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sychotherapy has gone through many transformations since its intro-duction by Sigmund Freud at the turn of the twentieth century. Freudʼs theories recognized—and subsequent developers have acknowledged and expanded on these theories—that when you experience trauma, something happens to your psyche or your mind that disrupts normal functioning, including the processing of thoughts and feelings. Freud identified numerous defense mechanisms such as dissociation, rationalization, repression, and others. These he identified as unconscious adaptive strategies that (unknown to our rational conscious awareness) the psyche creates in order for the indi-vidual to better survive and cope with the pain that accompanies a traumatic experience. He believed that through free association generated through the psychoanalytic process within the relational field between the psychoana-lyst and the patient, repressed or dissociated memories could be brought to awareness and healing would result.It is not my intention to trace the history of psychotherapy in detail, but it is important to review some of the different therapeutic orientations from which Dynamic Energetic Healing® has evolved. Some of these theories and treatment models are incorporated into Dynamic Energetic Healing®;
others are simply not relevant. Dynamic Energetic Healing® has devel-oped as an alternative to these sometimes helpful, but ultimately imperfect, approaches.
Cognitive Therapy
I believe that the goal of good psychotherapy is to facilitate healing so clients can experience a state of homeostasis, which is also called a state of balance, of well-being, and of wholeness. Regardless of the term used, therapists understand this state to be different from the state achieved simply by elimi-nating the symptoms that are often the consequence of a traumatic incident.
Cognitive therapy is based on the presupposition that what we are thinking is the cause of our problems. If we can identify the erroneous thinking patterns, then we can correct them through awareness, reeducation, and cognitive modi- fication. The optimal outcome is thus to create a more positive outlook for the client and to reduce and eliminate neuroses, as Freud was fond of saying.
Body-Centered Therapies
These therapies, such as hakomi, presuppose that in inhospitable environ-ments or traumatic situations, individuals armor themselves physically.
Again, this is an unconscious process, and the trauma and the closing off of the individual from the traumatic experience creates armoring in the muscula-ture. Thus, trapped and repressed emotions end up in the physical body. Many body-centered models take this a step further by saying that trauma is trapped in the very cells in the body. With different kinds of interventions, ranging from gentle movement and palpation to intense Rolfing and deep-tissue mas-sage, it is claimed that these repressed emotions can be released, allowing the client to be brought back to a state of balance.
Transactional Analysis
The transactional analysis model was developed by psychiatrist Eric Berne.
He introduced his model in 1958, identifying what he called the three pri-mary ego states: parent, adult, and child. He discovered that unlike Freudʼs concepts of id, ego, and superego, his ego states were more readily experi-enced by people and were observable patterns of behavior and feeling (i.e., phenomenological) that became quite apparent in social “transactions,” the basic interactions between individuals. Whereas Freudʼs theories discuss unobservable, theoretical concepts, Berneʼs three ego states can be confirmed through observable behaviors. His approach to therapy was also radically dif-ferent from Freudʼs.-While Freud and most other psychotherapists focused primarily on asking patients about themselves through extensive interviews, Berne believed that therapists could learn what a patientʼs main problem was
by carefully observing what the individual communicated. This was not just through words—body language and facial expressions were also part of the unfolding ego states. Instead of just asking questions, Berneʼs model empha-sized the transactions that occurred between the patient and other individuals, particularly in groups.
Through various techniques (such as voice dialoguing and externalizing ego states and acting them out), awareness can emerge with the help and facili- tation of the therapist. As transactional analysis increases our awareness, we can consciously integrate what previously were essentially autonomous inner parts that were out of our conscious control.
Gestalt Therapy
The German word Gestalt essentially means “whole form.” Its principal developer, German-born psychiatrist Fritz Perls, challenged the tenets of psychoanalysis and developed a therapeutic approach that was a radical departure from the traditional psychoanalytic model developed by Freud.
Freudʼs imperative was to interpret the patientʼs unconscious processes, which Perls believed would intellectualize the patients. Perls asserted that the-intellectualized orientation of the analyst–patient relationship limits the potential of the patientʼs ability to heal.
In contrast, Perlsʼs interest was in helping patients discover new under-standing and meaning by eliciting their experiential awareness. His approach focused on patientsʼ personal experience in the present moment rather than on interpreting recollections and garnering insights mined from personal history.
Perls believed that this empowered patients by engaging them much more actively in their own healing and growth and by creating a more equal and collaborative relationship between therapist and patient.
In addition to the importance of here-and-now awareness, the other pri-mary idea of Gestalt theory is that we can only truly know ourselves in rela-tional contexts. This puts the emphasis on what is occurring in the interactive field in the present moment. As a result, the Gestalt approach places a great deal of attention on physical and sensory-based awareness in order to help patients become more real and authentic. This transition also helps patients become more aware of what they are feeling emotionally.
Perls and his wife (also a Gestalt therapist) moved to New York after World War II and began training the first generation of Gestalt therapists in the early 1950s.
Hypnotherapy
Hypnosis, or hypnotherapy, assumes that the unconscious mind holds the key to healing and that the hypnotherapist can assist clients to go into a state of trance by facilitating relaxation. This trance state is one of inner attentional absorption where the conscious, rational, critical mind is temporarily sus-pended. Through a variety of hypnotic interventions ranging from refram- ing, storytelling, multiple embedded metaphor, and direct suggestion, the unconscious mind reassociates while the individual is in this state of trance.
With the conscious, rational mind partially out of the way and no longer intruding and questioning every new idea offered, the suggestions proffered by the hypnotherapist can facilitate profound change at the unconscious level without the conscious involvement of the client.
Self Psychology
Kohutʼs model on self psychology is based on the idea of damaged parental relationships. Taking an object-relations position, he believes that an indi-vidual needs to be reparented over a period of time so the basic ingredients for wellness and maturity can evolve within the therapist–client relationship.
These basic ingredients include positive qualities such as self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-acceptance in the eyes of another. Kohut then includes dealing with the therapist as a positive parent figure with positive transference onto that therapist, so that over time, the therapist becomes the surrogate (and archetypal) good mother and good father figure. Eventually, the client feels sufficiently supported, acknowledged, and affirmed to essentially graduate from the therapy process once the developmental reparenting process has occurred. Wholeness and balance within the personality results when the cli-ent has matured to the appropriate developmcli-ental level.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic therapy is probably the most widely recognized form of psychotherapy. Family-of-origin influences are paramount, with a great deal of emphasis laid on how we are like our parents in so many ways. While nobody can credibly dispute the impact on children of modeling by their parents, people are more than their families and their history. The discus-sion of genograms as the depiction of your extended family through time, along with the respective influences of each family member in your family tree, contribute to make you the person you are today. More than anything
else, psychodynamic therapy attempts to expand our frame of reference when we ask “Who am I?” and “Why do I behave and react in these ways?”
As a foundation for a personʼs growing self-awareness as they continue to individuate into young adulthood and autonomy from their family of origin, psychodynamic therapy can often be an important starting point on their healing journey. This therapy model helps us to better appreciate how we are similar to our parents and how we are not. Successful outcomes for your journey on the path of personal transformation can be stymied when you blame your mother or father relentlessly for difficult developmental challenges or pattern-clearing impasses. Spending years and years with a psychodynamic therapist may be comforting to some (recall Kohutʼs model in which the therapist becomes the positive transference object of the good mother or good father). However, this may become a psychological laby-rinth as the needy client forever circumambulates overly familiar territory, stuck in their familiar pondering and the regurgitation of their family-of-origin issues.
Process-Oriented Psychology
Mindellʼs process-oriented psychology, or processwork model, has a more complicated view of how individuals come to a place of wholeness. Pro-cesswork integrates a variety of schools of thought, including quantum physics, Jungian psychology, shamanic principles, classical Taoism, and modern communication theory. Primary to the processwork model is that there is always a deeper stream of Process to connect to (which Mindell has integrated from traditional Taoist thought). To allow us to flow with nature rather than resist or control other people and events in our lives, Mindell teaches through experiential process, often in large groups, that spontaneity, integrity, honesty, and presence provide us with awareness of what he calls the dreamingbody.
When you become sufficiently trained to be aware of your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, inner pictures, and inner voices, these perceptual channels can be worked with and “unwound” so you become aware of how you are always dreaming. You become aware of how the dreaming process is always inside you (as well as outside you), always unfolding, blocked only by your judgments and illusions that you are in control. When you become aware of your dreamingbody experience, you learn to accept yourself more fully, become more humble, and allow repressed parts of yourself to emerge
and develop. As this occurs, you become more aware of yourself in relation to the outer environment and become a multidimensional being.
Much of processwork involves identifying the inner blocks to your per-sonal freedom, such as the perennial inner-critic figure who is often a judg-mental parent figure that you have unconsciously internalized. This inner-critic figure is often the symbol for consensus-reality conformity that further limits your personal freedom to be fully living the dreamingbody.
Much of processwork is relationship work, since it is often in the context of the other that we lose ourselves and compromise our deepest values in the name of peace and harmony. The paradox becomes evident as we compromise ourselves in order to preserve outer harmony in our relationships—we end up internally split as the conflict we avoided on the outer level manifests itself as disharmony on the inner level. Various chronic symptoms may then manifest from this internal conflict. These symptoms may be psychological, such as depression and anxiety, or physical, such as ulcers, migraines, cancer, fatigue and exhaustion, and musculoskeletal disorders. Processwork becomes our lifeʼs work as we strive with increasing awareness for more personal freedom from both the outer pressures to conform and our psycheʼs inner programs and dream figures that tyrannize us if we allow them to.
Processwork also teaches process-oriented meditation or inner work. This is a way to work on relationship problems, bothersome symptoms, or disturb-ing dreams by oneself and, in essence, to unfold the process waitdisturb-ing to happen.
Process is always ready to burst forth into life and awareness, so taking the time to do innerwork brings rich rewards. It allows us to bring into the light what was previously unconscious (due to a lack of awareness); it also frees us to challenge our natural tendency to stay stuck at our growing edge.
Energy Psychology
This relatively new and innovative form of psychotherapy is still considered by some to be experimental because it has not been used by professionals long enough to have a solid, well-traveled longitudinal research base. The operating assumptions of energy psychology affirm that change happens at the energetic level and that the interventions used target the clientʼs energy body rather than the thinking process or the unconscious mind.
The techniques used in applied kinesiology, behavioral kinesiology, and Thought Field Therapy evolved to acknowledge that tapping, holding, and lightly pressing specific acupressure points on one of the twelve major
acu-puncture meridians will stimulate the flow of chi that circulates throughout the body as well as outside of the body. As clients focus their attention on a specific disturbance, whether a thinking pattern or an emotion, they tap on specific acupressure points that have been correlated to specific emotional states or specific emotions. This stimulates the chi and creates the chi field that balances the energy field which was creating and perpetuating the dis-tressing thought or disturbing emotional state. The change happens very quickly—often instantaneously. The therapist witnesses extreme emotional states flattening out to calm, usually in the course of just minutes.
The Chinese have been intentionally working with chi for over five thou-sand years! They have identified and mapped out these pathways of energy (the meridians) with specific points related to specific organs, diseases, and states of disharmony. It has only been since President Nixonʼs trip to China in the 1970s that the United States has become open to and interested in explor-ing and considerexplor-ing this ancient therapy.
The primary operative assumption of energy psychology is that human beings are infused with and circulating a kind of energy often referred to as the vital life force. There have been various names for this vital life force throughout history and within many different spiritual traditions. This energy is called prana in the practice of yoga, chi in Chinese medicine, ki in the Korean martial-arts traditions, power in the shamanic tradition, and the Holy Spirit in the Christian tradition. In spiritual literature, cross-culturally and throughout history, this vital life force has different names that are synonyms for the same thing. To date, Western science has not been able to prove the existence of this vital life force using its scientific method. But the fact that Blue Cross insurance now covers acupuncture indicates that even this con-servative, Western science-based organization acknowledges that the positive therapeutic outcomes that result from using chi to enhance human functioning are measurable using the traditional Western scientific method.
The Hindu yogic tradition also identifies energy centers called chakras, which are defined as spinning wheels of energy found throughout the body—from the top of the head down to the base of the spine. Traditionally, the practice of yoga has been to balance the body and the “monkey mind”
by physical asanas, mantra, and meditation that will subsequently balance the energy fields of the seven major chakras. This is done by balancing the prana circulating in each of these chakra centers, similar to the Chinese tradi-tion of balancing chi energy flow via the meridian pathways of energy. When
the energy shifts, homeostasis in the whole person occurs, thus balancing the energy polarities within the individual. In Chinese medicine this is known as the balance of yin and yang, the feminine and the masculine energies.
What follows is a brief summary of the origins and development of energy psychology.
Applied Kinesiology. In the mid-1960s, Detroit chiropractor George Good-heart Jr. established a new field he called applied kinesiology. This is a method for evaluating various bodily interrelationships using manual muscle testing (MMT). Through work with his patients and his ongoing curiosity, Goodheart developed the applied kinesiology technique of origin and insertion treatment for muscles. He introduced this discipline at the 1964 charter meeting of the American Chiropractic Association. Applied kinesiology was born and given legitimate professional sanction.
As Goodheart continued to develop applied kinesiology, he began mak-ing correlations not only between muscles and specific organs but between various muscles and their associated neurolymphatic reflexes in other areas of the body.
In 1966, Goodheart began studying The Meridians of Acupuncture, written by British medical researcher Felix Mann.
As a substitute for needles, Goodheart explored and discovered the effectiveness of applying pressure to acupoints as well as percussing or tapping on the points. While the interconnection of glands, organs, and meridians was well known to acupuncture, by bringing his knowledge of muscle testing to the arena, Goodheart and his col-leagues discovered a connection between the various muscles and the meridian pathways. (Gallo 1999, 59)
Touch for Health. Numerous derivatives have emerged from Goodheartʼs applied kinesiology. In the mid-1970s, John Thie, a chiropractor who worked with Goodheart closely, added his own understandings to applied kinesiology and called the result Touch for Health. He developed the Touch for Health approach for a wide audience so practitioners other than licensed doctors could learn procedures to balance and strengthen muscles. Throughout this book, I occasionally refer to an intervention as a balance. This language comes from Thie, as the following quote reveals:
A muscle which tests weak indicates some blockage or constriction in the energy flow. The process we use to unblock the energy and restore balance to the system is called balancing. There is no such thing as a Touch for Health treatment. Instead, no matter what the person has in the way of symptoms, we balance the body energies . . . (Gallo 1999, 62)
Thie disseminated a great deal of information about the meridians and how to use them in relation to MMT. He also identifies and teaches yet another way to strengthen and establish better energetic balance:
The flow of energy through a meridian may be stimulated by using the hands to trace the meridian line in the proper direction on the surface of the body. . . . Using the flat of the hand . . . it is only neces-sary to come within 2 inches of the meridian, either off to the side or even above the skin and over clothing, for it to be effective. (Gallo 1999, 63)
Behavioral Kinesiology. An important development in the evolution of
Behavioral Kinesiology. An important development in the evolution of