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Bioenergetics

What is Bioenergetic Therapy?

Bioenergetic Therapy (also called Bioenergetic Analysis, or Bioenergetics) is a form of relational psychotherapy which is based on the philosophy that each person’s history is manifested in the energy systems within the body, and that there is no separation between mind and body.  This philosophy is the basis for many energy-based healing methods, including reiki, acupressure, acupuncture and quantum touch.  Often such practitioners expand their ability to heal by incorporating bioenergetic therapy.

From a strictly scientific perspective, bioenergetics is the subject of a field of biochemistry that concerns energy flow through living systems. This is an active area of biological research that includes the study of thousands of different cellular processes such as cellular respiration and the many other metabolic processes that can lead to production and utilization of energy in forms such as ATP molecules.

Based on the scientific definition, Bioenergetic Analysis (also called Bioenergetic Therapy,or Bioenergetics) is a form of relational psychotherapy which is based on the philosophy that each person’s history is manifested in the energy systems within the body, and that there is no separation between mind and body. 

This philosophy is the basis for many energy-based healing methods, including reiki, acupressure,acupuncture and quantum touch.  Often such practitioners expand their ability to heal by incorporating bioenergetic therapy. Bioenergetic therapists may also incorporate traditional Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, biofeedback, homeopathy, acupuncture and other healing modalities.

Stress and deep seated emotional pain such as anxiety, depression, phobias, and various other conditions can be unknowingly suppressed.  The body reacts to such stresses by contracting, and this contraction can be compared to the body “recording” emotional reactions and expressing them through body movements, posture, areas of muscular tension, energy depletion, pain and chronic medical conditions such as cancer. 

The goal of bioenergetic therapy is to bring the body into balance.  Bioenergetics therapists “study” muscular movements, breathing, tone of voice and emotions to determine physical or psychological problems of the patients. By balancing the energy and electrical disturbances within the body of the patient and removing the toxins, the emotions causing the imbalance are brought to the surface, the energy blocks released and the energy flow within the afflicted area of the body re-established.

The following is a excerpt from The Way to Vibrant Health by Alexander Lowel, M.D. and Leslie Lowen:

Bioenergetics is a way of understanding personality in terms of the body and its energetic processes. These processes, namely, the production of energy through respiration and metabolism and the discharge of energy in movement, are the basic functions of life. How much energy one has and how one uses his energy determine how one responds to life situations. Obviously, one can cope more effectively if one has more energy, which can be freely translated into movement and expression.

Bioenergetics is also a form of therapy that combines work with the body and the mind to help people resolve their emotional problems and realize more of their potential for pleasure and joy in living.

A fundamental thesis of bioenergetics is that body and mind are functionally identical: that is, what goes on in the mind reflects what is happening in the body and vice versa.

As we all know, mind and body can influence each other. What one thinks can affect how one feels. The converse is equally true. This interaction, however, is limited to the conscious or superficial aspects of the personality. On a deeper level, that is, on the unconscious level, both thinking and feeling are conditioned by energy factors.

The energetic processes of the body are related to the state of aliveness of the body. The more alive one is, the more energy one has and vice versa. Rigidity or chronic tension diminishes one's aliveness and decreases one's energy. At birth, an organism is in its most alive, most fluid state; at death, rigidity is total, rigor mortis. We cannot avoid the rigidity that comes with age. What we can avoid is the rigidity due to chronic muscular tensions resulting from unresolved emotional conflicts.

Every stress produces a state of tension in the body. Normally the tension disappears when the stress is relieved. Chronic tensions, however, persist after the provoking stress has been removed as unconscious bodily attitude or muscular set. Such chronic muscular tensions disturb emotional health by decreasing an individual's energy, restricting his motility (the natural spontaneous play and movement of the musculature), and limiting his self-expression. It becomes necessary then to relieve this chronic tension if the person is to regain his full aliveness and emotional well-being. This is bioenergetics.

   Alexander Lowen, M.D. Founder
   Excerpt from The Way to Vibrant Health by Alexander Lowen, M.D. and Leslie Lowen