Body Psychotherapy. Vassilis Christodoulou
We do the same for both the front and back of the body. And following this basic guideline, we always work with the aim of achieving a balance. In the case of one particular patient, it took a great many therapy sessions to get the energy in the head, the neck and the constantly tense shoulders to move first of all towards the hands and then towards the pelvis and the legs. Like various other patients of mine, when this patient played football he would feel glad whenever he was hit on the legs because these blows opened up the lower part of his body, which was not only unknown to him but also, if I might use the phrase, uninhabited by him… Thoughts, obsessions and ‘mental blocks’, as he calls them, are his distinctive characteristics. He is liable to make an issue out of nothing, even small insignificant things, even though he realises that he should take no notice of them. At work, he is one of the most conscientious civil servants, although he is plagued by numerous insecurities and even fears that he might be fired:
When I start thinking negatively, my imagination runs wild. When I have these thoughts, I feel that anything is possible. There’s no dividing-line between what’s rational and what isn’t… Now, however, I’ve learnt to restrain myself by asking myself the question: ‘What would Mr. Christodoulou say about this?’ I’m also helped by the grounding and walking exercises I’ve learnt, otherwise I feel terribly worn out, as if I only had half a body, without any pelvis or legs.
In the case of this patient, the energy, in embryological terms, is trapped in the exoderm. The way he thinks does not help him in his daily life. The trapping of energy in his head and in his diaphragm obstructs the flow of energy to the legs and to the ground. Therefore, in order to change this situation, we work mainly with the neck and the diaphragm.
If we view things from the perspective of the solar plexus and therefore the emotions, we see that the dominant element is the sympathetic nervous system. It should be recalled that the autonomic nervous system has two sub-systems: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system has a positive charge and a negative charge. The positive charge prepares the body for action and movement. It is a charge that mobilises the body for external action. On an emotional level, surging as it does from the world of the senses and the reptilian brain towards the limbic system and the emotional brain, the positive charge is connected with anger and all the capabilities it gives us for our protection, for opening ourselves up to the outside world and defining boundaries. The negative charge draws all the energy inwards and the body draws itself in, closes up and protects itself through the convulsion of fear. The parasympathetic nervous system has the opposite effect of the sympathetic nervous system: it relaxes and calms us. In some individuals, instead of there 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