NEWSLETTER EABP E UROPEAN A SSOCIATION FOR B O D YP SYCHOTHERAPY Spr ing 2006 The EABP Newsletter is published twice a year by the European Association for Body-Psychotherapy. All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the EABP. To ensure the confidentiality of any individuals who may be mentioned in case material, names and identifying information have been changed. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and may not reflect the official policies or philosophies of the European Association for Body-Psychootherapy, its Board of Directors, or its members. Publications Committee Joop Valstar Inge Joachim Courtenay Young Jill van der Aa Letters to the editors are invited. Please address all information or enquiries to: EABP Secretariat Jill van der Aa Leidsestraat 106-108/2 1017 PG Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel: +31-(0)20-3302703 Fax: +31-(0)20-6257312 eabpsecretariat@planet.nl www.eabp.org Editorial It is almost a year since our last Newsletter and we apologize for the delay, but there has been a lot of work for the next congress and the Newsletter seems to come at the end of the cue. We think a good reason to consider expanding the editorial team. Let us know if you would like to join us. Of course you could also consider joining for other reasons, such as having a vision for the future of the EABP Newsletter or an interest in becoming our correspondent in your country or from your bodypsychotherapy modality! We have now decided to publish contributions in the author’s native language to include more of our members, both writers and readers. Summaries in English will be given in those cases. We have also decided to send out paper copies like we did last time as we received a lot of appreciation for that. This current newsletter mirrors a development not only of a growing number of EABP members but of a more active membership, to be recognized through the numerous activities within the organi- ALSO ON www.eabp.org zation, the book publications and interesting new articles. Clorinda Lubrano-Kotoula, Luciano Rispoli, Xavier Serrano Hortelano and Bernhard Schlage are contributing to the sharing of experience of body-psychotherapy practice as well as to the theoretical understanding of what we are doing. We hope that this will already give a taste of what you can expect in September from the EABP Congress in Askov. We also hope that the Newsletter will develop further and we encourage you to send your contributions: articles, reports, announcements, ideas and discussion of articles. The next newsletter is planned for the end of the year. The deadline for contributions – please keep that in mind – is 31 October. Jill van der Aa Ingeborg Joachim Joop Valstar Dance as if no one is watching Sing as if no one is listening Work as if you don't need the money Love as if you've never been hurt. Anonymous, Californian graffiti CONTENTS page 3. President’s Letter 4. Treasurer’s Report 6. Membership Secretary’s Report 7. Membership 8. The FORUM 10. Current FORUM Trainings 11. EAP Report 14. General Secretary’s Report 14. News 15. Future Events 12. EABP Committees 16. The Council of National Associations and National Committees 24. In Memoriam - Gerda Boyesen 26. Report 7th ISC Conference 28. EABP Congress in Denmark 30. Journals, Publications, Website, Book Reviews 33. A REICHIAN PSYCHOTHERAPY GROUP FOR ADOLESCENTS by Clorinda Lubrano-Kotula 36. PERSONALITY DISORDERS AND CHARACTER-ANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY by Xavier Serrano-Hortelano 40. THE INCREASE OF VIOLENCE IN THE WORLD: THE ROOTS OF VIOLENCE AND CHANGE TODAY, INDIVIDUALLY AND SOCIALLY by Luciano Rispoli 42 TOUCH IS ONE OF THE MOST FORGOTTEN LANGUAGES by Bernhard Tabur Schlage 47 TRANSFERT ET CONTRE-TRANSFERT EN THÉRAPIE PSYCHO-CORPORELLE Catherine Choury - Michel Claverie - Tony Fournier Catherine Jenny - Éliane Jung-Fliegans - Dany Parisi-Claverie Vincent Riedinger - Jean-Max Tassel - Claude Vaux 51. Diaries of upcoming events page 2 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 Board Members Courtenay Young (President) 6 Manse Road, Roslin Midlothian EH25 9LF, Scotland-UK Tel: +44-(0)131-440-2126 Mobile: +44-773-042-2800 courtenay@courtenay-young.com Joop Valstar (Vice-President) Oudezijds Voorburgwal 99 NL-1012 EM Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel/Fax:+31-20-623-7842 joop.valstar@planet.nl President’s Letter Sean Doherty (General Secretary) 3 Woodhouse Cliff Headingley, Leeds, UK-LS6 2HF England Tel/Fax: +44-113-278-5601 doherty.sean@lineone.net François Lewin (Treasurer) 1400 ch. de Moulares F-34070 Montpellier, France Wk. Tel: +33-(0)4-67224050 Fax: +33(0)4-67643921 Hm. Tel: +33-(0)4-67572356 francois@psychologie-biodynamique.com Ingeborg Joachim (Membership Secretary) Hartmann-Ibachstrasse 105 D-60389 Frankfurt, Germany Hm Tel: +49-69-457229 inge.joachim@gmx.net Lisbeth Marcher (FORUM Representative) Bodynamic International Struenseegade 13A DK-2200 Copenhagen, Denmark Wk Tel: +45-3535-4321 Fax: +45-3535-0645 Hm Tel: +45-9864-3261 l-marcher@bodynamic.dk Angela Belz-Knöferl (Ethics Committee Representative) Lillinghof 6 D-91220 Schnaittach, Germany Hm Tel: +49-9155-1240 Wk Tel: +49-911-262255 Fax: +49-9155-1208 angela.belz@t-online.de Dr. Elfriede Kastenberger (Representative Council of National Associations and National Committees) Marchetstrasse 10 A-2500 Baden, Austria Hm Tel: +43-225281811 e.kastenberger@aon.at Bjørn Ødegaard (Reserve Board Member) Langet. 24 N-0566 Oslo, Norway Tel/Fax: +47-22-552-092 orgonpsykbjorn@hotmail.com Courtenay Young There are a number of steady advances on a number of different fronts: nothing amazingly wonderful, but in total, surprisingly good. o The EABP Membership figures increase steadily: we are now at about 650 in total (including organisations, associates, candidates and honorary members). This is a positive steady increase. o A new National Association is forming in Spain, with good links into the Spanish Association for Psychotherapy (FIAP). o More books are being published about body-psychotherapy. Please look at the Publications page and on the website for reviews. o We have 'won' back from the EAP the right to determine (probably within the FORUM) what is a 'scientifically valid’ body-psychotherapy; what is an 'integrative' or ‘generic’ body-psychotherapy; and presumably also what is not. o The FORUM is re-formulating itself and claiming something of its own autonomy. It will soon have its second Chairperson as Lisbeth Marcher is standing down after many years good service. o The new Council of National Associations is growing in strength and solidity. o The FORUM booklet that came out last year is very welcomed, much praised and really sets an excellent standard. o Our finances are increasingly well stabilized and we are considering the possibility of changing the percentage of the fees retained by National Associations. o We have finalised the accounts for the Marathon Conference with the Greek CPC and it has more or less broken even. Many thanks to all concerned. o We are forming stronger reciprocal links with the European Federation of Bioenergetic-Analytical psychotherapists (EFB-AP). o We are represented at several body-psychotherapy and at several international psychotherapy conferences. o The plans for the Congress in Askov are coming on well and I am sure that this will be excellent. o The massive Handbook of BodyPsychotherapy (in German) is about to be published at last: they had to change publishers, which delayed things. This book will have a major and long-lasting impact on the profession. Well done Gustl and Halko! o The various National Associations are all doing excellent work in their own countries and are having conferences and symposia: notably the Netherlands (with other B-P associations and schools) and in Italy next year. o The International Scientific Committee ISC (which organises a tri-annual body-psychotherapy conference alternating both sides of the Atlantic: viz: Ischia 2002, Sao Paulo 2005) has decided to collaborate with us in 2008 and have a joint conference in France. o We are nearly complete with the process of revising our Membership Criteria and will be presenting you with a motion on this in the AGM. o The Ethics Committee has done great work in revising the Ethics Code and Procedures and will also present this revision to the AGM. o The Training Standards are also being revised and may be ready to be voted on at the AGM as well. All this feels like a time of integration, of stabilization, of steady sustainable growth, and of sound professional advancement. I shall be standing down as President at the 2006 General Assembly in Askov and I look forward to having a little more personal time. For the organisation, I welcome seeing a new person taking on this role. EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 3 Income o Most EABP members pay their fees to a National Association, which keeps 40% of the amount paid, and transfers 60% to the EABP. In countries where there is only a National Committee, 20% is kept. Then there are fees paid directly to the EABP, either because there is no National Organization, or because of an individual choice not to become a member of the National Association. Treasurer’s Report o Each Training Institute or Professional Association that is a member of the FORUM pays a FORUM fee additional to the organisational EABP fee. o Congresses can earn or loose money, depending on their success and their organization. François Lewin Since the one and a half years that I have been on the Board as Treasurer, I can see quite a stable financial situation. The tremendous work that Sean has done in clarifying the finances during the last years, and Jill's involvement and organization, has made my job much easier. As far as the transfer of funds is concerned from the National Associations, this is happening more quickly, particularly from the DGK (Germany), the NLVP (Holland) and from RABOP (Russia). Bravo for their organization, because this allows the EABP to be more safe with its treasury. Moreover, each Association is using a similar form to pass on their budget and financial information to The EABP has found a balance between expenses and income. I hope to clarify and improve the presentation and analysis of the accounts. However, the situation looks good and is in balance. EABP Expenses EABP does a big job in Europe: Conferences, Ethical Committee, EAP participation, newsletter, etc… Even if this work is perhaps not very apparent to members, it needs lots of effort and meetings. Personally, as a Board member and a body-psychotherapist, I'm a bit frustrated having to put so much effort into administrative work. We are trying to improve our circulation, and to reduce the work of the Board. Of course, I would like the EABP to do more research development, meetings and participation. It's done little by little (Forum, Committees, Council), and I hope it will grow more and more. The FORUM has its own expenses (secretariat, FORUM booklet, meetings, etc…), and this year it spent a little more than it received due to the printing of the FORUM booklet but this extra expense can be spread over a period of three years. EABP BUDGET 2006 INCOME Recettes As the only Board member coming from a Mediterranean country, where the English language is not well known and hardly ever spoken, I feel frustrated by the small number of members from the south and the communication difficulties between EABP structures and Southern European body-psychotherapists. EXPENSES Dépenses % of budget Board C.A. 9 500 17% 1 500 3% 800 1% 42 000 75% Org. Non N.A. OrgHsA.N 2 500 5% Ethics committee Com. éthique Individuals Indivuduels 8 700 16% Training Standards Committee FORUM 2 700 4% NA Council Conseil Ass Nat 2 500 5% FORUM 7 500 14% Secretariat 13 000 24% Newsletter 6 000 11% Website site internet 1 900 3% Design 1 200 2% External Relations 2 800 5% EAP 5 600 10% 500 1% 2 000 4% Eva Reich Bank, count, notary/Honor. TOTAL SPRING Amount Montant N.A. Ass. Nat. The Council of National Associations and the FORUM of BodyPsychotherapy Organisations, give the advantage of a diversity of expression, although it is necessary for such a European Association to try to be more represented in Southern Europe. For that reason, the Board took the decision to create a budget to favor language diversity (translation, communication in different languages, multi-language congress, etc. even if this effort can only support a members' dynamic, because of the big cost for professional translations. page 4 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R the Council, which is enabling us to get more clarity on membership numbers and the financial situation of the National Associations. The FORUM is in deficit. The last Congress in Marathon came out almost even. 2006 € 55 900 TOTAL € 54 800 Budget Les Recettes Budget On the previous page is an estimated Budget for 2006. - La plupart des membres de l'EABP payent leurs cotisations à leur Association Nationale (A.N.), qui garde 40 % et reverse 60 % à l'organisation centrale de l'EABP. Dans les pays où il existe seulement un comité, celui-ci garde 20 %. Enfin, il y a les membres qui paient directement, soit par absence d'organisation nationale, soit par volonté de ne pas adhérer à l'organisation nationale. - Dans le Forum, chaque Ecole ou Organisation paye une cotisation au Forum, en plus de sa cotisation à l'EABP, - Enfin les Congrès peuvent être bénéficiaires ou déficitaires, en fonction de leur succès et de leur coût. A la page précédente un Budget estimatif pour l'année 2005. It seems that we will loose a bit this year (although some information from members and countries has not yet arrived). Even with this deficit, there is a healthy stability, which allows further committees, publications and translations to develop. We can see that 26% of the budget expenses are for committees, 23% for secretariat, 16% for communication, 14% for Forum and 10% for EAP. It's remarkable that the Scientific committee budget is not used. Although, I know how body-psychotherapists research through their experience, and create theories, knowing a lot of things that academic scientists ignore. It would be good to share our knowledge more, but perhaps we are more interested in the sensitive psyche side than the academic one? RAPPORT DU TRÉSORIER Depuis un an et demi que je suis Trésorier, je constate une certaine stabilité financière. Le grand travail de clarification de Sean les années précédentes, et l'organisation et l'engagement de Jill, facilitent beaucoup la clarté financière. Il semble que l'EABP a trouvé une vitesse de croisière en tant qu'organisation. Bien que l'on puisse encore beaucoup améliorer la présentation et l'analyse des comptes, la situation est claire et équilibrée. Par contre, en tant que représentant venant d'un des pays méditerranéen, où l'anglais est une langue difficile et mal maîtrisée, je suis frustré du peu de membres et du peu de communications entre les instances de l'EABP et le Sud de l'Europe. Le Conseil des Associations Nationales, ainsi que le Forum, favorisent la diversité. Il est bon cependant que la difficulté des langues soient prises en compte. Aussi, le Conseil d'Administration a pris la décision de dégager un budget pour favoriser les traductions dans les langues nationales (sites internet, livret de l'EABP, congrès, etc…). Bien sûr, ce budget ne peut qu'appuyer une dynamique nationale des membres, car traduire de manière professionnelle coûte très cher. Actuellement, il y a une très nette amélioration des délais de reversement par les Associations Nationales, en particulier de la part du DGK (Allemagne) et du NLVP (Hollande). Bravo pour leur efficacité, car cela permet à l'EABP d'être beaucoup plus tranquille en trésorerie. De plus, un nouveau formulaire, identique pour chaque Association, va nous permettre de clarifier encore le fichier des membres et notre budget. Le Forum est en déficit. Le Congrès de Marathon s'est équilibré. Il semble qu'il y ait un léger profit cette année (bien que certaines informations des différents pays et de certains membres ne nous soient pas toutes parvenues). Ce léger profit confirme la stabilité financière. Cet équilibre nous permet d'utiliser notre budget pour des efforts de créativité, de traductions ou de publications. On voit que les comités occupent 26 % du budget, le secrétariat 23 %, la communication et les publications 16 %, et le Forum 14 %. Il est notable que le budget scientifique ne soit pas réellement utilisé. Pourtant, je connais combien les psychothérapeutes corporels sont des chercheurs, testant leurs expériences, créant des théories et connaissant beaucoup de choses que les Sciences Académiques ne connaissent pas. Alors, à nous de nous mettre au travail pour plus de richesses partagées sur le plan théorique, mais peut-être sommes-nous plus enclins à développer le côté sensible que la pensée académique ? A bientôt de vous rencontrer au Congrès. L'EABP fait un grand travail au niveau européen : Congrès, Commission Ethique, participation à l'EAP, newsletter, etc… Même si ce travail est peu visible, il demande beaucoup d'efforts et de réunions. A mon goût, en tant que membre du Bureau et psychothérapeute, autant d'énergie pour le travail administratif reste assez frustrant. Mais nous cherchons au sein du Bureau à améliorer la circulation pour alléger le travail. Evidemment, j'aimerais que l'EABP développe plus le travail de recherche, les rencontres et le partage. Cela se fait petit à petit (Forum, Conseil des Associations Nationales,…), et j'ai bon espoir qu'avec la restructuration qui se met en place, cela arrive bientôt. Le Forum des Ecoles a aussi ses propres dépenses (secrétariat, livret du Forum, réunions, etc…). Cette année il a un fort déficit. Nous allons étudier ce dossier. La publication du livret a aussi largement dépassé le budget du Forum. Cependant cette dépense peut être lissée sur 3 ans, ce qui diminue le déséquilibre. EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 5 Norway Kolbjorn Vardal The Netherlands Judith van Beusekom Monique Klazen Woudi de Ruiter Membership Secretary’s Report United Kingdom Alicja Drewnowska Morit Heitzler Kathrin Stauffer Elya Steinberg Michael Soth Russia Andrey Korneev Dmitry Valuev Elena Vedernikova Switzerland Silvia Müller Spain David Trotzig Jorge Grimberg Ingeborg Joachim EABP Membership continues to grow. From 550 members in 2002 to 588 in 2003 it has grown to 650 in April 2006. We are happy to welcome the following new EABP members: New Members France Institut Français Formation de Psychotherapeutes The Netherlands Bodymind Opleidingen, Nederlandse Vereniging voor Postural Integration Therapeuten Israel Reidman College for Complementary Medicine Full Members: Austria Bernhard Hubacek Ingrid Hubacek Petra Karner Wolfgang Karner Dr. Renate Malek Candidate: Ingrid Wilhelmine Heyerdahl, Norway Associate Members: Austria Erika Wiebogen Manuela Zachhuber Denmark Ellen Ollars Otto Krag Germany Ulrike Lienert Stefanie Mayer Miriam Schmidt France Bruno Bonato Germany Matthias Fernow Mona Fertig Hans-Peter Fink Steffen Gester Thorsten Kerbs Thomas Kloppel Bernhard Kretzschmar Thomas Mahler Sigrun Oetker Fritz Plotzitzka Karin Robl Melanie Ruppel Sabine Schrem Martina Stegner Katharina Vogel-Gladkowski, page 6 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R Organisational Members: Russia Victor Delevi Victoria Kostoglot Natalia Mtyukova Roman Pozdynakov United Kingdom Carey Morning SPRING 2006 Lost Members Germany Cordula Albes Wolfgang Bisschoff Heinz W. Borghardt Norbert Faller Jorg Fitzner Karl Dieter Meier-Thomas Lucia Mezger Angelika Salberg Gertrud Schaffner Monika Schnatmann Franziska Schneider Henryk Sobol Dirk Vollkammer Christian Werner Maria Zabransky Furthermore there are five applications we are still processing. We have recently worked on improvement of the application procedure and discussed the tasks of the Membership Secretary. We hope that in future we will be able to give a clearer picture of the EABP membership concerning nationality, age, gender, training background and current professional work etc. For this statistical work, we will need the support of all National Associations and National Committees. Also the membership criteria are in a process of change and are being discussed in the different EABP committees to be decided by the next General Assembly at the Askov Congress. Fees 2005 Fees can also be paid through our TSB account in the UK or our Credit Suisse account in Switzerland. We can also accept American Express Card. Fax your card details to the Secretariat. Fulll Membership 190 euro Organizational Membership 190 euro 95 euro Candidate Membership Associate Membership 50 euro Bank Account Membership Register Membership Name: European Association of Body-Psychotherapy Account number: 9392200 Swiftcode (BIC): PSTBNL21 IBAN Number: NL35PSTB0009392200 Address: Postbank Financial Plaza, Postbus 1800 1000 BV Amsterdam The Netherlands EABP Membership categories EABP Membership April 2006 Full Organisational Candidate Associate Honorary Members Members Members Members Members Individual Full Members Individuals who are fully trained, qualified and experienced and who can practice professionally as a body-psychotherapist. The EABP Membership Register is kept on a central database by the EABP Secretariat and updated regularly to the website from information supplied by the National Associations and Committees. This information makes known publicly who the accredited members of the EABP are. We also include a separate listing of Organizational Members and Candidate Members. National Associations AABP Austria 31 DGK Germany 279 13 6 Organisational Members GABP Greece 26 1 1 Organisations involved in bodypsychotherapy; usually training organisations, professional associations, or European organisations representing a modality. AIPC Italy 23 1 NVLP Netherlands 29 6 RABOP Russia 10 S&MABP Serbia CH-EABP Switzerland Candidate Members Individuals who have largely finished training as a body-psychotherapist, but who have not yet completed the full EABP membership criteria. Total Subtotals 7 1 38 298 15 1 44 12 2 38 1 1 38 13 5 1 69 9 470 31 23 6 8 13 1 92 61 5 577 Countries without a National Association France 10 Associate Members Kosova 1 1 Individuals either still in training, or just with an interest in bodypsychotherapy who would like to be associated with EABP. Poland 1 1 Portugal 1 1 19 3 Honorary Members Spain 3 2 People who have been awarded an EABP Membership for life, free of charge, at an EABP General Meeting in recognition of their services to European bodypsychotherapy. Bjørn Blumenthal, David Boadella, Gerda Boyesen, Malcolm Brown, Clorinda Lubrano-Kotoula, Eva Reich, Luciano Rispoli and Jay Stattman (post-humous). United Kingdom Scandanavia 5 15 2 1 1 24 5 16 3 1 20 Australia 1 1 South America 1 1 USA 1 3 2 3 73 8 63 8 650 40 5 72 7 626 525 42 2 63 8 628 TOTALS 2003 486 47 5 44 6 588 TOTALS 2002 449 29 36 34 6 550 Subtotals 2 55 11 TOTALS 2006 525 42 TOTALS 2005 502 TOTALS 2004 EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 7 The FORUM Fee structure FORUM Lisbeth Marcher FORUM Chairperson and Representative on the Board: Lisbeth Marcher l-marcher@bodynamic.dk Vice Chairperson: Lidy Evertsen, amever@tiscali.nl FORUM Secretariat: Jill van der Aa eabpsecretariat@planet.nl Accredited Schools * Bodynamic International, Denmark Lisbeth Marcher, Erik Jarlnaes bodynamic@bodynamic.dk * Institute for Life Energy Copenhagen Martin Tidén mtiden@vip.cybercity.dk * Finnish Institute of Character Analytic Vegetotherapy, Finland Markku Välimäki valimaki@dlc.fi * École de Psychologie Biodynamique Evolutive, France Christiane Lewin, François Lewin epbe-ares@wanadoo.fr * IFCC, Institut de Formation en Communication et Thérapie Psycho-Corporelle, France Eliane Fliegans Jung ifccbureau@wanadoo.fr * European School for Biodynamic Psychology, Germany Marianne Wailand, HansKim Voet esbpe@t-online.de * Aus- und Fortbildungszentrum Transformative Koerper-psycho therapie, Germany Bettina Schroeter bettinaschroeter@freenet.de page 8 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R * Zentrum für Körpertherapie und Humanistische Psychologie, Germany Gustl Marlock, Ilse SchmidtZimmermann gmarlock@mac.com * Zentrum für Integrative Körpertherapie & Humanistische Psychologie, Germany Michael Meiffert, Joachim Nordheim Michael.Meiffert@t-online.de * Core Energetic Institute, Germany Siegmar Gerken Siegmar@mcn.org * Hakomi Institute of Europe, Germany Halko Weiss HalkoHD@aol.com * E.I.N.A. Greek School of Training in Vegetotherapy & Character Analysis, Greece Clorinda Lubrano clubrano@otenet.gr * European School of Functional Psychotherapy, Italy Luciano Rispoli, Alison Duguid lucrispo@tin.it * Società Italiana di Biosistemica, Italy Jerome Liss infobiosistemica@libero.it * Nederlands Instituut voor Biorelease & Biodynamische Psychologie, The Netherlands Menno de Lange mdelange@xs4all.nl * Vereniging voor Unitieve Psychotherapie, The Netherlands Lidy Evertsen amever@tiscali.nl * Tepsinteza -YU Training School of BodySynthesis, Serbia & Montenegro Ljiljana Klisic eklisic@sezampro.yu * Escuela Española Reichiana, Spain Xavier Serrano xserrano@mac.com Professional Associations * Gesellschaft für Biodynamische Psychologie und Körperpsychotherapie GBPev, Germany Mechteld Münch mechthild.muench@t-online.de * AETPR, Association Européenne de Thérapeutes Psycho-Corporels et Relationnels, France Claude Vaux ifccbureau@wanadoo.fr Institutes not yet accredited * Asas e Raízes, Terapia e Formação Lda Thomas Riepenhausen asas@asaseraizes.pt * Associació Catalana Teràpia d'Integratió Psico-corporal Ulrike Kaese ulrikekaese@wanadoo.es * Ausbildungsinstitut für Ganzheitliche Therapien IKP, Switzerland Yvonne Maurer yvonne.maurer@ikp-therapien.com SPRING 2006 Training Institutes Up to 25 students From 26 - 60 From 61 - 100 More than 100 80 euro 180 euro 270 euro 360 euro Professional Associations 80 euro Up to 25 members 26-100 Members 120 euro 180 euro Over 100 Members Next FORUM Meetings 20 September 2006 ±14.00hrs Askov, Denmark 2-4 March 2007 Possibly Valencia 28-30 September 2007 Venue to be decided NB Applicants are welcomed to the FORUM Meetings. Report from the FORUM A year has past since the last EABP Newsletter and there have been FORUM Meetings in October 2005 in Lisbon and March 2006 in Copenhagen. Looking at Training Standards started in depth at the Paris meeting in Spring 2005. During this period the EABP Training Standards have come under close scrutiny and the FORUM has taken the time to look at how the self-assessment and mutual recognition process of training institutes has worked, and how they would like to see it working in the future. To complicate matters, at the same time as these discussions took place, it was decided by the EAP that they would hand the process of accrediting the body-psychotherapy method, back to the EABP. In other words the EABP will look at whether the modality or method taught by the training institute meets the definition of ‘generic’ body-psychotherapy which was covered by the EABP's answers to the 15 Questions. In principle this will be the work of the FORUM. As far as the Training Standards are concerned discussion has involved: qualitative versus quantitative standards: standards that best served EABP needs, and standards that fulfilled the needs of institutes that wanted accreditation as an EAPTI. Some institutes feel that the current Training Standards disable rather than enable institutes and are too heavily influenced by EAP formula. The direction for the future is to create two sets of criteria. One set of Standards that is externally focused and would be appropriate for those institutes that want to be an EAPTI, which enables their graduates to get the ECP on graduation from their training. Currently one institute is applying for EAPTI status with another preparing to apply. The second set of standards would have a more internal EABP focus. It would be of equal quality with the first but would have more flexibility and emphasis on qualitative as well as quantitative standards. Twenty-two schools have been accredited through the FORUM process of accreditation. Two of these schools have had their accreditation revoked, which was one of the reasons for the FORUM to look at the assessment process once again. There has been intense discussion of a range of topics - how to admit organizations to FORUM membership, attendance, what should be included in the syllabi, core requirements, non-obligatory requirements, how to assess the philosophy behind the choice of method, how much time assessors should spend at the institute for assessment, and in great details what they should look for, ethical standards and how to see if these are kept to etc etc. After much intense discussion over two meetings, members expressed a general feeling of satisfaction with the process as it has been developed. At the same time they were able to define areas needing improvement such as giving more assistance and direction to the assessors and looking at the content of the syllabi in more detail. This re-assessment of the assessment process was the reason that the last two meetings were closed to training institutes, which are in the process of applying for membership to the FORUM. FORUM Members felt the need to discuss without the pressure of dealing with current processes and business at the same time. The usual symposium time was also used for meeting instead of collegial sharing and this time to talk about their work and share experiences was sorely missed. Three training institutes have been accredited in the last year - IFCC, France; Tepsinteza, Serbia: and LEP, Denmark. These three have been accredited on the present Training Standards and under the old FORUM system of self-assessment and mutual recognition. Now the FORUM looks forward to welcoming back the applicants and starting on the process of assessing new training institutes. At some stage it will also begin re-assessing institutes which have been accredited in the past. This has been an extremely fruitful year. News David Boadella has been invited, and has accepted, to be an advisor to the FORUM. The FORUM has put out a new handbook with detailed information about each FORUM Training Institute. This can be ordered from the Secretariat. Lisbeth Marcher will step down as Forum Chairperson at the FORUM meeting in September. A new Chairperson will be elected at the Forum Meeting and ratified at the General Assembly. Lidy Evertsen is willing to stay on as ViceChairperson. Dictionary to read EAP and EABP documents AGM Council CPD EABP EAP EAPTI ECP ECPP EFBA-P ETSC EWAO EWO EWOC FEAP FEPTO GAP IJP NAO NUO NUOC S.V. TAC WCP GA Annual General Meeting Council of EABP National Associations and National Committees Continuous Professional Development European Association for Body-Psychotherapy European Association of Psychotherapy European Accredited Psychotherapy Training Institute European Certificate for Psychotherapy European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapies European Federation for Bioenergetic Analysis European Training Standards Committee (EAP) European Wide Accrediting Organisation European Wide Organisation European Wide Organisations Committee Federación Española de Asociaciónes de Psicoterapeuteas Federation of Psychodrama Training Organizations Grandparenting Advisory Panel International Journal for Psychotherapy National Awarding Organisation National Umbrella Organisation National Organizations Committee Scientific Validation Training and Accreditation Committee (EAP) World Congress of Psychotherapy General Assembly Compiled by Lidy Evertsen EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 9 FORUM trauma - the power that made it possible to survive in the best way possible, even if it was through fight, flight or freeze. Training staff: Erik Jarlnaes and Dami Charf Language: English and German Info: bodynamic@bodynamic.dk Current workshops and trainings A taste of Peak and Shock Post Congress workshop Askov, Denmark 24/25 September Contact EABP Congress Office eabpcongress2006@eabp.org BODYNAMIC INTERNATIONAL Bodynamic Foundation Training in Denmark 2006 The concentrated version The training includes knowledge and models that cover our Character Structure Model, our Communication Model (the Bodyknot) and our Teambuilding Model (the F8). This Foundation training is presently taught in nine countries, and they all qualify for the next level - the Practitioner training level. Together they form the 4-year Bodynamic Psychotherapy training. The training is 7+8 days in the time period 1-18 August 2006 Training Staff: Erik Jarlnaes, Lisbeth Marcher and Ditte Marcher Language: English Info: bodynamic@bodynamic.dk Dates for the Spring and the beginning of Summer 2006 July 19-22 Core Somatics with Cornelia Gerken in the South of France July 30-August 5 Our popular 24th! International Summer Intensive in the South of France (open workshops) The Will of The Heart An introduction to Core Evolution and Core Energetics with Siegmar Gerken. New European trainings begin on a regular basis. Please inquire for our dates, curriculum and application form. Summer Foundation Training July 24 - Aug 9 2006 Trauma Training in Cologne 2006 3 x 4 days and 1 x 6 days starting 25-28 May and continuing Sep 14-17, Oct 31Nov 5 and Jan 18-21 2007. 20 years experience, specific knowledge and use of the body integrated with knowledge, use and reestablishment of healthy survival reflexes. Learning to discriminate instincts, emotions and feelings. Focus on resources in the shock reactions and this includes grasping and experiencing the peak-experience in the page 10 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CORE EVOLUTION® • CORE ENERGETICS® • CORE SOMATICS® Please inquire for further information and local contacts International Institute for Core Evolution • Core Energetics • Core Somatics P.O. Box 806, Mendocino, CA 95460, USA Tel: +1(707) 937-2673 Fax: +1(707) 937-3052 e-mail: info@CoreEvolution.com www.CoreEnergeticInstitute.com www.CoreEvolution.com SPRING 2006 ES.TE.R. SPANISH SCHOOL OF REICHIAN THERAPY Workshop Technique and process in Body-Psychotherapies This workshop will be held twice in 2006. As places are limited, you are required to register before the deadlines indicated below: 1) 27th, 28th May Registration deadline: 10 May 2) 22, 23July Registration deadline: 5 July Venue: ES.TE.R. headquarters Fee: 110 euro Students and unemployed: 100 euro ES.TE.R. students: 90 euro Trainer: Xavier Serrano Hortelano Postgraduate course of crisis assistance Models of crisis management developed by character-analytic psycho-therapy 27- 30 of July Registration deadline: before the 5th of July Venue: ES.TE.R. headquarters Fees: 300 euro ES.TE.R. students: 250 euro Teahers: Manuel Redón, Xavier Serrano Hortelano Intensive postgraduate clinical course 18 -20 August Fee: 200 euro Students and unemployed: 180 euro ES.TE.R. students: 170 euro Teacher: Xavier Serrano Hortelano INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION: Headquarters of the Escuela Española de Terapia Reichiana (ES.TE.R.) C/Republica Guinea Ecuatorial 4-1ºC Phone: (00 34) 963 727 310 46022-Valencia Spain www.esternet.org reichiana@esternet.org EAP Report from EAP Meeting: Vienna, February 2006 Lisbeth Marcher and I attended the latest meeting of the EAP in Vienna this February. There was some good news to report. I had made several protests in previous meetings about the 'discriminatory' clause (decided in 2000) whereby EABP was treated differently from every other European Wide Accrediting Organisation (EWAO), and every modality or method within body-psychotherapy was required to be independently scientifically validated. We did not have any particular objection to the B-P methods being scientifically validated, and we complied with this faithfully: Several methods (Hakomi, Biodynamic, Unitive, Bodynamic, CharacterAnalytic Vegetotherapy, ERI, etc.) were put through this process. However, we did not like the fact that we were the only EWAO with such a condition attached. At this meeting, a decision was taken in the European Wide Organisations Committee (EWOC) to rescind that clause. The EAP Governing Board ratified this decision. All EWAOs are encouraged to ensure that the various methods within them are all scientifically valid and that they do not create a conflict with any other psychotherapy modalities. The implication coming from this decision is that, within EABP, we must still ensure that the various methods of body-psychotherapy schools are scientifically validated, probably within The FORUM or otherwise, probably using the same criteria of the “15 Questions”, but now the process of assessment will be carried out by ourselves from within EABP and The FORUM, and not by other people from EWOC. They will take our word that this process has been done. The benefit of this decision was almost immediately apparent. The IFCC institute in Strasbourg in a previous meeting had been 'required' to have their method scientifically validated before their application to become the first European Accredited Psychotherapy Training Institute (EAPTI) for BodyPsychotherapy could be properly processed. In the assessment for the scientific validity of their method, Psychotherapeutic Postural Integration (PPI) - a mixture of Postural Integration, Jungian work and Gestalt Psychotherapy, one of the assessors had raised a number of quite difficult questions and the other assessor made a late assessment but this was very positive. The IFCC have said that they were prepared to answer these difficult questions, but also questioned what happens now with one assessor for and one against. The EWOC decided that now the “scientific validity” situation can be resolved within EABP, we just need to report back to them, and then (assuming everything is OK) their assessment as an EAPTI can progress forwards. The FORUM will now have to work out exactly how it is going to do this scientific validation process (as well as how it does its new membership and accreditation processes). Besides the IFCC assessment, almost certainly the next method or modality to present itself for assessment for scientific validity will be Core Energetics. We can also possibly make a ruling about the Hamburg Institute being “properly” integrative in B-P, and this would allow them to proceed, if they wish, towards getting EAPTI status. EAPTI status means that all graduates from that training institute can get the ECP pretty automatically. Incidentally, anyone who (a) has an ECP and (b) who is also involved with a psychotherapy training institute can become an ‘EAP International Expert’ - a TAC assessor of other modalities’ training institutes for EAPTI status. They have to send their CV to the EAP Head Office and the Registrar and then be accepted by the TAC. They would visit applicant institutes - very similar to our own assessment processes. Courtenay Young EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 11 The Bibliography of Body-Psychotherapy is an independent project, partially funded by EABP, and also subject to review by the Publications Committee. Joop Valstar Ingeborg Joachim Courtenay Young Jill van der Aa EABP Committees The Scientific Committee supports projects that further the scientific aims and objectives of EABP and research projects in Body-Psychotherapy. The Professional Development Committee The Ethics Committee consists of five people, elected at the General Assembly, which deals with all matters touching on the ethical code, procedure for complaints, ethical advice and similar professional issues. It also acts as an informational resource for EABP members on ethical issues. The International Membership Committee oversees and coordinates the acceptance of new EABP members by the various National Associations. It reviews any disputed membership acceptances or rejections. Chairperson: Angela Belz-Knöferl angela.belz@t-online.de Maarten Aalberse Felix Hohenau Christiane Lewin-Gros Lisbeth Sten-Jensen Michel Heller is reserve member If you are interested in participating on one of the committees please contact a Board member. The Training Standards Committee meets with representatives the FORUM and has established a set of criteria for body-psychotherapy training. These are being reviewed in the light of the development of the ECP Training Standards. Chairperson: Sean Doherty doherty.sean@lineone.net François Lewin Thomas Riepenhausen Harry Visser The Congress Planning Committee organizes the biannual EABP Congress. It is chaired by a Board member and may contain people from many different countries, as well as from the country where the Congress is planned. Co-chairpersons: Sean Doherty, Bjørn Ødegaard Members: Ditte Marcher Dagmar Rellensmann Lisbeth Sten-Jensen Martin Tidén Markku Välimäki Hellen Wraanes The Publications Committee oversees the creation of EABP literature. A twice-yearly Newsletter is sent to members digitally and by post and a Membership Information booklet goes to all Members. The EABP Website is regularly updated with the latest information and there is also a new booklet about The FORUM. page 12 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R oversees and promotes events for the professional development of EABP members. SPRING Positions to fill on EABP Board and Committees The General Assembly, held in conjunction with the biannual EABP Congress, is approaching and once again we are looking towards changeovers on the Board and the various EABP Committees. The three main positions on the Board (President, Secretary, Treasurer) are elected for four years, and do not all change at the same time. This General Assembly Courtenay Young stands down as President. There is currently no candidate for this vacancy so far. (Should we also consider changing the name to Chairperson?) Sean Doherty and François Lewin continue as Secretary and Treasurer for another two years. Joop Valstar and Ingeborg Joachim were elected as Board Members in 2004. They need to be re-elected for another two years at the General Assembly. Bjørn Ødegaard was the Reserve Board Member. Courtenay Young is willing to stay on the Board in order to continue his valued liaison work with the EAP, but would need to be elected. The FORUM of Body-Psychotherapy 2006 Organizations, was formed in 1997. It now takes its own independent decisions on issues relating to the FORUM Training Institutes. Lisbeth Marcher will step down as Chairperson and the FORUM will elect their new Chairperson at the FORUM meeting just before the General Assembly in Askov. This new Chairperson will be ratified at the General Assembly and will take a place on the Board. The Council of EABP National Associations and National Committees, formed in January 2005, is also gradually becoming established. Elfriede Kastenberger was elected Chairperson, together with Co-Chairperson Markku Vålimåki, at the beginning of 2005. Elfriede was re-elected as Chairperson in 2006 and will continue this position until 2008. The Council Chairperson has a place on the EABP Board. The Ethics Committee members are elected at the General Assembly. This year Maarten Aalberse´s four year period is over and he is standing for re-election. Christiane LewinGros resigned her membership in the EC prematurely and our reserve member Michael Heller will take her place. Thus the EC needs a new reserve member. The Congress Planning Committee (CPC) is currently active in planning the Askov Congress. Their work will be finished after the congress. The Congress in 2008 will be held in conjunction with the International Scientific Committee (ISC). François Lewin has been elected by the ISC as President of this Committee. He is also an EABP member. Most probably a second Board member will be elected as EABP representative to this joint Congress Committee. The Training Standards Committee, chaired for the last years by Sean Doherty has included three members from the FORUM. They met once and have kept in touch by email. Hopefully the bulk of the work needed to update the Training Standards will have been done by September. However the Committee will need to continue to exist as the Forum will go into a further round of reaccreditation and there will need to be some sort of check and balance system while this process is going on. The Publications Committee is manned (and womanned) by three Board members and Jill van der Aa from the Secretariat. Unfortunately all four people are overloaded with EABP commitments and this has meant one Newsletter less this year, which is a pity. We would like some outside support - we would welcome the addition of a couple of members to support the collecting and organizing of information - perhaps even to take over the whole Newsletter. Who has dreamed of editing a magazine? Who has a vision of what an active Newsletter could mean for the EABP members? Who is independent and would like to stir the pot a little? For some years the name Scientific Committee has been bandied around but there was no sign of a committee. This is not for lack of people offering. At the last Congress four or five people put down their names for this committee but they never met and were never approached explicitly to do that. There is money in the budget that has never been used. The Professional Development Committee has had the same destiny; nice name, good intentions, some people offering, no action. Part of the problem with these never realized committees is that there are just not enough Board members to head up all these committees and most Board members are overloaded with tasks already. A committee that doesn't have a Board member can lose touch with the organization and not integrate with what is happening. We have to look for solutions. EABP is maturing and growing - you can see this in the membership figures. And with growth comes more work and more responsibility. And with responsibility comes the need to share the work with more people. People who dare to share parts of the responsibility. Therefore we are asking people to come forward in the next months. Contact a Board member and we will try to prepare these committees before the Congress so that in Askov members can be ratified by the General Assembly, the first meetings can be held, the main aims be established, and a start can be made. Report from the Ethics Committee Report from the Training Standards Committee The EC had its second meeting at the end of August 2005 at Christiane Lewin-Gros´s centre in Montpellier, France. It was the first time Christiane was with us and the new elected EC could meet with all its members. Most of our time was taken up with continuing our work on the complete reformulation of the EABP ethics guidelines. Even though we had been working through the theme the meeting before it was interesting to look at it once more - this time including Christiane´s comments and to see what needs to be more precise or what can be left out. Another round was done at the meeting in January in Nürnberg. Another bit of business we had to deal with was a letter from a person who had been part of an already closed case. There may be some new material, in which case a reevaluation may be requested, but this nor clear yet, as it has not arrived at the EC up until now. The EABP Board asked us for some help in formulating a letter and some phonecalls came in to ask for advice on different issues. It became clear to me through the phonecalls that people - actually members of EABP have very little knowledge about the structure of EABP. For instance they have not realized that the EC has already changed its procedures even though this has been published in different places. A proposal to improve this situation is to put it on the agenda of the National Assembly´s meeting so that the NA´s can promote it in their countries. The TSC and the Forum have been looking in detail at Training Standards since spring 2005. The current standards were passed by the 1999 General Assembly and have been used by accredited FORUM schools since that time. This has allowed a period of time to review and reflect on what has worked well and what is needed for change. The existence of the standards has greatly helped the process of accreditation and mutual recognition in the FORUM providing one of the concrete reference points for the schools. However over time various concerns have become clear. There is a concern that the current Training Standards rely too much on quantitative assessment, for example counting all sections of the training in hours, and that they are referenced to the EAP standards too much. Some people have also expressed the opinion that they are over-regulated and may disable the establishment of body-psychotherapy in countries and regions where there is not an already well-established psychotherapeutic network. A need has been expressed for more qualitative measures of evaluation. The direction that emerges from these discussions is to create two sets of standards, one that is referenced to EAP and one set that is more for the internal use of EABP. At the 2006 General Assembly Training Standards will be presented that are specially designed for the EABP schools that want to qualify as an EAPTI [ European Association Psychotherapy Training Institute]. This will be specially useful for those schools that want to award the ECP to students on completion of their course. The process of designing a second set of standards of an equivalent level to the EAPTI standards but that involve more qualitative criteria is an exciting challenge and will constitute further work for the TSC. Sean Doherty To end this short report I just have to state that members of the EC work very nicely together producing a lot and having a lot of fun. For the EC Angela Belz-Knöferl EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 13 General Secretary’s Report News Sean Doherty These days the General Secretary's work has less administration than in earlier years, which leaves more time for other aspects of EABP business. Our work has become significantly more complex and it would be hard to see how the EABP could now manage without a professional secretariat. One of the duties of the General Secretary is to be the line manager of the secretariat in the person of Jill van der Aa. This is one of the easier tasks in that we know Jill as a hard and conscientous worker; rather than chase her to do work we are more likely to put limits on her so that she does not work too hard. The busiest aspect of my work is as a member of the executive board. There is a steady stream of emails, some easy, some complex that require attention. The Board needs to be vigilant as to how to work efficiently, which processes can be left to one person and which need to be decided by a team and a majority vote. Within my mind as General Secretary there is a debate as to how to use language in EABP communications. There is a polarity between minimal and formalist language in EABP letters and documents and a more expanded and sometimes personal style. Both have good points but there is a split in the board as to which style to use as a normal method. This has caused some serious debate and disagreement with the possibility that time and energy have been wasted. I anticipate this matter will be part of the work with an external facilitator in the June Board meeting. page 14 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING Dear EAP Board members, The Decision of the Italian Court concerning Heinrich Lanthaler, an Austrian psychotherapist who wanted to practise in Italy, can be found in several documents on the EAP website. The decision is only available in Italian and German. Thanks again to Frans Peeters who scanned the documents. Best regards Sonja Wirgler EAP headoffice Comment from Courtenay Young Apparently this decision in a high Italian court means that the first legal precedent has been set in the field of psychotherapy. Apparently this decision might be able to be used as a precedent where one country tries to restrict the use of the term "psychotherapist". What happened was the Italian state tried to forbid or stop someone (a State-registered psychotherapist and an ECP holder) from another country (Austria) practising in Italy and calling themselves a psychotherapist on the grounds that they do not fulfil the conditions of the Italian law (doctors and psychologists only can call themselves psychotherapists). They wanted him to do another four years of training. Now he has to do something smaller and much more reasonable. This was announced in the EAP meeting as it helps the case for the ECP and the existence of the EAP. 2006 Neuropsychology is probably the fastest growing body of knowledge in psychology. This fascinating field brings back the focus of body-mind by exploring the intricate relationships between brain and behavior. To help clinicians get a sense of this important field we have just completed an introductory online course on Neuropsychology. http://www.drzur.com Zur Institute Clinical Update, February 14, 2006 June 1-3, 2006 Lisbon, Portugal 4th International Biosynthesis Congress Building the Bridge Between Body, Mind & Spirit Future events May 26 2006 10am-5pm Authentic Movement California Institute of Integral Studies San Francisco, 94103, USA For Reservations contact: Keiko Lane klane@ciis.edu www.ciis.edu Main Speakers: Antonio Damasio, Allan Schore, Silvia Specht-Boadella Scientific researches in neurobiology, psycho-neuro-immunology, and energetic medicine now support this integration in different ways. Healing in Biosynthesis becomes a vital bridge between essence and existence, soul and soma, inner and outer ground. Contact: ester.frankel@pobox.com or mncorea@gmail.com, www.cpbiosynthesis. com, www.biosynthesis.org, www.biossintese.psc.br Tina Stromsted, Ph.D., MFT, ADTR (Licensed psychotherapist and Registered Dance Therapist) is cofounder of the Authentic Movement Institute. In her private practice she offers Jungian and body-oriented psychotherapy and consultation in San Francisco. Her international workshops integrate Depth Psychology, Authentic Movement, Somatics, elements of Marion Woodman's BodySoul Rhythms approach, embodied dreamwork, and creative arts therapy. Tina is a faculty member in the Somatic Psychology Doctoral Program at the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute and the Marion Woodman Foundation. She also teaches in public programs at the C.G. Jung Institute of SF, the California Institute of Integral Studies, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Esalen Institute and other universities and healing centers, internationally. She is a candidate at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. Authentic Movement and Mary Starks Whitehouse “Movement, to be experienced, has to be “found” in the body, not put on like a dress or a coat. There is that in us which has moved from the very beginning. It is that which can liberate us.” Mary Whitehouse Founder of Authentic Movement Please note: Motions for the ‘Grey Book’ (the General Assembly) must be submitted to the EABP Secretariat by 1st July 2006. EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 15 RABOP Russia President: Vladimir Baskakov vbaskakov@yahoo.com Representative: Victoria Berezkina-Orlova bervik@aha.ru COUNCIL of National Associations and National Committees S&MABP Serbia & Montenegro President: Ljiliana Klisic Djordjevic eklisic@sezampro.yu CH-EABP Switzerland Contact: Jürg Thomet juerg.thomet@tiscali.ch Secretary: Silvia Müller silvia.mueller@wettingen.ch Treasurer: Marco Guidon info@koerpertherapie.ch Christina Bader-Johansson NVLP The Netherlands Chairperson: Joop Valstar nvlp@planet.nl Secretary: Elisabeth de Lange elisdelange@planet.nl Treasurer: Marga de Langen langen.mcg@quicknet.nl Elfriede Kastenberger Co-Chairpersons of the Council Dr. Elfriede Kastenberger e.kastenberger@aon.at Markku Välimäki valimaki@dlc.fi Report from the Council Meeting in Zurich 26-28 January 2006 AABP Austria President: Elfriede Kastenberger e.kastenberger@aon.at Secretary: Bernhard Hubacek hubacek@bhc.at Treasurer: Dr Eva Wagner-Margetich margetich@aon.at Present: Elfriede Kastenberger, Chairperson (AABP, Austria); Jürg Thomet (CH-EABP, Switzerland); Joop Valstar (NVLP, Netherlands); Victoria Berezkina-Orlova (RABOP, Russia); Bjørn Ødegaard (Norway); Ljiljana Klisic (YABP, Serbia); Courtenay Young (UK); Doris Baumeler (CH); Christina BaderJohansson (Switzerland); Sean Doherty (UK); Dagmar Rellensmann (DGK, Germany). DGK Germany President: Manfred Thielen, ma.thielen@gmx.de Secretary: Margit Grossmann, margit.grossmann@t-online.de Treasurer: Roland Port, Secretariat: Axel Schulz sekretariat@koerperpsychotherapiedgk.de National Council Representative: Dagmar Rellensmann PESOPS Greece President: Clorinda Lubrano-Kotoulas clubrano@otenet.gr Genera Secretary: Marilena Komi marilenakomi@yahoo.com Contact: Despina Markaki dmarkaki@in.gr AIPC Italy President: Fabio Carbonari aipc@psicoterapiecorporee.it fabio.carbonari@tele2.it Vice President: Maurizio Stupiggia email: maustup@tin.it Secretary: Giuseppe Ciardiello siar@analisi-reichiana.it Treasurer: Simona de Stasio Board Members: Flavia Maloni, Adriana Rotondano and Piera Sacchi. page 16 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING o Each representative reported about the situation of PT and BPT in her/his country. o We discussed the draft for the new Membership Criteria in detail. They set a higher level for those who want to join EABP, but they are similar to the level set to become a psychotherapist eg in Austria. Point 2 of the minutes. o The next point was the new Agreement (formerly Contract) between the EABP and the NA´s; it should be less hierarchical than the old one. There should be a vote on the Contract and the Membership Criteria at the next General Assembly that will take place during the EABP Congress in September 2006 in Askov. Point 3 o It´s important to collect the procedures and rules of the Council (Constitution), how it works, what are its duties and possibilities (8) o Sean and Bjørn reported on the 2006 preparations for the EABP-Congress. There will be very interesting speakers and lecturers, and also pricereductions for EABP-members and groups. Point 13 o Bjørn proposed to establish and offer ‘induction weekends’ for new EABP members which would include Ethics, referral protocols, professional practice issues etc and generic' core courses, established and run by EABP. Week-end courses for people interested in BPT might include Introduction to B-P, Ethics of Professional Touch, History of B-P. Point 11,12 o Another item was the finances of the NA’s and NC’s. Switzerland and the Netherlands sponsored the travel costs for Russia and Serbia - a very important sign of solidarity! Point 5-7 o We talked about how to improve the flow of information within the EABP, in between the different countries and with the EABP members. How do members get the information that is important for them? The theme of ‘information’ is one of the most important issues for the Council. Point 10 o Another important subject-matter in the EABP and in the Council is the matter of language. Do we exclude the Romanic countries by using English as the only language? It is important to consider the cultural diversity between North and South, between East and West too. How is it possible to deal with this issue in a positive way? Point 9 o We gratefully accepted Ljiljana Klisic´s invitation to arrange the next Council Meeting from 26-28 January 2007 in Belgrade. Our hosts Christina BaderJohansson and Jürg Thomet had found a very agreeable venue for the meeting and prepared carefully. As a surprise they invited us for a lovely guided tour in Zurich, and the evening ended with a typical Swiss cheese fondue. Thank you very much for your hospitality! Kurzer Bericht vom CouncilMeeting in Zurich 27. bis 29. Jänner 1. Wir haben uns zuerst über die Lage der Psy Ther und der KÖPSY in den einzelnen ausgetauscht. 2. Sehr ausführlich wurden die neuen Membership-Criteria (=Aufnahme-Bedingungen oder Kriterien) diskutiert; sie bringen eine massive Erhöhung der Anforderungen an Aufnahmewillige. Sie entsprechen damit aber auch weitgehend z.B. den Anforderungen, die bei uns für die Anerkennung an PsyTher. gestellt werden. 3. Ein neuer, weit weniger hierarchisch aufgebauter Vertrag bzw Vereinbarung (Contract, Agreement) zwischen EABP und NA wurde ebenfalls ausführlich diskutiert. Über Membership Criterias und Contract soll beim EABP-Kongress bzw. der Generalversammlung in Askov abgestimmt werden. 4. Über die Vorbereitung des EABPKongresses wurde berichtet tolle Vortragende! 5. die Finanzlage der NA und NC wurde besprochen; die Schweiz und die Niederlande, die finanziell relativ gut dastehen, haben sich bereit erklärt, die Reisekosten für die Delegierten Russlands und Serbiens zu übernehmen (find ich toll! Zeichen für Solidarität). 6. Weitere wichtige Punkte waren Kommunikation und Informationsfluss zwischen den einzelnen Nationen, von den einzelnen Ländern zur EABP und umgekehrt und auch zu den einzelnen Mitgliedern - wie erfahren die Mitglieder Beschlüsse oder Themen, die für sie wichtig sind; besonders dafür ist das Council-Meeting wichtig. 7. Das Thema Sprachen beschäftigt uns in der EABP in letzter Zeit besonders: schließen wir mit englisch als einziger Sprache die Länder mit romanischer Sprache (weitgehend) aus? Sind mit den Sprach-Unterschieden nicht auch kulturelle Unterschiedlickeiten verbunden, die es bei einer übernationalen Vereinigung zu beachten und zu würdigen gilt? Wie können wir wertschätzend damit umgehen? 8. Für das nächste Council-Meeting 26. bis 28. Jänner 2007 haben wir gerne die Einladung von Ljiljana Klisic nach Belgrad angenommen. Unsere Gastgeber, Christina BaderJohansson und Jürg Thomet, haben für uns einen sehr angenehmen Platz im Grünen organisiert und das Treffen sehr gut vorbereitet. Als Überraschung gab es eine entzückende Führung durch Zürich und ein zünftiges Fondue-Essen. Vielen Dank für die Gastfreundschaft! Council Meeting à Zurich 26. -28. January 2006 o Chaque représentative a reportée la situation de la PT et de la BPT dans son pays. Nous nous sommes échangées d'abord sur la situation de la Psy Ther et le PsyTh corporelle en particuliers. o On s´est occupée très détaillé des nouveau "MembershipCriterias"(point 2); ils apportent une augmentation massive des exigences en matière de disposés. Ils correspondent ainsi aussi largement p. ex. aux exigences qui sont imposées en Autriche pour la reconnaissance comme PsyTher.. o Un nouveau contrat (point3 )moins hiérarchiquement développé (Contract, Agreement) entre EABP et NA a été examiné également en détail. On votera sur les Membership Criterias et le Contract dans l'assemblée générale qui prendra lieu pendant le EABP-Kongress dans Askov. o Il faut collectinner les règles et procédures (« Constitution », point 8) du Council, et quels sont ses fonctions o Sean et Bjorn ont fait un rapport sur la préparation du EABPCongres (point 13) - il y aura des speakers très intéressant/e o La situation financière (5-7) des NA et NC a été examinée; la Suisse et les Pays-Bas qui sont financièrement bien posées., ont été prêts de se charger des frais de voyage pour les délégués de Russie et de Serbie (un signe de solidarité formidable). o D'autres points importants étaient la communication et la circulation de l'information (10) entre le nations, des différents pays au EABP et aux différents membres -comment serait il possible d´avertir les membres de décisions ou de thèmes qui sont importants pour elles ? Particulièrement cela lest un des thèmes très important pour le Council-Meeting o Les langues (9) sont un thème qui nous occupe beaucoup récemment dans la EABP: excluons-nous les pays avec une langue romane en utilisant l´anglais comme seule langue? Il faut aussi considérer les différence culturel qui sont liées aux langues. o Pour le rencontre prochain nous avons acceptée volontièrement l´invitation de Ljiljana Klisic à Belgrade, le «CouncilMeeting » prochain prendrera place du Janvier 26 - 28 2007 à Belgrade. Nos hotes, Christina Bader- Johansson et Jürg Thomet avons bien organisée et préparée nle meeting à une place tr`s agréable ; comme surprise il y avait une visite de Zurich et un diner avec le fondue au fromage typique. Merci beaucoup de votre hospitalité ! Council News We have heard recently, with great delight, that there is a new National Association forming in Spain. This means that only France, the UK and Scandinavia are without a National Association. There is slow and tentative progress within the UK as well but nothing specific to report yet. The Scandinavians are working together well in a National Committee. The other National Associations are growing steadily and we all met together in the new Council at the end of January 2006 in Zürich, hosted by the CH-EABP. Elfriede Kastenberger, the Council Chairperson, has been doing a great job keeping people informed, in contact through telephone conferences, and discovering what is needed. The Netherlands National Association (NVLP) will present another one-day symposium in Body-Psychotherapy Weten wat je doet - de brug tussen kennis en kunde in lichaamsgeorienteerde psychotherapie (Knowing what you do the bridge between knowledge and knowing in body-oriented psychotherapy) once again in collaboration with several other organisations. These have been excellent in the past and the growth of the NVLP attests to this. As the necessity of continuing Professional Development increases, these sorts of symposia are an excellent way forward to provide something for the members, and attract others. We are trying to tackle the language difficulties that divide our European Association. In this Newsletter we have included some German reports and articles in Italian and French. The Congress material has been presented in English, French and German. We are putting money aside in the central budget to make this a regular feature. English will stay as the central ‘common’ ('official') language but we hope to make the work of EABP much more accessible and understandable through the ready availability of such translations. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 17 Report from AABP We were working hard in the AABP persuing the goal of being awarded state recognition, but we found out that the way we tried it did not work. This brought about some changes in the AABP, some people have left and others have come in. In order to get to know what is the most important goal for our members we had a closed meeting in December; for those who were present the acknowledgement of body-psychotherapy in Austria was the most important issue, also to build up a training institute and professional exchange. Elfriede Kastenberger Report from DGK On the 2nd of December 2005 the DGK conference and General Assembly was attended by about 50 members. There were several talks, many about empirical research. We had excellent feedback about the venue. Food was served in the room itself so that there was a lot of contact between the members. Margit Grossmann Lecture by Manfred Thielen DGK Conference I.) Einschätzung der Psychotherapieentwicklung im Feld der Approbierten Psychologischen Psychotherapie Die gegenwärtige Diskussion ist stark geprägt durch die Vorgaben des Gesetzgebers durch das Gesundheitsmodernisierungsgesetz und den darin implizierten Anforderungen an die Medizin und auch an die page 18 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING Psychotherapie nach Qualitätssicherung - verbesserung und mangement und der Forderung der Evidenzbasierung. Nach dem Sachverständigenrat ist auch in dere Medizin nur ein Teil - ich glaube gar 40 % der Leistungen evidenzbasiert. Die Forderung nach Evidenzbasierung wurde auch von der rotgrünen Bundesregierung gestellt, zusammen mit Versuchen, den Wettbewerb im Gesundheitswesen zu verstärken, die Macht der Krankenkassen zu stärken und die der KVen zu schwächen. Ulla Schmidt, die neue und alte Bundesgesundheitsminister wird diesen Kurs entsprechend fortführen und u.U. noch verschärfen. Die Idee dabei ist, die hohen Gesundheitskosten (Spiegel ca, 500 Mill. euro) zu senken, den Lobbyismus z.B. der KBV und der niedergelassenen Ärzteschaft zu brechen, Benchmarking einzuführen, d.h. die beste Leistung zu den günstigsten Bedingungen einzukaufen. Hintergrund für die Forderung nach Evidenzbasierung ist das Interesse der PatientInnen nach der effektivsten Versorgung. Durch empirische Evaluierung soll die Spreu vom Weizen getrennt werden und die besten und effektivsten Methoden eruiert werden. Auf diesem Hintergrund wird auch in der Psychotherpie der Ruf nach Evidenzbasierter Psychotherapie immer lauter. Berufs- und wissenschaftspolitisch wurde er vor allem von den Verhaltenstherapeuten aufgenommen. Einer der führenden Repräsentanten einer Evidenzbasierten Psychotherapie war der ehemalige Präsident der Bundespsychotherpeutenkammer, Detlev Kommer, der im Sommer diesen Jahres leider verstorben ist. Die BPtK hat unter seiner Schirmherrschaft und der wissenschaftlichen Leitung von Prof. Fydrich (HU Berlin) letztes Jahr ein Expertensymposium zu dieser Thematik durchgeführt, an dem mit Prof. Margraf (V.T:, bis 2004 Vorsitzender des WBP), Prof. Chamberlain (USA) führende Vertreter teilgenommen haben. Insbesondere Frau Chamberlain ist international eine anerkannte Psychotherapieforscherin und eine Vorreiterin der Evidenzbasierten Psychotherapie. Sie gehört der TaskForce der APA an. Prof. Schulte (VT, Bochum) ist ein weiterer wichtiger Vertreter, der in der Bundeskommission zur Aus- Fortund Weiterbildung der BPtK sitzt und zusätzlich eine indikations- und 2006 störugnsspezifische Psychotherapie fordert. D.h. je nach einem bestimmten Störungsbild z.B. Depression soll auf der Basis von empirischen Studien die effektivste Psychotherapieform - nach den Studien wäre das die kognitive V.T. indiziert werden. Das Gebiet der Psychotherapie liefe dann Gefahr störungsspezifisch segmentiert zu werden, z.B. Psychoanalyse und Tiefenpsychologie für Persönlichkeitsstörungen, die V.T. für Depression, Angststörungen usw. Diese Überlegungen gehen einher mit Kostenersparnissen für die Kostenträger. Nach den empirischen Untersuchungen von Prof. Hautzinger (V.T:, Tübingen) ist bei der Depressionsbehandlung eine Kombination aus Psychopharmaka und bis zu max. 13 Gruppenstunden kognitiver V.T. die optimale Behandlungsform. Diese Aussage wird zwar von einer Reihe von anderen Studien (Meta-Analyse von Leichsenring, PA,TP) widerlegt, doch das hat keine Auswirkungen auf diese Position. Die Krankenkassenvertreter nehmen natürlich solche scheinbar wissenschaftlich bewiesenen Aussagen von Hautzinger auf und unterstützen tendenziell diese Orientierung. Z.B: trat in Berlin beim 2. Landespsychotherapeutentag Herr Baasten (VDAK), der für die Krankenkassen im G-BA sitzt, auf und sympathisierte deutlich mit einer indiaktionsspezifischen Psychotherapie. - Eine evidenzbasierte Psychotherapie war auch das Anliegen des ebenfalls im Sommer verstorbenen Prof. Grawe, der mit seinen Bücher der Vorreiter dieser Richtung wurde. Allerdings wollte Grawe eine ganzheitliche Psychotherapie, er wollte weg von der gegenwärtig noich vorherrschenden Schulendifferenzierung hin zu einer einheitlichen Konzeption. Lange Jahre bzw. Jahrzehnte wollte er eine Integration auf der Basis der Verhaltenstherapie vornehmen, doch auf dem Hintergrund der neueren Ergebnisse der Neuropsychologie kam er zunehmend davon weg und orientierte tatsächlich auf eine ganzheitliche, einheitliche Psychotherapie, die auf gemeinsamen Wirkfaktoren basiere. Hierbei maß er dem Beziehungsaspekt auf dem Hintergrund seiner eigenen empirischen Forschungen einen entscheidenden Stellenwert bei. Diese Position wird auch von führenden Vertretern der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Verhaltenstherapie (H.Vogel, Prof. Kuhr u.a.) unterstützt. - Die Traditionalisten, vor allem aus dem Bereich der Psychoanalyse und der orthodoxen V.T. tun sich auch schwer mit der Evidenzbasierung. Allerdings haben auch die Psychoanalytiker eine Reihe von empirischen Anstrengungen unternommen und die Psychoanalyse wurde zusammen mit der tiefenpsychologisch fundierten Psychotherapie unter dem Oberbegriff "Psychodynamische Psychotherapie" vom WBP wissenschaftlich 2004 anerkannt. Die V.T. übrigens ebenfalls. Insofern sind sie evidenzbasierte Richtungen. Die Traditionalisten wollen im PRinzip den Status Quo erhalten und ihre bisherigen Privilegien und Pfründe verteidigen. Sie schließen sich tendenziell eher mit den Vertretern der Evidenzbasierten Psychotherapie zusammen, Teile von ihnen aber auch mit der nun folgenden Gegenströmung. - Gegen diesen Mainstream der Evidenzbasierter Psychotherapie, die quasi naturwissenschaftlich und empiristisch orientiert ist, formiert sich aber zunehmend eine größer werdende Gegenströmung, die vor allem von Wissenschaftlern und Berufspolitikern aus dem Bereich der Nicht-.Richtlinienpsychotherapie, vorwiegend aus dem Humanistischen Spektrum vertreten wird. Theoretisch hat hier führend Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kriz (Osnabrück, Mitglied des WBP, G.T:, Systemiker, Existenzialanalyse nach V.Frankl u.a.) Position bezogen. Auf den beiden Landespsychotherapeutentagen der Berliner Psychotherapeutenkammer hat ein methodenintegratives Modell auf 4 Säulen entwickelt. Er plädiert für eine einheitliche psychotherapeutische Grundausbildung, die auf folgenden Säulen baisert: - der Humanistischen Grundorientierung; - der PSychodynamischen " - der verhaltenstherapeutischen " - der systemischen " Seines Erachtens hat die Körperpsychotherapie in diesem Modell ihren Platz an der Schnittstelle von psychodynamischer und humanistischer Grundorientierung. Nach dieser gemeinsamen Grundausbildung könne dann eine Spezialisierung in einer der Orientierungen erfolgen. Zu dieser wichtigen wissenschaftsund berufspolitischen Richtungen gehört auch die Arbeitsgemeinschaft PSychotherapie (AGP, GwG, VPP, Systemiker, DGK u.a.), die das Symposium im März 2006 zum Thema: "Das Unbehagen in der (Psychotherpie-) Kultur" initiiert und organisiert. Hier werden viele VertreterInnen dieser Richtung zu Wort kommen wie Prof. Kriz, Prof. Buchholz, Prof. Salber, Prof. Zurhorst, Biermann-Ratjen. Aus dem körperpsychotherapeutischen Spektrum wird Prof. Thomas Loew sprechen. Das Symposium wird erstaunlicherweise auch von der psychoanalytischen Gesellschaft DGPT utnerstützt. Im Rahmen dieser wissenschaftsund berufspolitischen Konstellationen hat die Körperpsychotherpie die besten Bedingungen auf Anerkennung im Rahmen der angestreben Methodenintegration, wie sie im Krizschen Modell zum Ausdruck kommt. Sowohl auf der GK II-Tagung zur Reform der Psychotherapierichtlinien als auch auf dem 2.Landespsychotherapeutentag der Berliner PTK habe ich in zentralen Vorträgen die Position vertreten, dass die Körperpsychotherapie im 4Säulen-Modell eine eigene Säule beansprucht. Gerade die neueren Ergebnisse der Neurowissenschaften, der Säuglingsforschung u.a. untermauern zunehmend die Bedeutung der Integration des Körpers und des Non-Verbalen in die PSychotherapie. Dies wird auch von einzelnen Vertretern der Richtlinientherapie erkannt, so setzen sich im Bereich der Psychoanalyse seit JAhren Tilmann Moser, Günter Heisterkamp, Gisela Worms, J.Scharf, P.Geißler ua. für den Einbezug des Körpers ein. In der Verhaltenstherapie gibt es aktuell einen starken Trend zum Körper, s. den Kongress von 2004 von K.D.Sulz, der auch ein Buch zum "Körper in der Verhaltenstherapie" herausgegeben hat. Es existieren auch gute Grundlagenbücher von Görlitz zum Einbezug des Körpers in die V.T., Es besteht sogar die große Gefahr, dass sich die Richtlinienverfahren der besten Elemente der NichtRichtlinienverfahren bedienen, sie wie aus einem Steinbruch herausbrechen und in ihr Verfahren integrieren. Dieses Vorgehen hat den Charakter einer feindlichen Übernahme und muss entschieden zurückgewiesen werden. II) Stand der offiziellen Anerkennung der KPT Die KPT ist gegenwärtig weder berufs- noch sozialrechtlich anerkannt, sie kann also nur als IGELLeistung praktiziert und privat abgerechnet werden. Für die berufsrechtliche Anerkennung müsste sie sich dem Begutachtungsverfahren des WBP unterziehen. Nach dessen einseitig orientierten empirischen Kritierien, bei denen RCT-STudien an der 1. Stelle stehen, haben wir z.Z. keine Chance auf Anerkennung. Man muss in mind. 4 Indikationsbereichen über eine ausreichende Anzahl empirischer Studien verfügen, wobei einige RCT-Studien dabei sein sollten. Die anderen NichtRichtlinienverfahren verhalten sich unterschiedlich zum WBP, die Hypnose hat seit über einem Jahr einen Antrag gestellt, die Systemiker und Familientherapeuten, deren erster Antrag abgelehnt wurde, bereiten z.Z. einen neuen Antrag vor, die Neuropsychologen stellen einen Nachantrag, da sie bisher lediglich z.T. wissenschaftlich anerkannt wurden. Die Interpersonale Psychotherapie, die insbesondere im stationären Bereich vertreten ist, hat m.W. auch einen Antrag gestellt. Von den relevanteren NichtRichtlinienverfahren haben nur die Gestalttherapie, das PSychodrama und die Körperpsychotherapie keinen bzw. das PSychodrama keinen erneuten Antrag gestellt. Die Mehrheit der FAch- u. Berufsverbände zweifelt z.Z. die Legitimität des WBP nicht an, dies trifft auch auf die Mehrheit der BPtK zu, doch von Seiten der AGP und insbesondere der GwG wird die Kritik an seiner Begutachtungspraxis immer lauter und massiver. Die GwG hat auch eine Reihe juristischer Erfolge erzielt, in denen die Kompetenz des WBP zur Anerkennung von Psychotherapieverfahren hinterfragt und kritisch kommentiert wird. Auch wenn die Hürde des WBP genommen ist, muss dann noch über die Hürde des G-BA gesprungen werden. Vor dieser Situation steht jetzt die G.T., die vom WBP seit Jahren wissenschaftlich anerkannt wurde, doch der G-BA prüft alle Studien noch einmal, um die Versorgungsrelevanz der G.T. zu überprüfen. Dabei soll sie die absurde Anforderung erfüllen, den anderen bereits praktizierten Verfahren überlegen zu sein bzw. Krankheitsbilder und Patienten-gruppen zu behandlen, die von den anderen Verfahren nicht adäquat ver- EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 19 sorgt werden. Also diese himmelhohen Hürden können wir auf dem Hintergrund des gegenwärtigen empirischen Materials sicherlich nicht in der nächsten Zeit überpringen. Doch welche Perspektiven haben wir, um unseren Anerkennungsstatus im Feld zu verbessern. Auf der Ebene der Bundes- und der Landespsychotherapeutenkammern gibt es Fortbildungsordnungen, nach denen in einigen Bundesländern auch die Fortbildung in Körperpsychotherapie möglich ist: Berlin, Hamburg, Hessen, Saarland (?), Bayern. Diesen Status müssen wir nutzen und weiter ausbauen, also auch in den anderen Landeskammern darum kämpfen, dass sich die KollegInnen auch in Körperpsychotherapie fortbilden können. Z.Z. wird in der BPtK die Diskussion um eine Musterweiterbildungsordnung geführt. Weiterbildung hat einen höhergradigen Status als Fortbildung. Die Ärzte bilden sich z.B. zum Facharzt weiter. In der Psychotherapie könnte man sich für bestimmte Kompentenzen wie Schmerztherapie, Diabetologie u.a. weiterbilden. Aber auch die Weiterbildung in Zweitverfahren wie Neuropsychologie, Familien- und Paartherapie, evt. Körperpsychotherapie wird angestrebt. Gegenwärtig orientieren wir gegen eine Musterweiterbildungsordnung, da wir als Körperpsychotherapeuten in den Fortbildungsordnungen bessere Chancen haben. Doch z.Z. sieht es so aus, dass die Mehrheit der BPtK für eine Weiterbildungsordnung votiert, wenn dieser Fall eintreten würde, müssen wir unbedingt dafür eintreten, dass man sich auch in Körperpsychotherapie weiterbilden kann. Dann müssten wir als Fachgesellschaft ein entpsprechendes Curriculum für eine ca. 3-j. Weiterbildung vorlegen. Ein weiteres wesentliches Feld sind wissenschaftliche Kongresse, Symposien, Tagungen, wissenschaftliche Publikationen, Verankerung an den Universitäten, Ausbau unserer Positionen im institutionellen Bereich. Die Erfahrungen aus den Kongressen, Symposien und Tagungen, an denen eigentlich Vertreter der relevantesten Psychotherapieverfahren teilgenommen haben wie z.B: LPTs Berlin, GKII-Symposium u.a. zeigen, dass es ganz entscheidend ist, ob wir in page 20 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING diesem großen Feld als Körperpsychotherapie bzw. Körperpsychotherapeuten vertreten sind. dadurch bekommen wir das notwendige Standing und werden von den anderen Richtungen auch zunehmend mehr wahr- und ernstgenommen. Deshalb liegt es auf der Hand, dass wir hier weiter und noch mehr präsent sein sollten. Die Verankerung an den Unis ist leider relativ dünn. Herausragend ist hier die Position von Thomas Loew, der in Regensburg einen Lehrstuhl inne hat und Körperpsychotherapie lehrt und beforscht. Prof. Dr. Seewald, der mit der DGK in Kontakt steht, hat einen Studiengang zur Körperpsychotherapie in Marburg entwickelt, der von PD Ulfried Geuter geleitet wird. Prof. Revenstorf (Tübingen)ie Mulit-.Center-Studie zur Körperpsychotherapie. PD Dr. U. Geuter vertritt als Privatdozent das Gebiet der Körperpsychotherapie an der FU Berlin. Durch unseren persönlichen Kontakt hat Prof. Kriz gewisse Sympathien für die Körperpsychotherapie, er hat eine Empfehlung für das Handbuch geschrieben. Das Handbuch zur Körperpsychotherapie, das von Gustl Marlock und Halko Weiss herausgegeben und Anfang 2006 bei Schattauer erscheinen wird, stellt einen wichtigen Meilenstein zur weiteren wissenschaftlichen Fundierung der Körperpsychotherapie dar. U.Geuter hat in seiner Bibliografie mehr als 1000 wissenschafltiche Titel zur Körperpsychotherapie erfasst. Er wird für uns einen Artikel im PTJ und den gegenwärtigen wissenschaftlichen Stand der Körperpsychotherapie, welche Richtugnen dazu gehören, wie sie theoretisch legitimiert und klinisch verankert sind, erarbeiten. Im institutionellen Bereich müsste die Verbreitung der KPT auch empirisch erfasst werden, dies wäre sicherlich eine lohnenswerte Aufgabe für Prof. Loew und Frank Röhricht. U. Geuter hat festgestellt, dass die KPT in Kliniken mit psychodynamischer Grundorientierung das am häufigste angewandte Zweitverfahren ist. (Geuter 2002a, 42- 47). Mir sind eine Reihe von Kliniken bekannt, in der KPT praktiziert wird, hierzu gehören: Bad Grönenbach, Heiligenfeld, Habichtswald-Klinik Kassel, Heinrich-Heine-Klinik Neufahrland, Dresden, Halle u.a. Über den emprisichen Stand werden gleich Frank Röhricht und Thomas Loew berichten, deshalb brauche ich hierauf nicht näher einzugehen. 2006 III) Welche wissenschafts- und berufspolitischen Perspektiven und Forderungen ergeben sich nun aus dieser Analyse 1.) Wir unterstützen alle Bestrebungen nach einer Reform der Psychotherapierichtlinien, sie wird von den Verbänden der AGP aktiv vorangetrieben. Diese Forderung ist verzahnt mit der Forderung nach 2.) Methodenintegration. Die PRL müssen sofort so reformiert werden, dass methodenintegratives Arbeiten, dass auch die Methoden der bisherigen Nicht.Richtlinienpsychotherapie umfassen muss, als eigener Strang innerhalb der PRL praktiziert werden kann. Jeder approbierte Psychotherapeut muss im Sinne der Verbesserung der Behandlung und im Interesse des Behandlungserfolges des/der PatientInnen diejenigen Methoden bzw. Verfahren anwenden dürfen, die er gelernt hat. Diese beiden Forderungen müssen vor allem im Rahmen des GK II, der Bundes- und der Länderpsychotherapeutenkammern, Kongressen, Tagungen, Foren, pol. Veranstaltungen vertreten werden. 3.) Wir arbeiten darauf hin, die Macht des WBP zu reduzieren und die der Landeskammern, als die Körperpsychaft, die wissenschafltiche Empfehlungen für die Wissenschaftlichkeit von Verfahren aussspricht zu stärken. Wir arbeiten auf eine Reform der einseitig empiristischen Kriterien des WBP hin. Auf der Ebene der Empirie treten wir für naturalistische Studien bzw, deren Höherbewertung gegenüber RCTStudien ein. 4.) Unsere eigene wisssenschaftliche Arbeit, insbesondere die empirische Arbeit muss verstärkt werden. 5.) Die Verstärkung unserer universitären Präsenz 6.) Die Gewinnung von DGKMitgliedern unter den PSycholog. Psychotherapeuten,Ki.- u.Jug.psycht. und ärztlichen Psychotherapeuten, unter denen es viele KollegInnen gibt, die qualifiziert körperpsychotherapeutisch ausgebildet aber noch nicht bei uns organisiert sind. 7.) Die Gewinnung von DGKMitglieder, die in der Lage sind bzw. versetzt werden, die Körperpsychotherapie in der Öffentlichkeit wirkungsvoll zu vertreten. RABOP Russia Annual International Conference for Body Psychotherapy and Thanatotherapy Body: between Life and Death Moscow 11-13 November 2005 There were more than 80 participants from Russia, Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, the Ukraine, Byelorussia and Kazakhstan. Vladimir Baskakov the President of RABOP, the Director of the Institute of the Thanatotherapy and the Organizer of the Conference noted that the title of the Conference itself indicates an original territory and “map” where approaches and methods of body-psychotherapy and Thanatotherapy are actual. Workshops using classic western approaches such as Bioenergetics, Biosynthesis, Rozen-method as well as traditional native Russian practices for working with the body were represented. For the first time there was a competition for the rank of “the most bodily psychotherapist” which caused curiosity and excitement. The next Conference is planned for November 2006. All information is available on website: www.thanatotherapy.ru Vladimir Baskakov Workshop with Erik Jarlnaes Report from S&MABP Dear Colleagues, The YU Association has been so active in the last months that we have not had time to sum it all up. When I partly recovered from my Paris Forum efforts, I participated in a few public occasions and discussions about body-psychotherapy and there were a lot of questions. You can see something of this on the website: www.zdravzivot.com We are also often on TV promoting body-psychotherapy in Serbia. I was surprised to see that TV ART repeated the program we were in, from 1997 - 100 years Wilhelm Reich. It was an hour long and was in the best viewing time - Saturday evening at 20 hrs. Also a program from 2000 - PULSATION. We are preparing a new program about Reich, the weather, BP and Tepsynthesis. I have tapes of these for anyone interested. Very soon, one big new will come, I hope. Ljiljana Klisic In November and December 2004, our school, TePsintezis, welcomed visiting teachers - Christiane LewinGros, from the Biodynamic school in Montpellier, France - and Erik Jarlnaes, from the Bodynamic school, Copenhagen, Denmark. They held weekend workshops and we had the opportunity to experience and hear about some of the basic concepts and exercises of each school. This enriched our knowledge, and gave us the chance to become familiar with some modern schools of body psychotherapy. We also learned new ways to work with trauma, which means a lot to us. We are very pleased that they accepted our invitation, and presented their work to us. Member of S&CG ABP and trainee in TePsynthesis Sladjana Djordjevic Report 2005 from CH-EABP We are still in a transition phase in the CH-EABP. Christina BaderJohansson joined the board at the last general meeting so that once again our board consists of three people. We have still not been able to find a new president. Jürg Thomet visited the Council meeting of the EABP in January 2005, in Vienna. The next meeting took place in January 2006 in Zürich/Switzerland which we organised. We look forward to the important contacts with the other National Associations and the representatives of the board of the EABP. In 2005 further telephone conferences with the delegates took place. The main areas of focus were the congress of the EABP in Askov, improvement of the cooperation between the different associations and the EABP board, support for the smaller associations, reduction of the share of the membership fees given to the EABP, (from 60 % to 50 %), new contracts between the associations and the EABP, re-evaluation of the membership criteria and conditions, (also for agreement with the European Association of Psychotherapy (EAP) and the European Certificate of Psychotherapy (ECP). As proposed in the Open Space of the General Assembly 2004, a convention will take place in September 2006 about the topic “long suffering, where is cure” together with other interested organisations. On 21st May 2005 we organised a meeting for all interested members. The idea was that an exchange could take place about current topics, interests, questions, ideas, future plans etc. Unfortunately, only one person registered besides the board and the organisation team. Nevertheless, the occasion was encouraging. At the last general meeting, it was decided to give members the new Handbook of body psychotherapy edited by G. Marlock and H. Weiss. We would like to support the research and the scientific aspect of EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 21 our work with this. Approximately 70% of the members, used this offer, which makes us very happy. Unfortunately because of postponements the book comes out only in 2006. The board has dealt with current business with the help of modern communication means, telephone conference, emails, meetings etc. The main topic of discussion is the clarification of the direction of our association and finding and mobilising new strengths for the board. Our two Intervision groups in Bern and Zürich run quite well and are encouraging. At the moment, there is a break in Bern. We hope other groups will develop in other regions. On the 26th November 2005 our annual general assembly took place. Unfortunately, Maëlle Perez Humpierre-Merkle resigned from the board. We regret this, thank her heartily for her cooperation and wish her all the best. Jürg Thomet Mitglieder des Vorstandes: Maëlle Perez Humpierre-Merkle, Christina Bader-Johansson und Jürg Thomet Hünibach, 30.11.05 Jahresbericht 2005 CH-EABP Nach wie vor befinden wir uns im CH-EABP in einer Übergangsphase. An der letzten Generalversammlung konnte Christina Bader-Johannsson für den Vorstand gewonnen werden, so dass unser Vorstand wieder aus drei Leuten besteht. Einen PräsidentIn konnten wir weiterhin nicht finden. Im Januar besuchte Jürg Thomet die Delegiertenversammlung des EABP in Wien. Die nächste Versammlung wird im Januar 2006 in Zürich/Schweiz stattfinden und von uns organisiert werden. Wir freuen uns auf die wichtigen Kontakte mit den andern nationalen Verbänden und VertreterInnen des Vorstandes des EABP. Im Verlaufe des Jahres fanden weitere Telefonkonferenzen mit den Delegierten statt. Die Schwerpunkte waren der Kongress des EABP im 2006, Verbesserung der Zusammenarbeit zwischen den verschiedenen Vereinigungen und dem Vorstand EABP, gegenseitige Unterstützung unter den Vereinigungen (West/Ost), Reduktion des Abgabeanteils von den Mitgliederbeiträgen an den EABP (von 60% auf 50%), neue Verträge zwischen den Verbänden und dem EABP, Überarbeitung der Aufnahmebedingungen (auch in page 22 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING Übereinstimmung mit dem Europäischen Psychotherapieverband EAP und dem Europäischen Psychotherapiezertifikat ECP). Aus dem Open Space anlässlich der GV 2004 entstand eine Tagung zum Thema „langes Leiden, wo ist Heilung“ im September 2006. Sie findet zusammen mit andern Organisationen statt. Am 21. Mai 2005 organisierten wir ein Treffen für alle interessierten Mitglieder. Die Idee war, dass dort ein Austausch über aktuelle Themen, Interessen, Fragen, Ideen, Zukunftspläne etc. stattfinden könnte. Leider hat sich ausser dem Vorstand und dem Organisationsteam nur eine Person angemeldet. Trotzdem war der Anlass ermutigend, neue Kraft war spürbar. An der letzten Generalversammlung wurde entschieden, den Mitgliedern das neue Buch „Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie“ von G. Marlock und H. Weiss zu schenken. Wir möchten damit die Forschung und den wissenschaftlichen Aspekt unserer Arbeit unterstützen. Etwa 70% der Mitglieder hat von diesem Angebot Gebrauch gemacht, was uns sehr freut. Das Buch kommt wegen Verzögerungen leider erst im 2006 heraus. Der Vorstand hat mit Hilfe unserer modernen Kommunikationsmittel (Telefonkonferenz, Email, Sitzungen etc.) die laufenden Geschäfte behandelt. Hauptthema ist und bleibt die Ausrichtung unseres Verbandes zu klären und zu finden und neue Kräfte für den Vorstand zu mobilisieren. Unsere beiden Intervisionsgruppen in Bern und Zürich laufen recht gut und machen Freude. (In Bern ist im Moment ein Unterbruch). Wir hoffen auf eine Nachahmung in anderen Regionen. Am 26. November 2005 fand unsere jährliche Generalversammlung statt. Leider hat sich Maëlle Perez Humpierre-Merkle entschieden, aus dem Vorstand zurückzutreten. Wir bedauern das, bedanken uns herzlich für ihre Mitarbeit und wünschen ihr alles Gute. Jürg Thomet Mitglieder des Vorstandes: Maëlle Perez Humpierre-Merkle, Christina Bader-Johansson und Jürg Thomet Hünibach, 30.11.05 2006 Report from the NVLP We are in the middle of the preparations for the fourth Dutch Symposium, to be held on the 27th of May 2006. The symposium is organised together with seven other organisations, either training institutes or professional associations, all related to body-psychotherapy. The theme of the symposium is the importance of research and publication, and the title is “Knowing what you're doing - the bridge between knowledge and know-how in bodypsychotherapy”. Guest speakers will be Maria Hernandez-Reif from Miami Touch Research Institute, Dr. Annet Nugter, a Dutch researcher and Christa Ventling, a researcher from Switzerland. On the occasion of the symposium we also hope to give birth to the 'WILHELM REICH FONDS', a foundation under the wings of the NVLP, to support body-psychotherapy developments on content and distribution levels. A third project is to create a website, which may help anybody who wishes to find his/her way around the Dutch body-psychotherapy landscape. Last October we were happy to extend the Board with a third active member, Marga de Langen. Our number of full members has grown to 29 and we hope to welcome the seventh organisational member soon. Joop Valstar Report from GABP Athens, 26 January 2006 The EABP Congress in October 2004 in Greece left behind a great amount of work to be done and not enough time to dedicate to it. Therefore, we were not so insistent on the collection of the pending Association fees for 2004 and 2005. We have finally finished with the final Congress reports - an (accurate) Congress budget, closing the books with the accountant, all the tax office work, the participants list, and all the relevant documents, receipts and other material, so that this information can be useful and legible to all of us. We are now dedicated to the Association activities such as the General Assembly and election of a new Board in March 2006 and fees collection for 2004 and 2005. We have already sent a part of the EABP remittance and we will send the rest soon after the General Assembly, together with the detailed list of members. The positive thing is that for 2005 we had five new full members and three new associate members, adding up to the total of twenty-nine full members and eleven associate members. Warm greetings from the GABP The General Secretary Marilena Komi October 2007. On 18th February we had an organisational meeting between the Board members, scientific members and the Presidents of the Institutes. Warm greetings Fabio Carbonari Body Psychotherapy approach in Kosova Mind -Body Medicine school Psychotherapy, which brought new approaches in the treatment of different psychological and psychosocial issues, offered new challenges for Kosovar mental health workers. Immediately after the war (June 1999) many international organizations, some professional, some nonprofessional, worked with different mental health workers to educate them in different approaches, mostly the treatment of war trauma. Few of them had a structured and scientifically based program for longterm education in their methods. We have to keep in mind that all these training programs have to be collected and structured under one institutional umbrella, which didn't work at that time in Kosova. The Kosova Association for Psychotherapy( KAP) was established for this purpose, at the beginning of the year 2000, through the initiative of some young psychiatrists and psychologists from Kosova. One of the first well-known institutes which started in the early days of the war to offer scientifically structured trainings for Kosovar mental health workers, was the Center for MindBody Medicine (CMBM) from Washington DC. This is a school Accredited trainers in Kosova from CMBM, teaching several different recognized methods of Body Psychotherapy. This program was designed “to help to heal the psychological trauma of war and to address, in a direct, practical and easily assimilated way, the wide variety of emotional and physical symptoms - the squeals of war which was so pervasive in the population of Kosova”. This model “combines the precision of modern science with the wisdom of ancient healing which includes the mental, emotional, social and spiritual, as well as the physical dimensions of health and illness”. It also emphasizes the uniqueness of each person and the centrality of therapeutic partnerships. The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) was founded in 1991 by James S. Gordon, MD., a psychiatrist who is Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the Georgetown University Medical School. Transcripts from the CMBM are available on their website www.cmbm.org The training program for mental health professionals in Kosova was started in refugee camps in Macedonia with psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, social workers, pedagogues and nurses, mostly refugees from Kosova. After the arrival of the KFOR troops in Kosova, CMBM started dealing with war trauma using a large group of professional and non-professional care helpers from different psychosocial organizations. The program was developed in six phases with five and three day intensive trainings. The Washington DC. 2006 Report from the AIPC The Italian Association (AIPC), has once again started to be active although it is difficult to keep contact with EABP because of the language. We have a new Board: Fabio Carbonari (President), Maurizio Stupiggia (Vice-President), Giuseppe Ciardiello (Secretariat), Simona de Stasio(Treasurer), Flavia Maloni, Adriana Rotondano and Piera Sacchi. We are working to organize a national congress dedicated to Federico Navarro; and at the same time we are dealing with an international congress dedicated to Reich. The congresses will be held on the same three days somewhere at the end of EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 23 Gerda Boyesen 1922 - 2005 training program model included theoretical lectures, group workshops, individual work and supervision. After finishing six phases of training under the supervision of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) they accredited ten mental health professionals from Kosova with the diploma, Trainer in CMBM. In the last two years these trainers have continued teaching the same program with new mental health staffs working in Mental Health Centers in different regions in Kosova, under the supervision of CMBM. Their education consisted of group, individual and theoretical work as well as supervision. In total they have completed a 350-hour training program of psychotherapy education in Mind-Body Medicine, which took five years (May 1999 - September 2004). From 2004 till May 2006 the trainers delivered approximately 150 hours of training work with different groups of mental health workers in Kosova. The list below of accredited trainers is also registered on the website www.cmbm.org of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine from Washington DC. Afrim Blyta, PhD, neuropsychiatrist Jusf Ulaj, MD, psychiatrist Ismet Abdullahu, Mr. Sc. Psychiatrist Mentor Rruka, MD, neuropsychiatrist Aferdita Uka, MD, child psychiatrist Shukrije Statovci, MD, psychiatrist Qemajl Rexhepi, MD, child psychiatrist Mimoza Shahini, MD, child psychiatrist Shqipe Ukshini, psychologist Enver Cesko, Mr.Sc. psychologist Mind-Body Medicine in Kosova, as the new approach in body-psychotherapy, is developing scientifically and professionally on a permanent basis. Their knowledge is continually prospering, in different and similar approaches of body-psychotherapy schools. Some of them presented their experience as Mind-Body therapists at international conferences, such as Vienna, 2002, Egmond, 2001, Napoli 2002 etc. The president of the Kosova Association for Psychotherapy (KAP) is also a full member of EABP. Two trainers from Kosova took part in the CMBM team who are doing the same program with Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza. Enver Cesko President of KAP Prishtina, Kosova November 2006 page 24 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING In Memoriam Dear All, Just before midnight on the 29th of December my dear mother, Gerda, departed from this earth to the unknown eternity............where beingness is beyond. Her death came after intense struggle for many years with cancer, and her dignity was present all along together with her joy of life. Missing her is a giant step of transcendance. Joelle and I were present with her in London just before her dying, and she could finally go in peace in the arms of my sister Ebba. Love to you all, Joelle and Paul Boyesen 2006 Many of you reading this will have known of Gerda Boyesen, and may even have experienced her work in Biodynamic Psychology. This is just one, doubtless, of many tributes that will be made to her and to her therapeutic work. In 1999, she was made an Honorary Member of EABP for her many contributions to European Body-Psychotherapy. She was originally a Norwegian physiotherapist, who developed a new form of body-oriented psychotherapy. Influences on her in this endeavour were the therapeutic massage work of Aadel Bülow-Hansen and Lillemor Johnsen, and the psychotherapeutic work (CharacterAnalytic Vegetotherapy) that she learnt from being a client of Ola Raknes, a pre-war psychoanalytical colleague of Wilhelm Reich. Having brought up her three children, in the early 1970's, she came to London and started training people in her work, first at the Churchill Centre, and later at her own centre at Acacia House in Acton Park in the late 1970's and early 1980's. She also travelled extensively and set up training groups in many European countries, predominantly in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and France. Many thousands of people thus experienced her work, and many hundreds trained with her. There was something fascinating, almost magical, about the essence of her work: it was very gentle and accepting. She was fond of saying, “The client is always right.” She focussed her work on following intently the client's body energy, and in helping it to flow: physically and somatically by 'melting' the characterological 'armour' though massage and encouraging the parasympathetic side of the Autonomic Nervous System; through emotional abreaction or catharsis; and psychologically through verbal exchanges with the therapist. In this way she mirrored the client-centred work of Carl Rogers, allowed the abreactions sought by the more “primal” therapy schools, and softened the bioenergetic work of Alexander Lowen. This was, at that time, very refreshing to people often 'accused' (or feeling guilty and confused) of having neuroses from the psychoanalytical perspective and thus having to 'work out' their problems, often quite lengthily (and expensively) or quite painfully, through one form of analysis, or other forms of deep body work (eg: Rolfing). The only alternati- ves to psychiatry, clinical psychology or analysis in London in the early 1970's were R.D. Laing's work, the radical “therapy groups” starting up like Quaesitor, or the alternative “community” houses of People Not Psychiatry (Michael Barnett, Jenny James & David Cooper). Gerda tried to provide instead a safe haven in the beautiful surrounds of Acacia House, where people could be accepted and thus learn to accept themselves. She was remarkably successful in this, and deserves the fond recognition that many have for her work. Gerda herself mixed her natural empathy and intuitive genius with a somewhat chaotic personal manner. However the proper place for analysis is in a full-length biography; and we really hope that such a book will be published, for her work needs to be much more widely recognised in print, and in English, than it has been to date. Apart from The Collected Papers (long out-of-print, re-printed pieces from Energy & Character) and some other articles, her only books have been in French or German ‘Entre Psyche et Soma - Introduction à la Psychologie Biodynamique' and ‘Biodynamik des Lebens and Von der Lust am Heilen’. It was pleasant and unusual that her three adult children, Ebba, Mona-Lisa and Paul, have all been very active in developing her work, and expanding it. Much credit must also be given to the stalwart presence of Dan, her second husband, and to Clover Southwell, one of her first trainees, who now carries on training people in Gerda's work in London. We send them all our blessings! Courtenay Young Gerda Boyesen passed away On December 29th 2005 Gerda Boyesen, the initiator and founder of the Biodynamic Psychotherapy, died in London at the age of 83 after a long period of illness. What will continue are the results of her lifework: the Biodynamic Psychology, which is the basis of the Biodynamic Psychotherapy. She was born in Norway and educated as a clinical psychologist and physiotherapist. Throughout her life her focus was on the interdependence of body and soul. Her research work - following her famous colleagues Sigmund Freud, C. G. Jung and most of all Wilhelm Reich - has resulted in discovering the “psychoperistalsis” Due to her discovery of the fact that emotions can also be “digested” many completely new methods of treatment have been established which can be applied to a whole spectrum of malfunctions. The application of these methods can result in simple relaxation or in the reduction of stress. But what is even more important, they are the basis of a profoundly new method of psychotherapy. By publishing her first book “Die Seele über den Körper heilen” (meaning: Healing the soul by healing the body) she became known to a larger public. Gerda Boyesen's life was determined by the untiring effort to support her patients and to hand on her discoveries and her knowledge to a great number of students. She was a very passionate teacher. In 1969 she founded the first Biodynamic Centre in London and she taught and supervised her students until old age. Today Biodynamic Psychotherapy ranges among the most renowned forms of body-psychotherapy. More than 400 therapists in Germany are reported to work with the method established by Gerda Boyesen. In 1999 she was honoured by the EABP for her lifework. Gerda Boyesen is also an honorary member of the GBP, the German Association of Biodynamic Therapists. Sabine Schmidt EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 25 Report 7th ISC Conference Brazil October 2005 Brazil was the first country in South America, and even in the Southern Hemisphere, to organize a congress for the International Committee of Body-Psychotherapy. In this 7th Conference, students and professionals from Brazil, under the coordination of the Brazilian Committee and the International Scientific Committee (ISC), welcomed a large number of representatives from body-psychotherapy and neuropsychology backgrounds, coming from South America, Europe and USA. The congress had main sessions, round-tables, the traditional workshops and the relevant discussion groups organized by our dear colleague Jerome Liss and a group of young Brazilian leaders Piatã Stoklos Kignel and Mariana Camarote. One of the achievements of the congress was that we brought together several projects that are being done in Brazil and abroad in the social area, focusing on how the psychotherapist acts outside the clinic. On the Scientific side of the Congress the great achievement was to make contact with the Reichian and Neo Reichian concepts and those of neuro-psychology. One of the memorable dialogues was with Dr. Edward Tronick from Harvard University. He started his studies in neuro-psychology and then became interested in body-psychotherapy. In part of his research, he notes that in the empirical knowledge of our work there are connections and analogies to his own research on communication between mother/babies, and how much benefit we get from this interaction. The congress brought together many different professionals and streams of (body)psychotherapy aided by the use of the internet, which had an important place in this meeting. This also happened in a spontaneous way from the beginning to the end. The horizontality with which both speakers and participants exchanged information and experiences, challenged hierarchies and formalities in a very positive way. Body-psychotherapy, as was presented at this event, has in fact a strong social-political side. As I wanted to stress as the organiser, the body is closer to social rather than psychoanalytical knowledge, which tends to be more elite. page 26 EABP N E W S L E T T E R 2006 SPRING Understanding the body puts feet on the floor and sends us to the very essence of being human. Nowadays when we see so much misery and lack of effective social and political action, we feel touched in our essence, because we all want to live in a better world. This unifies professional desires with essential human desires. In this way, the social work of body-psychotherapists rewards us through the pleasure of having a conscience and being able to offer something positive to society, which originates from human capital and not financial capital. We had 850 participants, - 180 from Mexico, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, USA, Italy, Spain, France, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Japan. There was some difficulty with the roundtable translations, because it was impossible to have translations in all the 126 roundtables and workshops. However participants helped each other in a great web partnership, once again giving substance to the congress. We must comment on the wonderful participation of the 50 monitors and 60 facilitators, who regulated the discussion groups. They helped make information available to all who were present. This created a place of exchange, very much praised by most people. The next congress will be in France under the presidency of François Lewin and we will support the event so that we can keep on with the same quality of work and exchange. The active participation of both the Brazilian Association of Psychotherapy and the Brazilian Council of Psychology was also very important in giving strong and necessary support to the Conference. I could continue to share more here, naming many important people who supported and lectured at the conference, but that would make a much longer text, so I only wish to thank all the members of the International and Brazilian committees, all professional friends and colleagues and all other associations that supported us: also all the International Scientific committee members and the new members, François Lewin and Genovino Ferri: also all members of the Scientific Brazilian Committee and the organizational committee, friends from EABP, WCP and many schools of body-psychotherapy from Brazil and Ja, ich bestelle direkt von der DGK/Zentrum für Integrative Körpertherapie und Humanistische Psychologie e.V. : __ Exemplare Marlock/Weiss (Herausgeber) Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie Ca. 119,- Euro/180,- CHF ISBN 3-7945-2473-X _______________________________________________________________ Name/Vorname DGK/EABP Mitgliednummer _______________________________________________________________ Strasse _______________________________________________________________ PLZ/Ort _______________________________________________________________ Telefon/Email _______________________________________________________________ Datum/Unterschrift Ruckgaberecht innerhalb von 14 Tagen. Portopauschale 2,50 EURO abroad. You can still see many of them on our website along with a lot of other material (www.cipc2005.org). Lastly I would like to mention many colleagues who were there in a very supportive way: Maurizio Stupiggio, Ilse Schmidt-Zimmermann, Halko Weiss, Bjørn Ødegaard, Jerome Liss, Lisbeth Marcher, Joop Valstar, Rita Liss, Stephen Johnson, Liane Zink, Suely Freitas, Edson Galrão, Antonio Carlos Godoy, José Angelo Gaiarsa, José Cotta, Heloísa Daldin Negrão and many others. Rubens KigneL Das „Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie“ ist für Mitglieder der DGK/EABP direkt über die DGK oder über das Zentrum für Integrative Körpertherapie und Humanistische Psychologie e.V. mit 30 % Rabatt zu beziehen. Zentrum für Integrative Körpertherapie und Humanistische Psychologie e.V. Bachmannstraße 2 – 4, 60488 Frankfurt am Main Mail: zenkoerpsych@t-online.de Sekretariat der DGK: Axel Schulz, Lange Geismarstraße 71, 37073 Göttingen Telefon: 05 51-48 55 80 (Dienstags, 18 – 20 Uhr) Mail: sekretariat@koerperpsychotherapie-dgk.de EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 27 EABP Congress 2006 Denmark have been aiming to bring in some lesser-known voices as well as the many experts who have participated in the past. Your Congress Your Congress Planning Committee (CPC) of eight members has been meeting regularly and enthusiastically over the last months. As many of the members are from Scandinavia we have met in the Bodynamic Institute premises in Copenhagen and have had regular telephone conference calls in between. At the moment we are working on discussion panels of which there will be at least four. o Children and bodypsychotherapy o Medication and bodypsycho-therapy o Work and stress o Survival in crisis We are also considering other possibilities including a presentation and/or panel on current research in EABP. We have talked extensively about the choice of panels - so that they can develop the keynote themes of the congress. We are confident that our panel topics will further the inner EABP dialogue as well as reaching out to resources beyond. Choosing panel speakers has been a stimulating and creative challenge, as we have discovered a wealth of expertise and willing speakers from within the EABP ranks. We would like to thank the many of you who have offered to participate. We are trying to offer a place to as many as possible and at the same time we are torn between that and choosing specific people for specific topics. We are hoping that the Congress numbers will swell so that we can organize some extra panels and get more of you to share your work on specific topics. In the meantime, just to share with you where we are going with this, we page 28 EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING Our budget is aimed at a break-even point of 200 full price places. However we want to see at least 250 people so that there are more opportunities for panels and workshops, and to give more opportunities for professional dialogue. We would also like to pass on a profit to the EABP to assist in the future work of a professional association that is multi-national, language diverse (which means more translation costs) and has an important role to play in the politics of an ever more complex world). By enrolling for the congress you support your professional development and the work of EABP! There has been a lot of focus in the CPC about making the Congress available to students, people from countries with a lower than average income and also to members from the Southern European countries. This strategy has been largely successful. Many students are coming in from Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany. People have registered from Russia, Serbia, Croatia and South America. We encourage those of you in France, Spain and Italy to join us. We are doing our best to make this your Congress also. Recently the EABP Board has been encouraging a language policy of diversity, which is inclusive rather than being confined to English. With this in mind simultaneous translation to German, and French (or Italian or Spanish) will be available for the keynote speakers and panels. We will decide which language nearer the time of the congress, depending on where the greatest need is among people attending. With the help of the workshop organizers themselves and EABP members and students we are aiming to supply informal translation for the workshops. Let us know if you are willing to help with this. We extended the deadline for work- 2006 shop applications until the 18th April - Easter Monday - to give EABP members extra time to get their proposals in. By 1 April however we had already had 30 proposals and we had a first attendance list of around 100 people. A good sign so early on. It promises well. If we haven't mentioned anything about the 'fun' we are planning for you that is not because we haven't thought about it. Those of you who have been around since the beginning of EABP, often talk about the fun in past EABP Congresses and many of you say that what you like about these Congresses is meeting and talking with your colleagues from other countries. (Of course only you can do this talking so register soon!) And in the next CPC meetings we will talk further about how to keep you entertained in those moments when you are not talking. One thing we can say already - this is the 10th EABP Congress and we are seeing it as an Anniversary. While looking towards the future, we will remember the past of the EABP and honour those who founded it, kept it going and are still in there working for the acceptance of body-psychotherapy in Europe. If you were at any of the past conferences and have photos please send us some copies - either through the post or electronically. We would like to create a pictorial history of the EABP past. We are working hard to create a fresh and exhilarating experience for you all. However the 'bottom line' is bums on seats - (excuse the pun) so if you haven't already booked, do so before the next deadline June 1st when prices are cheaper. This is your congress - come and enjoy it! Sean Doherty for the CPC PS. We encourage you to register soon to make the best use of discounts. You can do so online through www.eabp.org Keynote Speakers Joachim Bauer George Downing Lisbeth Marcher Gustl Marlock Kenneth Purvis Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg Workshops The Role of the Body in Trauma Work and EMDR Morit Heitzler Bioenergetic Work with Pairs Jorg Clauer & Vita Heinrich-Clauer The embodied therapist. Reflections from neuroscience and intersubjectivity Gertrude Rapinett The Borderline Experience - a Somatic Perspective Tom Warnecke Coping with transitions Merete Brantbjerg Pleasure and direction Integrating ressources from different developmental phases Merete Brantbjerg Introjective Imagery Ebba Boyesen Prevention of Early Disturbances Mona Lisa Boyesen Love sexuality and tenderness: The B.P. Therapy resources in infertile couples Fabio Carbonari Thanatotherapy: The Resources of the back side of life Vladimir Baskakov The bodily presentation of significant roles on the psychodrama stage Lars Tauvon Using the four qualities of life in treastment of sexual diseases Enver Cesko Heart and brainwave resonance in psychotherapy and meditation Marianne Bentzen Sexual identity, gender roles and brain development from 0-5 years Marianne Bentzen Body Cognition: Body, Information processing and Consciousness Bo Ahrenfelt Touch, Biodynamic Massage, Sexual and Physical Abuse Workshop Elya Steinberg Intention Quest Siegmar Gerken Core Evolution and Infrared Analysis Siegmar Gerkin Pre and post congress workshops There are four excellent workshops lasting six to eight hours. Cost 80 euro if you are attending the Congress, and 120 euro without Congress participation. Register when you register for the Congress or contact the Congress organiser. Pre-congress workshops - Life Energy Process and the resonant body with Dr. Stèphano Sabetti - Integral Bodypsychotherapy with Andreas Wehowsky Post-congress workshops - A Taste of Peak and Shock with Erik Jarlnaes and Bodynamic colleagues - Love, Sexuality and Relationship with Siegmar Gerkin Travel Check out www.sterlingticket.com for cheap flights to Billund (from Paris and Gatwick) and from various countries to Copenhagen. They have just launched 5000 tickets on to the market and and there are some available on the Congress days. Get in fast. You can save 75 DKK if you book through the internet. The following workshops will be given during the congress. Flow Unfreezing Shock Trauma Josette van Luytelaar From Intellectual Understanding to Embodied Comprehension Treatment of Psychosomatic Disorders in Bioenergetic Analysis Jorg Clauer Check the flow! Supervision/coaching and the wisdom of body psychotherapy Sibylla Huerta Krefft Mindfulness Revisited. The contribution of body psychotherapy to mindfulness-based approaches Halko Weiss The Potential and the Pathologies of Character Structure Theory Michael Soth Supervision from an integral-relational perspective - a live demonstration Michael Soth Askov Highschool EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 29 * Freeing the feelings by freeing the voice. Opening the oral segment in body-psychotherapy - by Thea M. Mertz after a concept of Kristin Linklater * Unborn Children – Their Traumas and The Consequences by Geoffrey Whitfield * C.G. Jung: The body and body-psychotherapy by Robert C. Ware Journals Publications DVD Websites Body, Dance and Movement in Psychotherapy Editor: Dr Helen Payne bmpd@herts.ac.uk Published by Routledge: Taylor and Francis: Ordering information www.bmdpjournal.net JOURNALS USABP Body Psychotherapy Journal Editor: Jacqueline Carleton jacarleton@aol.com You can order copies and get a subscription from the USABP website. www.usabp.org ENERGY & CHARACTER Editors: Esther Frankel and Milton Correa esther.frankel@pobox.com mncorrea@terra.com.br You can order copies and get a subscription from them or by Fax: +55-21-25235617 The European Journal of Bioenergetic Analysis and Psychotherapy Editor: Regina Axt axtmr@knmg.nl You can order copies and pay for a subscription through the Journal website. It has abstracts of the articles in several languages, though the full articles are in English. Ask for the ‘special’ June price as an EABP member. www.bioenergetic-journal.net Articles include: * Affective relationships and bodily processes in the person's development. The contribution of Bioenergetic Analysis as a somatic, relational therapy by Gabriella Buti Zaccagnini * Some Developmental Aspects of Body and Identity. Analytic-Imaginary Body-Psychotherapy by Jörg Clauer * The Importance of Relationships in Bioenergetic Analysis by Robert Hilton * The Importance of Bioenergetic Contact in the Mother-Infant Relationship for Prevention of Pathology and Promotion of Health by Silja Wendelstadt page 30 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING Vol 1: no 1: March 2006 Editorial: - Tracking the web of interconnectivity: Helen Payne. Articles: - One hundred and fifty years on: The history, significance and scope of body psychotherapy today: Courtenay Young. - Somatic soulmates: Laura Hope Steckler. - What therapeutic hope for a subjective mind in an objectified body? Michael Soth. - Structure and counter-transference in authentic movement from a Reichian analytic perspective: Silvana Bragante. - When psyche meets soma: The question of incarnation: Beverky Zabriskie. Revolving doorway: Jeni Boyd. Emotion in motion: Jill Hayes. New Body-Psychotherapy PUBLICATIONS Information and reviews on the following body-psychotherapy books are included on the EABP Website: www.eabp.org Totton, Nick (ed) (2005) New Dimensions in Body Psychotherapy McGraw-Hill, Open University New Contributors: JeanClaude Audergon, Katya Bloom, Roz Carroll, Emilie Conrad, Ruella Frank, Linda Hartley, Gottfried Heuer, Peter Levine, Yorai Sella, Michael Soth, Nick Totton, David Tune. Website: www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 1628 502500 Brown, Malcolm A. (2005) Primordial Regression And Fulfilling Sex: An Autobiographical Account The book describes one man’s sufferings from dissatisfying sexuality and one couple’s discovery of the primordial pradise of hermaphroditic fusion between two separate embodied souls. www.authorhouse.co.uk www.amazon.co.uk Tel: +1-888.280.7715 Weiss, Halko & Marlock, Gustl (ed) (2006) THE EABP BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BODY-PSYCHOTHERAPY on CD-ROM A new edition of this wonderful research database is coming out in Autumn 2006 with over 3500 entries. EABP Members will get this free, after the Congress in Askov. Cost to non-members 25 euro (or 15 euro if they have the 1st edition and can answer a simple question on it). eabpsecretariat@planet.nl 2006 Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie Schattauer Greene, Elliot & GoodrichDunn, Barbara (2004) The Psychology of the Body LWW Massage Therapy & Bodywork Educational Series Miller, Alice (2006) The Body Never Lies: The lingering effect of cruel parenting Norton & Co Hartley, Linda (2004) Somatic Psychology: Mind and Meaning Boyesen, Gerda & Bergolz DVD (2004) Dein Bauch ist klüger als du! Whurr Aposhyan, Susan (2004) Body-Mind Psychotherapy: Principles, techniques and practical applications The Psychophysiology of Compassion, Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma (WW Norton, 2006) Danse et / Dance and Body Mind Centering Help for the Helper: Norton & Co Marcher, Lisbeth Kinesthetic Learning This is a 20 minutes DVD showing Macnaughton, Ian (ed.) (2004) Body, Breath, & Consciousness: A somatic anthology North Atlantic Books Jesús Mañas Montero Publicaciones Orgón de la Es.Te.R. Valencia, 2004 Autorregulación y Autogobierno Abrazo entre psicología y educación W. Reich y A. S. Neill son ejemplo how kindergarten teachers are helping children to develop motor and cognitive-behavioral skills - through attracting attention, directing attention, creating space, keeping space and breaking space. This DVD is from a recent research project that Lisbeth Marcher took part in. Contact: bodynamic@bodynamic.dk Atelier avec / Workshop with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen The Russian Body-Oriented Psychotherapy In Personalities This is a collection of articles on Family Systems, Self-Psychology, The Bodynamics Model of Somatic Developmental Psychology, Shock Trauma and Breathwork (in Russian) Edited by V.Y.Baskakov, IOI Publishing House, Moscow, ISBN 5-88230-184-X 208 pages (13 articles) 3rd edition. Resources in Coping with Shock Pathway to a resource-orient- Klisic, Ljiljana ed perspective on shock by Bodynamic Psychotherapists Merete Holm Brantbjerg, Ditte Marcher and Marianne Kristiansen BodyPsychotherapy: To orgasm and beyond The book presents a new development of practical methods and thinking behind the Bodynamic system's Schock Trauma Therapy - developed from 1999-2004. Lubrano-Kotoula, Clorinda and Komi, Marilena The group, the body and psychotherapy (in Greek) (2004) 3rd ed. UTPJ, Beograd (in Serbo-Croat) PSYCHOANALYTISCHE PERSPECTIEVEN 2005, vol 23, n° 2 For contents and abstracts, see: http://www.psychoanalytischeperspectieven.be Do you know of any more BodyPsychotherapy books in your language? Please send details to the EABP Secretariat. Please also write reviews of these books in your own (non-English) language and we will post them on the EABP website. You can often get review copies from the publisher, if you say you want to write a review, especially for people in your country, and you can order (nearly all of) them easily from Amazon. DVD inédit de l'atelier et de la conférence donnés par Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, pendant le weekend de formation à Bruxelles, en mai 2004. DVD of the workshop and the conference given by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, during the weekend of formation in Brussels, in May 2004. DVD Billingue Français-Anglais / DVD Bilingual French-English Prix / Price : 25 euro Plus d'infos / More informations: www.contredanse.org/ WEBSITE Roberts, Thomas The Body Speaks: Are We Listening? Article in JAAIM-Online The online journal for the American Association of Integrative Medicine www.aaimedicine.com/jaaim/june05/r oberts-bodyspeaks.php EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 31 REVIEWS and SYNOPSIS OF OTHER BOOKS Body of Awareness: A somatic and developmental approach to psychotherapy. Ruella Frank (2001) ISBN: 0-88163-347-X, New York, Gestalt Press: pp. 246 Synopsis: This work explores the formation of infant movement experience and its manifest influence upon the later adult. It shows how the organizing principles in early development are functionally equivalent to those of the adult and shows how movement plays a critical role in a developing self-awareness for the infant and in maintaining a healthy self throughout life. In addition, a variety of case studies shows how developmental movement patterns are part of the moment-to-moment process of the adult client and how to bring these patterns to awareness within therapy. The client's emerging patterns of breathing, gesture, posture and gait are understood from a developmental framework and attended to within the perspective of this somatic and developmental approach. The case studies convey how, through a variety of experiments, our movement patterns can be subtly altered to enrich rather than inhibit our current functioning. Review: I do not recommend that people buy this book, because at about £23.50 (36 euro), whilst it is a very nice restatement of some of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen's work and includes a good case study, Annie's Story, you will find much better, and much cheaper, in Susan Aposhyan's new book, Body Oriented Psychotherapy, which is also written by someone who really knows their body psychotherapy stuff (there is an extensive review on the EABP website). Still it is very nice to see another book about the body coming out of mainstream Gestalt writings: I would remind you all of Jim Kepner's excellent 1988 book, "Body Process”: Working with the Body in Psychotherapy". Incidentally, he has recently written another book: "Healing Tasks: Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse". Another interesting recent book for the more technically minded is: page 32 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING The Brain and the Inner World: An Introduction to the Neuroscience of Subjective Experience Mark Solms and Oliver Turnbull (2003) ISBN: 1590510178, Other Press, pp. 342 Synopsis: This book is an eagerly-awaited account of a momentous revolution. Subjective mental states like consciousness, emotion, and dreaming were once confined to the realm of philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the human sciences. These topics now assume centre stage in leading neuroscientific laboratories around the world. This shift has produced an explosion of new insights into the natural laws that govern our inner life. By two pioneers in the field, (this book) guides us through the exciting new discoveries, showing how old psychodynamic concepts are being forged into a scientific framework for understanding subjective experience. It is not that the mind is reduced to neurobiology. Rather, thanks to neurobiology, we are free to believe in the power of the mind. The neurosciences will soon be able to argue with Plato, Descartes, James, Freud, and Lacan about the mysterious connections between emotions, experience, will, reason, and creativity. Whilst it is undoubtedly relevant to much of our work, it would be nice if someone else were to review this book from a body psychotherapy perspective. Finally, as regards book reviews, let me draw your attention to the massive set of 3 works on Affect Regulation by Allan Schore. These are well reviewed and discussed from a body psychotherapy perspective by David Boadella in the latest edition of Energy & Character, Vol 34, Sept 2005. Successful therapists focus on their clients' strengths Gassman, D. & Grawe, K. (2006). General change mechanisms: The relation between problem activation and resource activation in successful and unsuccessful therapeutic interactions. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 13, 1-11. Abstract weblink: http:/tinyurl.com/dgjsb Author obituary: http://tinyurl.com/8tard 2006 Research is increasingly showing that the success of therapy depends not on the theoretical orientation of the therapist, but on key therapeutic processes that cross theoretical boundaries. Two such processes are 'problem activation' - helping the client to face up to their problems, and 'resource activation' - reminding the client of their strengths, abilities and available support. In a new study, Daniel Gassmann and the late Klaus Grawe have shown that for therapy to be successful, simply using these mechanisms is not enough; rather, success depends on how and when the mechanisms are brought into play. Gassman and Grawe's research team studied videos of 120 therapy sessions conducted with 30 clients who had a range of psychological problems. The success of each therapy session had also been reported by the clients and therapists on a session-by-session basis. From minute-by-minute analysis of the sessions, the researchers found that unsuccessful therapists tended to focus on their clients' problems, but neglected to focus on their strengths. Moreover, when the unsuccessful therapists did focus on their clients' strengths, they tended to do so at the end of a therapy session, too late to have a positive effect. Successful therapists, by contrast, focused on their clients' strengths from the very start of a therapy session, before moving onto dealing with their problems. "They created an environment in which the patient felt he was perceived as a well functioning person", the researchers said. "As soon as this was established, productive work on the patient's problems was more likely". Successful therapists also made sure they ended sessions by returning to their clients' strengths. The researchers concluded that a prerequisite for successfully dealing with a patient's problems is to remind them of their strengths and available support. "The therapist can achieve this not only by establishing a good therapeutic bond", they said, "but also by focussing more explicitly on the healthy parts of the patient's personality". Work on interpersonal relationships: group dynamics, relationship with the family and school. Articles A REICHIAN PSYCHOTHERAPY GROUP FOR ADOLESCENTS Is a preventive work on neurosis possible during puberty? by Clorinda Lubrano-Kotula As a Reichian psychotherapist, both at the W. Reich Centre in Naples from 1971 to 1977 and at the W. Reich Centre in Athens, founded in 1980, I have always been interested in utilizing therapeutic means for the prevention of neurosis. As we all know, this had always been present in Reich's mind and projects. Another principle that has always remained present in my psychotherapeutic work is never to isolate psychological discomfort from the environmental conditions within which it is being developed. It is important to know the situation as well as possible - the conditions of the family, the school, and all the structures of the social reality within which I am operating. The group for pregnant women and the group for adolescents are both taking place in the Athens Reich Center. At first, our research has been directed to practical work with a group of adolescents, so that our aim has been to utilize it, as a proposal for intervention. In this article, I refer in detail to the work that has been done, the difficulties that I have faced, and the questions that have arisen. The adolescent group consisted of boys and girls aged 14 to 15 years old, two 11 year old pre-adolescents and some girls aged 16 to 17 years old. The work aimed to facilitate the awareness of the bodycondition, of the emotional-sentimental condition and of the relationships with others. BRIEF WORK-MODEL OF A GROUP Work with the body: 1. Improving body posture 2. Awareness of physical tensions 3. Relaxation of tensions 4. Discharge of tensions 5. Body-contact: with oneself, the others and the environment 6. Discovery of the expressive potential of the body Work with the emotions: fears, aggressiveness, acceptance, rejection of oneself, insecurity, depression, tendency to escape from reality. The first goal of the group was to intervene on the many body postures that an adolescent acquires during this phase of quick growth. Very often adolescent girls hunch their shoulders forward in an attempt to hide a newly developed pair of breasts of which they are ashamed, or with which they haven't yet developed any familiarity. Other adolescents walk with their heads bowed in order to check if their shoes and trousers are tidy or in order, out of fear of being ridiculed. Others make awkward, controlled gestures with their hands, their legs, their torso, which express their uncomfortable feelings about being in a new body with more hair and curves or angles. A leg that has grown too long cannot easily have good contact with the ground. For body posture, we used bioenergetics exercises and particularly grounding to help adolescents feel the correct position of their feet in relation to the ground, so that the body is well supported by the legs, at the same time achieving the relaxation of the abdominal muscles and the pelvis. Several other exercises support and comple this work in every session. Awareness of tension is developed, by doing breathing exercises while lying down, sitting, or in the grounding position.The adolescents detect the areas of their bodies that are tense: the eyes, the arms, the throat, the neck, the abdomen, the face, the waist, the pelvis, the legs. Then they work with relaxing these tensions by first exaggerating them through tightening and contracting so as to relax afterwards by letting the muscles go in an instant. We do exercises for relaxation, and we work on many zones of the body with vegetotherapy. To facilitate discharge of tension we achieve a release by shouting, kicking, hitting and punching the mats, throwing cushions at each other and pushing. As far as the fifth part - contact with ourselves - is concerned, we try to achieve an integration of sensations and feelings. For example, we ask the adolescents to become aware of their facial tensions, to feel them as a mask and to try to change expression by moving their facial muscles. In addition, adolescents express several emotions with their face, feeling the difference in the position of the muscles and observing the change on another's face. Contact with others is achieved through, seeing, touching and smelling. They sit opposite each other, in pairs, and gaze into each other's eyes, either directly or alternating with gazing into the infinite. The whole group sits in a circle and they move their eyes around trying to come into contact with the others. They also massage each other's head, neck and back or they lie down with their head being held by someone else’s hands (in an exercise dealing with trust and faith), perhaps with their eyes closed so that they abandon their arms to the other person’s hands. Exercises with voice, consist in letting sound come out, imitating animal sounds, shouting their own “Yes” or “No”, and expressing it with all their body, standing in front of the other person. To develop contact with the environment, some of the following exercises are used. With open eyes we look at everything in the room. Then we close our eyes and look inside ourselves, and finally open them and confirm our ability to have contact with objects around us. With eyes closed we listen to the sounds, coming from inside and outside of the room. With our eyes closed, we walk around the room, touch the walls and the people and let our sensations and EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 33 emotions free. Expression of the body is sought through free movement that is executed to the sound of gentle music; movement that is born gradually as a personal expression of the adolescents, also moving their head, their eyes, their mouth their fingers. Ecological music with pure sound is alternated with dreamy music and Indian music. For more rigorous movement, we use African music, or music from the Andes. Standing, with our eyes closed, under dim lighting, we let the body find its own rhythm. We also try to create music with wooden instruments, or wood and leather drums. Some reflections on this work There are some practical difficulties related to the work. Some adolescents, particularly boys, are unwilling to take off their shoes, and in particular two of them would not do so, even until the last group session. The exercises that we use and the atmosphere in which the group is conducted require bodies free of restrictions and shame. When we do interpersonal exercises in couples, if these consist of two boys, or a boy and a girl, there is usually great difficulty in touching each other. They may feel very uncomfortable massaging each other's head, gently or softly touching with their fingertips, particularly if they mess up each other's hair. In such cases we get in touch with strong resistance, in the form of laughter and giggling, each time they get the chance to let themselves go in a state of relaxation or making real contact with the other. They get very easily bored even by the shortest exercise. In general their bodies have rigid tension in the chest, in the temples and particularly in the jaws; their hands are cold and sweating. I will now give some examples of emotional work that is done. The following example is characteristic. Sitting, or lying down, with your eyes closed, bring into your mind a dream that has frightened you, see all the details again and particularly the colors. Open your eyes, take a large sheet of white paper and draw your dream with the finger paints provided. The children unexpectedly see past emotions and sensations materializing on the paper, and they revive past experiences, like those they had in their childhood when they used to mess with paints, something that they are doing today without guilt or fear of being scolded. Following that, if they feel like doing so, they show their painting, narrate their dream, express their own feelings regarding their painting, and hear the impressions of the other members of the group. In the end, the dream paintings are thrown into a metal basket, and are set on fire and they dance around the fire to the sound of drums, letting out screams and sounds, thus exorcising their fears. When finally, impressions are verbalized, with the adolescents sitting around in a circle, the feeling of relief and liberation from fears is evident. Another example is the following: With eyes closed, lying down, the adolescents visualize the face of a person that disturbs them, a bad face. They turn these images into paper masks, which they paint, put on their faces and go around the room, expressing themselves and reacting with sounds to the “bad” masks they meet come accross. In the end, they take off their masks and look at them to check if they are still afraid. The painted masks express irony, depression, sadness, abandonment, poverty, racism and discrimination. page 34 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 To externalize aggressive emotions we specifically use animal masks, which in work with couples, allows adolescents to scream at each other with all their aggression, without feeling guilty. Dramatization of fairy tales, in which each person chooses a role and performs it, getting deeply into it, is another way to work with emotions. Regarding group dynamics, some Gestalt exercises bring the most desirable results. A boy that was complaining about the others, was asked to go around the group, stand in front of each member staring them in the eyes, having contact with his own emotions and telling the other person what he was annoyed by in him or her, and what he would like to get from him or her. The exercise “It's all your fault” is done with the adolescents sitting opposite each other in pairs, staring at, and blaming each other for all their problems that are related to their past, or for all their unfulfilled past expectations. This exercise makes it possible to realize the projections that take place in a friendly relationship. A girl who used to get in situations of dependency or had the tendency to create symbiotic relations was asked to do the exercise “I am me, and you are you”, in which one defines oneself physically, emotionally and mentally, with the other person. In a wa this obliged her to define the differences between her personality and the personality of others. Working on emotions, and relationships with others, and through verbalization, we generally try to detect when, where and why every adolescent undertakes a role, the way in which he experiences this role (with satisfaction, with a feeling of carrying a weight, or as a condition which limits one's personal potential). In the end, we work on those things that each person in the group could do to get liberated from their own role, or to experiment with other roles. As opposed to body work, work with emotions proves to be much easier especially with girls who express themselves verbally more easily than boys and seem to prefer speech to bodily expression. Boys are more laconic and try to give descriptions that are more impersonal and lack emotional tone. Only one of the boys, whom we have already mentioned, spoke with a voice expressing emotion. In psychodrama, boys are more passive than girls, to which they gladly leave all the initiative in choosing the roles, in interpreting and in creating the atmosphere. Work becomes really very subtle when it concerns selfacceptance either on the physical or on the emotional plane. During one group session we asked the adolescents to write down fifteen personal traits they accepted and fifteen others they rejected. They immediately recorded the fifteen traits they rejected about themselves, whereas it took them five times as long to define what was good. Adolescents can achieve awareness of the contradictory emotions within them: “I am basically melancholic but I don't show it, I just show that I am pleased and happy”, or “Now I feel sweet - now I feel angry”, or even “I feel love for a friend, but I can't express it, I feel imprisoned and I feel my head boiling with my thoughts”. The tendency for an ideal, expressed by the adolescents is interpreted as a rejection of gest, lies, irony, manipulation, exploitation, poverty, discrimination (racism), and as a need for love, friendship, hope, sincerity and finally as the sublimation of some people (teachers, relatives, uncles, cousins and not as much their parents). It is quite clear to me that when working with adolescents we shouldn't allow a crisis to develop with their family, because they are not independent yet; they are not in a position to support themselves; they have not yet completed the process of differentiating themselves from their parents and are not aware of their own identity. Neither should we cause a crisis with their school and their teachers, although we can help them see what possibilities there are for development and how they can find a social framework in which they can be active and not just passive members. From the very beginning of this work I have considered the group of adolescents more as a self-awareness group, than as a proper therapeutic group, because the adolescents with the exemption of a girl that was at the same time undergoing individual therapy, due to her problems of dyslexia - were young people who had never really presented any substantial psychological disorders. Nevertheless during the group's evolution, certain discomforts that some of them had from before, were revealed. with the body, it takes a lot of patience, since they are the product of a society that keeps them immobile at their desks, in classrooms, in front of the TV, the video or the computer. Or, on the other hand, makes them move altogether to the cd under the same rhythm, without any personal expression, or even on the football fields! They are products of a society that dresses them all in the same way, remarking through their external depersonalization the tendency of the adolescents to imitate their companions, and doesn't help them in the process of differentiating themselves from others. In my opinion, a flexible Reichian therapy, open to all the methodologies that are offering means of expression especially physical - can help adolescents to develop less neurotically, or at least to become aware of the actual limitations that characterize their lives on all the various levels about which we have spoken. One of the girls was so sensitive that with every little bit of emotion she shed rivers of tears. As soon as she tried to breathe more deeply the same girl felt a weight on her chest which went away only if she managed to yawn or cry. Another girl repeated continually that she felt her friends didn't love her as much as she loved them, and that when she needed support, she never found them helpful. Another one stated that such a thing as real friends didn't exist, that she had never had friends, so she had always been alone. During a group session, a teenage boy went through a severe crisis, presenting breathing disorders, a state of panic, lack of visual contact with reality, even tetania. The same boy stated, during that session and subsequent ones, that there was no solidarity in his class, that the girls were all tell-tales and gossiped all the time and that they were saying things about him that made him seem like a weirdo. He said that they had let his parents and teachers know that during a festival he had smoked and drunk wine. In fact, after a conversation it came out that he hadn't done this mischief alone, but together with a friend of his, with whom he was together both at school and in the group. But because his friend was a very good and studious student, the latter was forgiven for the same things that were threatening the former with becoming marginalized. For this reason, in adolescent groups, we work on group dynamics, on their relationships with their family, and their school. In this case the adolescents draw and paint together on a large piece of paper, with each of them starting in their own space, and then continuing on the other's drawing and so on, all in a spontaneous atmosphere of collaboration, respect and joy. The final picture is undoubtedly the contrary of what usually goes on in a school, or within a family. I would like to conclude, by answering the question that I put as a theme of this article, with a thought that is crossing my mind in almost every session: it is too late to talk about prevention of neurosis in puberty. Characters have already been formed, all teenagers have their own defenses that make them react in a stereotypical way. They are as they are and not different because their families want them so and their defenses help them keep the family situation in “balance”. Perhaps the last and only path, still remaining open, is the one of the body, since the body is still in evolution. Yet, in order to make it possible for adolescents to work EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 35 PERSONALITY DISORDERS AND CHARACTER-ANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY by Xavier Serrano Hortelano This article was recently published in the journal of thel Colegio de Psicólogos de Valencia (College of Psychologists of Valencia). ABSTRACT Using as main reference T. Millon's theory and its similarities with the Psychodynamic and Character theory, the author exposes the psychosocial and ecological viewpoint of the post-reichian model about emotional suffering and of the so-called “personality disorders”. T. Millon and personality disorders In the first pages of his book “Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV and Beyond”, T. Millon clearly states that this concept is nowadays tangibly present in psychopathologic nosology, and that it modifies clinical perspective: “Indeed, for the revised multiaxial format to be applied, the set of symptoms should not be evaluated as a clinical entity separated from the larger context of the patient, which includes the way of behaving, meeting people, thinking, feeling and facing difficulties, i.e. his or her personality”. (Millon, 1996). Moreover, he clearly explains that personality disorders are not diseases but structural and dynamic systems without any possibility of “strict division between normality and pathology” (idem). He adds that they can be evaluated but not definitively diagnosed and that “personality disorders require combined and strategically designed modalities of intervention” (idem). Using these references, he proposes a classification that seems very original and valuable, for it represents a general attempt to adjust distinct variables. He thus differentiates: “pleasure-deficient personalities (schizoid, avoidant and depressive); interpersonally-imbalanced personalities (dependent, histrionic, narcissistic and antisocial); intrapsychically-conflicted personalities (sadistic, compulsive, negativistic, masochistic) and, lastly, disorders characterised by structural deficiencies schizotypal, borderline, paranoid and decompensated)” (idem). Moreover, besides the rigorous elaboration of the quoted text, it is extremely revealing and gratifying to note that this avant-garde author, considered as a leader in his speciality, bases his work on theoretical and epistemological aspects already described in the psychodynamic literature going from S. Freud (1917), his disciple W. Reich (1934) to contemporary authors such as the pyschoanalysts J. Bergeret (1974) and O. Kernberg (1975), or the post-reichians F. Navarro (1989) and X. Serrano (1990). In fact, Million continuously mentions some of these authors in his work. However, they are very rarely mentioned and studied in Spanish universities of psychology or in masters of psychopathology. Using these facts as a starting point, I am going to briefly familiarise the reader with the approach that we post-reichian professionals support. By “post-reichian professionals”, I mean therapists that identify with the clinical model developed for psychoanalysis more than sixty years ago by W. Reich, and that he defined as Character-analytic vegeto- page 36 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 therapy (later named orgone therapy [ ]). This model has been strengthened and enhanced by the contributions of other professionals such as O. Raknes and F. Navarro, whose work we have continued since. Indeed, they were the promoters of the “European School of Orgone therapy (Scuola Europea di orgonoterapia)”, cradle of the structure I manage, ie the “Spanish School of Reichian Therapy (Escuela española de Terapia Reichiana, Es.Te.R)”. We currently define our clinical practice as “character-analytic psychotherapy”, for we have been applying Reich's theory to other more specific fields (such as brief or focal psychotherapy, Serrano, 1992), which required a more generic definition. W. Reich: character versus personality W. Reich defined character as the “armour of the self” (Reich, 1925). Through these terms, he referred to the clinical fact he had observed on his “psychoanalytic couch”: the influence of the greatest or lightest family violence suffered during our childhood inside the family or education systems; and the influence of the level of pathogenic stress (distress) to which we have been submitted during the whole process of our psychoaffective maturation since intrauterine life till adolescence. Indeed, this violence and stress force our being not only to worm in a psychic space where these experiences will shelter away from our conscience, and that Freud would call the unconscious, but also to develop a somatic or neuromuscular behavioural, structural and defensive system that allows and facilitates a bearable adaptation to the demands of human ecosystems. This avoidance of suffering (a process that Cannon defined, at a physiological level, as homeostasis) is something tangible and concrete. It indeed visibly appears in our behaviour, ie in our character, which coincides with Millon's above-mentionned definition of “personality”. Moreover, it also appears in the chronic tensions of our bodies, the respiratory dysfunction and the neurovegetative dystonia (headaches, asthenia, constipation, tachycardia...) that exist, to a certain extent, in everyone of us. Hence W. Reich considered that normality involved neurosis in this social system. He thus differentiated “character neurosis” (with its ego-syntonic, chronified, phallic-narcissist or hysteric, masochistic, compulsive, behavioural attitudes) from the rest of the psychopathologies which imply an increased level of suffering associated with an acute and obvious symptomatology arising from the functional deficiency of the armour occuring in a person at a specific time. This symptomatology is described and developped in handbooks such as the DSM-IV. The originality of this clinical model lies in the observation of our difficulty to feel pleasure and live with pleasure. It also observes the behaviours that every one of us has more or less been adopting face to the distressing repression and demands coming from the outside, and which appear in the classification realised by Millon in his book, ie narcissist, depressive, histrionic, paranoid, dissociated, dependent, compulsive, sadistic, avoidant behaviours. Suffering and personality disorders in characteranalytic psychotherapy Psychic and emotional suffering has therefore a clearly social aetiology, and can consequently be prevented by changes in the social and human ecosystems. Let me repeat that we all have and feel suffering and dissatisfaction in different degrees. However, these feelings may, in some cases or in determined moments, increase in such a way that they become obvious due to the “sharpness” of their symptoms which “irritate” daily relationships. Yet, these signs actually are moments of crisis that warn us of the danger of a complete collapse. We should therefore pay attention to them, as in these moments zones that are usually silent, but which dramatically determine our daily reality, get to express themselves. If the health professional is committed to his job, this point of view forces him to turn into a social agent when he sees that, through the “reichian couch” technique, it is possible to reduce this suffering and to increase the self potentiality of every one. It therefore indicates that it is also possible to retrieve, at least partially, our “lost paradise”, by modifying interrelational dynamics during childhood, adolescence, and even in our reality of adults. Indeed, behind our armour lies our potential personality waiting to blossom, for what we believe to be our personality is merely the internalisation of reality shaped by the armour. This phenomenon was very well described by Plato in his allegory of “the cave”. Thus, from the character-analytic perspective, psychic disease, emotional suffering and the subsequent “personality disorders” possess a fundamentally social aetiology that is elaborated during the process of maturation and integration of functions of our specific human structure. Therefore, the family system, which represents the main ecosystem of this period in so far as we depend on it to survive, becomes the principal factor of disease or health. We know very well that the social system greatly determines the life conditions of the family system, to the point of being its ecosystem. So, to understand disease, we have to understand more closely the logic of human systems and its interrelation with vital ecosystems. This is how the Reichian theory stands in the New paradigm or “Deep ecology” as F. Capra defined it (1996), for the knowledge we acquire on the couch helps us to prevent future pathology by intervening on our ecosystems. This is how we work on prevention, and it is also a sign of our identity. We continue Reich's work to “help regain our identity as animals and as human beings”, to regain instinct, regain the knowledge of the living and develop human ecosystems and systems that facilitate this process. The process of ontogenesis therefore becomes a fundamental component in prevention as well as in clinical work, as it is their connection. For indeed, in the clinical system of Character-analytic vegetotherapy - orgone therapy (Navarro, 1983, a, 1989, b), many of the neuromuscular movements (“actings”) made by the person on the couch are reproductions of spontaneous muscular movements. In other words, they are “signals” of maturation and psychosomatic functional integration during certain basic periods of our child life. This is why acting allows us to have access to the memories and experiences lived by the person at that specific time. Different sorts of pathologising relationships are established in the family system which facilitate the development of a structure with a constrictive, and therefore degenerative, autopoiesis (to use a term of H. Maturana in our orgonomic conception). Through clinical experience, we can understand these relationships through the substitution or blocking of instinctive basic responses during: pregnancy and birth, which leads to neurohormonal dysfunctions and clinical and traumatic births; the different sexual phases, facilitating the setting of oral ambivalence and/or Oedipus triangle fixation; adolescence, precluding the possibility of development of a human structure with an expansive autopoiesis in constant growth, evolution and satisfaction, which Reich described as Mature or “genital” character (as used in the Freudian terminology of sexual phases, not in the literal meaning of the word). In this sense, it is important to say that if clinical delivery using forceps or vacuum extractor is a traumatic experience, what really provokes high ocular and diaphragm tension is the loss of contact that can occur between the mother and the baby before, during and after delivery, when it is not compensated by a maternal attitude of the father. This leads the foetus to feel distressed, lost and alone in the “cosmic” void, as the cord is cut from the nourishing craft. It is well known that the content associated to a traumatic or dysfunctional action, such as the emotional and energetic impact, and, consequently, the relational factor, has a greater influence on the aetiopathological level than the situation in itself. This happens all along the process of ontogenesis (psychoaffective maturation). It indeed occurs during pregnancy, birth, and lactation (through the oral phase). In this last phase, it is crucially important that not only mother lactation takes place, but also that a loving relationship be set up inside the family system between the mother and her baby, and also with the rest of the family system, and especially with the figure of the father. Indeed, if there is no third person, the risk of fixation of the baby and of displacement of perverse affects from the mother to her baby is very high. Behind every dysfunction, there is always a relational problem, and therefore a systemic problem, that has not been compensated. One of the clinical consequences of this situation is that, to reach the therapeutic goals, a clinical space is necessary to establish progressively a therapeutic relationship which will facilitate the psychotherapeutic process. The importance of the framework, or “setting”, rests on this basis. Thus we can see that, depending on the particularities of this process of constrictive ontogenesis, every individual develops different structural dynamics that are different than the functional dynamics of mature personality. By structure, we mean “the embodiment of a pattern of organisation” (Prigogine), following W. Reich's concept of “organismic structure”. Throughout our experience (Serrano 1990b), we have observed three types of structures showing not only psychic features (as described by the French analytic school of Bergeret) but also somatic, emotional, perceptive and existential characteristics: the neurotic character structure (fundamentally characterised by the pathogenic Oedipus triangle dynamics and presenting an organised armour); the borderline structure (fundamentally characterised by the pathogenic ambivalent oral dynamics; displaying a depressive or psychotic-depressive nucleus and a characterial covering whose function is to maintain a social “normality”, thus preventing the explosion of the pathogenic nucleus, and developing a minimally organised armour); and the psychotic structure (fundamentally characterised by a pathogenic primitive oral dynamics which leads to an absence of contact and an incapacity to relate to others; these dysfunctions almost entirely prevent the formation of an organised armour, and induce the development of a mimetic character behaviour to survive). The main specificities of these three structures lead to their classification in watertight categories. I have defined the battery of tests that allows their differentiation as Initial Structural Differential Diagnosis, ISDD (Diagnóstico Inicial EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 37 Diferencial Estructural, Serrano 1990). I consider it to be an epistemological diagnosis as it aims at discovering the essential reality of people, their emotional, neurovegetative, energetic and vital imbalance, and from then on, any aspect of their behaviour and pathology. But it is not solely focused on psychopathological symptomatology, and therefore does not split up or reify the reality of the person. The ISDD is established on the following points: a) Constitutional predisposition b) Orgonotic metabolism (Bioenergy) c) Object relationship and character traits d) Blocks and muscle tensions e) Neurovegetative and somatic functioning f) Current reality: family, work, affective-sexual state, clinical situation, motivations... Clinical care The diagnosis of each structure logically requires a certain type of setting and a specific treatment. In certain occasions, we have to realise emergency attention, which we mainly provide in public centres or hospitals as they are the only places where clinical practice can be immediatly performed to determine the diagnosis. In this setting, we work in accordance with Eva Reich's principles of “emotional primary care” (1983), with M. Herskowitz's concepts (1968) and with our own contributions. We principally focus on ocular hypertension and the loss of contact, cervical hypertension and diaphragm spasms. We display an active attitude, with an open energetic field and therefore a strong manifestation of empathy. On numerous occasions, clinical care also involves corporal contact, respiratory and diaphragmatic massage, and/or a provocative - and in many cases, a paradoxically “mad” - attitude, which catches the patient's eyes and then allows him to feel our empathy. Furthermore, we understand the necessity of providing a specific treatment to people with a psychotic structure. This includes the introduction of the family system in the process, psychotropic drugs in crisis situations and the therapeutic community on an ad hoc basis. In this case, the diagnosis is not only important for prognosis or treatment indications, but also to determine clearly the type of setting required. For instance, after years of practice of deep clinical analysis, we now know that the rate of people quitting therapy because of analytic resistances (therapeutic escapes) shortly after starting is much higher in the borderline structure, particularly for those with a compulsive-masochistic or phallic-compulsive covering. In order to prevent it, we have come to the conclusion that the number of sessions shoud be higher than in the rest of the structures, and that a first approach with a focal or brief setting would be particulary appropriate to maximise their level of insight and analysability. We thus meet people attending public centres or our private centres but who do not have the economic resources to undergo deep treatment such as vegetotherapy. In order to provide an answer to both situations, we and some colleagues introduced a certain number of variables from the postreichian clinical work (among others, character analysis, the relation between muscle hypertension and acute pathogenic reaction, and the performing of “actings” or neuromuscular movements of the “ontogenic” type) into the analytic clinical tradition of brief therapy (Mahler, Balint, page 38 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 Braier...). This led to the development of a systematics that I defined as “Brief character-analytic psychotherapy, BCP” (Psicoterapia breve caracteroanalítica, Serrano 1992). The objective of this therapy is to facilitate the emotional awareness of the character traits that provoke a pathogenic dysfunction and therefore, a group of symptoms. Becoming aware of these traits leads to a more functional and conscious management of one's resources and reality. At the same time, the sources of hypertension reduce and breathing is superficially freed, which results in increasing receptivity and sensitivity. These are limited goals which attempt to reduce suffering and cancel symptoms through the use of crisis as a therapeutic tool associated with “insight”. However, being limited objectives, the setting as well as the technique have to be coherent and therefore different from deep therapy, in order to avoid regression, transference neurosis and the breakdown of essential defenses. Indeed, the brief setting does not provide enough time to tackle these goals, while they are achievable in a deep setting, using our clinical tradition. Thus, in the brief setting, the position of the therapist is analytical but more directive. He avoids induction and works a lot with signalling, contrasts and free association. He also manages the session time to combine the frontal seated position and the couch, which is used to perform actings, though in a reduced time compared to deep therapy. Other body techniques are included, with the patient lying on the couch but wearing his clothes. The sessions take place on a weekly basis and for a predetermined time, with an average of twenty sessions. Individual sessions can be combined with two two-hour group sessions once a month, or one three-hour session, depending on the specific circumstances of each group. However, these group sessions start only when the third phase of the treatment is reached, ie from the third month onwards. It is worth remembering that both Reich in his essay “Mass Psychology of Fascism” and O. Raknes (1950) had already considered this therapeutic option, although none of them studied it thoroughly. The setting We can affirm that, except for the circumstances abovementionned, the setting of our practice follows the tradition of European psychotherapy, and therefore takes psychoanalysis as reference. In fact, Reich always considered himself as part of this movement (see: Reich Speaks of Freud, 1970), which explains why it is an analytical setting. We partially agree with the psychoanalyst Etchegoyen (1986) when he recalls that the setting is “above all a mental attitude of the analyst, and [that] it possesses a content, the process. This content consists in the unique relationship between analyst and analysed, and comprises three components: transference, countertransference and therapeutic alliance. For the process to develop, a framework as stable as possible is necessary, ie the setting”. According to our experience, this attitude is not only mental but also emotional and thus energetic and analogic, and constitutes the basic component of the “Reichian couch”. Setting is essential, as without it no process, and consequently no achievement of the clinical objectives, are possible. It is determined by a systematics that comprises a series of techniques, which, to be functional, have to be modulated by the therapist's position and his way of being. The latter stands next to the patient, respects his rhythm, without either induction or advice, neither formulation nor recipe concerning the current aspects of his life. This attitu- de leads the person to feel accompanied, but at the same time it facilitates the displacement of affects which occurs through historical affective objects, and which allows transference. To sum up, the relationship is sufficiently neutral, while retaining an empathic atmosphere. To use Matt Blanco's terms, we would say that the therapist has to know how to be on both planes of the analytical setting: the symmetric and asymmetric levels. The individual sessions take place with the patient lying on the couch, his body visible, and the therapist sitting next to him but without invading his space. The number and periodicity of the sessions are determined according to the structure of the patient. However, they occur on a minimum of one fifty-minute session a week or a one-hour-and-a-half session every two weeks (double session) to a maximum of two double sessions a week. Contrary to the BCP setting, there is no predetermined time to complete the process, which will take place as agreed between the patient and the therapist, such as any other situation of the setting. Deep character-analytic psychotherapy: Character-analytic vegetotherapy Once the therapeutic contract is established (in the case of a deep therapy), character-analytic vegetotherapy, or orgone therapy, can start: “When the orgasm reflex was discovered in 1935, the emphasis placed on the character-analytic work shifted to the somatic field. The term “Vegetotherapy” represented the fact that my therapeutic technique then got an influence on characterologic neurosis in the physiological field. The term “character-analytic vegetotherapy” refers to the simultaneous work done on both psychic and somatic systems (neurovegetative system)”, (Reich, 1949 a). This clinical practice depends essentially on the therapeutic relationship that takes place between the patient and the therapist, focusing particularly on the patient's structure. Transference dynamics is accompanied by the activation of memories and emotions that are linked to the transference object and the armour segment on which we are working. Following Reichan tradition (Reich, 1945), the therapy is performed cephalocaudally, from the first down to the seventh segment. Indeed, as previously seen, blocks, tensions and defences that develop to face the distress produced during ontogenesis appear from the first segment downwards. This muscular approach is fundamentally based on the execution, by the patient, of particular neuromuscular actings which have been modulating signs of the process of infantile evolution. These actings take place during a certain time and for a certain number of sessions. Each acting lasts about 20 minutes, during which the patient is focused on muscular action and on breathing. In a state of floating attention, he observes the things that cross his mind. He is attentive to images or sensations that may appear, in order to share what he remembers with the therapist afterwards. Moreover, if any emotion shows up, the patient allows himself to live it consciously. In the meantime, the therapist stands by his side, accompanies the action but does not intervene in it. He only empathises with the feelings that the patient may have while observing his involuntary neurovegetative reactions. The latter are indeed part of the body language that the therapist has to understand and appropriately contrast, signal or analyse during the process of analysis development. These actings are sequentially performed, as described in the methodology of F. Navarro (1990), which we apply according to the different structures (Serrano, 1994). In order to give practical examples, I shall describe some of the actings that are realised with the first segment: looking at a point on the ceiling with the mouth open (object focusing: primitive relational signal); looking at a point on the ceiling and then to the tip of the nose (primitive object difference described by R. Spitz); looking from right to left (entrance of the third person, emergence of the shizoidparanoid structure) or rolling the eyes (group relationship, entrance of family system, social reality and movement specific to human mamals only). There are actings for each of the seven segments of the muscular armour described by Reich. These segments are progressively stimulated, and try to recover vegetative motility and neuromuscular functionality. There are not many actings, but those that are used have been experimented and have proven to be sufficiently functional. Moreover, it is not the number of movements that is important but their repetition, and the analysis of the way the patient does this movement, which is different in every person. All these points are part of character analysis (character meaning the defensive psycho-somatic structuring which is reflected in the behaviour as well as in the muscular response, which are respectively based on psychism and soma). Thus, we neither induce nor provoke emotions or regressions, but we facilitate a progressive body conscience through which the patient feels the difference between the self and the character, and the link between his history and his current behaviour, his limits and his potentialities. He then progressively learns to manage his reality according to a self, associated with an armour, ie a flexible character based on the principle of pleasure and expansion, love, and therefore on the capacity for abandonment and for living the orgastic experience, which always goes with a greater ability for social compromise. However, this is not an easy thing to do. It implies immersing oneself in one's “hell”, in what lies behind resistances, in repressed pulsions. It also involves facing the subsequent resistances that appear during the process and which will determine its rhythm and its duration. This individual approach is accompanied by group work, which starts when the process of “separation-individualisation”, to use Mahler's terms, has sufficiently been elaborated during individual therapy. In other words, it occurs when the patient has integrated in his self the denied aspects of the maturation process that took place in his early infancy, and when he is able to relate with the “other” and to go about all the conflicts that he has faced in his process of social integration (extended family, school, friends, etc.). On the neuromuscular level, this usually coincides with the moment when the cephalocaudal unblocking reaches the third or fourth segment. The groups consist of 12 to 14 men and women and of two co-therapists of both sexes. Patients meet once a month for two years (group meeting lasts a certain time in order to give enough time for social relationships to be established between the patients of the group). The group system develops its own matrix to work on the dynamics of social conflicts, such as gender conflicts, social paranoia, fear of authority, difficulty to assume social responsibilities and group identity. References to Foulkes' group analysis, Moreno's psychodrama and other psychocorporal techniques are used within a specific systematics (Serrano, 1997, d). However, the main objective is the use of the group matrix, and the con- EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 39 flicts occuring in this group, to make the participants aware of the social conflicts that they face in their real life, and to let them find solutions among themselves. This is a most important way to acquire the “social or collective identity” that our social system lacks so much. Let us keep in mind that group space is a tool converging from individual vegetotherapy and that therapists practice according to its thesis. Lastly, let me underline that emotional suffering, and thus certain personality disorders, require an interdisciplinary approach. Indeed, it is necessary to combine individual psychotherapy with couple therapy or family care. We thus consider essential the intervention of diverse professionals, for indeed, through different clinical models and experiences, we can tackle the psychic and emotional suffering of our patients more functionally and deontologically. Moreover, this inevitably leads us to question and revise our own limits and suffering, and to take personal and collective measures to prevent and avoid them. Consequently, we have also been stimulated to develop a preventive care practice which I have defined as “human systems ecology”. Through this practice, we may some day be able to live - as my professor F. Navarro used to say - in a society where our clinical function would no longer be necessary. For bibliographical references and abbrevations: http://www.esternet.org/xavierserrano/trastornos_personalidad.htm THE INCREASE OF VIOLENCE IN THE WORLD: THE ROOTS OF VIOLENCE AND CHANGE TODAY, INDIVIDUALLY AND SOCIALLY by Luciano Rispoli ABSTRACT Where and how is the violence triggered? There is a frightening increase of violence in the world today, but is violence inherent in man, is it inevitable? Where does it come from? And above all, where are its roots embedded? In order to answer this question we need to look as far as the Deepest Functioning: Bio-physical. Functional Psychology has studied them for years (taking up some important elements of the Functionalist schools). There are alterations which can be missed by traditional analyses, which become slowly bedded in our organism (mind-body). Little by little something occurs, manifesting itself in violence in many different ways. Analysing these deepest functions in their complex conditions we begin to lift the veil and discover the truth. We return to occupy social space, as Reich taught, but with the much advanced capacities available to us today to see the functioning, the individual-society link, the ways out, possible projects, in order to bring about change in the world. ABSTRACT Come e dove si innesca la violenza? Oggi nel mondo c'è un aumento spaventoso di violenze. Ma la violenza è connaturata con l'uomo, è inevitabile? Da dove ha origine? E soprattutto come e dove si innescano le sue radici? Per rispondere dobbiamo scendere ai Funzionamenti più profondi: Bio-psichici. La Psicologia Funzionale li sta studiando da anni (riprendendo alcuni elementi importanti delle scuole Funzionaliste). Ci sono alterazioni che sfuggono all'analisi tradizionale e che lentamente si stratificano nel nostro organismo (mente-corpo). E pian piano qualcosa accade, si produce violenza in tante manifestazioni. Analizziamo questi Funzionamenti profondi nella loro complessa modalità. Iniziamo a sollevare veli su tutto ciò e a ritrovare la verità. Ricominciamo ad occupare lo spazio sociale, come ci aveva insegnato Reich, ma oggi con una nuova capacità molto più avanzata di vedere i funzionamenti, il collegamento individuo-società, le vie di uscita, i progetti possibili, per produrre un cambiamento nel mondo. INTERVENTION Premessa Appare ogni giorno più urgente cercare di fermare il crescere della violenza favorendo lo sviluppo di una cultura e di una esistenza di pace che possa veramente portare nel mondo una nuova speranza. Ma come fare? Quali sono le origini della violenza? Molto si spende per diffondere, specie in bambini e in adolescenti, concetti di pace e fratellanza. Ma tutto questo non funziona se è stato minato il radicamento profondo della pace e dell'amore nell'individuo. Un individuo potrebbe usare parole che vanno nella direzione della pace e dell'amore ma nei fatti essere incapace di andare nella stessa direzione. Si può sentire parlare di amore, di tolleranza, di condivisione ma non essere di fondo capaci di sentire profondamente questi sentimenti. E allora è possibile fare veramente qualcosa? E come page 40 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 andare alle radici della violenza? L'importanza dello sviluppo evolutivo In questi anni si sono moltiplicate le nuove scoperte sulla vita del bambino piccolo, sia prima che dopo la nascita. Risulta sempre più chiaro che l'essere umano è all'inizio integrato, capace di relazioni positive con il mondo circostante, capace di amore e di contatto molto intensi. E non è in balia a pulsioni caotiche e distruttive. Distruttivo lo diventa se ci sono ostacoli creati da un mondo che non favorisce (ancora oggi!) il suo sviluppo e la costruzione di una personalità sana e positiva. Per conservare vitalità, benessere, equilibrio, salute, bambine e bambini devono trovare soddisfazione ai loro bisogni fondamentali, oggi individuati in modo molto preciso e concreto. Se non c'è protezione e attenzione ai bisogni fondamentali si formeranno pericolose alterazioni del nucleo profondo del Sé. Il nucleo del Sé, reso fragile e insicuro, si aggrapperà a immagini esteriori e false di forza, tenterà di compensare le carenze inseguendo false sicurezze: il potere, il denaro, il voler dominare, il successo ad ogni costo, e insieme a tutto ciò la violenza. Oppure, cederà alle angosce e finirà per sentirsi debole, sopraffatto, schiacciato. Accade così che si ricorra alle "droghe" (sia in senso stretto che in senso più allargato), nel tentativo di ritrovare, anche se solo apparentemente, la vitalità persa; e si cercheranno momenti di euforia, di allentamento dall'angoscia e dalla paura, di stordimento, di sfide folli alla morte. Le mutate condizioni sociali Nella società di oggi (come risulta dalla ricerca da noi effettuata) si stanno drammaticamente alterando alcuni aspetti del funzionamento dell'individuo assolutamente indispensabili a un buon equilibrio. Il supporto affettivo è sempre più carente. Videogiochi, Televisione, Computer, Realtà Virtuale, Velocità, Freddezza tecnologica, prendono sempre più spazio aumentando le fantasie pericolose e l'agire frenetico, e diminuendo sempre più la base vitale delle sensazioni corporee reali, Il bombardamento attraverso i mass-media di “modelli” irraggiungibili, di “modelli” perfetti, di successi facili, fa sentire i giovani sempre più inadeguati, spingendoli ad una ricerca spasmodica e affannosa, e levando loro la possibilità di crescere gradualmente con calma e serenità, basandosi sulle proprie esperienze, il proprio spazio, la propria identità. La somministrazione continua di scene di violenza indurisce, incattivisce: la tenerezza viene sempre più allontanata come qualcosa di negativo. I grandi progetti sociali di prevenzione Oggi non possiamo più limitarci a curare un certo numero di pazienti. Non ha più senso. E' indispensabile mettere in atto delle risposte di grande respiro a partire dalle condizioni difficili e drammatiche in cui versano le nuove generazioni. L'unica speranza è intervenire nell'età in cui il malessere si struttura e in cui le personalità perdono le caratteristiche positive iniziali, si distorcono, smarriscono il senso della loro esistenza; e finiscono per non combattere più per la vita, per la solidarietà, per il rispetto degli altri, della natura e di se stessi. Bisogna ridare senso alla vita, un significato di largo respiro basato sul rispetto, sul contatto, sull'amore, sulla tenerezza; componenti fondamentali per una pienezza di vita che non possiamo più trascurare e che invece le società di oggi stanno distruggendo. Dobbiamo agire, in fretta e in modo radicale, per salvare i nostri bambini e i nostri adolescenti, ma soprattutto per sal vare le nostre società! Progetti possibili, efficaci, a grande diffusione Ma è possibile farlo? Si, ma solo se andiamo alle radici delle distorsioni, se andiamo ad agire su ciò che è alla base, se interveniamo in modo preciso sui funzionamenti di fondo degli esseri umani: le Esperienze di Base (esperienze fondamentali che i bambini devono poter attraversare e consolidare in modo pieno e positivo). Solo così potremo ottenere risultati profondi, ampi, diffusi e in tempi brevi. Solo con metodi scientifici nuovi ed efficaci: metodi diagnostici realmente predittivi, metodologie e tecniche che realizzino in breve tempo e su larga scala cambiamenti effettivi recuperando i funzionamenti persi, le Esperienze di Base carenti e alterate. Questa è la nuova scommessa scientifica ma anche la nuova scommessa sociale. Le conseguenze dei funzionamenti di fondo alterati sono altamente drammatiche e sotto gli occhi di tutti. Ma la violenza, in continua crescita, non è un dato inevitabile iscritto nel DNA umano: non esiste un istinto alla violenza e alla distruttività. E' solo il risultato di un agire sbagliato che non salvaguarda le Esperienze di Base in bambini e adolescenti. A Napoli abbiamo lavorato per 4 anni con i bambini di 6 scuole elementari e medie, per riequilibrare disfunzionamenti del Sé già drammaticamente presenti. Abbiamo lavorato per recuperare almeno le più importanti tra le Esperienze di Base alterate: la capacità di Lasciare l'attivazione e di Stare, il poter Allentare il Controllo, il Contatto tranquillo, la Tenerezza, la Forza Giocosa e Calma. E si sono ottenuti dei cambiamenti strabilianti in pochi mesi su tutti i bambini. E' su questa nuova frontiera che si svolgeranno le battaglie decisive per interrompere e invertire il processo che sta mettendo seriamente a rischio il nostro pianeta e la nostra vita futura. Le Aree Teoriche precedenti e il sociale Le Aree Teoriche precedenti, le correnti di Psicoterapia sino ad oggi sviluppate, hanno avuto il grande merito di indicare questi problemi e di sviluppare man mano tecniche, conoscenze, sperimentazioni, la cui validità si è però misurata soprattutto a livello di intervento individuale. Ma oggi abbiamo bisogno di un salto epistemologico, teorico e pratico per affrontare il problema anche sul piano sociale, e in modo realmente efficace. Le Aree di pensiero precedenti hanno iniziato a farlo: ma gli interventi risultavano troppo lunghi, troppo dispendiosi, non efficaci e profondi, con difficoltà a creare progetti che agissero davvero a largo raggio. La nuova Area Teorica: il Funzionalismo Oggi abbiamo a disposizione nuove conoscenze. Lo studio del bambino piccolo ha fatto passi enormi. Anche le neuroscienze, nel loro intenso sviluppo, pongono oggi nuove basi scientifiche che non possono più essere ignorate, e che individuano in modo molto preciso i funzionamenti di fondo come terreno di intervento per il futuro. Un altro elemento importante è stato il progredire degli studi sul processo terapeutico, sul processo di cambiamento, su ciò che avviene realmente in terapia e che il terapeuta realmente fa accadere. E ancora una volta le ricer- EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 41 che individuano i funzionamenti di fondo, le Esperienze di Base come i punti nodali della terapia, i punti nodali per il cambiamento. Le tecniche saranno allora scelte e riorganizzate per essere più adatte a questo livello, più precise e più direzionate, guidate da un progetto ben strutturato. Il Funzionalismo, questa terza Area nascente, che prende le mosse dagli studi sui processi psicocorporei, dalla concezione dell'identità funzionale mente-corpo, dalle ricerche del primo funzionalismo, ha aperto gli orizzonti sui funzionamenti di fondo, e rappresenta una modalità nuova di affrontare il funzionamento umano. Si apre dunque una grande speranza di poter finalmente intervenire sul piano sociale, e di realizzare strumenti potenti e realmente efficaci per poter iniziare a dire la parola fine al permanere della barbarie umana, e a sperare che questo avvenga prima che sia troppo tardi. TOUCH IS ONE OF THE MOST FORGOTTEN LANGUAGES by Bernhard Tabur Schlage "Massage is something that you can start learning, but you never finish. It goes on and on, and the experience becomes continuously deeper and deeper, and higher and higher. Massage is one of the subtlest arts. And it is not only a question of expertise; it is more a question of love. First learn the Technique, and then forget it. Then just feel, and move by feeling. When you learn deeply, ninety percent of the work is done by love, ten percent by the technique. Just through the very touch, a loving touch, something relaxes in the body. If you love and feel compassion for the other person and you feel the ultimate value of him, if you don't treat him as if he is a mechanism to be put right but an energy of tremendous value, if you are grateful that he trusts you and allows you to play with his energy, then bye and bye you will feel as if you are playing on an organ. The whole body becomes the key of the organ and you can feel that a harmony is created inside the body. Not only with the person who is helped, but you also. Massage is needed in the world because love has disappeared. Once, the very touch of lovers was enough. A mother touched the child, played with his body, and it was massage. The husband played with the body of his woman and it was massage; it was enough, more than enough. It was deep relaxation and part of love. But that has disappeared from the world. By and by, we have forgotten where to touch, how to touch, how deep to touch. In fact, touch is one of most forgotten languages. We have become almost awkward in touching, because the very world has been corrupted by so-called religious people. They have given it a sexual colour. The word has become sexual and people have become afraid. Everybody is on guard not to be touched unless he allows it. Now in the West, the other extreme has come. Touch and massage have become sexual. Now massage is just a cover, a blanket, for sexuality. In fact, neither touch nor massages are sexual; they are functions of love. When love falls from its height it becomes sex, and then it becomes ugly. So be prayerful. When you touch the body of a person be prayerful - as if God himself is there, and you are just serving him. Flow with total energy. And whenever you see the body flowing and the energy creating a new pattern of harmony, you feel a delight that you have never felt before. You will fall into deep meditation. While massaging, just massage. Don't think of other things, because those are distractions. Be in your fingers and your hands as if your whole being, your whole soul, were there. Don't let it be just a touch of the body. Your whole soul enters into the body of the other, penetrates it, relaxed the deepest complexes. And make it a play. Don't do it as a job; make it a game and take it as fun. Laugh and let the other laugh too." (Osho-Quotation from Darshan Diary, Chapter 18, Series Hammer on the Rocks; with Permission of Osho International Foundation, Switzerland) page 42 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 What am I going to talk about in this article? Let me first give you some examples of touch. The masseur massages his client with a strong grasping grip. The timid person spreads out his little finger while timorously touching his friend's nipple. The Mother puts cream on the baby with caring hands. The visitor of the beer garden strongly grasps the waitress's ass. The Doctor palpates her patient's body with examining fingers. The mannequin oils her skin with patiently circling movements of her hands. The weight lifter grasps the muscles of his arms to measure their power. The nurse softly massages a cream on to the hurting part of a patient. The father gently rubs the child's belly while feeling it. The baby reaches for her mother's breast while being fed from it. The loving couple tickle each other wherever they can reach. The torturer beats the tortured with a whip. In a silent embrace the lovers’ hands are laying on each other's backs. The timid person is yanking every time he is being touched. The butcher grasps the piece of meat to cut it. The drowning desperately clings to the flesh of his rescuer. The mother is holding her child's hand while tearing a splinter from its finger with her fingernails. The dentist reaches into the mouth to examine the position of a crown. The father slaps the child on the face. These examples express possibilities of touch between people, without having to say what is being touched and how I categorise these examples into brutal, tender, caring or conscientious. The values I put on them might be different from what others put on them. In my practice as a body-psychotherapist, I experience touch in a more differentiated way. Some tissue areas easily yield under the pressure of my hands while others resist my pressure or feel cool or warm. Some tissue areas allow themselves to be moved away from underlying layers or while touching them you get the impression that they were structured on the surface the same as in deeper layers. Some tissue areas feel firm, almost string-like, and I can palpate hyper-elastic almost rubber-like tissue. While touching some tissue areas they feel old or empty or numb, whereas others are so strongly loaded with emotion that just the hint of a touch will irritate the client. Some tissue areas contract with touch, others loosen and open up. I will at first categorise these examples without thinking about what is touched and how it is touched. The tissue is simply not sufficiently supplied with energy, is charged, is flabby, tense, blocked etc. And in body-psychotherapy I draw conclusions about the individuality of a client, from these sensations. Thirdly I want to describe the way in which clients experience touch. For one person tickling is painful while another person will laugh when she is tickled. One person will not notice the pressure of her sitting bones (ischium) on the chair and another person will sit on a more comfortable chair just for this reason. For one person being caressed is a nice feeling, for somebody else it is an annoyance. One person loves the touch of her lover's lips but dislikes those of her father. The other person lets herself be kneaded by a masseur but feels it is chauvinistic when her lover pinches her ass. One will experience tension in his body as being a support for himself, for the other it is a limitation. One person will feel that her power and energy express her capacity for freedom, for somebody else this power is a burden putting her out of balance emotionally. One will feel a grip in the neck as if he is being throttled; the other feels how, by this gesture, he can let go of responsibility. In this way I can see that the one touch and the other touch are not alike. Therefore in this article I want to take a deeper look at the following questions: o Which structures are influenced (most) by touch between people? o What are the physical and structural bases of these kinds of touch and how do they relate to each other? o Which physiological characteristics of the connecting tissue determine endurance and speed of change brought about by body-psychotherapy? o Does the mental and emotional condition have an effect on touch and if so how? o What would be an adequate mental attitude for the body-psychotherapist and the client during the work? Phenomenology of touch As I have described in another article, our existence originates from a very intimate, cellular touch: semen and ovular cell touch each other and as a consequence of this touch three functional systems form: ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm, in this chronological order. Those organ systems that later on form the human being develop from these three different basic biological structures. And from a subdivision of the mesoderm, the mesenchym, those elements that form the three-dimensional reality of the human being in space also develop: skin, fascia, tendons, ligaments, muscles, periosteum, and bones. “The primary elements such as bones, ligaments and tendons develop from the cells as soon as cellular nuclei are formed in the mesenchym. When these cells have taken their form, less differentiated cells develop layers of loose, areolar tissue coating the developing nuclei. These coatings at first seem to have a protective function; later on they develop into a supportive function. These are the fascia.” (I. Rolf; Strukturelle Integration, München 1987, s. 38) Looking at touch between people I see initially that these structures originating from the mesenchym take place in every movement even if it is the lips, the fingers of a hand or leaning against somebody's shoulders. First of all it is always these structures that so obviously make touch possible. Whether somebody is well cushioned or bony, has a thin figure or soft hands, or a belly drawn in, all these are examples of manifestations of mesenchymal structures. The cellular awareness of touch But let me deepen my view further. Let us first agree to extend the term ‘connective tissue’ further than just the subcutaneous tissue. I suggest extending it to the entire supportive tissue of the body including bones, ligaments and tendons, the tissue, coating the intestines and embedding nerves and vessels. If I extend my view in this sense I find connective tissue structures of various kinds. The body keeps changing the composition of the connective tissue throughout our whole life. Some of these changes are limited in duration: for example when connective tissue EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 43 thickens around a muscle and our shoulder hurts. Others last longer such as when we twist our ankle and it heals slowly with a remaining thickening and torsion of the ankle. The mechanism of change of the connective tissue consists of - contracting and connecting. To gain stability and fight stress connective tissue will shorten, thicken and attach to neighbouring structures. Movement will become less effective because parts that would be better to rest will take part in the movement - thickening and shifting. Thickening of tissue might cause displacement of a body segment or restrict movement possibilities of joints. Two different kinds of connective tissue result from this selfregulating mechanism of connective tissue according to different structural requirements of the body. The areolar connective tissue is the most flexible, elastic and most widely manifold kind of tissue. Its fibres are connected with each other in all directions. Here the body fat is disposed of and stored. This kind of tissue plays a fundamental role in the body fluid circulation and the mechanics of canalization and distribution of body liquids. It can even function as a cover between organs. The jelly-like tissue, for example the umbilical navel-cord, is only of minor interest for this article. Fibrous white tissue is always formed where our body is exposed to extended stress. In this context this type of tissue is necessarily tighter and less flexible. The higher degree of tightness results from the arrangement of fibres that appear to be bundled parallel. In the retinacula these are rather distinct. To balance the highly contractive tensions, thicker fascia ligaments can develop attached to the expanding tendons respectively, forming pulley blocks, thus supporting the power of the working muscles. Such ligaments can be found around bigger joints such as ankles, knees, hip joints, shoulder, elbows and wrists. If this type of tissue connects muscles and bones, respectively cartilage substance, it is classified as aponeurose or tendon. Wherever even higher stability is needed such as with sclerotic types of tissue (bones and cartilage substance) the organic collagen substance combines with other matter serving for stability. Thus the kneecap can be regarded not so much as a bone inside the quadriceps tendon but rather as a functionally required ossification of the tendon. Connective tissue as a whole is enervated by various nerve fibres, whose function is to control the circulation, the fluid volume and sensitivity to pain (sensitivity to touch). On the other hand through the intermediary of these nerve connections the connective tissue can report to nerve centers triggering self-regulating impulses. Thus connective tissue has a feedback mechanism controlled by the nervous system and is able to influence its own structure. For instance, a protective posture caused by an accident will entail reduced nervous sensitivity in the injured part. Consequently you will find less movement and therefore even less feedback from this part. Thus the circle of increased tightening of connective tissue closes until it is reversed on the nervous level (e.g. by Feldenkrais-work) or on the level of connective tissue (e.g. by Postural Integration). The golgi-tendon-organ might play an important role in this feedback process (sh. Rolf Lines. Winter 1989, Boulder/Colorado; p. 19). This is a detailed description of the way connective tissue takes part in touch. The biological awareness of touch If I further extend my view, the general understanding of connective tissue remaining the same, I will find structures with names as follows: osteoplasts - pre-stages of ostecytes, forming the bone substance; the osteocytes - differentiated bone cells and the osteoclasts - which provide for page 44 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 continuous dissolving of the ground bone substance formed by the osteoplasts. Thus the latter underlie permanent composition and decomposition. These internal correlations form the asic mechanism for the healing capacity of the bones after a fracture, forming a node (exostosis) etc. Depending on locality you will find various muscular cells in the connective tissue. I will talk about these more extensively elsewhere. Moreover a number of cells play an important role in the body's metabolism: histo, mano, lympho and granulo-cytes and plasma cells. Further on the mast cells, which are located mainly around blood vessels. They consist of three active substances (histamines, serotonin, and heparin) that are significant for the consistency of the plasma. Not to forget the fat cells serving as deposits, the fibroplasts which are able to form intercellular substance. With their widely spread out cell pattern, fibrocytes form a three-dimensional network helping to construct the ground structures of connective tissue. The ground substance of connective tissue is formed by fibroplasts, which simultaneously react to their own activity. This mechanism which relates to the interaction of bone cells holding in equilibrium, is called 'morphocycle' by Varela/ Frank (in: The Organ of Form, London 1987). An older interpretation of change affected by body-psychotherapy, states that the chemical condition of intercellular substance, changing from gel to sol, is caused by mechanical influences (e.g. by pressure) regarded as the physiological basis of change during body-psychotherapy (J.L. Oschwan; The Natural Science of Healing; unpublished manuscript 1986). This was later called the Thixothrophic Effect (Dean Juhan, Körperarbeit, München 1992). But if the theory of morphocycles is valid; then chemical change by the correlation of fibroplasts and fibrocytes would be compensated. Because within the connective tissue the latter functions like a hormone or neurotransmitter in other areas: they are able to process special changes in connective tissue: for instance they change gel-like tissue into collagen structures which they can further transform into cartilage and bones by varying the chemical composition of the intercellular substance formed by them. The reaction on the nerve cells and connection to the hormone- and glandularsystem would have to be examined more closely. Thus we see a whole range of cellular structures involved in touch, and therefore in change resulting from body-psychotherapy. However, there is not yet a complete explanation of the change involved in the interrelationship of all these structures. To find answers to questions regarding change in tissue resulting from connection between structures, endurance and speed we have to extend our view further into the molecular structure of a cell. This happens as follows. Chemical awareness of touch On the molecular level of touch there is contact between connective tissue mainly consisting of proteoclycones; e.g. molecular structures consisting of proteins and polysacharids touching each other. These relatively big molecules are able to bind a large quantity of cellular liquid and salts. Connective tissue feels softer if the molecular structure is more open and it feels tighter if the molecular structure is denser. In the latter case for instance less fluid is being stored. All organic connections decompose into carbon when burnt. This led Wilhelm Reich (see: Die Entdeckung des Organs; Frankfurt 1976, pp. 49 ff) to watch the molecular movements of these carbon structures. Through this he came to the conclusion that the observable movements could not be explained by the previous interpretation of the so-called 'Brown’sche molecular movement'. According to this theory those movements would have to have a continuous effect, be observable with all particles of equal size at the same time, and only happen in space. You should not be able to detect contractions or expansions of particles because these could not be explained by mutual collision of particles. But Reich did not find these conditions in his observations. On the contrary sometimes these movements existed, sometimes not. They appeared and disappeared. The particles could expand and contract again. They were vibrating or glimmering. They also performed movements that could not be explained by the recent model, so that Reich developed the thesis that movment, for instance of red blood cells, could not originate from external collisions of cells with each other, but could be explained by the membrane's energetic charge of these organelles. (He called them biones.) The internal movements can be explained much more easily by the model of a changing energetic load of cells. Reich asked where this biologically effective energy originated and was found in experiments: as dead cells did not have these movements any more, the energy had to be gained from the activity of the metabolism of the cell itself. He called this energy “orgon”. It had to be developed in a more subtle area than the biological one. We will get to this in the next paragraph. Reich could see that the biological functions of the complex human organism (charge, discharge, building up of charge etc.) is already perceivable in the movements of the plasma and of the smallest particles. The basic functions of highly developed organisms are exactly the same as in the smallest contractile plasma particle. Mechanistic explanations like the 'Brown’sche molecular movement' or merely chemical reflections, will fail in this case because it is not a matter of substance but a matter of functions of energy. By trying to explain the origin of the energy of life from the biological functions of the organism itself Reich developed a connection between biological knowledge and Einstein's energy/matter equation in physics. His contribution to explaining changes obtained by bodypsychotherapy is as follows: manipulating tissue leads to a balance of bioelectric e.g. orgonotic energies within intercellular/molecular structures. Here I want to make a small diversion to present different treatment strategies resulting from different approaches to body-psychotherapy. I will start with the question: How is shortening of muscles balanced according to the different systems of tissue manipulation? If we want to balance the shortening of a muscle neurologically this is possible by obtaining a stretch reflex of the shortened muscle via a shortening of the antagonist. Another possibility would be to momentarily increase the shortening thus provoking relaxation. Or, if I exercise stretching with another muscle of the same structure and then have it shift to the effected muscle by visualisation, thus via the nervous system. As a last variation on this level I could mention letting the user of the muscle understand its function and then train him in a movement sequence that is more effective in this function. These and similar approaches correspond to present movement schools like Grinder, Jacobsen, Alexander or Feldenkrais work. If we want to balance the shortening on the level of connective tissue this can happen by direct manipulation: separating brunshes (or parts) between single groups of muscles or subtly influencing the lamella-like structure of muscles. Operative cross section (prolonging, shortening) of muscles should also be mentioned here. We can find these approaches in classical massage as well as in various body orientated therapy models: Hakomi, Lomi, Rolfing, Postural Integration, Structural Integration, Rebalancing etc. If we work on the energetic level of Wilhelm Reich it is of central importance to experience the emotional content of an area and consciously express emotions that might be blocked (for instance through exercises or manipulation of tissue) thus making it possible to balance the interrelated areas of tension in their respective parts. Changing diet or temperature treatments of tissue (Sapega, Quedenfeld and others; Biophysical Factors in Range of Motion Exercises; Physician & Sports Medicine 12/81) can be associated with this level of possible muscle relaxation. Some schools (for instance Yoga) try to reach relaxation by respiration- and gymnastic exercises. Especially in Rolfing it is possible to change the structure of intercellular substance from gel to sol thereby softening a muscle. (They use the so-called Thixothrophic Effect.) So I can see that according to the explanatory models for the shortening of muscle different methods can be applied. In the practise of body-psychotherapists the various aspects of this description get mixed. Let us further extend our view to explore explanations for changes effected by body-psychotherapy. I propose we go to the sub nuclear space. Physical awareness of touch In the last paragraph I presented the molecular structures which are involved in touch. This paragraph is about the components of these molecules, the atoms. I know that in general atoms consist of nucleus, protons, and electrons and according to the number and orbit of the latter two we can distinguish the different atoms; for instance hydrogen from oxygen atoms. The two following phenomena are of interest for our question: 1. If the distances between the nucleus and its two satellites are so large that I have to state that the smallest components, that I know of that are involved in touch, largely consist of the space between them, or of nothing, then how can we explain the objectivtivity and diversity of touch I have mentioned in the beginning of this article? 2. Protons and electrons rotate around the nucleus at such speed that to our eyes we get the impression of something static. The perception of the nuclear situation can be compared with that of a rotor of an airplane, which - standing still - shows two wings, and with increasing rotation appears as a disc to our eyes. 3. At the division of the nucleus, scientists discovered even smaller units. These units, located within the sub nuclear space of touch, either react as matter or as energy. They confront our observations with the question, 'If I cannot classify it this or that way so then what is it?' The Münich physicist Strzempa-Depre (Die Physik der Erleuchtung, München 1988) describes the powers located in this sub nuclear space as the basis of diverse medical phenomenon like the effectiveness of acupuncture or homeopathy. My professional knowledge of physics does not allow me any insight into possible faults of his argumentation and thus for my work in body-psychotherapy I have to assume that these powers (quantum) are also responsible for the effected changes. Physicists of various fields in research experienced that these quantum relate to the hypothesis of the scientists experimenting with them. Or to put it differently the powers located in sub nuclear space present themsel- EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 45 ves as particles to the scientist doing research for further particles, whereas an observer concentrated on energetic phenomena will measure a certain frequency. So in this article I have to consider this as a fact, which implies that the mental attitude of both client and body-psychotherapist does influence the sub nuclear and thus molecular and biological basis of change. The powers in sub nuclear space react in relation to the mental attitude of body-psychotherapists (compare F.A. Wolf; Der Quantensprung ist keine Hexerei (The Quantum Leap is not Witchery); Stuttgart 1986; p. 286. He is talking about a nuclear awareness). This thesis implies that a mental attitude will express itself in the frequency of “something in sub nuclear space”. So to say that a micro-miniaturised physical code, or to be more precise, this code is the frequency, is a mental attitude identical with the phenomena in sub nuclear space. Regarding it like this, there in no question of ‘how’ the emotional state of both therapist and client affects the work, because on the level of the physics of touch, touch is identical with different kinds of touch. Therefore at the end of this article I come to the question of the adequate mental attitude of client and therapist in body-psychotherapy. Those questions related to the attitude taken by the client are well discussed in the work of Manuela Brinkmann (Rolfing und NLP; Paderborn 1989). She makes clear that a narcotized or sleeping person getting a connective tissue treatment will show only a minor or no effect at all. In Chapter 4.2. (p.159 ff) she describes the ‘kinaesthetic trance’ as the adequate state of the client. Hereby the client senses his body more intensely than in every day life. The client's attention rests in the part where he is touched and is able to expand to all parts where the effects of touch are being experienced. Usually the client in the kinaesthetic trance does not only have awareness of single limbs or parts of the body, but experiences his body as a whole, from the top of his head to the soles of the feet and into its depths, thus three dimensional. In this state a number of reproductive functions will begin in the body giving the client a profoundly relaxed and wholesome feeling. Previously Gerda Boyesen had described in her book (Über den Körper die Seele heilen; München 1987; p. 49/50) that a relaxed attitude of her clients could be recognized by a strong feeling of flow. The detailed descriptions of these sensations of flow strongly resemble those of kinaesthetic trance from Brinkmann. In his work Die Entdeckung des Orgons 1 (see above) Wilhelm Reich called this sensation the experience of the 'entire orgiastic potential' of a person and drew a connection with the freeing sexual energies. I mention these three authors at this place to make clear to the reader that there is a certain bodily existence, which is obviously helpful for the success of a treatment but which is named differently by different schools. So I can go on thinking about the question of the adequate mental state of the body-psychotherapist him/herself. Firstly I will give a retrospective summary. In the beginning of this article I prosaically described different kinds of touch and their effects, then I presented different levels of touch. An adequate attitude of the body-psychotherapist, if he wants to be effective, has to be able to differentiate between various levels of touch. To find out which mental state is the most adequate I first of all had to explore various mental states for myself. I examined effects of the following ways of 'inner thinking' or awareness: page 46 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 * I tried the attitude of: I-know-better-and-do-what-I-think-isright; a way I found with many doctors or masseurs or healers. People who collect information from my speech, body, general impression and register them on an - imagined or actual - diagnostic path in order to get to therapeutical procedure. * I trained myself in going through a series of therapeutically devised steps with the client that had been derived from a previously fixed aim, thus leading from the present state to the aim. “So well, you do not want to be this shy any longer. Therefore we should first of all examine your resources and then go through some exercises for creative selfexpression.” * With the help of general models of psychological and physiological human development I understood that a client’s biographical experiences came from a given physiological state. Then I let the client go through this experience and take in its emotional meaning in order to get to an integrated physiological state. “Yes, shout, simply cry out your rage. Hate your Mama, hate her and simply let these feelings that have always blocked your relationship to women come out.” * I trained in associative, analogous and incoherent thinking, optionally combining various kinds of information (theories, use of language, emotional process) to find out the spot around which the personality is moving. “What does it tell me, or what kinds of projections are activated within myself if a client is wearing only black clothes, has greasy hair and minor injuries detectable on her hands and around the right eyebrow?” * I visualized inner images of my clients and trained in developing emotions connected with these images. With this I learned to distinguish where the main disturbance of the client lies and which psychological or physiological structures are compensations. “I see him as a knight before my eye and his weakest part is in his spine, like in the old German saga of 'Siegfried'. Consequently the tense muscles of the belly are just the result of this weak back and maybe they will loosen up if we succeed in strengthening his back or his inner support.” * I trained (with NLP techniques) to feel and think like my clients feel and think. I imitated their language, pitch and tone of voice, their respiration, the body posture as a whole and I noticed their involuntary movements. With this information I tried to get an impression of the way in which he or she organized his or her experiences and where possible solutions could be found. * I had a checklist about what could be analyzed and after this overall analysis I thought over every detail until I could form my own opinion. I found out that each of these mental attitudes could affect a certain level of touch. And I experienced that the beginner in body-psychotherapy tends to get confused between these different levels of touch. Today I deduct from this experience that it is of primary importance for the bodypsychotherapist to train himself or herself to be able to achieve a stable anchoring of his attention within him or herself. This enables him/her to get to know the depth of touch, layer upon layer. And only after a series of experiences in the different layers will the body-psychotherapist get to know the level of sub nuclear resonance within him/herself and understand that here the most extensive integra- tion of other levels is possible. According to my own experience in this process he/she will live through times of intense confusion. I also met some colleagues going through periods of depression before their attention opened up to the physical level of touch. Summarizing, we can say that an adequate attitude for a good body-psychotherapist is a strongly anchored attention within his/her own body. In the course of his/her experience a perception of different levels of touch develops out of this anchoring and he/she learns to adapt his/her attitude in a flexible way towards the particular client. In the past maybe I would have called this 'prayer or healing'. Today I would be able to tell a body-psychotherapist about differentiated levels of touch, kinds of intention and techniques to proceed with, for their clients’ integration. Thus it has become possible to map those powers having an effect on the healing process, in a way which simplifys their use: by the new body oriented forms of treatment the map of healing of traditional medicine has been extended. Without anchoring the attention of the body-psychotherapist in his/her own body the source of these powers will remain unseen. TRANSFERT ET CONTRE-TRANSFERT EN THÉRAPIE PSYCHO-CORPORELLE Cet article est le fruit d'un séminaire de recherche qui s'est tenu à Montpellier les 26/27 mars 2005 et a réuni les membres suivants : Catherine Choury - Michel Claverie - Tony Fournier Catherine Jenny - Éliane Jung-Fliegans - Dany ParisiClaverie Vincent Riedinger - Jean-Max Tassel - Claude Vaux 1. 2. 3. 4. La question qui fâche 1932 L'unité Psyché-soma - Le corps conscience Transfert et contre-transfert en psychanalyse Transfert et contre-transfert en thérapie psycho-corporelle - Transfert et corps-mémoire - Toucher, transfert et contre-transfert 5. Psychothérapeute un rôle déterminé par le collectif 6. Annexe La question qui fâche, 1932. Freud a construit l'école psychanalytique sans déroger aux principes de la cure telle qu'il l'a conçue dès les années 1900. Le thérapeute, figure paternelle frustrante et toutepuissante détient la clef de l'interprétation du travail, et c'est à partir de cette figure incarnée par l'analyste que le transfert va pouvoir s'organiser. Freud n'abandonnera jamais le principe de ce tiers séparateur et objet de fixation du transfert car il détestait le contact physique et ne supportait même pas l'idée qu'un patient puisse lui faire part d'un transfert maternel sur sa personne. D'un autre côté, Freud est toujours resté ouvert et même curieux des découvertes et des recherches faites par ses confrères comme Ferenczi, Jung, Rank, Groddeck, Reich ou Adler. Il a ainsi accueilli et encouragé tous ceux qui ont poursuivi les recherches sur l'inconscient au-delà du point où lui-même ne voulait pas, ou ne pouvait pas aller (cf. en annexe la lettre de Freud de 1928 d'une rare honnêteté intellectuelle adressée au docteur Hollos après la publication de son livre : "Mes adieux à la maison jaune"). En même temps il refusait toute avancée qui pouvait le confronter à sa partie féminine et au langage du corps. Cette limite le conduira à rompre avec tous ceux qui prendront une autre voie que celle qu'il avait ouverte. Parmi eux, il y avait Sandor Ferenczi qu'il considérait comme son héritier spirituel. Il l'appelait volontiers mon cher fils, c'était le seul avec lequel Freud partait en vacances. C'est aussi un de ceux qui devaient confronter Freud aux limites de sa grille de lecture, car dès 1919, Ferenczi, le clinicien, a pris en compte le langage du corps en introduisant la technique active. Les découvertes issues de ses recherches, principalement celles des dernières années de sa vie, ont entraîné chez lui une remise en question de la cure psychanalytique telle que Freud l'avait conceptualisée. Comme le dit Eva Brabant dans son ouvrage "Ferenczi et l'école hongroise de psychanalyse" : « Ferenczi fut le premier à montrer l'importance de l'expression corporelle telle que les gestes, le tonus, la démarche. Sa technique active ainsi que ses théories relatives au traumatisme, révèlent qu'il demeurait attentif au corps ». Avec sa maladie, Ferenczi va se pencher de plus en plus sur l'importance du corps comme expression du psychis- EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 47 me. Le 31 Janvier 1932 un an avant sa mort, il écrit dans son journal clinique : « Il apparaît que les patients ne peuvent pas croire, ou pas complètement à la réalité d'un événement, si l'analyste seul témoin de ce qui s'est passé, maintient son attitude froide, sans affect et, comme les patients aiment à le dire, purement intellectuelle, tandis que les événements sont d'une telle nature qu'ils doivent évoquer en toute personne présente des sentiments de réaction et de révolte, d'angoisse, de terreur, de vengeance , de deuil, et des intentions d'apporter une aide rapide, pour éliminer ou détruire la cause ou le responsable ; et comme il s'agit en général d'un enfant, d'un enfant blessé (mais même indépendamment de cela), il y a des sentiments de vouloir réconforter affectueusement, etc. Ainsi on a le choix : prendre vraiment au sérieux le rôle dans lequel on se met en tant qu'observateur bienveillant, c'est-à-dire en fin de compte transporté avec le patient dans cette période de son passé (une façon de faire interdite contre laquelle Freud m'avait mis en garde), avec pour résultat que nous-même, comme le patient, croyons en cette réalité, c'est-à-dire en une réalité existante dans le présent et non momentanément transposée dans le passé. Cependant, si nous adoptons ce point de vue et tentons dès le début de présenter les événements au patient comme des images mnésiques et non la réalité présente, il peut suivre notre ligne de pensée, mais reste coincé dans la sphère intellectuelle et n'atteint pas le sentiment de conviction ». Doit-on aider le consultant à guérir de sa souffrance ou lui permettre d'en comprendre les raisons ? C'est bien la question qui fâche. Avec la technique d'affection maternelle qu'il proposait en 1932, Ferenczi répondait ainsi à la question qu'il avait posée au congrès de Wiesbaden en 1932 : « Comment s'y prendre avec un patient régressé qui développe un transfert important ?». Freud voyait dans la régression un phénomène qui concernait uniquement le patient où l'analyste n'avait pas à prendre part, alors que pour Ferenczi elle demandait de la part de l'analyste une attitude d'empathie. C'est bien à partir de ces constats et de ces réflexions concernant les différentes étapes de la cure que Ferenczi mais aussi Rank, Groddeck, Reich et les autres chercheurs dissidents prendront en compte comme élément déterminant le langage du corps ; de là naîtront les thérapies psycho-corporelles. L'Unité Psyché-Soma - Le corps conscience La thérapie psycho-corporelle envisage l'approche thérapeutique dans une double lecture : à la fois l'écoute attentive de l'histoire du sujet et conjointement les manifestations corporelles associées. Le corps est vécu non seulement comme le siège de la pensée, des sentiments, des émotions, mais aussi comme la mémoire de nos expériences passées. “Toute rigidité musculaire contient l'histoire et la signification de son origine” écrit W.Reich dès 1930. Il considère que l'ensemble des contractions musculaires, qu'il appelle la cuirasse musculaire, sont l'expression au niveau somatique des mécanismes de défense de la personne. Comme Winnicott qui remplacera le clivage corps-esprit par l'unité psyché-soma, Reich définit une unité psychosomatique de l'être humain. Les continuateurs anglo-saxons du courant des thérapies psycho-corporelles utilisent aujourd'hui le concept de « bodymind », le « corps-conscience », qui traduit cette page 48 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 synergie indissociable entre l'inscription corporelle et les traces psychiques laissées dans les mémoires du sujet par les situations traumatisantes. Ces situations peuvent se manifester par une tension musculaire chronique, une rigidité posturale ou prendre d'autres formes somatiques. Un resserrement dans l'estomac, une oppression dans la poitrine une crise de tétanie peuvent être considérés comme la manifestation sensible d'évènements traumatiques refoulés. Dans cette perspective, la plupart des thérapeutes psychocorporels associent dans la pratique de leur méthode, à la fois un questionnement des souffrances existentielles dans leurs correspondances somatiques, et à l'inverse celui des tensions physiques chroniques dans leurs correspondances psychiques. Transfert et contre-transfert en psychanalyse Le mouvement de transfert et contre-transfert existe dans la plupart des relations affectives. Qui n'a jamais prononcé ou entendu les expressions : « Quand tu fais ça, je crois voir mon père... Quand tu parles comme ça, tu me fais penser à ma mère… » Quand cette phrase est dite, le transfert est ramené à la conscience de la personne. Dans la mesure où il n'y a pratiquement jamais de lien relativement intime entre deux êtres sans que des phénomènes de transfert y jouent un rôle, soit favorable, soit défavorable, le cabinet du psychothérapeute est le lieu privilégié de mise en évidence de cette forme de lien. Ce sont Freud avec la psychanalyse, puis Jung avec la psychologie analytique qui ont utilisé ces termes pour parler de certains troubles névrotiques se traduisant par la répétition dans les relations, d'une relation infantile initiale dont la personne n'a pas conscience. Le transfert est alimenté par un processus archaïque que l'on nomme projection. Cependant, les deux concepts ne doivent pas être confondus. Le transfert est un lien, c'est un phénomène relationnel qui implique la présence inconsciente d'un tiers invisible. Selon Freud, il s'agit d'un désir interdit dans la prime enfance à l'égard d'une personne proche qui se plaque sur le thérapeute et qui masque son origine infantile. Jung critique cette position limitée à la relation avec le thérapeute en soulignant que le transfert se perpétue naturellement dans d'autres situations de la vie ordinaire. Pour lui le transfert étant déjà là avant toute action du thérapeute, celui-ci se trouve donc impliqué plus comme victime que comme artisan. Le transfert, qu'il soit positif ou négatif, est aussi considéré comme une forme de résistance puisqu'il permet à la personne de revivre un lien infantile sans s'en souvenir. Il est une réaction plutôt qu'une remémoration. La projection a d'autres fonctions dans la relation. Dans un premier temps de vie, elle est nécessaire à la construction de la personnalité de l'individu. C'est le processus d'identification. Elle devient mécanisme de défense quand le sujet expulse et attribue à l'autre, personne ou chose, des qualités ou des défauts, des sentiments, des désirs qu'il méconnaît ou refuse en lui. Le contre-transfert est défini comme une réaction inconsciente de l'analyste à la personne analysée et plus particulièrement au transfert de celui-ci. Freud souligne qu'aucun analyste ne va plus loin que ses propres complexes et résistances internes ne le lui permettent. Pour Jung, les pulsions inconscientes du patient ont une action inductive sur l'inconscient du thérapeute. Tous deux se trouvent dans une relation qui repose sur une commune inconscience. Le thérapeute ne peut donc se retrancher derrière son rôle. Transfert et contre-transfert en thérapie psycho corporelle Comme dans le travail psychanalytique, le transfert est pris en compte dans le travail psycho-corporel. Son maniement par le thérapeute est différent, il n'occupe pas le centre de la relation. Il est dans la mesure du possible, dévoilé dans un ici et maintenant, c'est-à-dire sans découpage de temps, sans frontière entre ce qui se passe dans le présent, dans l'histoire passée et future de la personne. L'écran projectif est matérialisé, mis en acte, verbalisé et intégré. Ce travail permet au thérapeute de favoriser l'émergence d'une relation présente, alimentée par le vécu sensitif et émotionnel. Le sujet accède ainsi à une prise de conscience et à la mise en mots du lien avec un tiers absent : la mère, le père, un proche et de la nature de ce lien. Durant la séance, toute l'histoire et l'avenir de la personne qui travaille et celle de la personne qui accompagne sont présents. Le thérapeute vient avec sa personnalité, son affect occuper l'ici et maintenant, et bien que le cadre où cela se passe soit construit « artificiellement », ce qui se passe est bien réel. C'est du lieu de cette réalité que selon F. Perls, le processus de guérison va cheminer, permettant au sujet de déployer une capacité à s'ajuster de manière créative au réel. Dans la mesure où le psychothérapeute prend en charge sa part projective, et par un travail de supervision se responsabilise dans les processus de transfert et de contre-transfert, le sujet peut alors être ramené à lui-même dans sa capacité à faire le tri entre ce qu'il projette et ce qui est. En gérant son contre-transfert, le thérapeute permet au sujet de se sentir exister avec ses propres projections et de percevoir la limite de ce qui est à lui et de ce qui est à l'autre. Transfert et corps-mémoire On a découvert depuis quelques décennies l'importance de la vie intra-utérine et, plus récemment, que le fœtus « entend par la peau » grâce aux vibrations que la voix provoque dans l'eau. « Nous sommes au début de notre vie, dit Catherine Dolto Tolitch, des êtres vibratoires à l'affût de tout ce qui fait signe, le toucher étant notre sens le plus archaïque, le son porteur de sens s'inscrit par le biais de la peau parmi les ressentis les plus anciens, c'est ce qui lui donne une importance toute particulière… Cette peau intelligente se révèle très tôt comme un organe de communication actif et subtil permettant la discrimination ». Notre expérience de thérapeutes psycho-corporels nous montre de nombreux exemples où le transfert s'exprime à travers des symptômes qui renvoient à la mémoire du corps. Il n'est pas rare lors de séances, que le corps du sujet dans le contact avec le thérapeute, par la parole ou le toucher, laisse apparaître un signe lié au transfert : marques de forceps sur les tempes, ou rougeurs dues à l'étranglement par le cordon ombilical alors que les personnes ne connaissaient pas les circonstances de leur naissance ; marque d'une gifle reçue dans l'enfance, dont la personne n'avait plus le souvenir ; surgissement d'une douleur et d'une enflure à l'endroit d'une fracture… Ces signes du corps s'accompagnent de ressentis et d'émotions que le sujet ne peut pas toujours rattacher à un souvenir conscient, mais qui attestent d'une réalité vécue. Toucher, transfert et contre-transfert Différence entre les thérapies corporelles et les psychothérapies psycho-corporelles Avant d'aborder la question du transfert et du contre-transfert, dans le toucher, il est nécessaire de préciser la différence souvent mal connue, entre les thérapies corporelles et les psychothérapies psycho-corporelles. Dans les thérapies corporelles, comme le rolfing, l'eutonie, l'ostéopathie, la fascia-thérapie le praticien touche son patient pour soulager, réparer, améliorer, guérir ou soigner son corps. Aussi subtile ou efficace que soit la technique pratiquée, aucun effet psychique particulier associé à ce travail corporel n'est attendu même si, et c'est souvent le cas, ils existent : « Je me sens mieux depuis que je pratique cette méthode ». Les notions de transfert et de contretransfert n'y sont pas prises en compte. Elles ne font pas partie du cadre de ces méthodes, même si elles y jouent un rôle. Une thérapie corporelle, comme son nom l'indique, s'occupe du corps et dans ce cas, le toucher du praticien est un toucher objectivé de “corps à corps”. Le « toucher présence » en thérapie psycho-corporelle Dans les approches psycho-corporelles, le concept de l'unité psyché-soma, le bodymind des anglo-saxons, fonde l'articulation psycho-corporelle du toucher. Il ne s'agit plus alors d'un toucher dont l'effet attendu est limité au seul effet corporel, mais d'un toucher dont l'effet s'étend au-delà, et notamment sur les plans psychique et affectif. Dans cette forme de toucher, le psychothérapeute manifeste par le contact corporel, ce qui est au cœur même de tout cheminement thérapeutique : un point d'appui. Ce point de contact, dans le présent, donne à sentir au patient quelque chose de lui-même. La perspective de la thérapie psycho-corporelle est de lui offrir alors, la possibilité de se situer face à ce qu'il ressent dans son corps et à ce que ça lui fait : le rejeter, l'accueillir ou l'intégrer selon les cas. Il a la possibilité de prendre appui dans cette « présence contact » et de laisser advenir les émotions, les mouvements, les paroles, les pensées, les sensations. La seule intention du toucher "point d'appui" est ainsi de donner au sujet, une possibilité de rencontre avec lui-même, une présence consciente, un point de contact vivant dans l'instant présent. C'est "l'ici et maintenant" de la Gestalt-thérapie, actualisé dans un contact corporel, laissant le sujet libre de ses réactions, en lui-même et avec lui-même. Mais cette forme idéale de « toucher présence » n'est possible que lorsque le transfert et le contre-transfert sont posés consciemment dans le champ de la relation. Dans cette perspective, le transfert et contre-transfert agissent comme des détours, des détours d'intention. Si le psychothérapeute agit avec une intention affective ou sexuelle, celle de son contre-transfert, sa main perd sa qualité de présence. Elle est sensiblement affectée par cette intention. Ce sont des micro-mouvements, une vitesse gestuelle modifiée, des différences de températures, etc… qui le traduisent. L'intégrité et l'éthique sont alors nécessaires au thérapeute pour accueillir et reconnaître ces formes manifestées de son contre-transfert. De la même façon, ce « toucher présence », lorsqu'il est reçu, peut être affecté de la charge du transfert. Il est alors transformé par le sujet qui perçoit le contact de la main du EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 49 psychothérapeute à travers le filtre de son transfert : “Tu me gênes, tu me fais mal, ou tu me fais du bien ”. Pour le mettre à jour, une parole, un geste, une émotion, un mouvement vont petit à petit, dans le cadre de la relation thérapeutique, éclairer l'ombre portée du transfert et du contretransfert. La relation s'allège du poids des relations transférentielles. La réponse corporelle, émotionnelle et verbale, du sujet dans sa relation au point d'appui donné du psychothérapeute devient de plus en plus juste, de moins en moins affectée, à la fois plus simple et plus naturelle. Cette qualité de toucher doit s'appuyer sur une formation expérientielle et didactique précise et exigeante qui demande au psychothérapeute de connaître sa propre violence, son désir de pouvoir et de main mise sur l'autre, d'éclairer de conscience et de vigilance ses pulsions morbides, ses pulsions sexuelles car, sinon, comment donner un toucher de présence dans des zones corporelles parfois douloureuses, sans tomber dans les pièges possibles du sadomasochisme ? Seule une formation et une thérapie approfondie peuvent fonder une pratique psycho-corporelle du toucher que la supervision régulière viendra compléter pour faire face aux situations imprévues et souvent nouvelles, rencontrées en psychothérapie. Psychothérapeute : Un rôle déterminé par le collectif Prendre “la casquette”, le rôle du psychothérapeute c'est endosser une image tissée par les fils transférentiels du collectif. En effet, dans une optique jungienne, plusieurs archétypes s'y expriment : - l'archétype de la mère à travers la fonction d'accueil, d'empathie, de compassion, - l'archétype du père, rappel de l'autorité à travers l'exercice du savoir là où le sujet ne sait pas, - l'archétype du sauveur, du guérisseur susceptible d'enlever le mal et exaucer la prière pour un avenir meilleur, - l'archétype du magicien qui a accès aux mondes invisibles. Le psychothérapeute qui n'a pas conscience du pouvoir contenu dans l'imago de sa profession peut dans son contre-transfert, involontairement entretenir ou développer encore davantage cette projection, enfermant ainsi son patient et lui-même dans une relation régressive de dépendance. Exercer la fonction de psychothérapeute implique nécessairement de prendre la responsabilité de la gestion des processus transférentiels et contre-transférentiels à l'œuvre, non pas pour les empêcher, car cela est impossible, mais pour les éclairer, pour les conscientiser. Car, comme tout être humain, le thérapeute court le danger d'être manipulé voir possédé par les archétypes concernés et se prendre pour ce qu'il n'est pas, oubliant qu'une relation est avant tout l'expression d'une rencontre de sujet à sujet. Annexe « Cher docteur, Ayant été avisé que j'ai omis de vous remercier pour votre dernier livre, j'espère qu'il n'est pas trop tard pour réparer cette omission. Celle-ci ne provient pas d'un manque d'intérêt pour le contenu ou pour l'auteur dont j'ai appris par ailleurs à estimer la philanthropie. Elle était plutôt consécutive à des réflexions, qui m'ont préoccupé long- page 50 - EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 temps encore après avoir terminer la lecture du livre, lecture de caractère essentiellement subjectif. Tout en appréciant infiniment votre ton chaleureux, votre compréhension et votre approche, je me trouvais pourtant dans une sorte d'opposition qui n'était pas aisée à comprendre. Je dus finalement m'avouer que la raison était que je n'aimais pas ces malades ; en effet, ils me mettent en colère, je m'irrite de les sentir si loin de moi et de tout ce qui est humain. Une intolérance surprenante, qui fait de moi plutôt un mauvais psychiatre. Avec le passage du temps, je ne me trouve plus un sujet suffisamment intéressant pour l'analyse, tout en me rendant compte que ce n'est pas un argument analytiquement valable. C'est pourtant bien pour cela que je n'ai pas pu aller plus loin dans l'explication de ce mouvement d'arrêt. Me comprenez vous mieux ? Ne suis je pas en train de me conduire comme les médecins d'autrefois à l'égard des hystériques ? Mon attitude serait elle la conséquence d'une prise de position de plus en plus nette dans la primauté de l'intellect, l'expression de mon hostilité à l'égard du ça ? Ou alors quoi ? Recevez après coup mes excuses, mes remerciements et toutes mes salutations, Votre Freud » EABP Diary Diary Other events 2006 2006 2007 9-11 June 27 & 28 May 2006 October Board Meeting Amsterdam Ethics Committee Meeting Vienna Somatic Dialogue in the Therapeutic Relationship with Tom Warnecke Chiron Centre for Body Psychotherapy, London www.integralbody.co.uk AIPC Congress in Italy dedicated to Federico Navarro Italian Congress to celebrate the anniversary of Wilhelm Reich’s death. 21-24 September 27 May 10th EABP Congress for BodyPsychotherapy Bodies of Knowledge Resources for a world in crisis Askov, Denmark 20 September ±14 hrs Weten wat je doet De brug tussen kennis en kunde in lichaamsgeorienteerde psychotherapie NVLP Symposium, Driebergen, The Netherlands elisdelange@planet.nl FORUM Meeting Askov, Denmark 1-3 June Board Meeting Askov Denmak 4th International Biosynthesis Congress Lisbon, Portugal 2007 13-16 July 23-25 June 26-28 January Meeting of the Council of National Associations and National Committees Belgrade 2-4 March 2007 FORUM Meeting Venue to be decided 28-30 September 2007 FORUM Meeting Venue to be decided 2008 Combined ISC and EABP Conference in France UKCP Conference in Cambridge Days of Shaking, Times of Change www.eabp.org Fact: The EABP website was accessed more than 16.500 times between 11 January 2004 and 11 January 2006. It is getting increasingly popular. You can advertise appropriate body-psychotherapy related conferences and workshops through this facility. Book reviews, links to other websites, articles, details of events, etc can all be found there. Is your information accurate? Do you want to advertise your workshop or congress? This is your website. Contact us! The EABP Discussion group on the EABP website has been closed down. EABP N E W S L E T T E R SPRING 2006 - page 51 ALSO ON www.eabp.org