Body Psychotherapy
core energetics method
health through body-mind intelligence
Core Energetics is a body-based psychotherapy which integrates physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. It transforms underlying emotional defence patterns and negative beliefs which may be held in the body and mind and which can affect our life in self-defeating ways.
As the body’s muscular armouring and stored tensions release, hidden negative structures can be brought to light and consciously processed. Blocked energy is freed up to flow smoothly through the body and emotions are safely metabolised and regulated, increasing our capacity for pleasure, healing, love and joy.
With gentle compassion I offer individual sessions in Core Energetics. This work incorporates concepts of Mask, Lower Self and Higher Self, Pathwork and Characterology. It also includes somatic intervention techniques, body orientated trauma resolution and neuroscience, in a psychodynamic framework.
Body Psychotherapy
Increasing Energy and Consciousnes
Body psychotherapy was developed by psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, a long-time student of Sigmund Freud. It is an experiential approach to physical and emotional well-being based on the principle that thought, emotion and bodily experience are closely linked.
Body Psychotherapy focuses on the interaction between body, mind and emotions with the understanding that many issues which impact emotional well-being result from continuous repression of painful childhood memories, wounding and trauma, now fixed in the body as ‘bodily armour’. This muscular tension and rigidity is typically held as a defence against further emotional and physical pain.
Core Energetics was developed by John C Pierrakos, MD. who was the co-founder of Bio Energetics with Alexander Lowen. They were both long-standing students of Reich. Pierrakos created Core Energetics by combining his research of psychodynamics and the nature of energy and human energy fields, with his study of eastern traditions and a spiritual discipline called The Pathwork, the life-work of his wife Eva Pierrakos.
Core Energetics works with the principle that residing within each person is a greater energy and consciousness which inherently seeks to grow and expand. This pulsating Centre is called the Core and is best described as energy, love or soul. CORE is an acronym for Centre Of Right Energy. When people are in touch with their Core they are in touch with their life-force and their love for themselves and others.
The Core can be concealed behind unprocessed negative blocks and emotional defence structures established during childhood. It is surrounded by the layer of the wounded child, the shadow or lower self of human nature, which forms when the developing child is not allowed to express their emotional pain. Natural feelings and expression are blocked and so, over the course of maturation, energy becomes stagnant and slowly hardens into physical armouring.
People then learn to hide their lower self beneath a defensive ‘acceptable’ mask which they adopt to protect themselves from further hurt and pain. This mask is a false-self which continues to cut them off from their true feelings and diminishes the vibrancy of their life centre – their Core.
Through a dynamic experiential approach, Core Energetics works to unblock defences that keep us from fully connecting to our Core selves. Techniques include: grounding and centering methods; a variety of physical movements and stretches; touch; vibration; breathwork and vocal expression. These are employed to access and discharge stored tensions, which in turn frees up stagnant energy to flow smoothly throughout the body. Breathing becomes deeper and more effortless, fixed beliefs and defences are safely released, and emotional energy is processed, regulated and transformed.
Core Energetics methods allow people to better feel, accept and express their true underlying feelings. With attention to psychodynamics and characterological structure, emphasis is on the uniqueness of the individual and their innate capacity for self-healing, growth and expansion of consciousness.
Core Energetics restores energetic and emotional balance to our entire system. The nervous system is regulated and emotional resilience strengthened to enable a healthier and more fulfilling response to life.
This empowering process reveals and anchors us in our true self – the Higher Self and promotes beauty and meaning in our life. It increases our positive intent – the will of the heart, which enables us to live in the present, find and express our Life Task, and consciously create our own life moment to moment.
We feel more connected, psychologically integrated and energetically whole, with a deeper sense of embodiment, inner strength, pleasure, self-knowledge and compassion for self and others.
Core Energetics addresses a broad range of client issues such as: depression, anxiety, panic attacks, unresolved anger, relationship difficulties, low self-esteem, emotional instability, grief, despair and loss, childhood abuse, sexual assault, overcoming addictions, eating disorders and recovery from trauma, as well as physical symptoms which may have underlying emotional or stress related elements. Guided by the body’s innate capacity to heal itself and facilitated by the awareness, presence and compassion of the therapist, it is understood that a person’s awareness and experience of life can be constructively transformed.
