Learning for Sustainable Living

Introduction to Somatics

Dr Werner Sattmann-Frese

Table of contents

• Definition

• Origins of the term

• View of a range of scholars

• Muscular tensions

• Tissue consistencies

• Crying

• Burping and farting

• Sounds of the guts (borborygms)

• Loss of streamings

• Laughing

Table of contents

• Breathing

• Orgasm

• Yawning

• Sneezing

• Pain

• Postures

• Phrenology

• Touch

Werner Sattmann-FreseCert. IV T&A, Cert. Holistic Psychotherapy (Chiron-London)

M.App.Sci (Social Ecology), PhD (Social Ecology)

• Werner Sattmann-Frese studied medicine and psychotherapy from 1977 to 1984 and completed social ecology degrees in 1998 and 2006. He is currently working as a Senior Lecturer and Program Manager at the Jansen Newman Institute (Think Education Group) at Pyrmont (Sydney). Subjects Werner teaches include:

• Introduction to somatics

• Body-psychotherapy

• Working with psychosomatic signs and symptoms

• Ecologically aware counselling and psychotherapy

• Psychotherapy in context

Definition of somatics

www.seishindo.org/somatics.html• Somatics is a re-emerging field of study in the

Western world and a path that has been followed in Oriental and traditional cultures worldwide for thousands of years.

• Most, if not all somatic practitioners follow an integrated approach to learning and change that often includes some form of a martial art, hypnosis, meditation and trance, prayer, intuitive arts, various flavors of psychology, and various forms of bodywork.

• Somatic practitioners believe that the body is highly intelligent and that we will do well to encourage our somatic intelligence to organize a significant portion of our life's activities.

The origin of the term

• Soma is the Greek word for the body. We all have a somatic reality!

Key aspects of somatics

• Muscular tensions (armouring) - Wilhelm Reich

• Tissue armouring – Gerda Boyesen

• Bodily expressions such as breathing, pain, crying, burping, farting, yawning, laughing, itching, sneezing, and the need to scratch oneself

• The sounds of the guts (borborygmi)

• The meaning of body postures and movement patterns

• The associations of the above with physical health, mental health, trauma, stress, and environmental influences

Signs and symptoms

• A symptom denotes a subjective state or a subjective experience, whereas a sign denotes an objectively verifiable pathological manifestation of an illness, that is something that can be measured and identified by an external observer.

Scholars

• Per Henrik Ling

• Walter B. Cannon

• Wilhelm Reich

• Otto Fenichel

• Ola Raknes

• Alexander Lowen

• Dan Siegel

• David Boadella

• Trygve Braatøy

• Edmond Jacobsen

• Henri Wallon

• Gerda Boyesen

• Nick Totton

• John Pierrakos

• Jaak Panksepp

• Colin Trevarthen

Per Henrik Ling

• The Swede Per Henrik Ling (1776-1839) blended gymnastic movements, massage and physiotherapy into a technique that became world famous. His main inspiration came from Turkish methods that originated from across the whole empire, including regions that are now located in parts of Russia, China, Iran and Egypt.-

• Source: Heller - The Golden Age of the Body, p.3

Walter B. Cannon

• Inspired by William Beaumont‘s 1833 publication on the influence of extreme anger upon gastric digestion, Cannon observed that emotional perturbation blocked the stomach’s activity while serenity restored the peristaltic waves promptly. (Cannon, 1945, p.38)

Walter B. Cannon (2)

• Tying his findings to the notion of homeostasis, Cannon made the assumption that global physiological regulation systems coordinate mental, nervous, cardio-vascular, muscular, and hormonal systems in order to regulate the main variables in the internal fluid systems of the body.

Henri Wallon

• The psychologist Henri Wallon (1942) assumed that intestinal movements and emotions were permanently associated. After the Second World War, this topic disappeared from the literature because of the assumption that the only physiological support of the mind was the brain.

Henri Laborit

• Henri Laborit (1975, 1979), a researcher on the biology of emotions described in great detail forms of coordination between physiological regulation systems, inter-personal communication systems, and social mechanisms such as culture and economy.

Edmond Jacobson

• Edmond Jacobson developed one of the first relaxation methods and showed that the association between emotions and the guts also involved the duodenum, the esophagus and the colon, as well as the stomach (Jacobson, 1967, p. 140).

Gerda Boyesen

• In the 1950‘s, Gerda Boyesen developed some therapeutic applications based on the Cannon-Jacobson observations on the interaction between the behaviours of the guts and the experience of feelings. She coined the term ‘psycho-peristaltism’ or ‘psycho-peristaltics’ to describe the psychological and emotional functions of the intestinal tract. Gerda assumed that the the interaction between the two has two layers:

Gerda Boyesen (2)

• Peristaltic movements play a central role in the regulation of organismic fluids and feelings and can be used to harmonise emotional agitation and reduce excessive arousal levels.

• The dynamic movements of body fluids in the connective tissues influence the regulation systems of human bodies.

Muscular tensions and body language

• Wilhelm Reich was the first professional who viewed muscular tensions as a kind of body language.

• "Body Language" - the term is now commonplace. It wasn't always that way. With Freud and psychoanalysis everything was the mind. Reich was the first to bring the body into psychoanalysis, and to physically touch the client. www.sonoma.edu/users/d/daniels/ reichlecture.html

Muscular armour

• As a physio-emotional defence mechanism muscular tensions serve to repress unmanageable feelings (Reich, 1942).

• By creating chronic muscular tensions, our ‘bodyminds’ (Dychtwald’s term) permanently waste precious life energy without achieving anything apart from keeping us ‘comfortably numb’.

• Muscular armour leads to the fragmentation of energetic flow in our bodyminds, which then makes emotions more manageable.

Tissue consistencies

• Gerda Boyesen observed that certain tissue consistencies serve as another physiological mechanism to regulate the conscious awareness of developmental traumas through the flow of energy and feelings. She acknowledged the existence of three consistencies:

• Natural tissue tonus

• Hypotonic (undercharged) tissue

• Hypertonic (overcharged) tissue

Loss of streamings

• Chronic energetic blocks combined with the reduced emotional charge resulting from shallow and disconnected breathing diminish our natural self-experience as ‘streaming beings’. With the loss of these internal streamings we also lose our energetic connection and the experience of oneness with the creation because this connection is mainly experienced through the flow and conscious experience of subtle energy.

Laughing (1)

• Laughter is an expression or appearance of merriment or amusement. Laughter is a sound that can be heard. It may ensue (as a physiological reaction) from jokes, tickling and other stimuli. Inhaling nitrous oxide can also induce laughter; other drugs, such as cannabis, can also induce episodes of strong laughter.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing

Laughing

• Research has shown health benefits of laughter ranging from strengthening the immune system to reducing food cravings to increasing one's threshold for pain. There's even an emerging therapeutic field known as humor therapy to help people heal more quickly, among other things. Humor also has several important stress relieving benefits.

• http://stress.about.com/od/stresshealth/a/laughter.htm

Crying

• The physiology of crying is not well documented or understood. The act of crying seems to be an important precipitating factor for primary headaches and it should be studied further.

• www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-31802003000100008

Crying

• One of the saddest things in western culture in particular, is the judgment that crying is something to train a child not to do, that it is weak.

• Most adults in our society do not even remember receiving this judgment, it's so deeply ingrained. We hold the belief that crying is babyish, weak, and that once a child reaches a certain age, they should stop indulging in baby behavior (crying).

• This puts unnatural pressures on the body, and begins the process of learning to deny how we feel.

• www.cyquest.com/pathway/lies_about_crying.html

Crying

• Crying our feelings allows the emotion to express and move through our bodies, and once fully moved, they are transformed. This transformation is not something that can be forced upon the emotions. They must be allowed to move fully and organically through the body, until they naturally reach healing and transformation.

• www.cyquest.com/pathway/lies_about_crying.html

Burping and farting

• Burping and farting are two of our modern taboos:

• “Burping at the table is simply not the done thing. If you absolutely have to, either excuse yourself from the table, or do it as discreetly as possible. Don't belch loudly under any circumstances”.

• www.mountainx.com/dining/2005/0316blackforest.php

Burping and farting

• Upon finishing his meal, my uncharacteristically unpicky companion leaned back in his chair, rested his hands on his full, satisfied belly, and recited a quote sometimes attributed to the German reformer Martin Luther: "Warum ruelpset und furzet ihr nicht, hat es euch denn nicht geschmecket?" (Why don't you belch and fart - did you not enjoy the meal?)

• www.mountainx.com/dining/2005/0316blackforest.php

Views on burping and farting

• What does it say about modern people and societies that we accept living daily with exhaust fumes and poisons emitted from industry stacks but deny ourselves the important expressions of physio-emotional self-regulation such as burping and farting?

Sounds of the guts

• Definition: Rumbling sounds caused by gas moving through the intestines (stomach "growling"). Also Known As: stomach growling (www.ibdcrohns.about. com/library/glossary/bldef-borborygmi.htm)

• This definition is wrong: The noises are actually caused by tissue fluids moving through the walls of the intestines after muscular tensions in the intestines ease.

Sounds of the guts

• Borborygmi are noises indicating that energy is flowing freely throughout the bodymind, and that we are in a state of relaxation (Boyesen, 1976, 1985).

• The sounds of the guts constitute an important biofeedback system and can thus be used as “markers of psychic work during analytical sessions” (Heuer, 2002, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 83 (5), pp. 1181 - 1189).

Sounds of the Guts

• Biodynamic Massage works across a wide spectrum from deep muscular work, to connective tissue massage, to light energetic touch and work in the aura. And it also puts particular emphasis on the psychological understanding of the body. –

• www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Massage/mccroh33.htm

Breathing

• Breathing is a key function of living. We can be weeks without food, days without water, but only a few minutes without oxygen.

• Shallow or disconnected breathing are part of our emotional coping system and prevent unconscious feelings from reaching consciousness (Reich, 1933; Lowen, 1958; Dychtwald, 1986).

Symptoms of hypertonia

• Do you have any of the following: chronic, stubborn high blood pressure, head pressure, dizziness, headaches, numbness, dizziness, (especially upon standing quickly), chronic fatigue, memory problems (possibly bordering on amnesia), nervous irritability, chest pressure or heart palpitations, sexual impotence, constipation or more? Do you have to take drugs to keep them under control? Maybe there’s another answer or collateral that will work for you.

• http://hubpages.com/hub/Shallow-Breathing--Its-Effect-On-Health-And-A-Simple-Exercise

Suffocation

• All of the above can also be symptoms of suffocation. By far the largest majority of people are shallow breathers. Stress and tension contribute to shallow breathing.

• http://hubpages.com/hub/Shallow-Breathing--Its-Effect-On-Health-And-A-Simple-Exercise

What is adequate breathing?

• To return to our question - what is really adequate breathing? - we may answer that healthy, relaxed breathing is deep and full. This means that there are no chronic blocks to the pulsatory waves that originate with each breath in the diaphragmatic region and undulate headward and footward along the axis of the body.

• Adequate breathing is both extensive (it is not restricted in its expansive movement in either direction) and deep (it engages the core of the body, reaching the vital organs).

• http://www.reichian.com/breath.htm

Conscious connected breathing

• Conscious connected breathing is communication with the source of life and a deep peace within ourselves. With proper breathing the physical body feels lighter, freer and we are clearer in our thinking. We will experience a more joyous outlook, emotionally we will be calmer and more serene in dealing with the situations that arise in our daily lives.

• http://www.energybalancing.com/health/breath.html

Orgasm

• He [Reich] argued that unreleased psychosexual energy could produce actual physical blocks within muscles and organs, and that these act as a "body armor," preventing the release of the energy. An orgasm was one way to break through the armor. These ideas developed into a general theory of the importance of a healthy sex life to overall well-being, a theory compatible with Freud's views.

• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

Orgasm

• Reich agreed with Freud that sexual development was the origin of mental disorder. They both believed that most psychological states were dictated by unconscious processes; that infant sexuality develops early but is repressed, and that this has important consequences for mental health. –

• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich

Itching

• Itching and scratching represent an unconscious self-regulation system that contributes to the maintenance of our physio-emotional homeostasis.

• It is often a psychosomatic expression of impatience.

• The loosening of rigid muscular attitudes produced peculiar body sensations in the patient: involuntary trembling and twitching of the muscles, sensations of hot and cold, itching, the feeling of having pins and needles.

• www.thinkbody.co.uk/body-psych/integr-musc-work.htm)

Pain• Physical discomfort caused by an injury or illness

• Galen’s signs of inflammation: Rubor, dolor, tumor, and functio laesa

• Result of a ‘psychosomatisation’ of emotional pain and stress

• Often no physical causes can be found for the experience of pain

• Pain resulting from energy accumulation or deficiency

• The passion of the soul

• Aristotle: Pain is only experienced in the heart

Psychosomatics of pain

• “The biopsychosocial model of illness was first presented in 1977 by George Engel. His landmark idea described a dynamic interaction between psychological, social and pathophysiological variables, and highlighted the hypothesis that, the workings of the mind, could affect the body, as much as the workings of the body, could affect the mind”

• Wordsworth – The History of Biopsychosocial Pain – A tale of gladiators, war, papal doctrine, and a wrestler

Models on pain

• Psychosomatic model of pain: Szasz, Engel

• Psychosocial (cognitive-behaviourist) model of pain: Keefe, Dunsmore & Burnett)

• Resurgence of a focus on emotions and stress (Keefe, Lazarus)

From stress to pain

• Interpersonal stress can lead to immune changes, which are then often followed by increased inflammation and pain within a few days.

Yawning

• Yawning is not only an indicator of tiredness, but also an expression of the movement of biological and emotional energy in the bodymind.

• “Yawning is an involuntary action that causes us to open our mouths wide and breathe in deeply. We know it's involuntary because we do it even before we are born. Research shows that 11-week-old fetuses yawn”.

• www.howstuffworks.com/question572.htm

Yawning

• The Physiological Theory - Our bodies induce yawning to drawn in more oxygen or remove a build-up of carbon dioxide. This theory helps explain why we yawn in groups. Larger groups produce more carbon dioxide, which means our bodies would act to draw in more oxygen and get rid of the excess carbon dioxide. However, if our bodies make us yawn to drawn in needed oxygen, wouldn't we yawn during exercise? - www.howstuffworks.com/question572.htm

• We often spontaneously yawn when we engage in activities that dissolve muscular and tissue armouring, such as Biodynamic Massage, Martial Arts, and Chi-exercises.

Sneezing

• Sneezing occurs when a particle (or sufficient particles) passes through the nasal hairs and reaches the nasal mucosa. This triggers the production of histamines, which reach the nerve cells in the nose, which then send a signal to the brain to initiate the sneeze. In certain individuals, sneezing can also be caused by exposure to bright light. This is called the photic sneeze reflex. - www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneeze

Sneezing

• Probably few modern people are aware that sneezing is one of the most powerful mechanisms of physio-emotional self-regulation. Besides being a physio-emotional overflow valve that we often unconsciously use to maintain a natural level of physiological and emotional charge, repeated sneezing also has the capacity to harmonise energies to the extent that many of us experience strong energetic streamings and a strong sense of peace and harmony (Sattmann-Frese, Sustainable Living for a Sustainable Earth, 2005).

Phrenology

• phreno-, phren-, phreni-, phrenico-, phrenic-, -phrenia, -phrenic, -phrenically (Greek: mind, brain; the midriff or the diaphragm; mental disorder)

• aphrenia, aphrenous: An early term for insane• Aristophrenia: Superior thinking or intellect • Bradyphrenia Slowness of thought or fatigability of initiative,

resulting from depression or central nervous system disease. It is used by some psychiatrists as the equivalent of mental retardation, by others as the equivalent of psychomotor retardation.

• Cacophrenia: Bad or dysfunctional thinking, having a mental illness.

• See: www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/2619/?letter=P&spage=6

Phrenology

• Euneirophrenia: A peaceful state of mind following a pleasant dream

• Gastrophrenia: A reference to the stomach and to the diaphragm

• Hebephrenia: 1) Disorganized schizophrenia, 2) A form of insanity incident to the age of puberty, 3) Applied to the insanity of pubescence

• Schizo-phrenia: The split soul and (contracted) diaphragm

Touch

• There is no better way to demonstrate the importance of touch than by examining what happens when we are deprived of it. Most of us have experienced the sensation of touch deprivation at some point – the need to feel the benefits of touch. But touch deprivation can also have more serious consequences.

• http://www.unilever.ca/ourbrands/beautyandstyle/Morearticles/Science_of_touch.asp)

Marasmus

• In the 19th century, infants in their first year of life commonly died from a disease called Marasmus, a Greek word for “wasting away”. Doctors later discovered that this disease was caused by a lack of touch: babies not touched on a regular basis would literally starve themselves to death (ibid.).

Touch deprivation

• Montagu describes in his book ‘Touch’ how children deprived of loving touch suffer the consequences in their bones – small lines of retarded growth, also known as Harris lines, appear at the ends of the tibia and the radius (ibid.).

The need for touch

• And the need for touch doesn’t diminish as we age. In fact, research on adults has proven that touch is essential for physical and emotional well-being: regular touch can lengthen life and cut down on doctor’s visits. Touch provides solace, safety, tenderness and soothing (ibid.).

References

• Boadella, D. (1987). Lifestreams. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul

• Boadella, D. (ed.) (1976). In the wake of Reich. London: Coventure

• Boyesen, M.L. (1974). ‘Emotional repression as a somatic compromise: Stages in the Physiology of Neurosis’, Energy and Character, 5 (2)

• Boyesen, G. (1976). ‘The Primary personality and its relationship to the streamings’, in D. Boadella (ed.) In the wake of Reich. London: Coventure

• Dychtwald, K. (1986). Bodymind. Los Angeles, CA: J.P. Tarcher

References

• Keleman, S. (1975). Your body speaks its mind. Berkeley, CA: Center Press

• Lowen, A. (1975) Bioenergetics. New York: Penguin Books.

• Lowen, A. (1980) Fear of life. New York: Collier Macmillan Publishers.

• Reich, W. (1933). Character Analysis, reprinted 1969. New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.

• Reich, W. (1942). The function of the body. Rangeley, ME: Orgone Institute Press.

•

References

• Reich, W. (1946). Mass psychology of fascism. Rangeley, ME: Orgone Institute Press,

• Reich, W. (1968) The function of the orgasm. London: Panther Books

• Sattmann-Frese, W.J. & Hill, S.B. (2007) Learning for sustainable living: Psychology of ecological change, Morrisville, NC: Lulu.com.

• Thinking through the body www.thinkbody.co.uk/body-psych/integr-musc-work.htm