Vassilis Christodoulou - Body Psychotherapy

When we come for psychotherapy, we come burdened with our deficits. If our parents have not given us the type of support that enables us to feel that our feet are planted firmly on the ground, we will have the sensation that the ground is slipping away under our feet. The ground and our parents – more specifically, their bodies – play the same role. They give us the ground we need to stand on in our own way and in our own time, so that we can fall safely without fear of crashing to the ground and get up with confidence in ourselves. This is the ground we offer to our patients in body psychotherapy, in terms of space, time and bodily support– the support offered by the therapist’s body. Insecurity is also expressed in the muscle tone of a patient who trusts no-one: in order not to fall, they try to hold themselves up on their own. The result: excessive control, rigidity, overcompensation, taut muscles and in this last case, underneath, we often find weak muscle tone. It is the therapist’s job to help the patient break free from the bipolar cycle of rigidity and collapse. Therapists are well aware of this fact. The aim of therapy is to produce a mature and well-integrated individual who knows when to support others and when to be supported.

In the abovementioned case of the young man C. D., there was a tendency for fear and anger to alternate. In his body, he did indeed move between the two poles of rigidity and collapse. Intense muscle tone, a back as hard as stone, shallow breathing and trembling legs… My hand on his back gave him a sense of support, which enabled him to explore what he was experiencing in greater depth.

From fear and anger he eventually progressed to a feeling of satisfaction, but sadness as well. Sadness was an entirely healthy reaction and showed that the therapy was making good progress. He had broken free from the bipolar cycle and impasse of fear/anger. Sadness helped to give things a better grounding. His girlfriend assented to the abortion. He realised how sad he felt but he was unable to find any other solution. He felt relieved. Now he could see the doctor. He assured him that ‘everything had gone well’. There was his girlfriend coming out of the operating theatre. She was alright… The shivering began to recede. His body was more stable, though the hyperextension was still there. I believed, and this belief was eventually confirmed, that the whole posture of his body thinly disguised his greatest fear, which was his encounter with fear.

This fear was that of a child whose mother and father were not there when he had most needed them. It was the fear and shame of a child who was afraid his parents might forget to pick him up from school, who was afraid of being left on his own in his room for hours on end, who was afraid of bringing home an unsatisfactory school report, of being constantly criticised by his parents, of being scolded by them for the umpteenth time, of their not being there when he needed them for emotional support and to give him a hug. It was the fear of a child who had wanted them to be there with him, to satisfy his own individual needs, but had found himself on his own… the fear of a child who had yearned for a sense of physical security, who had longed to feel his parents holding and supporting him, and to feel that they had time not only for their work but for him as well.

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