Bioenergetic analysis is a psychodynamic psychotherapy that works with somatic (body), psychic, emotional, and interpersonal phenomena as part of a unitary whole. A therapist in this approach practices psychotherapy with a theory base and a repertoire of techniques that permit interventions to be made in each dimension—body, mind, and relationship. These interventions are made with a sophisticated understanding of body organization (including anatomy, physiology, and morphology) and of psychological processes (the formation of personality, emotion, and cognition), and the application of modern theories of self and relationship formation.

Historical Context

The modern form of bioenergetic analysis developed out of the elaborations of psychoanalytic theory proposed by Wilhelm Reich, a student of Sigmund Freud. Reich, who emigrated to the United States in 1939, investigated the complex relationship between ...

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