being a balance between these two systems, one system is more dominant than the other, serving as a life attitude. Thus there are individuals who are dominated by the sympathetic nervous system and they are almost always hypotonic, lacking in energy and phobic, while other individuals are constantly on the alert, moving in an outward direction and dominated by anger. Both anger and fear, then, are governed by the sympathetic nervous system. What makes the difference is the movement of energy. The outward movement of energy is connected with anger and the inward movement with fear. In order to understand energy and behaviour better, it is important to stress that fear and anger are polar opposites. Thus, in the case of one of my own patients, a little extra pressure can lead him automatically from fear to anger, and woe betide the poor person who happens to be in his way when that happens! The energy he has inside him, which keeps him in a state of convulsive fear, moves instantly outwards, and in most cases the anger becomes a ‘lethal’ rage.
What such individuals are rarely aware of, if they do not undergo systematic treatment, is the beneficial calm and restful relaxation they can experience. They are rarely aware of the beneficial cycle of tiredness and rest. Just as there is a negative and a positive charge in the sympathetic nervous system, there is also a positive charge and a negative charge in the parasympathetic nervous system. The positive charge is chiefly associated with relaxation, a sense of sweet calmness, warmth and pleasure, while the negative charge is associated mainly with sadness and a sense of emptiness and loss. Although we have become accustomed to regarding sadness as being connected with the neck and the heart, it is worth stressing the fact that the source of energy for all our emotions is the solar plexus. Yet sadness occupies the heart and throat centre because it is connected with loss and relationships.
In biosynthesis, as in the body, the solar plexus is a basic energy centre and divides the body into two. In order for a body to be healthy and beautiful, however, and to be able to express its full potential, it cannot remain divided into an upper and a lower part. Thus our aim is to achieve a balance between the upper and lower parts of the body. Often one part is overdeveloped compared with the other, which remains underdeveloped. Consequently, we work on two levels. After identifying what it is that the patient has not received and needs in order to move forward in their life without being overdependent on anything, we should give it to them. The time plane we should aim at working in is the patient’s Present. What nourishes them, what helps them to grow and to move forward? This is what they should be given in their therapy: support to move forward along the path of the Present and of Joy.
The energy of all four basic emotions – fear, anger, happiness and sadness – lies in the solar centre, and this is why it is impossible for us to experience our emotions to the full when we have lost touch with one of them. Usually, when we lose touch with one of our emotions, we lose touch with the vitality of all our emotions because we also lose touch with our truth as human beings. This, then, is what happens when some of our emotions serve our character-structure and what our traumas have created as a self.
Consequently, as therapists, we often pose the question: what does this emotion that is released in the psychotherapy serve? Whatever emotion serves the patient’s character-structure only helps us to identify the character-structure and nothing more. If a patient cries and gets into a repetitive pattern of grieving without getting to the heart of the sadness, this is of no importance in the healing process. The same is true in cases where patients shout and vent their anger. The patient may shout and get angry but the anger remains unconnected and the therapy at a standstill. This is why we should never remain on a superficial level and allow ourselves to be carried away by emotions that are usually expressed in a rowdy manner. Here it is useful to be reminded of the basic notion of the layering of the psyche: we should always look at what lies underneath…
We work with the body and ground through speech…
To return to my treatment of C. D., after we had established the necessary therapeutic framework and taken the first steps in building a relationship of trust, we were then able, guided by the ontological system, to place even more trust in the therapeutic process and go deeper, knowing that the Laistrygonians and the Cyclops that we would encounter on the way were nothing more than the ‘monsters’ that we ourselves had set up along the road of our existence.
Working with the body and grounding each achievement through speech, we moved on until we encountered, grappled with and, of course, destroyed the imaginary Procrustes. After our work together there was no need for any mental acrobatics or tricks for the recontextualised experiences to be assimilated by the patient. The assimilation of experience is connected with the notions of endurance and preservation: we human beings create personal myths in order to endure reality and in order to preserve our personal cohesion. In each course of therapy, we therapists should respect the defences and mental stratagems that have enabled the patient, in their own individual way, to reach the point they have reached.
In one of our first therapy sessions I got C. D. to stand up straight. His body was almost constantly hyperextended and his breathing shallow. When I asked him whether he had any emotional attachments, he replied that he had not. He was focused more in the head than in the body. His neck was blocking the flow of energy between the trunk and the head. Instead of serving as an energy bridge, it was serving as an obstruction.
He was a man of much thought but little action. Although he was not cold, he could feel shivers all over his body, especially in his legs. He was surprised by what was happening. Nevertheless, with his eyes closed, he remained focused on the procedure, accepting my assurances that what we were doing was for his own good. It was clear: all of his efforts were focused on not collapsing. He was afraid that, if he let himself go, he would fall. He was afraid that his legs would betray him, that his whole system would betray him and that what he had spent so long building up would vanish like a dream. In psychological terms, the two poles that were now trying to gain control and express themselves in the psychotherapy could be compared with the ego and the self. The self is more playful, more childlike, while the ego is more adult-like, more mature and, in terms of the physical body, is directly connected with the spinal column.
| THE SEVEN MAIN ENERGY CENTRES AND THEIR GROUNDINGIn human beings there are seven main energy centres, each of which needs to be very well grounded.The first energy centre, the base centre, is connected with everything that relates to our family, our roots, our work, our home and the ground we occupy to declare our existence in the world. A well-grounded individual not only has good physical contact with their feet and the ground but also embodies the meaning of the phrase ‘he stands firmly on his own two feet’. Although it is important for this first centre to be grounded, it is in fact necessary for all of an individual’s energy centres to be well grounded if that individual is to have a healthy body, personality and spirit.The second energy centre, the belly centre, is connected with our sexuality and brings us physically close to other people. A well-grounded hara (the Hindi term for belly centre) can be interpreted as a good connection, not only with our own body but also the body of another person. In a way, it has to do with our sexual behaviour.The third type of grounding is connected with the solar plexus, which lies beneath the chest, at the diaphragm, and relates to social grounding.The fourth type of grounding concerns the way in which the heart is grounded, the way in which we live our relationships with those closest to us.The fifth centre is the energy centre of the neck and here the grounding relates to speech and experience. Do we say what we do and do what we say? Or are our words simply empty or ‘winged’ words?The sixth energy centre is that which lies in the forehead, between and a little above the eyebrows. |
| This is the centre of intuition, the grounded imagination, dreams and symbolism. Here, from an external grounding we come to an internal grounding. Images, dreams, the imagination and symbolism are all internally grounded; they have experience beneath them which gives them substance; they have truth; they are either well integrated or rest on an existential void and thin air.The seventh and last of the main energy centres is located at the top of the body, in the centre of the head. It is the ground of our personal identity, our being in this world, and includes our spiritual identity. |
In body psychotherapy when we want to work on
