Bioenergetic analysis is a psycho-bodily method: it involves both the body and the psyche, and makes it possible to establish links between the two. Its aim is to put back in motion the energy circulation which may have been blocked by unresolved past conflicts, in order to (re) find an affective, relational, personal harmony …

The trainer Guy Tonella, trainer affirms: “Behind the discomfort and the anguish hide the terrors of babies or children that the adult of today can neither apprehend, neither understand, nor integrate, and to which it remains linked … This unresolved past continues to damage the present. “

All humans experience conflict, lack of affection, misunderstanding, manipulation and other difficult situations inherent in interpersonal relationships. Children protect themselves from these painful experiences through psychological processes such as denial or suppression. They also use physiological mechanisms such as muscle contraction limiting joint mobility. Reich had identified seven “tension rings”: the ocular, the buccal, the cervical, the thoracic, the diaphragmatic, the abdominal and the pelvic. When the contractions are frequently repeated (a programmed reflex), they become chronic and become deeply embedded in the attitude of the body.

The bioenergetic analyst therefore attaches great importance to bodily expressions, such as breathing, posture, tone of voice and rhythm of steps. These physical characteristics tell him the structure of a person’s defense system and the type of existential struggle they are waging. The bodywork they undertake consists first of all in developing attention to sensations. Then, using in particular breathing exercises, postures, movements as well as manual pressure from the therapist, we promote awareness of old muscular tensions that have become chronic. The objective is to discover the defenses that we built as a child to face difficult situations, then to soften and rearrange them.

By adopting positions that generate great tension – lying on your back on a large ball, chest open and free, for example, or through sometimes vigorous exercises that can cause screaming, tears and anger – we create conditions conducive to dying. intense emotional releases. At the same time, it is a question of recovering all the energy which was in some way “occupied” in hiding and retaining these emotions.

As for the verbal portion, it stems from the psychoanalytic roots of the approach (Freud, Reich, Lowen): the practitioner does analytical work to help the person to link his words to his bodily expressions and to his intimate story. The objective is to help the person to live with his emotions, considered as the “spontaneous movements of the organism”.

The notion of “energy” is not abstract or symbolic: it is the production of energy through respiration and metabolism, and the discharge of energy in movement. Energy processes are spontaneous manifestations of life. The more life happens to manifest in a person, the more energy they have. In contrast, rigidity and chronic tension prevent these manifestations and, at the same time, decrease energy. However, the amount of energy a person has and the way he uses it determines how he can cope with life situations. Bioenergetic analysis also emphasizes “rooting” more and more commonly referred to as “anchoring”, a state where the person feels good in contact with his feet, legs and support on the ground. This necessarily induces a better contact with oneself and with reality.

The tools of bioenergetic analysis make it possible to adapt to each person’s process. When necessary, the practitioner knows how to help people cope with intense emotional reactions, but the work can usually be done smoothly.

Reduce chronic somatoform disorders

Somatoform disorders are characterized by the presence of physical symptoms that cannot be explained by a medical condition or another mental disorder. It would be a way for the body to respond to emotional or social issues. A clinical study concerning this problem was published in 2006 [7]. Turkish immigrants suffering from this condition were randomly separated into two groups. Members of the first group were treated by bioenergetic analysis. Those on the other, serving as a control group, practiced light gymnastic movements.

The results of the bioenergy group were significantly better than those of the exercise group. However, both therapies were added to existing treatments: individualized pharmacotherapy and individual or group psychotherapy sessions. Consequently, it is difficult to attribute the observed results to the bioenergetic analysis alone, but presumably to the therapeutic combination.

A response to emotional and psychosomatic disorders

Through the alliance between the physical and the verbal, bioenergetic analysis provides a response to psychological and emotional disorders (stress, depression, etc.) and psychosomatic disorders (such as joint pain, ulcers, impotence, etc.).

Getting through a crisis, developing your creativity, rediscovering joy

Bioenergetic analysis allows the person to glimpse new ways of relating to oneself, and the relationship to others is transformed as a result. The release of chronic muscular tensions coupled with the therapeutic relationship makes it possible to find spontaneous joy, to bring out creativity, improve emotional and sexual relationships, and find a lever for personal development.

The specialist

The therapist in bioenergetic analysis is in an active listening: he perceives as much the verbal as the nonverbal of his patient, by all the emotional and bodily signals not conscious “such as movements, sounds, vibrations, glances, all kinds. of diverse and varied expressions to be contained and interpreted as the story we build and reconstruct with our patient in what he makes us experience sensorially, emotionally and rationally in the interaction with him. “(Lucienne Spindler)

Thus, the therapist can gradually draw up the picture between the patient’s present experience and past conflicts, and bring him to highlight his problematic with a global understanding that will allow him to transcend it.

There are a dozen therapists in Quebec and more than 100 in France and Belgium. The sessions take place individually, in private practice. You can make sure that the therapist is accredited by IIBA.

How is the analysis carried out?

Depending on the need, the duration of the therapeutic follow-up will be very different. This can take a few years as well as a few sessions. Some practitioners agree to work for short periods to meet specific needs.

A first bioenergetic analysis session begins with an agreement between the therapist and the patient on the frequency and duration of the sessions, adapting to the patient’s initial request.

Each session then consists of three phases.

The first stage consists of an inventory where the patient expresses his internal conflicts, delivers his emotions, describes his sensations. In doing so, the therapist can already see the links emerging between everyday events and the person’s past history.

The second phase aims to raise awareness of the ins and outs of the current conflict: when did it take shape (early childhood, childhood, adolescence, etc.)? With which family members or not is he / was he in contact (parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, referents, etc.)? It’s about understanding how the conflict froze and crystallized the story in the body.

The third phase therefore comes to unwind in the body the tensions identified in the previous phases. The energization goes through the expression of repressed emotions, by breathing, by different postures, and thus the relaxation of stiffness and muscular tension takes place.

To end the session, the patient expresses orally what he has experienced and exchanges with the therapist, so that the beginning of the session continues and that the changes that the person now needs are gradually integrated into their daily life.

Training in bioenergetic analysis

The International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis (IIBA) defines, manages and delivers training around the world, in collaboration with local member institutes. The IIBA considers this training to be at postgraduate level. Aspirants must therefore have a solid foundation in psychology, culminating in a university degree in an appropriate discipline (psychology, social work, etc.). Most of the training is provided by international trainers and spans at least four years. It includes theoretical lectures, practical workshops, individual therapy sessions and supervised therapeutic practice.

Some institutes also offer shorter training courses for health or education workers who would like to familiarize themselves with the bioenergetic grid for understanding personality. This training does not give accreditation or the right to practice as a bioenergetic analyst.

Contraindications of bioenergetic analysis

Bioenergetic analysis is suitable for everyone. However, for people with serious personality disorders (psychoses), sessions are contraindicated outside the confines of an institution.

The specialist

The therapist in bioenergetic analysis is in an active listening: he perceives as much the verbal as the nonverbal of his patient, by all the emotional and bodily signals not conscious “such as movements, sounds, vibrations, glances, all kinds. of diverse and varied expressions to be contained and interpreted as the story we build and reconstruct with our patient in what he makes us experience sensorially, emotionally and rationally in the interaction with him. “(Lucienne Spindler)

Thus, the therapist can gradually draw up the picture between the patient’s present experience and past conflicts, and bring him to highlight his problematic with a global understanding that will allow him to transcend it.

There are a dozen therapists in Quebec and more than 100 in France and Belgium. The sessions take place individually, in private practice. You can make sure that the therapist is accredited by IIBA.

How is the analysis carried out?

Depending on the need, the duration of the therapeutic follow-up will be very different. This can take a few years as well as a few sessions. Some practitioners agree to work for short periods to meet specific needs.

A first bioenergetic analysis session begins with an agreement between the therapist and the patient on the frequency and duration of the sessions, adapting to the patient’s initial request.

Each session then consists of three phases.

The first stage consists of an inventory where the patient expresses his internal conflicts, delivers his emotions, describes his sensations. In doing so, the therapist can already see the links emerging between everyday events and the person’s past history.

The second phase aims to raise awareness of the ins and outs of the current conflict: when did it take shape (early childhood, childhood, adolescence, etc.)? With which family members or not is he / was he in contact (parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, referents, etc.)? It’s about understanding how the conflict froze and crystallized the story in the body.

The third phase therefore comes to unwind in the body the tensions identified in the previous phases. The energization goes through the expression of repressed emotions, by breathing, by different postures, and thus the relaxation of stiffness and muscular tension takes place.

To end the session, the patient expresses orally what he has experienced and exchanges with the therapist, so that the beginning of the session continues and that the changes that the person now needs are gradually integrated into their daily life.

Training in bioenergetic analysis

The International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis (IIBA) defines, manages and delivers training around the world, in collaboration with local member institutes. The IIBA considers this training to be at postgraduate level. Aspirants must therefore have a solid foundation in psychology, culminating in a university degree in an appropriate discipline (psychology, social work, etc.). Most of the training is provided by international trainers and spans at least four years. It includes theoretical lectures, practical workshops, individual therapy sessions and supervised therapeutic practice.

Some institutes also offer shorter training courses for health or education workers who would like to familiarize themselves with the bioenergetic grid for understanding personality. This training does not give accreditation or the right to practice as a bioenergetic analyst.

Contraindications of bioenergetic analysis

Bioenergetic analysis is suitable for everyone. However, for people with serious personality disorders (psychoses), sessions are contraindicated outside the confines of an institution.

The term “bioenergetic analysis” refers to a form of psychotherapy developed in the United States by Alexander Lowen in the mid-twentieth century, which combines bodily and verbal work. Please note: we may tend to call it “bioenergy” sometimes, but bioenergy is a recent discipline in France which has very different foundations, explanations, tools and training. Even if a common base is notable between bioenergetic analysis and bioenergy, especially at the level of psycho-body work, links between unresolved past conflicts and the present manifestation of a problem, it is important to clearly distinguish the two: it is bioenergetic analysis that we are talking about here, not bioenergy.

Bioenergetic analysis considers the person as a “psychosomatic unit”: what takes place in the body also takes place in the mind, and vice versa. To understand the approach, we must first speak of Wilhelm Reich, doctor and ex-disciple of Freud, forced into exile in the United States by Nazism.

He was the first, in the 1930s, to introduce the concept of “bodily unconscious” and to attempt to recognize the physical traces resulting from mental pain. The muscular contractions generated by our emotions, he said, lead to the formation of a “character armor” which aims to protect us from suffering, but which also has the consequence of preventing the circulation of energy.

For two years, psychiatrists John Pierrakos and Alexander Lowen, ex-patients and students of Reich, continued this work to develop a therapeutic method using even more physical intervention than recommended by Reich. They also gave more space to the analysis of personal history. In the late 1950s, they together founded a clinical research institute, which later became the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis (IIBA).

Quite quickly, Pierrakos took another path to designing the so-called Core Energetics therapy, but the two men stayed in touch. Lowen, for his part, always continued to explore and teach bioenergetic analysis. He has written extensively on the subject and his books – including ten in French – were very popular in the 1970s with a young population open to psychic explorations. Today he is considered to be the true father of this approach.

Alexander Lowen chaired the IIBA until 1996, at the age of 86. Today, the institute is run by therapists who are intensely committed to their practice. He remains open to discoveries in psychology and continues to develop the approach.

Bioenergetic analysis was first designed to treat people with serious psychiatric problems, such as neurosis, and depression, anxiety, or sexual or relationship problems. Thanks to its bodily component, it would also be suitable for the treatment of personality disorders (such as narcissism) and illnesses of psychosomatic origin. Healthy people can find a way to navigate a crisis, explore their emotional life and unleash their potential for joy and creativity [2].