ENTER MOST PSYCHOTHERAPY waiting rooms and you will be bombarded with the sounds of silence. Conventional talk therapy is characterized by its calm, at times almost sedate nature. But, perhaps the best-kept secret in the counseling field is what is called energy or body psychotherapy. If you ask an energy therapist or a client of one to describe what the work feels like, you will hear such words as lively, engaging, energizing, exciting, transforming, fast-paced, and even fun. Meanwhile, those counselors and therapists who have been practicing straight talk therapy for a long time often attest to how stifling the work feels, and how slow the pace of progress seems. Over time, client breakthroughs in traditional talk therapy can seem too few and far apart.

Using the Body and Mind
Body or energy psychotherapy differs from talk therapy in one fundamental way: It uses the whole body - not just talking - as a vehicle to unlock emotional blocks, and to achieve awareness and self-discovery. The energy psychotherapist transcends the distinction between mind and body, working with clients from a "mind in body" philosophy. The body is seen as housing abundant unconscious material that becomes more readily accessible through "energy work." Or, to put it more simply, the body holds clues to our history that aren't easily revealed through talking alone, but can be accessed - often very quickly - through movement, sounds, exaggerated expressions, and so on.

By viewing the body as fertile ground for their work, energy therapists are bringing emotions back into the treatment room. What makes the work so stimulating is the ability to utilize a wide range of new interventions that incorporate the body and its emotional repertoire. The tilt toward cognitive-behavioral approaches in recent years has left many therapists feeling as if their work doesn't fulfill them. For the therapist who has been practicing conventional talk therapy for years, the lament is often heard that "Something is missing in my work," or "I can only seem to take my clients so far." Incorporating energy psychotherapy principles and techniques seems to infuse new life into stagnant practices. Energy therapists recognize that each session is rife with potential to bring the client to deeper levels of self-awareness, compassion, and expression of authenticity.

Core Energetics: An Engaging Approach
One branch of this new model, called Core Energetics, is beginning to create a presence here in southern California. Core Energetics evolved from the groundbreaking work of psychoanalysis pioneer Wilhelm Reich. Two of Reich's students, Alexander Lowen, MD, and John Pierrakos, MD, went on to develop bioenergetics, and later Dr. Pierrakos created the Core Energetics model.

What is striking about the Core Energetics approach is how dynamic, and indeed lively, psychotherapy can be. In this work, many of the parameters of traditional therapy are stretched. For example, the therapist may shift from being quiet and receptive to challenging and evocative. Clients may be prompted to move their bodies in ways that allow them to open up to grief, anger, empowerment, pleasure, compassion, or a host of other possibilities. In a Core Energetics session, the therapist may be making deep eye contact while encouraging the client to face her fear, to really move into it, under the firm and supportive presence of the therapist.

Or, the client might resist taking responsibility for his unhappiness. Instead of just talking about the resistance, the Core therapist will encourage him to fully express all his resistance to change, imploring him, for instance, to shout: "I won't grow up!" or "I'll never give you the satisfaction!" The therapist prompts the client to express such normally surreptitious sentiments loudly and robustly. From an energy perspective, the goal is for the client to release the physiological armoring (the psychosomatic resistance to feeling what he steadfastly avoids in everyday life) in order to open up to the positive life energy hiding behind his resistance.

Or, the Core therapist may utilize music strategically to invite the client into an emotional experience that appears to be ready to emerge. As an illustration, the client who has long hated her father may be close to connecting to her grief over his unavailability. The well-timed use of a song can serve as the impetus to bring the grief to the surface.

Allowing Emotional Energy to Emerge
In Core Energetics, the therapist is just as concerned with what is happening from the neck down. The body is a vital source of information for both therapist and client. Growth doesn't only occur from cognitive shifts, but from the body's innate capacity as a "self-regulating organism." Emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness are crucial aspects of self-regulation. Thus, in Core Energetics, clients learn how to release long-held emotions so that inner balance and harmony are restored. When the body suppresses normal, self-regulating emotions, it cannot function optimally. Without anger, there is a concomitant loss of passion. Without hurt, there's no empathy. Without fear, the capacity for nurturance evaporates. Core therapists believe that the mind-in-body will take care of itself if it is allowed to express what it needs to feel.

What makes this work so engaging is the active and intentional support of these vibrant emotions. While other branches of psychotherapy tend to shy away from free emotional expression, Core Energetics is committed to the open movement of energy in the form of emotions. In a session, clients may be encouraged to move about the room, and to work with equipment such as giant foam cubes, "rollers," mirrors, mats, and other props in order to connect to disowned parts of themselves. Through physical movement, breathing, exaggeration of gestures, working with sound, actively expressing transference, and support for consciously connecting to regressed "young" places where feelings may have become blocked, the client is highly engaged in the process. While respectful of boundaries, Core therapists believe that, on the whole, more people are harmed by lack of touch than from inappropriate touch. Thus, there is apt to be caring and purposeful use of touch in session. Touch can convey many messages, and when a client has been deprived, abused, or manipulated with touch, healing can occur with sensitive contact from the therapist.

In Core Energetics, clients are challenged to take risks. It can be extraordinarily liberating, for instance, for a client to express competitiveness, seduction, selfishness, or even cruelty. Equally, to reveal tenderness, longing, humor, or musical or artistic talent. The therapist believes that each client has inherent strengths, or core qualities, that will support her in breaking free of the shackles of her self-imposed limits. Hence, the work tends to be more inspirational and exciting for both therapist and clients.

The Role of Body in Psychology
We live in a world that has become increasingly wary of strong emotions. With alarming increases in usage of prescription medication, particularly for depression, anxiety sleeplessness and sexual inhibition, it is ever more useful to consider the role that the body plays in our "psychological" problems. While individual biochemistry contributes to these disorders, there appears to be more to the story. Emotions are viewed in Core Energetics as a form of energy. Even the word e-motion suggests that feelings are defined by their movement. The moving away from or blocking off of emotions seems to play a role in altering our biochemistry. So, it makes intuitive sense that to reclaim one's emotional truths may help to restore one to a state of well-being. Most of us have had the experience of inner calmness after crying, or having our hearts open after a fight. Yet for many clients they have long ago learned it was not safe, or acceptable, to express their vital emotional energy.

Therapists who practice Core Energetics recognize the immense value of "expressive therapy." Too much of an emphasis on the brain, on thinking away our problems, perpetuates an already existing imbalance. The unabashed emotional expressiveness of children can serve as a model for what the body needs. While a child may not possess the consciousness to make sense out of what disturbs her, neither does she carry tension in her body. When emotions have been suppressed for many years, our biochemistry is chronically altered. The net effect is damaging to "psyche" and "soma." Laughing, sobbing, the freedom to tremble in fear (and not be alone in it), roaring, moaning, and moving one's body about with abandon is curative. We heal inner disturbances when we reclaim our feelings.

For the Core Energetics therapist this is a "roll up your sleeves" experience. The therapist must be willing to become emotionally engaged with the client. When a client has been traumatized as a child, or neglected, or shamed, he needs more than technical support. What he needs is a gut sense that somebody's with him, that somebody really sees him. The Core Energetics therapist "leads by following." This means connecting with the client's emotional experience, following his energy, and then guiding him to the places where he has been taught not to go. The client learns that his emotions do not result in harm or abandonment. He is encouraged by the therapist to reclaim the glory of his full emotional expressiveness. When the therapist conveys the message that she can handle all of who the client is, he flourishes.

Energy Therapy Opens Up New Opportunities
Insight therapy helps clients to understand themselves better, cognitive-behavioral therapy helps clients to change negative habits of thinking and acting. But, it is the energy-based therapies that assist clients in feeling more "life-force." Clients who do this work tend to feel lighter, less constricted, and ultimately more adventurous. Thus, they are not just overcoming a problem or correcting a dysfunctional behavior, they are literally enjoying life more and discovering their creative source. It is a key aspect of energy work to help the client open up to her "higher self." That is, to the best within her. When long-constrained energies are freed up, each person is able to shine. The aim then is transformative, not merely reparative. To witness a client's shift from being depressed to inspired, from anxious to passionate, or from timid to powerful is the gift back to the therapist.

For therapists who are weary from years of routine psychotherapy, you may do well to explore the energy-based approaches. As mentioned above, Core Energetics, which has institutes around the world, is beginning to establish itself in southern California. A series of weekend intensive workshops, held at the Tao Healing Arts Center in Santa Monica, began in April. There are two scheduled for June; for more information, go to www.AnnBradney.com. Additionally, a new post-graduate training institute designed for therapists who wish to become certified in Core Energetics will commence in 2008.

© Brian Gleason, 2007

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian Gleason, LCSW, a leading pioneer in marriage mentoring, is a senior faculty member of Core Energetics East in New York City, and facilitates training workshops for professionals in body-oriented psychotherapy in southern California. He is author of Mortal Spirit: A Theory of Spiritual-Somatic Evolution and the soon to be released Going All The Way: A Guide to the Exceptional Marriage. You can find our more about his work at ExceptionalMarriage.com.