WHAT ARE THE METHODS AND
WHAT DO THEY DO? 
TRAUMA RELEASE BODYMIND THERAPY   -   Part 1
Structural Integration & Reichian Techniques

Testimonials - Trauma Release        Testimonials - Personal Growth

 

    

by Lou Gross, School Certified Master Postural Integrator
25 years successful experience with this particular system
For more information & free consultations, call 321-726-9083 EST  GMT-5hrs
louisryoshin@yahoo.com

          Each method has been in use for at least 30 years, and being a third generation practitioner of each one, I am of the generation in which we now understand how the different treatments can be used for mutual support and enhancement.
        In an auxiliary role, my program makes use of my knowledge in psychological nutrition and herbology, in body energy patterns and structure, and in breath concentration and awareness meditation methods to create emotional stability and mental clarity.
         I'll now describe the three major elements, very briefly.

STRUCTURAL INTEGRATION BODYWORK

          Surrounding and going through all our muscles, and underneath all our skin is a fibrous, putty-like tissue called fascia (fah-sha).  Fascia is the soft connective tissue of the body that fills in spaces and holds things together.  It has two significant features pertinent to Trauma Release Therapy.  The fibers bunch-up if they're pushed together, and then they hold the muscles in a shortened form.  And the fibers store the energies of traumatic events, even for years and decades after the actual events themselves, just the way magnetic tapes and CD's do.

        So when we have severe emotional upset and/or one or more traumatic physical encounters, the fascial shape of our bodies contracts and holds in both the energies of the events and the restricted lengths of our muscles that then limits our abilities to continue to express ourselves in free and positive ways.  Instead, the negative energies and "walled off" behavior that was formed under stress becomes a permanent physical part of us.  And we continue to act in the exact same way that we, and others, were acting during the events that are still "part of us."

        Structural Integration Bodywork manipulations restore the fuller physical shape and in the process, push on the fibers which causes them to release their negative energies.  Some of that energy flows out of the body right in the session, some in dreams a little later, and some during triggered upsets in the next few days.  Once it comes out, the energy is totally gone from the body and no longer exists.

        We have erased the tape and reorganized the physical structure into a healthier psychological one as well as a healthier and more capable physical one.  People become more open, more flexible and more balanced at the same time that they become more confident in general and more comfortable in releasing the negativities that still remain.

        This is a cumulative process.  We become increasingly better.  So, in the process of removing the old restrictive forms and negative emotions, we are simultaneously becoming larger and more mature than our negative issues.  This, in itself, is a big improvement over verbal, hypnotic and emotional release therapies alone because, with them, the person is trying to access material and process it out with the same less mature and less capable physical state of being.

REICHIAN BODY-ORIENTED PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS

        Wilhelm Reich MD was an Austrian psychiatrist who eventually came to the United States to practice and teach.  Among his studies, he was a student of Sigmund Freud MD, called the Father of Psychoanalysis.  And he found that the location of the subconscious mind that Freud talked about was in the body, as chronically tight muscles combined with held in emotional energies.

        The chronic tightness is the form our bodies grew into, when we were restricted or hurt, and when we pulled in to protect ourselves.  Besides forming that protection, this pulling in also held back our emotional expressions of assertiveness, anger, sorrow and even calling for help that we wanted to say at the time, but were afraid we'd be punished for, or hurt in some other ways, for doing so.
         What's very important to recognize is that once we had to create this physically hard wall to protect us from the negative forces on the outside, it also, every since then, has been walling off the positive, loving parts of us as well.
         Also embedded are the fears and the emotions of disappointment, abandonment, repression, hopelessness and even guilt.  These forms, with their locked-in energies, were developed during various time frames of our lives, but were especially created during the difficult experiences of childhood, from birth to age seven, as we matured through our basic stages of psychological growth.
         To be psychologically healthy, we must have the stability of acceptance, needs being met, not being manipulated or abusedly controlled, having close relations that allow for individual freedom, and experiencing long term mutual commitment and acknowledgment.

        When we ran into specific instances and long term patterns where these parts of our relationships were dysfunctional, that dysfunction got fixated and has stayed with us.  It acts like a second personality that surrounds and supersedes our natural, healthy bio-energetic function.
        This secondary personality has some good qualities, some skills.  But when we are tightened up and blocked, we are limited to only behaving in these few ways.  Underneath the nice skill part is a lot of resistance, anger and fear.  If we are not open through these layers, then they become the "ground of psychological being," the deepest layer from which a person can behave.  Their true, creative self is locked deep inside, and in many people, there is such great repression from a series of say, abusive episodes, that they are totally unaware of their inner, "primary" personality.
        So the secondary personality consists of layers.  Inside, there's a pulling away of fear, then there's a wall of protection, and then on top of that, there's anger, avoidance, rejection and other "push-away" characteristics.  On top of all this is the capable, outer personality whose skills can be used either by our adult conscious minds or by the underlying dysfunctional characteristics.  So even our memories and intelligence can be used as "tools" by the energies that hold us in and push other people away.

        Reich's basic method was to combine analysis and other verbal techniques with deep breathing to activate the autonomic nervous system, and simultaneously increase tension or stimulate the already tense muscles.  This will break apart the restricted muscular tension and release the held in emotional energy from the past.
          The breathing method "charges up" the stuck energies in the muscles and also in the person's inner emotional centers.  This brings to the surface the old feelings people had repressed.  The outer stimulation pushes the musculature through its old degree of constriction.  Then Reich would have the person express the emotions in a demonstrative way so they could get out and "complete" the experiences.  Before the release, Reich would help his patients analyze their behaviors and discover their dysfunctional patterns.  After the release, the discussions would be about the new awareness and the changes in behavior the people noticed in their daily lives.

        When we combine this method with Structural Integration Bodywork manipulations, it is much, much easier and faster to free the tense muscles that were holding in all these feelings, and to access and release the held in emotions and body-memories.  In fact, some of the blocked energies come out immediately during the fascial manipulations and the psycho-somatic form of the person's body-mind is, as I said, moved more into it's proper, and optimally designed shape. In addition, the freer musculature enables the person to express these inner emotions much fuller and more completely.

        The Reichian work pulls out more internal energies than the Bodywork itself can do, because it accesses what was held down deep inside, beneath the structural muscles. And it can pump out the energies that were stuck in the muscles, too.  These old energies are contracting in nature, so even when we do the Bodywork, there is a certain amount of additional restriction that the Reichian release clears out.
         And all those energies have a lot of chaos and/or confusion in them, too.  So removing them also makes the person's structure more harmonious.  And he or she will perceive the world around him as a clearer, less chaotic place.
         Thus, the energetic release makes the actual structural change even better.
 

Go to   Part 2
            WHAT ARE THE METHODS AND WHAT DO THEY DO?
              
Go to  Trauma Release Testimonials 1
Go to  Negative Pattern Removal Testimonials 2

Home    Top     Get Sessions       Return to Free Booklets Menu 


Stress, Trauma & Emotional Release Processing
are available by phone.  Free Consultation.  1-321-726-9083
 

Copyright 2002   Louis A. Gross   All Rights Reserved