Dropping body, what is it?
Among the many psychotherapeutic approaches described on the site PasseportSanté.net, it is probably the most marginal . We can also say it is the most paradoxical, since does not even heal. Rather than technical, the abandonment body is a way of seeing life that share a number of people working in psychotherapeutic practice. As a leader with a Quebecer named Aimé Hamann, these people are involved in a collective movement of thought and research both personal and professional.
"The abandonment body is like a meditation in reverse: it is to lie on your back, eyes closed, and do nothing. Nothing. Or scratch or move the arm fatigue, nothing, no voluntary movement. The helper, the guide, the therapist sits down and puts his hands on either side of the head. This is the "touch-presence." Then both let life come, let the body express what he wants, what he is. "(Excerpted Scuba abandoned body , see Articles of interest).
During the 1970s, the perception of the body goes resolutely mechanistic to holistic psychotherapy and new abound. The psychologist Aimé Hamann (also trained in philosophy and theology) begins with colleagues to explore the use of touch in therapy in a spirit noninterventionist . Therapists observed that several subjects, once in a state of being "welcomed" abandon themselves literally to the point of involuntary physiological manifestations and spontaneous (gestures, movements, sounds, crying).
To explain this phenomenon, they hypothesized that the organization of life manifested by the body, and clean to everyone, constantly seek to express themselves. But it would be adopted by another organization, that our socialized behavior and functional . The organization of life in its structure would even hundreds of thousands of years of evolution from primitive beings that were our ancestors.
According to the theory, the more a person denies the organization of the inner world , the more he would face the difficult aspects, painful and frustrating human existence. It would therefore be subject to all kinds of problems, emotional difficulties and chronic diseases. In this context, any action and any proposed change does not make sense. There is no model which should match. The idea alone is to host life as organized itself. Even what we do not like or what does not. "To receive, this and this alone, is change. " 1
According to the theory always welcome an emotion or fear does not mean break free, because our psychic structure is what it is. But to allow and recognize emotions alter the relationship that we have with ourselves and with others. Which blocks the reports, is closing. It is said that the host state promotes the manifestation of our inner movement: physical movements, images, thoughts, feelings, etc.. But the sessions abandonment body can be frustrating because sometimes, or often, it is as if nothing happened. But there is nothing, says Hamann 2 . It takes time and it is an endless process.
Demanding for the therapist
Today, practitioners of abandonment body work with touch and speech , but the important thing is not to touch or speech, it is the presence . The only way in which a therapist can encourage this relationship to oneself in the client is being himself able to receive. More therapist gave way to his own life, the more it allows the person who is to be as it is.
But beware: it is not "unconditional acceptance" of the other. According to practitioners, this is impossible. You can just accept the other as he is, while welcoming our inescapable subjectivity to it.
For this work, the therapist should certainly be knowledgeable, but in addition, it must have been an important route in the home itself and constantly continue this work. His project, very demanding, is not to heal (or other itself), but to be with others.
Psychotherapy?
Why classify this approach in psychotherapy , while it looks more like a philosophy or even a form of spirituality ? Because this approach is not only cognitive, such as philosophy, but resolutely experiential . And it does not beyond, such as spirituality (although his home "what is" gives a kinship with spiritualities, including eastern). And because it is in psychotherapy that the body finds its abandonment by excellence. In the words of Aimé Hamann, it is "a movement of research on the meaning of life using psychotherapy as a tool."
Therapeutic applications of abandonment body
The abandonment body is not suitable for people who want to quickly adjust what they see as a "problem", or looking for a recipe for happiness. By cons, those who see therapy as a search for meaning or as a means to explore existential questions will find a supportive environment. Abandonment body psychotherapists say still be able to work with clients in complex and difficult issues.
Dropping body practice
The abandonment body to practice as a group and individually. Group meetings, regular or intensive, can take various forms: day or evening work combining body exchanges verbal reflection or discussion on certain topics. Like other types of group therapy, sessions promote physical abandonment, among participants of events affecting others, giving them access to personal items often unsuspected.
On the official website, there is a fifty stakeholders in Quebec, France and Switzerland. There are others that are not listed.
Training abandonment body
There is no formally organized training in Quebec. Those interested in this practice must first become familiar with it, as clients.
Even after several years of practice, physical therapists abandonment continue to meet regularly among themselves to reflect and discuss their approach.
Training spread over four years is provided by the Institute for Training in Psychotherapy Body Drop.
Books, etc..
Hamann Beloved, with the collaboration of Deshaies Gilles Dubé Clemence Roch Pelletier, Richard and Fernande Gilles Rioux. Abandonment body, at the risk of being oneself , Editions Alain Stanke, Canada, 1993.
Hamann Beloved. beyond psychotherapy: The abandonment body , Editions Alain Stanke, Canada, 1996.
Both books are like the approach they describe, of great depth. The tone sometimes makes their academic reading demanding.
Maugin Marcelle. psychotherapist Being otherwise , L'Harmattan, France, 2009.
, the author examines the role of the psychotherapist in contemporary society and deals with other body drop.
