This document provides an introduction to the somatic-energetic point of view in trauma therapy. It describes a therapy session with a patient named Mav that demonstrates key aspects of this approach. The patient spoke in an intense, pressured manner and experienced a sense of "collapse" after speaking. Through somatic awareness exercises, she connected this to painful memories of enduring trauma as a child. Deep breathing and movement helped her integrate these memories and relieve her chronic pain. The document discusses how the somatic-energetic approach addresses embodied trauma through attention to the energetic phenomena of the patient's presentation and movements.

1. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SOMATIC-ENERGETIC POINT OF VIEW IN THE THERAPY OF TRAUMA
Philip M Helfaer, Ph.D.
PART I. DESCRIPTION
Note
These brief notes introduce the somatic-energetic point of view in its application in the individual
therapy of trauma spectrum disorders. They are also an orientation to the rest of the papers in this
series which continue the development of the somatic-energetic point of view and which describe
other applications.
[Societal Context]
[An indication of the significance of the field of trauma studies in the U.S.A. is that The Division of
Trauma Psychology is among the fastest growing field in the American Psychological Association.
One of the stimulants for this growth in the U.S.A., as no doubt elsewhere, is not simply the large
number of returning soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the increasingly alarming
awareness that a large proportion of them are seriously disturbed as a result of exposure to
traumatic stress related to military service. This makes the study (and the conflicts surrounding
such study) of P.T.S.D., its diagnosis and treatment, of pressing importance. However, there are
other influences that elevate trauma in professional awareness. Catastrophes, both natural
(Hurricane Katrina) and terroristic (the 9/11 attack on the New York Trade Center) sent thousands
into shock and traumatic stress even as the events were being witnessed in the media. Like the
returning soldiers, these events and their effects could not be avoided. Prominent social influences
also increase professional engagement with the effects of trauma: the various organizations
relating to establishing safety and equality for women in society and the related movements for
protection of children of both sexes.]
Personal context

2. My own engagement with trauma studies and therapy came about in an entirely personal way. I
had been aware of concepts of shock, dissociation, and trauma since early in my studies in
psychology and psychotherapy. However, when I experienced some aspects of the effects of my
own developmental traumas, both emotionally and more exactly somatically, I gained a more
serious understanding of the significance of what “trauma” means as it effects the individual.
The avenue by which I arrived at these insightful experiences was largely through my active
engagement with the discipline of bioenergetic analysis, which I designate here as a somatic-
energetic approach to the study of the individual and to therapy. My professional engagement
with bioenergetic analysis resulted from personal experience of a serendipitous sort, certainly not
from being exposed to it as a graduate student in psychology in the 1960’s. The serendipitous
experience occurred at the Esalen Institute in California, where I visited shortly after finishing my
Ph.D. There interesting people were teaching, experimenting with, and developing techniques for
personal development that centered in inner experience and the body, rather than from a
cognitive or intellectual perspective. I found this very refreshing after so many years in academia.
One day I had a very deep experience in which I found myself feeling very alive, at peace, joyful,
and with a deep sense of connection with the natural world around me, which also felt alive. To
me, this was a highly desirable state. Could one live in such a state? Could it be the focus or goal of
a therapy? I set about exploring the possibilities, and in doing so embarked on what has turned
out to be quite a remarkable journey.
Clinical Example and Descriptions
The phrase somatic-energetic indicates that the therapy centrally involves perceptions and
interventions relating directly to the body, (as well as the mind), and aspects of the observed data
on which the therapy is based are energetic phenomena. An important example of an energetic
phenomena is the manner in which the patient speaks.
Mav, a gifted professional woman of sixty, shared her current status and life experiences in an
intense, highly articulate, way that was charged with energy and a kind of inner pressure. As I
listened to her profound, insightful, and thorough accounting, I respectfully asked several times to
be allowed to interrupt and invited her to pause, take a breath, and to feel her body and how she
was experiencing the pressured talk. At the end of each period of recounting, Mav experienced a
sense of what she described as a “collapse.”

3. Comments on these observations and interventions
I describe Mav as she is sitting and talking. We had shared our mutual observation of the energetic
qualities inherent in her self-expression. First, and very obvious, was the rapid, driven effort, as if
to discharge a disturbing energy. This energetic trait, the therapist will realize that it is of essential
significance to Mav’s functional situation. We will return to it. Second, we shared notice of the
sense of collapse after the completion of each segment of her recounting. This sharing of
observation, or tracking, of the energetic phenomena is an essential therapeutic process.
‘Collapse’ is a word that invites exploration. Initially, the therapist really does not know what
‘collapse’ means to the patient, what she is expressing when she uses the word, or what the
patient experiences that impels her to describe her experience with this word. The therapist can,
however, sense that the patient is alluding to a body-state. The therapist can sense this from the
use of the word, the manner in which it is expressed, and the therapist’s own bodily reaction to
the word or phrase containing the word. Developing the capacity to sense the allusion to the body
state is an aspect of learning the somatic-energetic point of view. This is how one learns the
“language of the body.” This is not remarkably different from learning to listen for unconscious
meanings in the psychoanalytic process.
A body-state is a non-verbal bodily experience that has the significance of depth in terms of its
connection to unintegrated traumatic material and the unconscious. Bringing attention to that
bodily state is the most direct route to these deeper aspects of the patient’s functioning. It is also
a safe, controlled, and integrating route (Eckberg 2000, p.49).The therapist, upon sensing the
body-state reference, has options as to how and whether to initiate further somatic exploration.
The patient may or may not be able or ready to follow such an invitation. The body-state may
stimulate further disassociation at this point, and this may interfere with her ability to report on a
bodily state or bodily experience, and her mind will deflect her into associations, narrative
memories, or another topic. In Mav’s case, her deep contact with herself allowed a therapeutically
significant exploration of the experience of collapse.
Session continued
Mav recounted that at the moments she “collapsed,” as for example, when she had completed a
series of historical associations, she felt on the verge of a kind of dissolution of her ego and a
falling. These were not pleasant releases or relaxations. To her, they represented the possibility of

4. insanity. Mav considers that both her parents were periodically psychotic during her growing up
years. Would she be like them? In her mode of adaptation, she believed that as long as she was
moving and on the go, she would remain functional. She would also however, remain in a state of
disassociation and tension, unable to relax, give in, be more comfortably in her body, and trust her
innate functional capacities, all of which contributed to her state of ongoing suffering and pain.
Further comments
All these explorations and elucidations evolved as Mav sat and described her current and ongoing
experience. A description of ongoing, daily experience will include accounts having to do with
relationships, work, love, and aspects of self-regulation such as eating, sleeping, and exercising. It
should also include accounts of – as well as expressions of – the emotional aspects of affect
regulation. These include moods, feelings, and hedonic tone. These are of the greatest significance
from an energetic point of view. Feeling is life. The lack of feeling indicates a lower energetic life
state, and this implies inhibited respiration. A depressive tone is a marker of the state of life in the
organism. Often it is associated with anhedonia, the lack of the capacity for pleasure, one of the
most unfortunate states associated with trauma spectrum disorders and other types of problems.
All these states and conditions need to be observed by the therapist, and the patient’s interest,
involvement, and curiosity about them are to be mobilized. It is the therapist’s task to involve the
patient in somatic-energetic explorations and interventions that engage and energize these states,
and lead to developmental explorations. This is a mutual enterprise. A significant form of learning
and development for the patient is to arrive at a functional realization of the relationship between
an inner experience and the somatic-energetic process which, in effect, mediates between the
conscious experience and the body.
I am elucidating and demonstrating that the therapeutic process follows and focuses on the
somatic-energetic process, from moment to moment in the ongoing session. Associations,
narrative memories, and recountings of current experiences are a background interwoven with
the somatic-energetic process. This background is not ignored. The therapist tracks it. In doing so,
the therapist has the opportunity to observe whether and how the various narrative, verbal
themes correlate with and further elucidate – or are disassociated – from the somatic-energetic
process that is emerging. This process – tracking and correlating – is of the utmost importance
therapeutically. It allows the process of the therapeutic session to remain on a meaningful track. I
believe this aspect of the work, amongst others, is unique to a somatic-energetic approach.
From sitting and talking, we moved to another phase of work together. At my suggestion and
Mav’s agreement that it felt like the right time, she moved to a standing position. Standing and

5. feeling the feet on the ground is a simple, direct way to have an overall experience of one’s own
body.
The session continues to develop
She stood, and I invited her to track and report body sensations. This proved to be difficult. It was
as if inner pressures and forces diverted her from attention to her body, and she quickly went into
associations, memories, and descriptions each time she returned her attention to her body.
Comments and a characterological formulation
In bioenergetic analysis, this standing position, with attention on the feet, is considered a
grounding process, and it has energetic significance. The move from sitting to standing allows the
patient to experience her body in gravity and it reveals to the therapist how the patient holds
herself and how she connects to the floor through her feet. All this reflects her adaptation to
stress, and often just how chronically stressed she may be, as well as the characteristic tensions
that reflect the stress. These are observable, often characteristic, aspects of the individual’s
functioning. Learning to look at the individual in this way is an aspect of learning the somatic-
energetic point of view.
As Mav is standing we gain further perspective on something we observed earlier as she was
sitting and talking. There is a kind of inner charge or excitation which she is able to describe. It
spreads through her thorax from the diaphragm. It is a charge that seems to be seeking an avenue
for discharge, but does not have a natural channel available for discharge. In addition, we now can
observe a new aspect or impact of it. It has a distracting effect on Mav’s ability to consciously
focus on the experience of her body. We could even say the effect is fragmenting, or chaotic, in
that pieces, rather than a whole, emerge in Mav’s somatic reporting about herself in the
relationship with the therapist.
These observations add confirmation to an impression that began to emerge earlier. A degree and
type of fragmentation characterizes Mav’s sense of her own body. An inner force or energy is part
of what drives that feeling, and in addition, there is a sense of dissolving and falling that can
emerge when Mav’s talking quiets for a moment. These experiences are quite typical for trauma
spectrum disturbances. We will learn more about it in the next phase of the session.

6. A deepening phase and integration
Eventually, after experiencing this kind of chaotic and pressured experience, I invited Mav to lie on
the mat, and focus on her breathing. At this point, she was certainly well aware of the inner
pressure. As a result, after she lay down, she soon began to cry deeply. As Mav lay on the
mattress, her knees where up, so that she could press her feet into the mattress, to maintain a
sense of her feet. Soon, following her body, she allowed a strong rhythmic rocking motion to
develop from her pelvis. I said, “Good, an integrative movement.” Later, I learned that this and a
few other simple words of encouragement were helpful and appreciated.
Pain, body memory, insight, and further integration
At the same time, something was occurring that, to me, was quite remarkable. This was the
transformation of a sense of pain into memory with insight. Mav began to speak of how much pain
she was feeling and often felt. When I asked her where in her body the pain was experienced, she
said it seemed to have no “where” to it. There were no specific body sensations. She then said that
it had to do with “enduring.” Day in and day out, she had to endure a horrible, torturous
atmosphere in her childhood home in which she was constantly subjected to parental craziness.
She was regularly related to with hate, emotional and physical sadism, and the parents’
exploitation of her for their own narcissistic needs. We shared the belief that the pain she had
been experiencing was what we call a “body memory,” a direct reflection of what she had
experienced and “endured” as a child and adolescent.
Comments: body memory and character formulation
A body memory is a memory that is remembered as a sensory experience, usually due to energetic
or emotional arousal. The work of somatic-energetic therapy often awakens such memories.
These memories are recorded in the usual neurological memory channels of the brain. They are
not “narrative,” or explicit memory. They are encoded as limbic, implicit, or procedural memory
(Scaer 2001, 2005). This means they emerge as sensation or feeling, often without a picture or
story. The familiarity of the sensations may bring a story or picture to mind. As commonly noted,
much of traumatic memory is of this sort.

7. Scaer’s (2005) concept of somatic dissociation suggests a possible neurological mechanism that
illuminates the body memory phenomena. Somatic dissociation is a function of changes in the
autonomic innervation of specific end organs(muscle fibers, or etc.). When a muscle group that
has been dissociated is stimulated through somatic-energetic interventions, it may eventually
stimulate limbic memory channels through effecting autonomic innervation.
The energetic impact of Mav’s parents’ psychotic way of relating to her is “stored” in Mav’s
neurology, and it is experienced as a constant painful inner pressure, anxiety, or drive excitation.
There is no normal avenue of release or discharge for it, just exactly as Mav could only endure and
suffer her early experience. A good-enough holding relationship allows the child’s emotional
tensions to be held and allowed to relax or release. The holding relationship is the child’s
structural requirement allowing for integration of emotional experience and the learning of self-
regulation. To be under constant attacks of various kinds and to endure became the model, for
Mav, for what relationship is. The pressure was unrelenting and kept her on the edge of her
biological resources, always with the threat of fragmentation or of the ego being overwhelmed
and dissolving. There remains aroused in her body a strong fragmenting energy which constantly
drives adaptive efforts in the hope of soothing connection and relief.
There was one saving grace. Mother supported her intelligence and school work. Also, by taking
on the role of caretaker of younger siblings, she developed other relational and adaptive skills.
With these skills, she survived as an intact person, and was able to develop herself, but always
under enduring traumatic stress.
Eckberg (2000) also observed the transformation of an experience of pain into some other kind of
body sensation and a memory.
A client was experiencing body memories associated with a childhood memory of sadistic
punishment. She experienced the sensations as painful. After working through the memories and
uncoupling the terror and immobility from the sensations (which took many sessions), she said,
“Why, they are just sensations; they are not really painful.” (p.54)
The relationship between various kinds of chronic pain syndromes and trauma has been explored
neuropsychologically by Robert Scaer (2001, 2005). The alleviation of some types of these pain
syndromes through somatic-energetic therapy may be considered clinically demonstrated.

8. Note on this session
The extensive depth and integrative potential of this session are made possible by three
conditions, (amongst other factors). We had created the opportunity to work for an extended
period of time, about three hours. Mav, herself, has had extensive therapy and has continued to
do her own therapeutic work over many years. She was highly motivated and ready to make
important changes in her life. In an ordinary, ongoing therapy, this work would require weeks, if
not months. As an extraordinary session, it provides a unique window into the process of somatic-
energetic therapy.
On somatic-energetic therapy
I believe that a somatic-energetic therapeutic session of this sort reaches the limits of what is
therapeutically possible in the most positive sense. In the bodily, emotional, and sensory
experiences that emerge are seen the deepest sources of the ongoing traumatic stresses that
constantly created pain, tension, and suffering in Mav’s life. Even more important, we are not
simply observers of the sources of suffering. The somatic-energetic experiences that emerge and
the way in which they emerge are the steps in releasing ancient painful reactions that have been
locked into Mav’s neuropsychology since childhood and adolescence. These sensations emerge as
releases of tension within a holding relationship. Mav feels tangible relief at the end of the
session.
Not only is tension released, there is integration of previously unintegrated traumatic material. In
this session, integration occurred through bodily movement, and through the transformation of a
kind of body sensation into a conscious memory that connected with historical narrative. How can
bodily movement foster or be an aspect of integration? This can be understood immediately if we
remember the situation of a child in Mav’s position: movement, expression, appropriate use of
aggression, even free expression of feeling must be inhibited in the service of adaptation,
maintenance of the semblance of attachment to the parents, and even survival of the integral self.
Under these conditions, the autonomic nervous system, unable to mobilize either for fight or flight
goes into freeze. Somatic energetic work can release a freeze through breathing and movement,
allowing a part of the early trauma reaction to be completed.

9. One important physical sign of the relief Mav experienced deserves mention. This has to do with
her breathing. Often after a session, there is an easier, deeper breathing, along with the feeling of
relief. Mav’s breathing, she reported, for many years was what bioenergetic therapists refer to as
“paradoxical breathing.” This is an uncomfortable breathing in which the lower abdomen, instead
of extending and expanding with inhalation, contracts and is sucked in. We had noted this
breathing when Mav stood up. When she stood again after her work on the mat, we were
delighted to see that her breathing had become normal!
Further applications in individual therapy: contextual note
We can call Mav’s posttraumatic syndrome, or her “trauma spectrum disorder,” developmental, in
so far as the actual trauma occurred in childhood and adolescence, and the disturbance developed
out of the necessity of a development based on adaptation to the effects of the traumas. In post-
traumatic adaptations, the organism calls on all the biological and psychological resources at its
disposal. Traumas of course can and do occur outside of the developmental context for children
and, of course, adults. Somatic-energetic work can be used in relation to posttraumatic adaptation
in these instances as well.
Victims of Cruelty
Maryanna Eckberg (2000) was a courageous pioneer in the use of somatic-energetic therapy with
people with PTSD. One group she worked with were people who had been subjected to political
torture or the loss of family members to political murder from Central and South America. She has
given a full outline of the approach to take, the stages of therapy, and the somatic energetic
impact of torture on its victims. Her work is another testament to and clinical demonstration of
the importance and efficacy of somatic-energetic work with severely traumatized individuals. Her
descriptions are completely applicable to combat veterans. For our present purposes, I single out
one heartfelt description to quote.
I truly do not know what I would have done with these two (survivors of political torture) had I not
had the expertise to work on a physical level. I told them that they did not have to talk ... (T)he
emphasis was on helping the client to let down while exhaling, to sense the movement of energy
down the body while doing this, to ease the movement of energy downward, to encourage
elongation and expansiveness in the tissue, and facilitate parasympathetic activity. ... Their

10. symptoms began to improve ... Both began to talk ... while staying grounded in their bodily
experience. (p. 48)
PART II. CULTURAL, SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT
A surface phenomenon: a split context
Besides bioenergetic analysis, there are other significant somatic (not necessarily energetic)
approaches (Levine 1997; Ogden, et. al. 2006). Bioenergetic analysis is distinguished by a more
thorough analysis of the somatic-energetic aspects of personality, by a developmental perspective,
and by a dynamic and functional conception of character and personality. It is thus a
comprehensive (as well as the oldest) approach to the study of individual functioning in terms of
somatic-energetic process.
To those of us who work with and understand the somatic oriented therapies, nothing could be
more self-evident than that this is the most appropriate approach to working with trauma
spectrum disorders. Clinical outcomes are positive. From a theoretical perspective, traumatic
memory is commonly understood to be encoded as sensation, body feeling, and other sensory
experience. The most direct approach to these “unconscious” memories is through the senses and
energetic processes. Empirical evidence of efficacy is slowly developing (Koemeda-Lutz, et.al.
2004).
Today’s professional context, however, is peculiarly characterized by a gross split. The somatic
therapies are not taught or practiced in academic, veterans, or medical institutions. Two recent
handbooks on PTSD (edited by essentially the same people, Foa, et. al. 2009; Friedman, et. al.
2007) make no mention of somatic oriented therapies. At the same time, somatic approaches are
advocated by a growing number of practitioners and by a growing number of recognized experts
(Scaer 2001, 2005; van der Kolk 1994). The International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis has a
professional membership of certified therapists of something over one thousand members in
Europe, and North and South America. There is a group in Israel, also New Zealand.
Quiet, please, session in progress

11. Multiple issues lie beneath this surface, some having deeper significance than others. At the more
superficial end of the spectrum is the consideration that most institutional offices are not set up to
accommodate the movements or sounds (even deep crying) that might ensue from a patient
working through traumatic memories in a somatic-energetic therapy. A deeper side of the same
issue is the impression that most professionals, frankly – at least the ones pursuing graduate or
medical studies – do not have the stomach for intense emotional expression accompanied by deep
crying, shouts, or even screaming. In addition, a professional who does pursue training in, for
example, bioenergetic analysis, is not likely, as a result, to gain further promotion or influence in
his or her institutional setting. (In contrast, for many years, psychoanalysts, at least in the U.S.A.,
were often senior figures in psychiatry and academic medicine. Nowadays biological psychiatry is
more dominant in terms of academic position and research grants.) All of these issues have
nothing to do with scholarly, scientific, or clinical substantiation of the approach. They are a
reflection of the culture and sociological characteristics of the milieus in which trauma studies
tend to occur and in which professionals reside.
Who and what are we treating? And is it a treatment?
A treatment in bioenergetic analysis begins with observation of the patient, if patient is the term,
and he or she is a co-explorer in the process. Cognitive behavioral approaches, for the most part,
begin with a model of what the “disease” is, and proceed with the protocol for it. Prolonged
Exposure Therapy for PTSD (PET) is a paradigmatic example. The model is based on the idea of the
“fear structure.” Theoretically, the treatment deconditions the various stimuli associated with the
fear structure. It is not my purpose to criticize this therapy, but to contrast it with the significantly
different approach of bioenergetic analysis.
In a bioenergetic analysis, I want to know who the person is and exactly how the trauma spectrum
disorder is functioning in his or her person. This is a demanding process for both therapist and
patient. However, it offers the possibility of the widest range of opportunities for (posttraumatic)
growth. In addition, it offers the widest range of opportunities for learning about trauma spectrum
disorders: actually what they are in terms of how they effect the individual, how they function in
the individual, how they arise in the first place, and how they develop over time. These, I believe,
are the significant areas for ongoing research.
Even other somatic therapies begin with a preconceived model, often having to do with autonomic
functioning. Now, there is no question that the vicissitudes and disturbances of the autonomic
nervous system (a.n.s.) are of the greatest significance in this field. That is not at question. The
first questions are still, Who is the person and how is he or she functioning?

12. Why is somatic-energetic therapy not the primary model?
There are two “cases” to consider in relation to this question. One has to do with the widespread
adoption of cognitive-behavioral therapies amongst academic psychologists. The other has to do
with the psychoanalytic tradition where, in fact, the somatic-energetic point of view originated.
Jonathan Shedler, an American psychologist and psychoanalyst, reports on the eagerness with
which the academic community, excluded for so many years from organized psychoanalysis,
greeted news of the efficacy of non-analytic techniques (Shedler 2010, p.98); and they
promulgated the notion that psychodynamic therapy was not supported by “scientific evidence.”
A brief quote from the conclusion of Shedler’s (2010) extremely useful article may suffice for our
summary of the first “case.”
... the available evidence indicates that effect sizes for psychodynamic therapies are as large as
those reported for other treatments that have been actively promoted as “empirically supported”
and “evidence based.” It indicates that the (often unacknowledged) “active ingredients” of other
therapies include techniques and processes that have long been core, centrally defining features
of psychodynamic treatment. ... p. 107
It is not surprising that “the body,” especially the body-as-the-person, has not found much place in
the curricula of academic psychology departments.
Somatic-energetic therapy originated with Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). Reich was – let me say –
not popular amongst his psychoanalytic colleagues. About the time he was first setting forth some
of his ideas having to do with the body in psychoanalysis, he was ejected from the psychoanalytic
association. He pursued the path of the lonely genius subsequently, albeit always surrounded by
students and followers.
Interestingly enough, even his worst enemies (Chassequet-Smirgel and Bela Grunberger 1986, p.
178) agreed to the validity of his somatic observations. Indeed, contemporary psychoanalysts do
too, however, without even a nod or a wink in Reich’s direction. W. W. Meissner, a distinguished

13. senior psychoanalyst in Boston, U.S.A., wrote a series of articles about the body in psychoanalysis
(1997,1998a, 1998b, 1998c). His statement that the self is a body-self is appropriate for a
bioenergetic textbook:
.... Both of these aspects (self as subject and self as object) are inextricably immersed (sic) in bodily
functions, so that any comprehensive theory of the self has to connote the embeddedness and
intimate integration of the self as inherently bodily. I will argue .. that all psychic functions are
inherently involved in bodily processes of one sort or another. All actions, including psychic
actions, are inherently bodily, and if the locus of agency is the self ... the role of the body as an
inherent component of self-organization cannot be left out of consideration. Further, any concepts
of self regard or self representation, even as far as my own self reflection goes, are not complete
and cannot be divorced from awareness of my own body and its functioning. And it goes without
saying that any interaction with others is necessarily mediated by bodily functions – I see, hear,
touch others as bodily objects, just as they see, hear, and touch me. This is the stuff out of which
object relations are compounded. I see the other as a bodily object, and seeing is a bodily
function; I hear the other when he speaks, and my hearing and his speaking are both bodily
functions. (1997 pp. 420-421.)
This is as clear and eloquent a statement as there can be, and it could be taken as the first premise
for a theory of bioenergetic analysis.
Meissner (1997) also takes some pains to clarify the significance of the body in Freud’s thinking:
There would seem be little room for argument that Freud envisioned the connection of the mind
to the body as central to his thinking about psychic functioning and psychopathology. This aspect
of his theory is clearly reflected in his thinking about instinctual drives, his theories regarding
affects, particularly anxiety, his theory of hysterical conversion, and in his understanding of the
ego as a body ego. (p.424)
I find it remarkable that, after establishing unequivocally that the self is a body-self, he then also
simply and flatly states that in psychoanalytic therapy, the body takes a “backseat:”

14. On the couch bodily manifestations continue unabated. ...
If these behavioral manifestations are important as direct expressions of bodily processes, they
must take a backseat to the specifically verbal behavior that constitutes the core of observational
data in psychoanalysis. (p.281 IV)
In other words, we see, but we do not make use of these data in psychoanalysis; they are not the
basis for determining therapeutic interventions. How did this come about? Meissner reflects the
accepted, disciplined analytic posture, implying that analysis requires these boundaries and
discipline. Why is it this way? Why did analytic technique, based on a psychoanalytic theory of self
as body-self, omit bodily, somatic-energetic interventions as central to the practice? That this is
how it stands, we know, but, to my knowledge, no one has remarked on how strange it is! Both
Fereneczi and, much more so, Reich, pointed the way to a technique with a somatic orientation.
Their lead was not followed.
Of course, I’m implying something that, historically, is not the case. I’m implying that bioenergetic
analysis – given that the self is a body-self – should be the primary therapeutic model, the one that
puts somatic-energetic intervention at its core. In fact, for over one-hundred years now, there
have been, as Meissner points out (1998 c, pp 278-79), two bodies in the therapeutic consulting
room. I am aware that this “should” is paradoxical and provocative. In relation to the
psychotherapy models practiced in the various institutions I mentioned in an earlier section, we in
bioenergetics are the ones practically in the position of having to introduce ourselves. I have
outlined a perspective that perhaps casts a new light on this situation. From this perspective, the
contemporary situation might appear a bit paradoxical and even odd. In any case, I believe, this
perspective poses the questions above and a further question: How and why did somatic-
energetic technique and theory become split off from psychoanalysis?
Confusion of tongues
I do not know the answers to these questions. I believe, nonetheless, that the questions are worth
asking. Maybe they will suggest something interesting and worthwhile. In any case, given the
differences in technique and theory, I believe it was necessary and advantageous for bioenergetic
analysis to develop separately and in its own milieu; perhaps this is still the case. Now, however, I
also believe there would be great gains, especially in the treatment of trauma, if bioenergetic
analysis and other somatic-energetic therapies were to find a place within various institutional
worlds. For this to happen, the questions need to be pursued.

15. Recently, when I spoke with a professional therapist about the somatic-energetic approach, she
said, “You are talking a different language.” Really? Is there something about bringing the body
into the psychotherapy field that introduces a new language? As if “the language of the body”
were not a part of “regular” language? Do we enter a different land, a different culture? Maybe in
the same way as Freud suggested that in “the land of sexuality” it is always gray and raining? Or
maybe worse in this case?
It is certainly true that we introduce a new perspective, or as I have been calling it, point of view. It
is also true that we talk about different phenomena, bodily and energetic. However, these, as
indicated in the discussion of Meissner’s writing, are not phenomena that are not observed in
other therapies. In our therapy, they are looked at differently, and they are put into their
(rightfully, as I see it), core place in the therapy.
Sandor Ferenczi (1873-1933) “was one of Freud’s closest collaborators” (Van Haute and Geyskens
2004). He seems to have had some influence on Reich. In any case, like Reich, he was original and
creative, and like Reich he returned the idea of sexual trauma to being the central etiological
factor in neurosis. He wrote a remarkable paper called “Confusion of Tongues” (1932). I find in it a
reflection of my colleague’s comment, “You are talking a different language.” Ferenczi is referring
to the radical difference between a child seeking or expressing warmth, love, and tenderness to a
parent or other adult, and the adult responding with adult sexual passion. They do not speak the
same language.
Is it possible that the intrinsic difficulty, avoidance,shame, and horror of facing traumatic sequelae
are at work in the avoidance and rejection of the body in the field of psychotherapy? I am inclined
to believe so. Disassociation and denial are really somatic-energetic phenomena: they always
involve the denial or disassociation from specific bodily experiences, sensations, or emotions
related to them. In the case of complex developmental traumas, denial and disassociation can
readily become embedded in characterological developments. They then become difficult to sort
out from the whole characterological background. For people who become therapists, including
somatic-energetic therapists, this kind of development, in my experience, is hardly uncommon.
Inevitably, they themselves avoid aspects of their own body experiences. In this and other ways,
the profession itself can become complicit in supporting a prevailing social ethos of denial, even of
disassociation. While this scenario may seem speculative, it corresponds with much of my own
experience, personal and professional. Identifying and working with disassociation, denial, and
“forgetting” remain challenges, as do the whole range of traumatic sequelae, despite their long
history in the field of psychotherapy.

16. PART III. FOLLOWING PAPERS
Seven papers are planned for this series.
1. The Somatic-Energetic Point of View in the Therapy of Trauma
This paper, (the present paper), is meant to serve as an introduction. It offers a detailed
description of an intensive, in-depth session from a somatic-energetic point of view. It discusses
the scientific and cultural context of this type of therapy.
2. Positive Development for Persons with Trauma Spectrum Disorders
This paper describes the application of somatic-energetic therapy in a group context. It shows the
participation of the whole person in the group process, body and soul. It discusses the
development of the group as a community and the significance of this. The paper also discusses
theoretical features of the energetic point of view and its development. This paper is published in
The USA Body Psychotherapy Journal, Vol. 9. No.2 2010.
3. A Course of Treatment for Trauma Spectrum Disorders: A New Whole Person Approach
This paper also describes the application of somatic-energetic therapy in a group context, bringing
in other aspects of bioenergetic analysis and the development of the group.
4. Treating Trauma Spectrum Disorders: A New Approach [brief description]
This paper is a brief summary version of (3). I can be an “appendix” or a “quick look”.

17. 5. Expanding Cognitive-Behavioral Techniques with Somatic-Energetic Techniques
This paper suggests an application of somatic-energetic techniques in the use of cognitive
behavioral approaches. Many of the cognitive-behavioral approaches use breathing, grounding,
and mindfulness, all of which are best understood in a somatic-energetic context. Further, the
cognitive behavioral protocols require that the therapist observe, understand, and relate to the
individual being treated. Bioenergetic analysis offers an excellent training in these factors essential
for the successful outcome of therapy.
6. Self-Respect in Somatic-Energetic Treatment of Trauma
To be written. Self-respect is a body concept (Helfaer 1998/2006). It represents a positive way of
relating to and identifying with the body, and can be seen as the essential underpinning of positive
movement in any therapy.
7. Scientific Evidence or Social Change? Introducing a Somatic-Energetic Therapy into the
Institutional Context
To be written. This paper will address the paradoxes, methodological complexities, and social
obstacles to introducing somatic-energetic therapies into the social context of the institutions of
academia, medicine, and veterans rehabilitation.
Papers are or will be posted on the website of the Israeli Society for Bioenergetic Analysis at:
www.bioenergeticanalysis.org.il .
References
Chasseguet-Smirgel, J. and Bela Grunberger. 1986. Freud or Reich? Psychoanalysis and Illusion.
New Haven: Yale U. Press. p. 178.
Eckberg, Maryanna. 2000. Victims of Cruelty. Somatic Psychotherapy in the Treatment of
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Berkeley CA: North Atlantic Press.

18. Foa, E.B., Keane, T.M., Friedman, M.J., Cohen, J.A. 2009. Effective Treatments for PTSD. Practice
Guidelines from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Second Edition. NY:
Guilford
Friedman, M.J., Keane, T.M., Resick, P.A. Eds., 2007. Handbook of PTSD. Science and Practice. NY:
Guilford.
Helfaer, Philip M. 1998/2006. Sex and Self-Respect, The Quest for Personal Fulfillment. Alachua,
FL: Bioenergetics Press.
Levine, Peter A. 1997. Waking the Tiger. Berkeley CA: North Atlantic Press.
Margit Koemeda-Lutz, Martin Kaschke, Dirk Revenstorf, Thomas Scherrmann, Halko Weiss und
Ulrich Soeder. 2004. “Preliminary Results concerning the Effectiveness of Body-Psychotherapies in
Outpatient Settings – A Multi-Center Study in Germany and Switzerland.” www.eabp.org (B-P
Research) Also published in The USA Body Psychotherapy Journal 2005 (4) 2, 13-32
Meissner, W.W. 1997. “The Self and the Body: I. The Body Self and the Body Image “.
Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought. Vo. 20. No.4. pp. 419-48.
___________.1998a. “The Self and the Body: II. The embodied self – Self vs non-self.”
Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought. Vol. 21. No. 1. pp. 85-111.
___________.1998b. “The Self and the Body: III. The body image in clinical perspective.”
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___________.1998c. “The Self and the Body: IV. The body on the couch.” Psychoanalysis and
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Ogden, Pat, Minton, K., Pain, C. 2006. Trauma and the Body. A Sensorimotor Approach to
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Scaer, Robert. 2001. The Body Bears the Burden. Trauma, Dissociation, and Disease. Binghamton,
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___________. 2005. The Trauma Spectrum. Hidden Wounds and Human Resiliency. NY:
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Shedler, Jonathan. 2010. “The Efficacy of Psychodynamic Therapy,” American Psychologist. Vol.65.
No. 2. Pp. 98-109.
Stern, Jessica. 2010. Denial, A Memoir of Terror. NY: HarperCollins.
van der Kolk, B. 1994. “The Body Keeps the Score: Memory and the Emerging Psychobiology of
Post Traumatic Stress,” Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1994, 1(5), 253-265.

19. Van Haute, P. and Geyskens, T. 2004. Confusion of Tongues. The Primacy of Sexuality in Freud,
Ferenczi, & LaPlanche. NY: Other Press.