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Evolution of the Therapeutic Relationship in Bioenergetic Analysis

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From Body Structure to Bodies in Resonance: Evolution of the Therapeutic Relationship in Bioenergetic Analysis Fina Pla Abstract This article takes the reader on a journey with two different parts. In the first one, contributions on the transference/countertransference theme provided by bioenergetic authors are presented giving an overview of the richness and creativity of each author. In the second part, a reflection about the impact of Attachment Theory, Relational Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience in the therapeutic relationship in Bioenergetic Analysis is provided. The impact of new concepts is exposed and the rethinking of old ones is revised. The result is a new, enriched view of the therapeutic relationship and its transferential /countertransferential processes where the therapeutic process becomes an interrelational somatosensory process within the therapeutic dyad. Some short clinical vignettes are provided. Key concepts: therapeutic relationship, transferential/countertransferential processes, somatic attunement, empathy, intersubjectivity, relational matrix, self-regulation. 1-Introduction “I needed someone who worked with the body and recognized it as the energetic core of self-expression and source of the true self but, more than that, I needed a person who wanted to connect to me, not just a body, not just a problem, not just a character, not just an energetic system, but me, with all my weaknesses and needs.” (Hilton 36, 2000) Purpose My purpose with this article is to provide a journey throughout the contributions on the theme of the therapeutic relationship through one of its most important manifestations, that is, the transferential/countertansferential dynamics, from thirteen different bioenergetic authors, from the first published articles to the most recent ones. I’ve chosen the articles I could get access to and I apologize if I have missed any. I’ve tried to grasp the main ideas of each author considering the limitations of space allowed. We can see the richness of contributions, from more analytical views to more somatic and some more personal ones. The second part of the article revises the contributions of bioenergetic authors on the theme of the therapeutic relationship and its transferential processes, now incorporating concepts from the new paradigm and revising our understanding of traditional bioenergetic concepts under this new light. I find important to present these new concepts coming from Attachment theory, Relational Psychoanalysis and Neurosciences through the lenses of our bioenergetic authors, to show evidence of how Bioenergetic Analysis theory and practice have been impacted by them. Evolution Bioenergetic Analysis has evolved from its beginnings up until now without losing its ground and core beliefs. Throughout these years, the concepts of therapeutic relationship, transference and countertransference have evolved from a classical Freudian analytic view, to a Reichian and Lowenian body focused one, to one enriched by the contributions from Attachment Theory, Relational Psychoanalysis and Neurosciences where the emphasis has been displaced by intersubjectivity and mutual somatic attunement. Some courageous bioenergetic analysts have opened the way to incorporate these new concepts without losing our roots. I would like to provide an account of this evolutionary process in Bioenergetic Analysis, how the vision we have about the therapeutic relationship and its transferential and countertransferential processes has evolved from the earlier “Body Structure to Bodies in Resonance”, a term I have taken from Michel Brien’s article which synthesizes this long and rich evolutionary path. History before Bioenergetics In Classical Psychoanalysis the relationship is based on the patient’s transference to the therapist. Through transference, the patient feels impulses and, feelings, has fantasies and defenses that have to do with his/her primary figures. The therapist, from his anonymous, neutral place seeks to amplify transferential reactions to access unconscious material. In Object Relations Fina Pla © copyright Theory (Kohut), relationships are considered the most fundamental aspect in life. The relationship with the primary caretaker is internalized and structures the self. The patient internalizes the therapist as a good object and the therapist becomes a healthier model for the patient’s inner world. The Relational Theory (Aron, Mitchell) aspires to integrate the previous ones. Compared to Classical Psychoanalysis where the patient is seen as someone dysfunctional who transfers to the therapist, Relational Theory is based on a dyadic system, two people co-participating and change happens when the two members solve the conflicts in their therapeutic interrelationship. The classical analytic position of neutrality and abstinence changes to one of mutuality, spontaneity and authenticity where the patient learns to have healthier relationships through the relationship with his/her therapist. The concept of transference originated with Freud and according to him, what was relived in the transference was the relationship with the patient’s parental figures. Freud’s theory about drives and the unconscious was dominant in psychoanalysis and has had an impact on other therapeutic approaches. Reich expanded Freud’s ideas and introduced character analysis and the work with the body. Lowen followed Reich and Freud and continued basically with the same idea, that the neurotic behavior of the patient showed itself through his/her body armor and in the relationship with the therapist. Transference has been seen for a long time as the patient’s parental contents projected onto the therapist. To Lowen, working with transference meant working mainly with the repressed emotions and their counterpart in body blocks, and transference was seen as the main impediment in the therapeutic process. 2 -Contributions of Transference/Countertransference by bioenergetic analysts in chronological order: With the new research about trauma processes and earlier disturbances, bioenergetic analysis has had to evolve towards more convenient ways to work with the type of early traumatized patients that we find now in the therapy room. As we go through the different authors, we will encounter the richness and diversity of contributions and we will see how the transferential processes in the therapeutic relationship have been evolving since their origins, body structure, to the present, bodies in resonance. I will revise these contributions, some of them are focused more on the theoretical analytic concepts, others are more focused on somatopsychic processes and others are more experiential. I have followed a chronological sequence so we can see how the different authors address the theme. -Stanley Keleman: Bonding (1986) Keleman (he belonged to IIBA and was a CBT), published Bonding, where he talks extensively about transference and countertransference as somatic phenomena and develops the concepts of bonding, somatic resonance and pulsation. Transference includes the muscular response patterns by which the client bonds to the therapist and countertransference includes the therapist’s somatic responses, the ways he accepts or rejects the client’s emotional and somatic states. Transference and countertransference are viewed as poles of a relational continuum and the term bonding is used to refer to this continuum. He describes different levels in somatic transference following the developmental patterns from fetal life to adulthood: umbilical, mouth, breast, genital and body to body contact. Which developmental level the client functions at, determines the nature of the transference. Transferential processes define a relationship as an attempt to establish a somatic-emotional bond of communication. In this relationship the therapist needs to know how he/she bonds somatically. Pulsating is the basis of bonding and involves a continuous circulation and his goal is to re-establish the pulsatory continuum: “This is a process of pulsation in which waves of somatic emotional expansion and contraction, projection and introjection organize fields of cellular activity into patterns of complex behavior.”(102) Therapeutic bonding is a continuously shifting process that involves a complex organization and structures a relationship with many levels of experience. In this process, transference and countertransference are organized by the somatic emotional attitudes of the client and the responses from the therapist. As the client projects into the therapist and evokes responses, a resonating process is established. The therapeutic task will be to help a client create a container, deprogram past responses and form a pulsatory movement. What is central is the emotional response from the therapist for if he is not aware of his neural, emotional, and muscular Fina Pla © copyright responses, he tends to project them on the patient. Transference involves distortions of this pulsatory continuum and the key to solve it is to disorganize the initial structure. A client has structured his past experience and he needs help to de-structure it, to form new muscular-emotional patterns: “To restructure obsolete bonds is what somatic therapy is all about” (104). -Virginia Wink Hilton: Working with Sexual Transference (1987) Wink Hilton has had the courage to address the issue of sexual transference, not an easy subject. In fact it is one of the few bioenergetic articles I have found on this specific type of transference. She stresses the importance
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