on the body - to change psychological condition, self-perception, attitude.
At the same time, we influence the body not only through touch, although among the TOP methods there is, for example, massage. But we also use breathing techniques, static and motor exercises, meditations, taking a bodily metaphor (for example, we ask the client to depict his problem with his body), we connect drawing (for example, you can draw a bodily symptom).
There is a certain touch ethic in TOP. We always ask permission for physical contact with the client, we respect his right to say “No”. Almost always, the client remains fully clothed - with the exception of techniques that require direct muscle work.
Touching the genital area and breasts in women is always taboo.
The body reflects our entire history.
OA: Wilhelm Reich was the first to pay attention to human bodily reactions, then Alexander Lowen and others. Has anything changed since that time, maybe the studies point to some erroneous conclusions, or vice versa?
I.S. TOP exists and develops for almost a century. Of course, during this time a lot has changed, knowledge is expanding and deepening. At the moment, more than 100 TOP schools have been recognized, but almost all of them are based on W. Reich's somatic vegetotherapy. His thesaurus, introduced principles of work, basic theoretical concepts are preserved: the idea of the “muscle shell” as chronic muscle tension.
Reich divided the muscular shell into 7 segments (blocks), each of them endowed with a certain psychological symbolism. But he was a psychoanalyst and he sexualized a lot of people. psychological processes. Modern TOP no longer considers sexuality as a central issue.
Also, modern TOP talks about the impact on the subsequent life of the prenatal period and the characteristics of the birth process. It is also worth noting that Reich considered only chronic muscle hypertonicity (the "fight" reaction) as a problem, later they began to talk about the problem of hypotonicity (the "surrender" reaction).
Wilhelm Reich - founder of TOP
OA: How does TOP differ from psychotherapy, and how does a body therapist differ from an ordinary psychotherapist?
I.S. TOP is one of the areas of psychotherapy. In order to work in this direction, you need to have a basic psychological or medical education, as well as undergo a special extra education TOP.
A body-oriented psychotherapist is a psychotherapist who has chosen to specialize in TOP, just as a cardiologist is a doctor who has chosen to specialize in cardiology.
OA: What is happening in the community of body therapists today, what are the prospects for this approach? Are there several schools within the TOP?
I.S.: At the moment there are more than 100 well-known and recognized TOP schools. Now almost all spheres of scientific knowledge are developing and enriching at an incredible pace, the same is happening with the TOP. Most likely, the TOP will become more and more popular.
Firstly, the TOP is more understandable to customers, because Outwardly, it seems close to their usual medicine - some manipulations with the body.
Second, the average person lacks a healthy loving relationship with their body. Our culture of corporality is instrumental, the body wears out like a tool, care for it is neglected, but it is required that it be beautiful and efficient. TOP helps develop a loving, respectful attitude towards your body, increases self-acceptance.
OA: Is TOP treated in combination with an analytical approach or is it a completely independent course of treatment?
I.S.: TOP is an independent direction in psychotherapy, with its own theoretical and practical base. But it is not enough for any psychotherapist to be an expert in only one direction. There is a recommendation for a working specialist: to master 3-5 different areas in psychotherapy. This applies to any psychotherapist.
О.А.: With what requests do people most often come to a body psychotherapist? Can you make a top list?
I.S.: You can come to a body-oriented psychotherapist with any psychological request, as well as to any other psychotherapist. But in accordance with the specifics of the TOP, these requests more often concern the body. For example, the client is aware that he is critical of his body, dissatisfied with it, and wants to increase self-acceptance.
Often come with chronic tension in the body, difficulty with relaxation - this common problem residents of the metropolis.
Also treated with somatic symptoms and psychosomatic disorders; in this case, we will definitely inform clients that the help of a psychotherapist does not replace the necessary medical help, they need to be combined. Recent times more and more often, doctors began to refer to body-oriented psychotherapists - in the case when it is obvious that “the disease is from the nerves”, that is, the patient needs to receive psychological help. Doctors and I are not competitors, we complement each other's work, this increases the effectiveness of treatment.
O.A.: How is the TOP session going? Is the client doing the exercises or do you still need to talk first?
I.S.: The main method of influence in any psychotherapeutic direction is discussion. We always talk with the client, like other psychotherapists: we collect his story, clarify the request (the purpose of the work), ask about important events, dreams between our meetings ... At the end of the meeting, we summarize. As for the TOP exercises themselves, there are those that are done almost silently, and there are those during which there is a dialogue.
OA: Is it better to study in a group or individually?
I.S.: There are both group and individual forms of work in the TOP. Each has its own advantages. Usually individual work goes deeper, it is easier for the client to open. But the group gives the effect of group support. 
OA: Are there any contraindications to using the method?
I.S.: In general, there are no contraindications to the use of TOP, because in the TOP different methods and many techniques. There are limitations in the use of specific exercises, at the level of common sense: for example, when working with pregnant women or with the elderly, exercises that require significant physical effort are not used. But if one thing does not suit the client, another can be used.
Therefore, TOP is used to work with a wide contingent: children, adolescents, adults, the elderly; with norm and pathology; with pregnant women; with addicts (alcoholics, drug addicts, gamblers…), etc.
О.А.: Psychotherapy can last for several years, but what are the terms for TOP?
I.S.: In TOP, as in other schools of psychotherapy, there is a “short-term work”: from 4 to 10 meetings. And "long-term psychotherapy", over 10 meetings. This "above" can last for several months or several years. It all depends on what result the client wants to achieve and at what point he is now.
For example, a girl has difficulty communicating with the opposite sex. It's one thing if a little self-doubt interferes with her. It’s another matter if there is rape in her story, and even with aggravating circumstances ... These will be different stories psychological work, of different duration.
О.А.: Do you often come to those who have not received results from verbal psychotherapy?
I.S.: Yes, it happens, but in most cases the problem is not in the method used, but in the client's unpreparedness - his unwillingness to change. A trip to a psychologist can be “far-fetched”: fashionable, curious, forced by relatives ... In this case, the client has no motivation and cannot be effective work. The client begins to shift the responsibility: "Wrong method", "Wrong specialist" ...
Remember Winnie the Pooh? “These are the wrong bees. They make the wrong honey." 
OA: There is another modern approach - bodynamics, how does it differ from TOP? Or does the second include the first?
I.S.: Bodynamic analysis (bodynamics) is a direction in the TOP that began to develop in Denmark in the 1970s. The founder is Lisbeth Marcher, she sometimes comes to Russia and teaches. Bodynamics is distinguished by clarity, structure, so doctors are interested in it - a close mentality.
According to Bodynamics, development is based on the desire to be interconnected with the world (and not Eros and Thanatos according to Z. Freud). Depending on childhood traumas, this desire is distorted: someone hides from the world, someone seeks to please everyone or control everyone ... Thus, a character structure (psychotype) is formed.
Probably, of all the TOP schools in Bodynamics, the most clear system of psychotypes: at what age, for what reason, the character structure is formed, how it manifests itself bodily and psychologically, how to mono-correct it ...
In bodynamics, a pre-study study of the psychological content of more than 100 muscles was carried out - it will probably be interesting for doctors to get acquainted with it.
O.A.: When a person comes to you for the first time, you can immediately determine the places of blocks, and therefore the main psychological problems?
I.S.: This is what body-oriented psychotherapists are taught - the so-called "body reading". It can be carried out in statics, in dynamics (when a person is motionless or moving). In the office, this saves time: in the first minutes you see a psychological portrait of a person and suggest what basic topics you need to work with.
OA: Does this skill of reading people hinder or help you in life outside of work?
I.S.: It is important for a psychotherapist to separate personal and professional. Do not become a psychotherapist for your loved ones. But elements of their knowledge can be used. For example, body reading skills help to better understand the emotional state of another person, develop empathy ...
OA: If I understand correctly, the first thing that is clearly seen during the TOP is the fears that are blocked in the body. Is it possible to draw a physical map of fears yourself, and what to do with them after?
I.S.: We have 4 basic feelings with which we are born: anger, joy, fear, sadness. Then, at the age of about 2-3 years, the so-called " social feelings”(not innate, but brought from society): shame and guilt. All these feelings can be imprinted in the body, “frozen”. And the pattern of frozen feelings is individual. There are people who have a lot of fear in their bodies; someone filled with anger; or bent over with guilt... If we are not in touch with the feelings "stuck" in the body, they can manifest themselves through pain and illness. Yes, there is such an exercise: you can draw your body and note where feelings live in it (you can specify: “fear” or “anger”). This helps to get to know your feelings, reduces the risk of somatization.
OA: Are there differences in attitudes towards the body among different nationalities?
I.S.: Yes, “the culture of corporality” is a part of cultural peculiarities. Somewhere the body is still the "source of sin", in another culture the body is treated with respect, in the third - respect for manifestations of corporality, except for sexuality ... We definitely need to take into account the cultural characteristics of the client.
Working in line with the TOP, we first conduct a diagnostic interview, collecting information about its history. Among other things, we find out his origin, origins: nationality, belonging to a religious denomination, the social environment in which he grew up ...
There is a paradoxical relationship to the body in Western culture right now. On the one hand, great attention is paid to it: how many articles and programs about nutrition, plastic surgery, anti-aging ... On the other hand, this is a consumer attitude, the body is a kind of exploited object, it must perform certain functions and be a beautiful “business card” ... Respect and love for your body is sorely lacking. 
O.A .: How can you build new love warm relationship with your own body?
I.S.: Perceive it as an integral, full-fledged part of one's personality, and not some kind of tool for life and a business card for society. Pay more attention to the signals coming from the body, do not neglect them. It is not only about pain symptoms diseases. Even small bodily signals, such as tension in the stomach, a lump in the throat, are clues to our intuition, for example, help to sense the insincerity of the interlocutor.
Taking care of the body is not “objective”, like some kind of inanimate object: wash the dishes, wash the windows, wash your body ... But to carry out this care with love.
Now beauty is often put in the first place, but not health, in the name of bodily beauty, many destroy their health. The hierarchy has been broken, because health should always come first, and a healthy body is always beautiful, because it is harmonious. It is important to see your natural, natural bodily beauty that every person has, it just may differ from social patterns.
O.A.: What can you say about the need to apply to the TOP?
I.S.: You can turn to a TOP specialist with any psychological problem. Working through the body is just a way to solve it, just like an art therapist can use drawing. You can also come to a TOP specialist if you want to feel your body better, understand it and accept it. 
OA: For those who do not yet have the opportunity to visit a body therapist, can you give a couple of exercises for homework?
1. Sit in a comfortable relaxed position or lie down. Close your eyes, tune in to yourself, to your body. Try to feel well the signals coming from the body. Answer your questions:
How relaxed is the body?
What parts of the body are holding tension?
What area of the body is occupied by this tension?
— What are the patterns in localization? (right-left, upper body - lower, front surface of the body - back, limbs - torso ...)
Is it temporary or chronic?
How long has it been in you?
- What feelings can this tension hold, what memories?
Try to relax those parts of your body too.
Then, with your eyes open, make a drawing: sketch your body and note the tensions in it.
Performing this exercise regularly, you will become better acquainted with your bodily features, come closer to understanding the causes of this tension. Then it can weaken and even leave.
2. Create your Body Feeling Map. Draw your body and note where what feeling lives in it? Hint: remember when you experienced this or that emotion. How does the body respond, which zones are activated? This feeling lives on in them.
After drawing, consider it:
What feelings do you find easiest to track in yourself? Which ones are difficult and why?
- Are there emotions that you have not noted in the body? Why? Do they definitely “do not live” in you, or you simply could not find them in yourself?
— Are there areas of the body that are left unfilled? Imagine what feelings might still live in them.
- Are there parts of the body in which there are a lot of feelings? Be careful - these are areas of psychosomatic risk.
This exercise helps to establish contact with your body and feelings, integrates the body and emotional sphere, contributes to the differentiation of emotions.
Body Oriented Psychotherapy (BOP) - modern direction practical psychotherapy, which addresses the psychological problems of the patient with the help of body-oriented techniques. The approach combines psychological analysis and physical exercises. For TOP personality = body + mind + soul.
Bodynamic analysis is one of the methods of TOP, it is also called somatic developmental psychology. Knowledge of anatomy is key to the approach, as the founder of the method, Lisbeth Marcher, and her colleagues discovered the relationship between muscles and their psychological content. Namely, failures in the work of a certain muscle group indicate a certain pattern of patient behavior. Since at each stage of growing up a person reacts differently to the influences of the outside world, in the course of diagnostics it is possible to determine the age at which the client experienced psychological trauma.
Body-Oriented Psychotherapy is a way of soul therapy that has existed for as long as humanity has lived. Its techniques developed in parallel in the eastern and western directions, since for centuries in the eastern currents there was a different culture of the body and corporality in general. Now, different approaches are found in modern psychological body-oriented practice. The methods of this direction are easily superimposed on other methods of psychological work. Moreover, very often, using the body-oriented approach, we can raise from the unconscious those deep contents that are blocked when working with other methods.
Finally, it has become more common in our culture to pay attention to the experiences of one's own body, and not only when it is sick. They began to treat the body more respectfully, but still the dominant is often shifted towards the head, the body is left with less attention. This is clearly seen in the statistics of the drawing test, when it is proposed to draw a person, and many do not have enough space for the body on the sheet. This is why throat problems are so common, because the throat connects the head to the body.
In the European tradition, the history of the body approach is difficult to trace; in psychology, it is customary to begin with Wilhelm Reich. Despite his frequent criticism, he introduced all the concepts that body-oriented therapists use to this day. The modern European body psychotherapy strongly influenced, therefore it can be considered as a method of dealing with the same problem, but through a different input.
The body direction allows the psychologist to work with a client who is difficult to understand and verbalize his problem. He would be ready to explain why he feels bad, but he literally lacks words. The other extreme is when the client is overly talkative and even uses language to get away from the problem. Body-oriented psychotherapy will allow him to deprive him of his usual protection, covering up a psychological problem.
Methods of body-oriented psychotherapy
The body does not lie, revealing the very essence of spiritual experiences. It is also difficult to hide your resistance in the body - it can even be fixed. You can deny your anxiety, but you cannot hide the trembling in your hands or the stiffness of your whole body. And since working with resistance in solving a psychological problem often takes most time, the objective, materialistic body approach is very effective.
Absolutely all human experiences are encoded in the body. And those that we cannot decode through speech, perhaps reveal through the body. The amount of non-verbal information that signals the state of a person is simply huge, and you just need to learn how to work with it. Problems of overcontrol appear in the head, difficulties in contacts with people appear in the hands, shoulders, intimate problems are reflected in the pelvis, while the legs carry us information about the difficulties of supporting a person, his confidence and movement through life.
bodily- targeted therapy is built on an attempt to appeal to the human animal body, to what is natural in us, natural and contains a lot of useful information. However, our social body often comes into conflict with instinctive aspirations, taboos them and gives rise to many psychological problems. We often do not hear our body well and do not know how to establish interaction with it.
Reich's body-oriented psychotherapy is based on the studied psychological defenses and their manifestation in the body - the so-called muscular shell. This concept was introduced by Reich to refer to tight muscles and shortness of breath, which form like armor, a physical manifestation various ways psychological defenses considered by psychoanalysis. Reich's method consisted in modifying the state of the body, as well as influencing the clamped area. For each individual muscle group, he developed techniques to reduce tension and release trapped emotions. Techniques were aimed at breaking the muscle shell, for this, the client was touched by squeezing or pinching. Reich saw pleasure as a natural flow of energy from the center of the body outward, and anxiety as a shift of this movement to the person himself inside.
Alexander Lowen modified Reich's therapy and created own direction- widely known by this name today. Lowen's Body-Oriented Psychotherapy sees the body as a bioelectric ocean with an ongoing chemical-energy exchange. The goal of therapy is also emotional release, emancipation of a person. Lowen used the Reichian breathing technique, and also introduced various tense body positions to energize blocked areas. In the postures he developed, the pressure on the muscles constantly and increases so much that the person is eventually forced to relax them, unable to cope with the exorbitant load anymore. In order to accept one's own body, the technique used to observe it naked in front of a mirror or in front of other participants in the training, who gave their comments afterwards. The description of the body made it possible to create an image of the muscular shell, characteristic of a particular person, and the problems coming from it.
The method of the next famous psychotherapist, Moshe Feldenkrais, deals with the conflict between the social mask and the natural sense of satisfaction, urges. If a person merges with his social mask, he seems to lose himself, while the Feldenkrais method allows you to form new, more harmonious habits that will smooth out this conflict tension and allow inner contents to manifest. Feldenkrais considered deformed patterns of muscular action, which, as they become stronger, become more and more stagnant and act outside. He paid great attention freedom of movement in simple actions, the client was advised to independently seek best position for his body, corresponding to his individual anatomy.
Matthias Alexander also explored bodily habits, postures, and posture in order to find more harmonious and natural postures. He considered the most correct maximum straightening, stretching the spine up. Alexander's therapy also uses pressure from the head down, which causes the client to relax more and more while trying to straighten up. The result is a feeling of release and lightness. This method is often used public people, dancers, singers, because Alexander himself invented this technique, having lost his voice, and thanks to the solution found, he was able to return to the stage again. It is also effective for therapy in cases of injuries, injuries, a number of chronic diseases.
Body Oriented Psychotherapy - Exercises
For any work with the body, it is primarily important to feel it and ground yourself. Stand straight with your legs straight, stretching the top of your head and even slightly pushing your chest forward. Feel how all the energy goes up from the legs, this is a state of elation and even some suspension. Inhale, then, bending your knees, relaxing your pelvis, exhale. Imagine that you are now sitting in an easy chair, as if you are rooting into the ground. Look around, you will feel more present, as if you even begin to feel the air on your skin. This is the easiest exercise to ground yourself and begin to work deeper with anything, whether it's emotional experiences or further work with the body.
The next exercise is devoted to dissolving the clamp in the mouth area - the jaw clamp. We often clench our jaws at times of physical exertion or the need to be persistent, to get things done. Also, if we don’t like something, but there is no way to express it, we clench our jaw again. Sometimes the jaw is compressed so strongly that blood circulation in this area is disturbed. You can either sit or stand for this exercise. Place your palm under your chin with the back side up and now try to inhale, open your mouth, lower your jaw down, but your hand should prevent this movement. As you exhale, the jaw relaxes and closes again. After several such movements, you will feel the place where the jaws close, you can massage it, relaxing the muscles. As a result, you will feel warm, it will become easier for you to pronounce words and, perhaps, even breathe.
An example of a body block would be tucked up shoulders. If you strengthen this clamp a little more, it turns out that the neck literally hides in the shoulders, which, like a tortoise shell, protect it from a possible blow or push from behind. When a person has already got used to such a position of the shoulders, this means that in his life there were many stressful situations when he had to shrink internally. The simplest exercise here is to try to seem to throw something off your shoulder. To enhance the image, we can imagine how someone's hand is on the shoulder, and we do not want it to be there. Shake it off your shoulder and do it confidently.
Another exercise with the same goal of freeing the shoulders is repulsion. Put your hands forward, as if trying to push an unpleasant person away from you. A variation is also possible when you push back with your elbows. You can even help yourself to withdraw verbally by saying no contact.
In exercises with the presence of another person, which is practiced by both Reich's body-oriented psychotherapy and Lowen's body-oriented psychotherapy, he can, while lying on your back, being behind your head, massage your forehead, then the neck area behind your head. It is better if the action is performed by a professional therapist. Perform swaying of the body in time with massaging movements. Next - the transition to the muscles of the neck, massaging the tendons, the places where the muscles are attached to the skull, gently pulling the muscle. Again you need to pull the neck and even a little hair, if the length allows.
At any moment, if tension is present, you can again return to the forehead area, knead, tightly touching your head with your hands. Required support and absence sudden movements. In the scalp, you also need to perform kneading movements, stretch the scalp. This can be done in different directions with any movements, fingers and knuckles. With each new push, you can change the location of the fingers. Having captured the crease of the superciliary arches, you can pull it to the sides and close it back.
After working with the frontal clamp, the transition to the facial muscles is carried out. Having symmetrically placed the fingers on the sides of the nose, they must be slowly spread apart to the ears. We move down along the nasolabial fold, pulling the muscle. We are working on jaw muscles, we give stress points Special attention. We release tension from the jaw bone, put our hands on the sides of the center of the chin and slowly spread them back to the ears. The slower the movement, the deeper it is. Working with facial muscles - we work with emotions stuck in them.
Further work is shifted to the neck and shoulders. If similar kneading techniques are used in the neck, then support is acceptable in the shoulders and hard pressing to straighten them out. Pressing is performed by swaying movements, then passing to the hands. Taking the hand, which should be completely relaxed, you need to swing, take the wrist and pull, then release and repeat the cycle from swinging again. Then follows the kneading of the brush, which, like plasticine, you need to stretch out with the soft parts of the palms, and also walk with kneading movements along each finger, as if tightening the tension. You can also use twisting movements. You need to complete everything with a soothing sway.
Body Oriented Psychotherapy Techniques
The body, as our largest resource, contains all the information recorded in itself. Like rings on a tree, it stores the story of our life about those complex and emotionally rich situations that remain like notches on it, manifesting itself in painful sensations and uncomfortable muscle cramps. Work with the body makes it possible to get into the depth, the essence, into those nuclear experiences that can be preserved as a result of conflicts in relationships, at work, internal conflicts, fears, insomnia, emotional stress, which cannot be contained, up to panic attacks.
In any situation, the body is turned on, because it takes on absolutely all the stresses that pass through a person's life. At the moment of tension, excitement, breathing changes, followed by changes in the composition of the blood, the hormonal background, which at the level of physiology prepares a person for action. If the gestalt is not closed, this state is then deposited in the muscles.
For Therapy negative states in a body-oriented approach, use various techniques, starting from the already described grounding. Then centering is often used, when the client is lying down in a star position, and the therapist massages his head, arms and legs with tightening movements, relieving excess tension from each part. If the first technique can be performed independently and is suitable for use even outside of therapy, then the second requires the presence of a therapist.
Special attention should be paid to common breathing techniques, which in various versions are known from ancient spiritual practices. With Tracking natural way breathing of a person can diagnose his psychological problems. Then, through a change in the rhythm and depth of breathing, a new state of consciousness is achieved. AT surface form it can be the usual relaxation or raising the tone, which is also applicable in everyday use, when a person himself wants to calm down or tune in, on the contrary, to work. In therapeutic work, breathing techniques can be used much more actively, even in some cases to put a person into a trance. Of course, this requires the guidance of a qualified therapist.
Work with the body is aimed at turning to internal resources, developing the feeling of this moment of life, the full presence and release of blocked, squeezed energy. All these are essential components of a full, joyful life.
Body psychology. Exercises body therapy
Even in ancient times, a person began to look for sources of strength and energy that determine his health, success and well-being, the ability to achieve his goals and find a way out of difficult situations. A person began to look for ways to control his strength, his condition, his energy. This led to the emergence traditional systems self-regulation, such as yoga, Taoist alchemy, tai chi chuan, shamanic practices. Initially, this knowledge developed within the framework of their cultures and was ignored by European science, but since the beginning of the 20th century, Europeans in their scientific searches have begun to reach out to them more and more. As a result, body-oriented psychotherapy appeared, based both on classical psychological principles, and on the ancient practices of controlling the body and energy.
Body psychology allows you to track the clamps that accumulate in the body, and body therapy exercises originally focused on quick withdrawal bodily clamps and blocks.
The origins of body psychology
However, for the sake of science, we must start from another point. Body psychology arose at the beginning of the 20th century, within the framework, paradoxically, of psychoanalysis. Almost immediately, it separated from it and formed its own, diametrically opposite direction. A student of Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, noticed that, while lying on the couch during a psychotherapy session, the client always accompanies emotions with certain bodily manifestations. Therefore, the patient's body can often tell much more about his problems than words. The body captures all our experiences and feelings, significant events and life experiences. The body can even say what the mind does not yet guess.
Today, body-oriented psychotherapy is one of the main directions of modern psychological practice. This is a way to heal the soul through work with the body, to work with the experiences and problems of a person imprinted in the body. By the way, it was within the framework of the body-oriented approach that the scientific world "remembered" the ancient energy practices and systems of self-regulation. Everything that happens in a person's soul leaves an imprint in his body, everything that happens in the psyche affects the energy. Healthy energy determines physical health, physical health creates conditions for mental well-being, which, in turn, provides healthy energy.
A. Lowen, the founder of bioenergy analysis and one of the classics of body-oriented therapy, introduced the concept of bioenergy into scientific circulation, showing that the management of energy potential activates the internal resources of the individual, which contributes to self-knowledge, self-expression, self-realization. This gave impetus to the development of all kinds of energy schools and directions, many of which went beyond the scope of not only body-oriented therapy, but also any kind of science in general.
Body Psychology: General Principles
The postulate of bodily psychology is extremely simple: by working with consciousness, we can influence the body, and by acting on the body, we can work with consciousness. This echoes one of the basic postulates of NLP: mind and body are elements of one system. Where is the unconscious here? - you ask. Elementary - the impact on the consciousness through the body is carried out bypassing the consciousness itself. That is, the resources of the unconscious.
Therefore, the methods of working with a problem in body-oriented therapy, as a rule, practically do not concern the problem itself. Work goes with the bodily manifestation of this problem. For example, with fear or irritability, certain muscle groups are overstrained, which leads to clamps. Through the relaxation of these clamps, the problem that caused them is worked out. Leaving aside issues of identifying underlying problems and methods for solving them as more suitable for training courses for practicing bodybuilders, let's focus on how it can be used by an ordinary person in everyday life.
Based on the fact that any unconscious tension is a manifestation of some kind of problem or mental imbalance, we will adopt a simple setup: the more relaxed the body, the more harmonious the person is, and the more resources are available to him for solving everyday tasks. And the healthier the body becomes due to the study of the psychosomatic causes of diseases. From this it follows that you need to relax everything that can be relaxed.
Someone will object: but muscle tension provides a certain security and is associated with safety! And this will be one of the very common misconceptions. Muscle tension can only create a feeling ... not even security, but a kind of readiness for danger. That is, tension in anticipation of a threat. As you know, prolonged exposure to stress inevitably leads to stress and disruption of the nervous system, as well as "burnout" of the body. Is this the result we expected? On the contrary, a relaxed muscle is always faster than a tense one, therefore, in many systems hand-to-hand combat learn not so much to strain, how to properly relax the muscles. By the way, this also helps to increase the range of motion, optimize the expenditure of forces and energy, and minimize bodily injuries. A simple example: what will suffer more from an ax blow - a wooden board or a cloth thrown into the air? And most importantly, a relaxed body indicates that a person can afford to be relaxed (and therefore confident in his abilities), which provides a deep sense of security.
Someone will say that he is always relaxed. This is also a common misconception human body there are always enough clamps, and total relaxation can be equated with total enlightenment. It is quite natural that in a “normal” state a person does not perceive his tension and, often, does not imagine how it could be otherwise. Moreover, there is such a thing as a "social body" - a set of bodily clamps that we must "dress" while in society, which form our adequacy, controllability and compliance with role stereotypes in certain situations. Therefore, relaxation is an art, which is mastered gradually. And the more they master, the more clamps they notice in themselves.
What promotes relaxation? The simplest meditative techniques that contribute to the inhibition of the psyche, which leads to a general relaxation of the body. Contributes, no matter how trite, the general appeasement, conflict-free behavior, goodwill, the ability to maintain a positive emotional mood. By the way, all these skills are well trained and developed. Such folk methods of relaxation as massage and bath are effective, especially in combination with an optimal psychological mood. Great importance has bodily contact with another person, on which many bodily therapy exercises are built. And most importantly, you need to feel your body and track the changes that occur in it.
Body therapy exercises
Active muscle relaxation
The idea is very simple: in order to relax the muscle as much as possible, you need to strain it as much as possible. And in order to evenly relax the whole body, you need to give it a uniform load. To do this, we sequentially strain all parts of the body: face, neck, shoulders, arms, abs, hips, shins and feet. For each part of the body, we try to create maximum tension and hold it for 10-20 seconds, and then fix our attention on relaxation.
Resetting clamps
To begin with, pay attention to the processes that occur in the body. On those centers of tension that it has. And ... try to find the position that will be most comfortable. To do this, it is enough to listen to your body: what position would it like to take? And then you can allow yourself to relax. Even deeper. And, covering the whole body with an inner gaze, one can notice how the centers of tension gradually melt away, and the inner space becomes more and more relaxed and light.
figurative breathing
This practice allows you to combine the effect of meditative trance and directed work with the body. First, close your eyes and focus on your breathing. You will notice how you can feel a slight coolness as you inhale and a slight warmth as you exhale. And let there be nothing in the world but inhalations and exhalations. Then you can imagine that you are breathing through the middle of your chest, continuing to feel the coolness of the inhalation and the warmth of the exhalation. Then we breathe through solar plexus, lower abdomen, palms and feet (you can add the crown, but be careful - do not get carried away), and then - through the surface of the entire body. For each part of the body we do 10-15 breaths and exhalations.
Development of body awareness
- For 5 minutes, without a break, say (out loud!) Everything that happens in your body .
- Allow yourself for a few minutes have no goals. Let the body do whatever it is really wants do and let me him to do it. Just be an observer and allow body to find the way of self-manifestation that is relevant Here and now.
- And then, while remaining in that state, let the body find the position in which it will be truly comfortable at this moment in time.
- And, remaining in this position, go through the whole body with your inner gaze: pay attention to the tone in which each part of the body is, what is happening in your inner space. Track the clamps you have in your body and let me them to relax.
Alexey Nedozrelov
