The body is intricately connected with your thinking and emotions.  When we feel sad at times, liquid comes out our eyes and our nose runs.  When we get confused we can get the impulse to grab our head.  When we are angry our breathing deepens, our muscles tense, and our impulses quicken. 

 

As a Bioenergetic Therapist I not only believe in the correlation between the mind and body-I understand how the body affects the mind, the mind affects the body, and I have a method for healing from the origin.

 

Origins

 

Your past has shaped who you are today.  As children, our emotional expressions are often met with disapproval, rejection, humiliation or punishment. In order to avoid negative consequences, we begin to control our natural impulses and expressions. For the sake of survival, we stop ourselves from reaching out, pushing away, speaking up, standing our ground, etc.  We learn unhealthy ways of managing.  And sometimes, our parents were not able to teach us the skills we need for adult living simply because they didn’t know--and we feel lost.

 

Each time we halt the natural expression of our self and our desires, chronic tension begins to take hold within our bodies. These blocked impulses become permanently and unconsciously buried within our muscle tissue. Our body becomes armored with what we call psychological, or character, defenses.  These defenses are unconscious and often are the culprits to our problems.

 

The goal of therapy is not get “fixed".  The goal is to increase awareness of our defenses and realize what we don’t know, so that we increase our choice in how we manage our life situations.  We can choose to trade our reactions and defenses, which were created from a child’s stance, into adult understanding, boundary setting, and responding.  This is how we get what we want and feel good about it.

 

Counseling in Action

 

In session we talk to illuminate understanding, but we also have the added option of working with specific physical exercises or postures that lead to energy movement that changes symptoms of anxiety, depression, shame, confusion, etc.  Often the physical work illuminates our understanding.  If you are not sure you want to work physically that is fine. My analytical training guides me to understanding, and helping you understand yourself, as we talk.

 

Bioenergetics integrates understanding of:

• Needs and what happens when they are not met

• How our relationships with others affect us

• Self-identity

• The significance of interpersonal energy and emotion exchange

• Shock trauma vs. cumulative relational trauma 

• The bodily process of thinking and feeling

• Root causes of mental health issues