When we’re depressed, we lack energy. One reason we get depressed is because we run out of the will to push ourselves, and we discover there’s no underlying energy, desire, or impulse to move us. In fact,too much will-driven living is part of what got us into trouble to begin with. Life itself is … Continue reading Depression, Low Energy, and the Hazards of Living by Will Alone
“Does all that sound and movement in bioenergetics really help me heal? Doesn’t that kind of dramatic self-expression just teach people it’s OK to blow up or break down?” Yes and no. To both questions. Here’s the deal. Bodily exercises are indeed an important aspect of bioenergetic therapy and development work. These exercises include … Continue reading Bioenergetic Exercises, Self-Expression – and Emotional Release
Bioenergetic body-mind psychotherapy has a very clear focus on supporting the free flow of life in a person. That is, bioenergetics focuses on enlivening, rather than simply “removing” troubling behaviors. From a bioenergetic perspective, many of the difficulties that people suffer are a result of early (often traumatic) experiences that interfere with our natural and healthy instinctual … Continue reading A Focus on Life, Living, and the Free Flow of Energy and Impulse
Body, feeling, thought, the unconscious, and what is essential in us are all connected. If you’ve ever had a massage, you may have had the experience of registering – in a flash – that you were having surprisingly strong feelings – perhaps of fear, anger, sadness, or joy. Maybe a concrete memory came up … Continue reading The Body Knows – Even If “We” Don’t
What is the difference between self-awareness and self-consciousness? In short, it is the difference between feeling ourselves from the inside out versus from viewing ourselves from the outside in. Awareness in general and self-awareness in particular are important practices in this alchemical body-mind work. Simultaneously, learning to be in our body (truly inhabiting our … Continue reading Feeling Ourselves from the Inside Out – Versus Viewing Ourselves from the Outside In
Body-mind psychotherapy stands in contrast to purely verbal psychotherapies by including your bodily self in the therapy session. This can take many different forms. At the most fundamental level, body-mind and bioenergetic psychotherapy operate on the continuity of mind, body, feeling, relationship and environment. As an example, if we feel an (unconscious) conflict about … Continue reading The Role of the Body in Bioenergetic Psychotherapy
It’s common in our language to talk about body and/or mind, matter and/or spirit. A natural extension of this way of thinking is to imagine that to be more in tune with spirit, we need somehow to leave our bodies behind. Or that being fully in our bodies, that we are somehow less spiritual, or … Continue reading Embodiment, Energy, and Spirituality
Settled. Solid. Full. Here. It’s a feeling – an experience – that sometimes comes our way. It can settle upon us by grace, perhaps in a moment when we’re sitting on a beach looking out at an ocean or hiking and taking in a mountain vista. Or it may come upon us by our … Continue reading Grounding: Embodied Presence
Modern psychology, organizational research, the new sciences, wisdom traditions, and martial arts have all repeatedly “discovered” five fundamental elements that represent human qualities and behavioral options. These elements of power link to personal development through body-mind practices, and also represent options for satisfying and effective action across domains (e.g., leadership, team building, career development, … Continue reading Ground, Heart, Intent, Openness, Presence
We’ve seen how someone can be technically perfect in a performance (say on a musical instrument, in a dance, or in sports) but not only is the passion missing – the life – but we ourselves don’t rise and fall in pleasure in seeing or hearing the performance. We ourselves are not carried away by the performance … Continue reading Dis-ease, Grace, Body, and Spirit