Workshop leader John Yong sums his experience working Bioenergetics in China:
“A bioenergetic workshop was held at a catholic retreat center in an outlying island of Hong Kong named Cheong Chau. It’s about an hour ferry ride from Hong Kong harbor. We held the workshop in the Cantonese dialect of Chinese, the native dialect of Chinese spoken in Hong Kong and the Guangzhou region of China. The Organizers, Pheobe and Simon, believe it is the first bioenergetic workshop held in Hong Kong and in Cantonese. It was a memorable workshop for me. I spent my first eight years of my life in Hong Kong and seeing, hearing the sights, sounds of my childhood and using my limited Cantonese in a workshop brought me a sense of accomplishment that is hard to describe. Chinese people are brought up to not express their emotions, and to obey the wishes of the parents, and corporal punishment was encouraged to discipline children. While attitudes have changed in modern times, the vestiges of that upbringing is evident in the bodies of many of the participants. The participants took to the work well as if giving them a vessel where they can vent their sadness and despair. It was like giving a lifeboat in a sea of dormant emotion.”
Bioenergetic Workshop held in Hong Kong, China, November 2009.
Happy Holidays From The Alexander Lowen Foundation!
Countries in which our website's visitors live throughout the world!
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December 6th - December 13th 2009
The Master Series!!
Group pictures taken from part 1 and 2 of “The Master Series” at the residence of Dr. Alexander Lowen in New Canaan, CT.
Workshop led by Leslie Case, PhD: “Master Series 1”
This picture is part of Isabel Carvalhal's body of work on Frank Hladky's life and work with Bioenergetics. Her videos will be available in the future.
Workshop led by Frank Hladky, MD : “Master Series 2”
November 29th - December 5th 2009
Expanding the State of Being
“Every chronic muscular tension in the body has associated with sadness, fear, and anger. Since tension is a restriction of our being, it makes us sad. It also makes us angry to be so limited. And we are frightened to show our sadness or express our anger, so we stay locked in a diminished state of being and tied to our fate.
A therapy that aims at enlarging or expanding the state of being must take cognizance of the dynamic or energetic factor. More feelings means more aliveness, more excitation, and more energy in the organism. Tight contracted bodies cannot tolerate the increase charge or excitation. It threatens the integrity of the personality. Like too much air blown into a small balloon, the charge poses the risk of explosion or bursting, which the person will experience as a fear of dying or going crazy…I will discuss how we can handle fear. At this point I want to emphasize that a therapy for being involves a constant working out of the muscular tensions and working through of the underlying emotional conflicts with release of associated feelings.”
-Alexander Lowen, MD, Fear of Life, Pg. 136-137
November 22nd - November 28th, 2009
Defenses
"The defenses we erect to protect us create the very condition we are trying to avoid. Thus, when someone builds a castle to protect his liberty, he ends up as a prisoner in his own castle because he dares not leave it. Similarly, one cannot assure peace by amassing arms, because armies by their very nature lead to war. This concept is particularly evident in the psychological defenses people develop. For example, the person who out of fear of rejection defends himself by not opening up or reaching out to people isolates himself and ensures by this maneuver that he will always feel rejected. No person is free who is tied to a defensive position. This is true of the neurotic character who erects psychological walls and armors himself muscularly as a protection against possible hurt, only to find that the hurt he feared is locked into his being by this very process.”
-Alexander Lowen, Fear of Life, p.37
November 15th - November 21st, 2009
Breakthrough and Breakdown
"Therapeutic growth does not occur as an upward straight line. There are peaks and valleys in the therapeutic experience. The peak is a breakthrough to a higher level of excitation. The person breaks through one protective shell of his defense and steps forth to a new sense of freedom and light. Or it could be said that the person emerges with a greater awareness of self. The neurosis is a protective shell that insulates but also isolates the individual. Shells don't dissolve. One has to break out of the shell like a newly hatches chick. Similarly, one has to break through the barriers or limits that constrain the self.
A breakthrough may occur in the course of a therapeutic session or as a dream. It is always accompanied by an insight, that is, light is shed upon some dark area of the personality. This light shines through the breach in the shell. In my opinion, therefore, the break comes before the insight, not as a result of the insight. The break is caused by the swelling of life within the container, which is no longer able to hold the excitation or energy and so breaks. In more concrete terms, it is the increased feeling for charge that produces the break, which leads to the insight. No one can predict the time of a breakthrough. It happens spontaneously when sufficient force has been built up inside the self to produce a break in the container. This buildup generally occurs slowly as a result of careful therapeutic work."
-Alexander Lowen, Fear of Life, p. 138.
November 7th - November 14, 2009
Bioenergetics Workshop Photos from
Working with Children: A Bioenergetic Approach to Play Therapy
With Frank Hladky, M.D. and Nancy Hazen, MA., LMHC.
October 31th - November 6th, 2009
In Memory of Dr. Alexander Lowen
Produced by the Editors of Libertas
www.libertas.com.br
André Gonçalves
October 23th - October 30th, 2009
"One year ago Alexander Lowen left us to continue his new journey...
Reminding and missing him..
When I asked him the meaning of therapy he wrote in a piece of paper and gave it to me:
'Therapy aims to help a person in his own feelings. The person is his feelings. The feeling is the person. If you go against your feeling, you lose yourself.
Alexander Lowen'
I still keep this paper on my office desk... With my deep respects."
Malu Millerman
October 28th,2009
October 15th - October 22th, 2009
17 participants have registered for The Masters Series 2 Workshop
with Frank Hladky at "The Center of Bioenergetic Analysis" in New Canaan, Connecticut.
We are starting a new project cataloging videos and photos for the Alexander Lowen archives and are excited about seeing some new content. If you have any photos or other media that relates to Alexander Lowen that we may not have seen yet,
please send them to...
The Alexander Lowen Foundation
19802 Old Bellamy Road
Alachua, Florida 32615 USA
September 29th - October 6th, 2009
Upcoming Bioenergetic Workshop... "Finding Your Aliveness" - With Frank Hladky, M.D.
Assistant Leaders: Diane Gobrogge D.O.M., L.A.C., and John Yong, J.D.
November 6th - 8th, 2009
Leader's Bios
Dr. Frank Hladky
Frank Hladky, M.D. is a native Oklahoman, graduating from medical school in 1946 as a Board Certified Psychiatrist. From 1963 – 1978, he served as Director of the Tulsa Psychiatric Foundation utilizing Bioenergetics as one of the foundation’s primary treatment modalities. Frank’s background includes psychoanalysis at the Karen Horney Institute and studies with Eric Erikson. Dr. Hladky is renowned for his application of Erikson's theories in working with his clients on early trauma issues. He also had a collegiate relationship with Alexander Lowen as they led numerous workshops together in Pawling, New York. Having been an International Trainer of Bioenergetic Analysis for over 35 years in the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America, he continues to conduct workshops, supervision, and training in Bioenergetics at his home at Coweta, Oklahoma and around the world.
Diane Gobrogge D.O.M., L.A.C.
Diane Gobrogge D.O.M., L.A.C. is a licensed Acupuncturist and Bioenergetic Practitioner. She has been studying Bioenergetics for over 20 years including several years with Dr. Lowen. Diane completed the formal Bioenergetic training program with Dr. Frank Hladky and Anna Miller, attending The Society at Large for Bioenergetic Analysis at Baltimore. Diane bridges the philosophy of Chinese Medicine and Bioenergetics in her work with clients. Her active private practice is located in Wilmington, NC.
John Yong, J.D.
John Yong, J.D., is a practicing attorney in New York City specializing in criminal defense, personal injury, immigration and business litigation. He worked as a public defender for the Legal Aid Society, the last five years as a supervising attorney. While at the Legal Aid Society, he was elected to lead the 1000 member Legal Aid Society union. He successfully negotiated a labor contract in 1988. John has been involved with Bioenergetics for over 20 years having regular individual therapy sessions at the IIBA headquarters in New York for 15 of those years either with Dr. Lowen or Dr. June Gray. He was a regular at most of the Pawling Workshops since 1988 with Dr. Frank Hladky and Dr. Lowen. He has attended numerous workshops with Dr. Frank Hladky at his homes in Truchas, New Mexico and Tulsa, Oklahoma. John also completed 6 years of training with the At Large Training Group led by Anna Miller and Frank Hladky. He led workshops in Bogota, Colombia and San Juan Puerto Rico.
Upcoming Workshop... Next in "The Masters Series" at Dr. Lowen's Homestead "Finding Your Aliveness" - With Frank Hladky, M.D.
Assistant Leaders: Diane Gobrogge D.O.M., L.A.C., and John Yong, J.D.
November 6th - 8th, 2009
Dr. Lowen's Homestead in New Canaan, Connecticut
Dr. Frank Hladky and Dr. Lowen, 1995
Dates:
November 6th - 8th 2009
Location:
The Center of Bioenergetics in New Canaan, Connecticut – Dr Lowen’s Homestead.
Bioenergetic Workshop "The Masters Series"
at Dr. Lowen's Residence
First Workshop - September 25th - 27th, 2009 Led by Leslie Case, Ph.D.
To honor and continue the profound legacy of Alexander Lowen, The Alexander Lowen Foundation is hosting a series of workshops at Dr Lowen’s residence in New Canaan, Connecticut where he lived, worked, and practiced for over 50 years. The house is the location of the “Masters Series,” emphasizing Bioenergetics Analysis as Alexander Lowen taught it.
Dates: • Friday, Sept. 25th, Saturday, Sept. 26th and Sunday, Sept. 27th
Location:
The Center of Bioenergetics in New Canaan, Connecticut – Dr Lowen’s residence. More information about the location will be sent after registration.
To honor and continue the profound legacy of Alexander Lowen, The Alexander Lowen Foundation is hosting a series of workshops at Dr Lowen’s residence in New Canaan, Connecticut where he lived, worked, and practiced for over 50 years. The house is the location of the “Masters Series,” emphasizing Bioenergetics Analysis as Alexander Lowen taught it. We are exceptionally pleased that Leslie Case, Ph.D. will be leading our first workshop. Leslie brings a profound respect for bioenergetics. Her particular interests have been in integrating early development issues into the process of bioenergetic therapy, focusing on the importance of analysis for the client as well as work with the body, and seeing the relationship between therapist and client as a major part of healing for the client, and for the therapist if he or she is open to it. Leslie is a psychologist in private practice in West Hartford, CT and faculty member (Emeritus) for the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis. She has served as the institute's vice president of training, chair of its faculty, and editor of it's journal. Her own contributions to the publication were the essays: "The Eyes and Sexuality: A Personal Tale" and "How Trust Becomes Distrust and Other Perils of Countertransference."
Leslie has offered bioenergetic training and workshops in the U.S., Brazil and Italy for more than thirty years and has been privileged to assist Alexander Lowen for many of those years at workshops in St. Lucia and Pawling, New York.
First Workshop - September 25th - 27th, 2009 Led by Leslie Case, Ph.D.
Leslie Case, Ph.D.
Dates: • Friday, September 25: 7:00 pm -9:00 pm
Welcome Meeting hosted by Frederic Lowen and John Yong
(Come if you can, optional).
• Saturday, September 26: 9:30 am - 5:00 pm
working sessions / with optional evening session
• Sunday, September 27: 9:30 am - 5:00PM
Working sessions
Location:
The Center of Bioenergetics in New Canaan, Connecticut – Dr Lowen’s residence. More information about the location will be sent after registration.
Lodging:
Workshop participants will need to make their own lodging arrangements. A reduced rate is available for our group at the DoubleTree Hotel in Norwalk, approximately 12 miles away; transportation will be provided between the hotel and workshop for those without a car. Let us know if you would like to share a room to economize lodging costs.
Tuition:
$ 350.00: week-end program
$ 200.00: single day attendance, includes prior day evening session.
* Advance payment by check is encouraged. The 3½% bank fee will be added for payments by credit card.
If you would like to attend this Master's Series workshop, click here.
Phone: 386-462-0616
Alexander Lowen Foundation
19802 Old Bellamy Road
Alachua, FL 32515
United States
August 4th - August 11th, 2009
The Alexander Lowen Foundation is
Leaving for the
"Alexander Lowen Bioenergetics" Workshop in France this Week!
Meet our Workshop Leaders who are Highly Committed
to Alexander Lowen's Bioenergetic Analysis:
ROBERT GLAZER, Ph.D. is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Florida Society for Bioenergetic Analysis. Dr. Glazer's Bioenergetic training includes seven years of study with Alexander Lowen, completion of the New York Society Training Program for Bioenergetic Analysis, and thirty three years in private practice as a Bioenergetic Therapist. He has conducted numerous workshops in North America and South America. He is on the Board of Directors for The Alexander Lowen Foundation.
SCOTT WINFIELD, M.S.W. has been studying bioenergetic analysis and psychoanalysis for over thirty years and completed formal training in both. Through the years, Scott has led many workshops in North America and South America teaching Bioenergetics, Psychoanalysis and the therapy process. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Southeast Florida Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology. He also conducts a private practice in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Silvina Henriquez, M.A. is a Licensed Psychologist in Buenos Aires, Argentina who is in her final year of Bioenergetic training with the Florida Society for Bioenergetic Analysis. She has been an International Ontological Coach for Newfield Consulting in Argentina for over five years and is the Director of Newfield Consulting in Argentina. Silvina has an active private Bioenergetic practice emphasizing strong contactful body work helping clients find their strengths and internal rescources. Silvina has worked coaching clients in South America, Europe, Mexico, and the United States.
The Alexander Lowen Foundation will host a Memorial Get-Together for Dr. Lowen at Al Lowen’s residence, “The Center for Bioenergetic Analysis,” from 2:00 to 5:00 PM, Sunday August 23, 2009.
Al Lowen lived, worked, and practiced in New Canaan since 1954. He loved life, and life at this house, his home amidst many travels. He did not want to leave it. So he passed away peacefully from here on October 28, 2008, in the middle of the night, while a thunderstorm raged, as if the Heavens themselves were upset with sorrow.
The house is not as vibrant as it once was when Mrs. Leslie Lowen filled it with life, but it still is imbued with the feeling and spirit of the lives of Al and Leslie Lowen.
The Memorial Get-Together will be an opportunity to re-visit for many, and for some to visit for the first time. We hope it will be an opportunity for the friends of Dr. Lowen and Bioenergetic Analysis to connect, and re-connect.
Beginning September 25-27, the house will be the location of a series of workshops, “The Master Series,” featuring Bioenergetic Analysis as Dr. Lowen has taught.
All are welcome, but RSVP is required.
If you would like to attend the Memorial, click here.
August 23, 2009- Memorial Event at Dr. Lowen's Home
Memorial event for Alexander Lowen in his home in New Canaan, Conneticut on August 23, 2009.
For more information Click Here!!
July 12th- July 19th, 2009
REGISTRATION IS STILL OPEN FOR WORKSHOP IN MONT SAINT MICHEL, FRANCE!
There is still time to join us Mont St Michel, France for the “Alexander Lowen Bioenergetics” workshop, August 10 through August 14! This workshop is sponsored by The Alexander Lowen Foundation and welcomes everyone interested in Bioenergetic Analysis. Domain Des Ormes will be our venue for this workshop. So far, we have registered participants arriving from all over the world- Germany, Belgium, France, USA, Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Russia!
Click here if you would like more information about the Bioenergetic workshop. To sign up for the workshop you can Click here to Register!
This year, honoring the alliance between the Alexander Lowen Foundation and Newfield Consulting, we are doing another training workshop for those wanting to improve their Bioenergetic look at the mystery of each human being. As last year, we will be working on the physical dynamics of a person's neurotic struggles, character structure and frustrations in living.
Bioenergetic Analysyis offers an additional approach to verbal psychotherapy and psychodynamic science with which to understand and treat emotional problems. When woven together with psychodynamic intervention and analysis, greater opportunity exists to be of help to others in their quest for self understanding, freedom, and capacity for joy and contentment.
Bioenergetic Analysis was created by Alexander Lowen in the late 1950's. It essentially represents his personal understanding and further development of Wilhelm Reich's unique contribution to psychoanalytic theory and technique (character analysis), including his departure into the body as a part of the treatment process and his further elucidation and development of Freud's energic concepts. Reich saw the apparent dualism of the mind and the body as more of a surface phenomena which in its depth consisted of a funamental unity in the manifestation of life. This unity was torn assunder and particularly at odds with itself in the neurosis. Internal conflict, narcissism, lack of self hood, impulsivity, and in short, all of the studied psychological conditions of health and dysfunction expressed themselves in the somatic realm of functioning, biophysiologically and could be worked upon directly to foster growth and healing. Areas including the role of respiration in neurosis, the garnering of information from direct observation of the body as it relates to the personsonality, experience and conflict of the individual and Lowenian excercises designed to promote self awareness, expression and selfhood and relaxation will be highlited and adressed.
Participants will have the opportunity to partake in individual bioenergetic sessions in front of the group which will be followed by group processing.
This is not mandatory.
This workshop will be held by Scott Winfield and Alberto Wang.
Scott Winfield practices Bioenergetic Analysis, psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Fort Lauderdale, Fl, USA. He has been practicing, teaching and studying
psychotherapy for over thirty years. In addition to his university studies,
Scott has completed formal institute training in both Psychoanalysis and
Bioenergetic analysis. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Southeast Florida Institute for Psychoanalysis and is one of the trainers and teachers for the Florida Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis.
Alberto Wang practices Bioenergetic Analysis in Buenos Aires since 1980. He has coordinated workshops in Europe, USA, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Buenos Aires. He participates as bioenergetic supervisor in the coaching master program for Newfield Consulting since 2005. He does private therapy and groups in Buenos Aires.
The Workshop will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina July 9 to July 12 2009 - 9 AM to 6 PM (Sunday will be held until midday). Address: Paraguay 4694 (Palermo, Capital Federal). Contact in Buenos Aires: Silvina Henriquez Newfield Argentina Director
(silvina_newfield@yahoo.com.ar) Phone: 54 11 4 791 3445 or
15 4 429 47 36 Cost: USD $400 ($ 1500 pesos argentinos).
The workshop will be held in English with translation to Spanish. Contact as soon as possible! We will be between 20/25 participants.
I can help you with information about hotels, etc.
The Workshop will be held in Santiago de Chile, Chile honoring the alliance between The Alexander Lowen Foundation and Newfield Consulting and it has been thought for the ontological coaches net in this country. July 2 - July 5 from 9 AM - 6 PM
Contact in Chile: mpizarro@newfieldconsulting.com Cost: USD $600
Trainers:
Scott Winfield MSW, has been practicing, teaching and studying
psychotherapy for over thirty years. In addition to his university studies,
Scott has completed formal institute training in both Psychoanalysis and
Bioenergetic analysis. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Southeast Florida Institute for Psychoanalysis and is one of the trainers and teachers for the Florida Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis. Scott is affiliated with the Alexander Lowen Foundation for whom he presents workshops on Bioenergetic Analysis around the world. He is dedicated to the art of helping others find meaning and satisfaction in their lives in addition to training others to provide quality psychotherapy.
Silvina Henriquez, MA, is a Licensed Psychologist in Buenos Aires, Argentina who is in her final year of Bioenergetic training with the Florida Society for Bioenergetic Analysis. She has been an International Ontological Coach for Newfield Consulting in Argentina for over five years and is the Director of Newfield Consulting in Argentina. Silvina has an active private Bioenergetic practice emphasizing strong contactful body work helping clients find their strengths and internal rescources. Silvina has worked coaching clients in South America, Europe, Mexico, and the United States.
The workshop will be held in English with translation to Spanish.
June 13th - June 19th, 2009
Dr. Lowen During a Bioenergetic Session in France, 1983
With appreciation to producer Philippe Georges Girod for this footage taken from "Au Risque De Vivre."
June 6th - June 12th, 2009
Feedback on the Alexander Lowen Memorial DVD
"I have just watched the DVD about Doctor Alexander Lowen, which moved me
deeply.
Thank you for realizing such a touching document." -P.G.G. France
"There won´t be a dry eye." -P.A. Germany
"Thank you for the DVD. It is a treasure to have. Last night my sister and I watched it. She loved it as well and already wants to show a friend of hers." -L.C. Massachusetts, United States
"Beautiful, Breathtaking." -T.B Florida, United States
May 30th - June 5, 2009
Touching words from an Alexander Lowen Memorial DVD viewer...
"I know you could have sold this DVD for $50, $60, or $70, but I really appreciate The Foundation making it affordable for the average person." - J.A., Nova Scotia
The Societa Italiana de Analisi Bioenergetica
Presented a Memorial Service in honor of Dr Alexander Lowen on the 15 of May in Rome.
According to the director of the SIAB, “is glad to say the Memorial was a Success!” The Following is the Program of Events from the Memorial in Italian and English
“Il piacere è la forza creativa della vita” Alexander Lowen
S.I.A.B. (SOCIETA' ITALIANA DI ANALISI BIOENERGETICA) Affiliata all' International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis (I.I.B.A.)
con il Patrocinio
Assessorato alle Politiche Educative Scolastiche, della Famiglia e della Gioventù del Comune di Roma
Ordine degli Psicologi del Lazio
Federazione Italiana Associazioni di Psicoterapia (F.I.A.P.)
Presenta “IN MEMORIA DI ALEXANDER LOWEN:
LA CENTRALITA’ DEL CORPO NELL’EDUCAZIONE ALL’AFFETTIVITA’ E
NELLA PREVENZIONE DEL DISAGIO” Roma 15 maggio 2009 Sala Gonzaga – Via della Consolazione, 5
(presso Comando Generale della Polizia Municipale, area Campidoglio
PROGRAMMA
10.00 Apertura lavori Dott. Patrizia Moselli Saluto delle Autorità: Laura Marsilio, Assessorealle Politiche Educative Scolastiche, della Famiglia e della Gioventù del Comune di Roma Dott. Mario Falconi, Presidente dell’Ordine Provinciale dei Medici (Roma) Dott. Marialori Zaccaria, Presidente dell’Ordine degli Psicologi del Lazio Dott. Alberto Zucconi, Presidente del Coordinamento Nazionale Scuole di Psicoterapia (C.N.S.P.)
10.30In memoria di Alexander Lowen 10.30 Dott. Patrizia Moselli, Presidente della Società Italiana di Analisi Bioenergetica (S.I.A.B.), Presidente della Federazione Italiana
Associazioni di Psicoterapia (F.I.A.P.), I.I.B.A. Faculty 10.45 Dott. Piero Petrini, Neurologo, Psichiatra, Psicoterapeuta, Responsabile Docente Psichiatria Università di Cassino (Frosinone), componente della
Commissione per la Psicoterapia del Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca (M.I.U.R.) 11.15 Dott. Vezio Ruggieri, Docente di Psicofisiologia Clinica presso la Facoltà di Psicologia 1 - Università “La Sapienza” di Roma 11.45 Dibattito 12.15 Dott. Luisa Parmeggiani, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta e Didatta S.I.A.B. 12.30 Proiezione video intervista ad Alexander Lowen Presenta Enzo Decaro, attore e regista 13.00 Break 14.30 Il contributo di Lowen nella prevenzione Dott. Aristide Iniotakis, Psicologo, Psicoterapeuta e Didatta S.I.A.B. “La centralità del corpo in Alexander Lowen” Dott. Maria Ballardini, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta e Direttore Didattico S.I.A.B. “L’Analisi Bioenergetica nel prenatale e nel neonatale” Dott. Rosaria Filoni, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta, Didatta S.I.A.B. E Direttore della rivista Grounding
“L’Analisi Bioenergetica nella classe di esercizi di bioenergetica, uno strumento di prevenzione” Dott. Margherita Giustiniani, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta e Didatta S.I.A.B. “Il contributo dell’Analisi Bioenergetica nella scuola e nei processi educativi” Dott. Maria Luisa Manca, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta, Didatta S.I.A.B. e Consigliere dell’Ordine degli Psicologi del Lazio “L’Analisi Bioenergetica nella prevenzione nei luoghi di lavoro”
Break 20 minuti
Dott. Marisa Orsini, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta, Didatta S.I.A.B. e Dirigente A.S.L. Roma B “Il contributo dell’Analisi Bioenergetica alla riabilitazione psichiatrica” Dott. Piera Sacchi, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta e Didatta S.I.A.B. “L’Analisi Bioenergetica nell’educazione alla genitorialità” Dott. Margherita Semeraro, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta e Didatta S.I.A.B. “Il contributo dell’Analisi Bioenergetica nello studio dei disturbi alimentari” Dott. Maria Stallone Alborghetti, Psicologa, Psicoterapeuta e Didatta S.I.A.B.
“Le risorse dell'Analisi Bioenergetica per la promozione del benessere nella terza età” 17.30 Proiezione video su Alexander Lowen prodotto dall’Alexander Lowen Foundation 18.00Chiusura lavori
A Rough English Translation Taken From Google Language
"The pleasure is the creative force of life"
Alexander Lowen
S.I.A.B. (SOCIETA 'ITALIANA ANALYSIS Bioenergetics)
Affiliated with the 'International Institute for BIOENERGETIC Analysis (IIBA)
With the Aegis
Assessorato alle Politiche Educative School, Family and Youth of the Municipality of Rome,
Order of Psychologists of Lazio, Italian Federation of Associations of Psychotherapy (FIAP)
Presents -
"IN MEMORY OF Alexander Lowen: The Central 'BODY ALL' AFFETTIVITA in Education' E IN PREVENTION OF DISCOMFORT " Rome 15 May 2009
Sala Gonzaga - Via della Consolata, 5
(from General Command of the Municipal Police, the Capitol area
PROGRAM
10:00 Opening Dr. Patrizia work Moselle
I greet the Authorities:
Laura Marsilio, Alderman Policies Educating School, Family and Youth del Comune di Roma
Greetings:
Dr Mario Falconi, President of the Provincial of the Medici (Rome)
Dr. Marialori Zaccaria, President of the Psychologists Lazio
Dr Alberto Zucconi, President of the National Schools Psychotherapy (C.N.S.P.)
10.30 in memory of Alexander Lowen 10:30 Dr. Patrizia Moselle, President of the Italian Society for Bioenergetics Analysis
(S.I.A.B.), President of the Italian Federation
Associations of Psychotherapy (F.I.A.P.), I.I.B.A. Faculty 10:45 Dr. Piero Petrini, Neurologist, Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, Head Teacher
Psychiatry University of Cassino (Frosinone), a member of
Committee on Psychotherapy of the Ministry of University and
Research (M.I.U.R.) 11:15 Vezio Dr. Ruggieri, Professor of psychophysiological Clinic at the Faculty of Psychology
1 - Università "La Sapienza" of Rome 11:45 Debate 12:15 Dr. Luisa Parmeggiani, Psychologist, Psychotherapist and teacher SIAB 12:30 Screening of video interview with Alexander Lowen
Presents Enzo Decaro, actor and director 1:00 Break 2:30 Lowen's contribution in the prevention
Mr. Aristide Iniotakis, Psychologist, Psychotherapist and teacher SIAB "The centrality of the body in Alexander Lowen"
Dr. Maria Ballardini, Psychologist, Psychotherapist and Director of Educational SIAB "Bioenergetics Analysis in prenatal and neonatal"
Dr. Rosaria Filoni, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, teacher SIAB And Director of the journal Grounding "Bioenergetics Analysis in the class of bioenergetic exercises, a tool
prevention "
Dr. Margaret Giustiniani, Psychologist, Psychotherapist and teacher SIAB
"The contribution of Bioenergetics in the school and educational processes"
Dr. Maria Luisa Manca, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, teacher SIAB and Councilor of the Order of Psychologists of Lazio "Bioenergetics Analysis prevention in the workplace" Break 20 minutes
Dr. Marisa Orsini, Psychologist, Psychotherapist, teacher SIAB and Dirigente A.S.L. Roma B "The contribution of Bioenergetics to psychiatric rehabilitation"
Dr. Piera Sacchi, Psychologist, Psychotherapist and teacher SIAB "The analysis in Bioenergetics parenthood"
Dr. Margaret Semeraro, Psychologist, Psychotherapist and teacher SIAB "The contribution of Bioenergetics in the study of eating disorders"
Dr. Maria Stallone Alborghetti, Psychologist, Psychotherapist and teacher SIAB "The resources of Bioenergetics for the promotion of wellness in old age"
5:30 Screening of Alexander Lowen Memorial Video created by The Lowen Foundation 6.00 End work
The Alexander Lowen Foundation is very pleased to offer you a sensitive, touching, and a very personal Memorial DVD of Alexander Lowen’s life. This 30 minute DVD begins with a picture of Al as an infant and tracks his career, writing, marriage, travel, theories of Bioenergetics, clinical presentations, and ends with Al living one of his favorite pasttimes—sailing. When Al passed away, The Alexander Lowen Foundation requested video clips, audio clips, pictures and audio tapes for our archives and the response was overwhelming with contributions from all over the world. This memorial DVD includes segments of video clips, pictures, audio clips, and selective readings from Al’s books. Set to music in a creative way, this DVD will touch your heart.
Currently, we are offering the Memorial DVD celebrating Alexander Lowen for the least amount possible, $25.00 (domestic shipping included) or $35.00 (international shipping included). If you are able to donate any additional amount in honor of Alexander Lowen, donations will be used to produce more media about Al. Please click on the DONATE page on the website or email us at info@LowenFoundation.org or call us at 386-462-5155.
"I have just viewed the DVD and congratulate you and the Foundation for a really fine job of presenting Al, his work, and his life." -V.H.
"The DVD is priceless for me." -L.C.
"Very nice tribute." -R.P.
"It was stunning... seeing Dr. Lowen as he was." -D.R.
"Thank you for the DVD. It is a treasure to have. Last night my sister and I watched it. She loved it as well and already wants to show a friend of hers." -L.C.
"Beautiful, Breathtaking." -T.B.
"The Memorial DVD was very well received." -SCBC conference
May 7th - May 14, 2009
Preview from The Alexander Lowen Memorial DVD!
This sneak peak captures how much Al Lowen was loved and how much he will be missed. We received numerous tributes in honor of Alexander Lowen worldwide. These and many more are featured in the touching and sensitive Memorial DVD that honors the life and work of Alexander Lowen.
April 29th - May 7th, 2009
Preview from The Alexander Lowen Memorial DVD!
This sneak peak captures how much Al Lowen was loved and how much he will be missed. We received numerous tributes in honor of Alexander Lowen worldwide. These and many more are featured in the touching and sensitive Memorial DVD that honors the life and work of Alexander Lowen.
April 21th - April 28th, 2009
Preview from The Alexander Lowen Memorial DVD!
The Alexander Lowen Foundation created this DVD from materials sent to the Archives from
Lowen Supporters around the world.
This clip is taken from the DVD that celebrates the life of Alexander Lowen.
April 12th - April 20th, 2009
“During the workshop in High Springs Florida, when Al was 92 years old, he talked about how he did somersaults everyday…I think he was in shorts and a t-shirt… and he tucked his head down and rolled on the back of his shoulders and flipped over on a mattress. Everyone at the workshop learned how to do somersaults, even those of us who were less gifted at doing somersaults. Al reminded me of a small child because he was so aware of his body and agile. Here he was at 92 years of age telling us 45 and 50 year olds to go do somersaults…we were clinging to our seats! Al was even a little mischievous when challenging the rest of us “old fogies” to do somersaults.”
-Anne Gatz, participant at Al Lowen’s last workshop in High Springs, Florida (2002)
April 5th - April 11th, 2009
“The body is the person, but you express who you are through the body as much as through your mind - you don’t have a body, you are your body. And looking at a body and sensing a body, we can know who a person is.”
-Dr Alexander Lowen, 1970
March 28th - April 4th, 2009
“But you know, if you are going to help people, you’ve got to look at yourself first and find out how you can deal with a problem you’ve had, from your childhood, and when you can do that—its not a quick job—but when you do that, you open your heart and your mind and your body to the real understanding of life.”
-Dr Alexander Lowen Energetics of Bioenergetics directed by David Weiser
March 21 - March 27th, 2009
A Workshop with Alexander Lowen in Columbia Winter 1998
March 14, 2009 - March 20, 2009
“Exploring the Body's Energy” -- A Bioenergetic Workshop
Feb 2009 Bogotá, Columbia
Organized by: Pedro Rojas
Led by: John Yong, JD
“Me ha llenado de emoción este encuentro tan maravilloso. Conocerlos a cada uno de ustedes ha sido algo muy lindo en mi vida” Carolina Marín Tapia (Workshop participant)
“I was filled with excitement this event so wonderful. Know each of you has been very nice in my life” (Rough English translation from Google Translate)
March 7, 2009 - March 13, 2009
"Leslie and I were very excited about this book because the exercises are not done mechanically, but are connected to feeling."
- In reference to The Way to Vibrant Health by Alexander and Leslie Lowen 1977.
February 27, 2009 - March 6, 2009
“In 1938, I became aware that my life suddenly felt empty and I felt depressed. It was not a serious depression, but I had never felt this way before. I realized that the depression was due to a lack of excitement in my body due to a lack of physical activity. In order to feel my body, I started doing 30 minutes of exercises when I got home after work….Performing these exercises had the desired result and also made me realize that this is where I wanted to be – in my body, not in my mind.”
-Alexander Lowen
Honoring the Body
February 19, 2009 - February 26, 2009
"The nature that you see in Brazil is exciting; the mountains, the ocean, the plants and the light. And I would like to pass on to you my hope that you preserve that nature as much as possible. And you know the world is threatened ecologically and this threat stems from the fact that man has separated himself from nature. That separation is more evident in my country than yours. The more industrialized a country becomes, the more removed people are from the natural ways. And from the spirituality of the body."
-- Alexander Lowen From
lecture given at a Conference in Bahia, Brazil 1989
February 12, 2009 - February 18, 2009
Thoughts from the Bioenergetics Memorial Workshop in Miami Beach, Florida.
"... my great thanks for that heart opening experience! "
"We've got such a sense of ourself that we didn't have before we left.
We want to thank you and thank you and thank you for this amazing experience in all this 4 days together...all of you are so different and are able to come in your deep emotion in many different ways.
"Yes it was GREAT to share my 2 1/2 days with you...Of course a most special Thank You to Dr. Bob for all he did to make it a success...and the guidance and knowledge he shared directly with me."
February 4, 2009 - February 11, 2009
Thoughts from the Bioenergetics Workshop in Poland.
"Thank you very much for nice workshop. Finally a therapy reaches the core of issue, causes deep changes in the body and its energy and it is not only a surface talking. The workshop was nicely conducted by John, With great awareness, sensivity and honour to the patient and his energy."
January 27rd - February 3, 2009
Join us in Miami for the Alexander Lowen Memorial Video
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Contact The Lowen Foundation for more information at
Phone: (386) 462-0616
January 19rd - January 26, 2009
Olá, pessoal.
Localizei algumas fotos antigas do Dr. Lowen.
As fotos de número 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 e 6 são de abril de 2000.
A foto 5 é de setembro de 1999.
Tive uma grande oportunidade de fazer um trabalho com ele, que foi uma experiência única na minha vida.
Seguem os meus agradecimentos:
Angélica Rodrigues Santos
Instituto PlenoSer
Educação, Consultoria e Psicoterapia para a Saúde
SGAS 915 - Bloco C - Salas 205 e 206
Ed. Office Center
70.390-150 - Brasília - DF
Rough Translation:
Hello, everyone.
Find some old photos of Dr. Lowen.
The photos of number 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 and 6 are from April 2000.
The photo is 5 September 1999.
I had a great opportunity to work with him, which was a unique experience in my life.
Here are my thanks:
January 11rd - January 18, 2009
Citation: Friedman, H., & Glazer, R. (in-press).
The Body Never Lies: In Memory of Alexander Lowen
Harris Friedman, University of Florida
Robert Glazer, Gainesville, Florida
Sometimes the conversations of humanistic psychologists seem overly intellectualized, focusing on esoteric issues (e.g., debating so-called paradigm differences between mainstream positivistic and humanistic psychologies), relying on obtuse language (e.g., employing highly nuanced terminology from existential/phenomenological philosophers unknown to all but a few initiates), and even delving into radically-relativistic constructivism implying that all perspectives are without solidity and essentially rest on a cascade of words whose meaning are only arbitrary. However, Alexander (Al) Lowen (1910 – 2008) gave little credence to such approaches. He used words sparingly and always directly, ensuring they were grounded in direct body experience and not just abstractions, as he was convinced that over-intellectualization distances us from what he unwaveringly saw as constituting the core of life, our embodied existence.
Wilhelm Reich (see biography by Sharaf, 1994) was Al’s mentor and therapist, as he was to another well-known humanistic therapist who emphasized body-oriented approaches, Frederick (Fritz) Perls (see his autobiography, In and Out of the Garbage Pail, 1969), founder of gestalt therapy. Reich was a controversial protégé of Freud, who pioneered psychoanalytically-based somatic approaches to therapy. Al held two law degrees at the time he met Reich, but he became deeply changed by his own personal therapy with Reich, deciding to leave law to become a psychiatrist by completing a medical degree, which he did in 1954. Then Al, along with his colleague, psychiatrist John Pierrakos, built on Reich’s (1980) contributions by developing a unique blend of mind-body therapy integrating psychological with somatic interventions they called bioenergetic analysis, which later began to simply be called bioenergetic therapy or, shortened further, bioenergetics.
During the early years of the humanistic psychology movement, Al was among its most influential pioneers. He presented frequent bioenergetic workshops in prominent venues, such as Esalen Institute, getting equal billing alongside the other most influential leaders of the humanistic movement, such as Fritz Perls and Carl Rogers. As an incredibly talented therapist, he was able to reach deeply into people in a way that few else could, quickly bringing workshop participants to deeply-felt realizations that left little doubt in both participants and observers that something powerful was happening when he worked with people. Many flocked to his workshops and he influenced a large number of therapists through training programs he created at the International Institute of Bioenergetic Analysis, which continues to certify bioenergetic therapists. Likewise, many psychotherapists who elected not to become bioenergetic therapists nevertheless came to see Al as a therapist’s therapist; although they might only take most of their own patients so deep in the therapeutic process, they would look at bioenergetics as an approach for their own deepest growth and, perhaps, use bioenergetic techniques with a select few of their patients. Al’s work also had wide influence on the burgeoning field of “somatic psychotherapy” (also known as psychosomatic and body-oriented psychotherapy; Hanna, 1986). Somatic approaches treat the person both psychologically and through a heterogeneous assortment of body modalities, including manipulation of bones/joints, soft tissues, and even so-called subtle energies, and often draw from the Reichian tradition, including Al’s work.
Al also left a rich legacy of writings, including many books and monographs. His major book written for a professional audience, Language of the Body: Physical Dynamics of Character Structure (Lowen, 2006/1958) outlined his basic theoretical stance. In a later book, Bioenergetics: The Revolutionary Therapy that Uses the Language of the Body to Heal the Problems of the Mind (Lowen, 1977), Al wrote in a more popularly-accessible way on his approach to therapy. He described bioenergetics as a way to diagnose and therapeutically intervene with people through understanding humans as energy systems from both psychological and somatic perspectives. Diagnoses focused on traditional psychoanalytic concepts, understood through somatic perspectives (e.g., defense mechanisms seen as both a mental maneuvering and a physical process of blocking awareness), and working actively with clients’ bodies were the hallmarks of his approach to therapy. Al often lamented that “talk” psychotherapy resulted only in superficial changes unless there were also accompanying somatic changes. He also lamented that solely somatic interventions, such as massage, lacked the psychological integration needed for creating lasting changes. In this way, he felt bioenergetics combined both somatic and psychological approaches more effectively than either alone for resolving problems and enhancing pleasure
Al’s keen observations of bodily structures (e.g., posture) and functions (e.g., movement) were amazing. He could look at a person and almost unerringly read key aspects of their life history from their body alone, no words needed. These insights stemmed from Reich’s (1980) early work with chronic muscular tension (i.e., armoring) as the first line of defense against threatening feelings. As emotion (i.e., e-“motion”) etymologically references movement and, since muscles are the basis of movement, armoring inhibits both emotional feelings and expression (e.g., muscular tensions in the jaw can block both the capacity to feel and express anger); in this way, armoring operates similarly to psychological defense mechanisms, but at a somatic level. Al frequently insisted that, although people can say what they will--such as denying painful feelings, the body never lies.
From these astute observations, Al’s therapy focused on releasing both psychological and physical tensions, restoring clients’ capacity to feel and express, that is their aliveness. Although Al discussed body and mind as if separate, he always assumed they were functionally equivalent, acknowledging the dualistic limitation of words and always referencing experiences back toward the lived body. His basic conceptualization was that experience (e.g., increasing fear) affects somatic expression (e.g., increasing panic breathing), while somatic expressions (e.g., increasing panic breathing) in turn affects experience (e.g., increasing fear) in an endless circle of reciprocity. Consequently, bioenergetics employs both psychological interventions focusing on increasing the depth of experience, including placing experience into a meaningful context using psychoanalytic conceptions, and somatic interventions focusing on increasing the capacity for movement and energy availability.
To illustrate, a person experiencing anhedonia might be asked to express negative feelings either verbally or through physical action, such as hitting a pillow. This type of expression will often result in an increased felt-sense of energy that enables regaining contact with emotional experience previously blocked by armoring and that only can be re-experienced after release of tensions. In this regard, bioenergetics can be applied to many psychological and even physical (e.g., low back pains without known organic cause) conditions—and it can be particularly applicable for so-called treatment-resistant “negative symptoms,” such as anhedonia, which are increasingly common in modern culture.
Until near the end of Al’s life, he continued to do therapy with clients and provide workshops. He also continued to diligently work on himself using bioenergetic techniques, engaging in daily kicking and hitting to keep his body vibrant well into his 90s. He was preceded in death by his loving wife, Leslie Lowen, who also was a therapist. He is survived by Frederic Lowen, his son, and Sonya Lowen, his granddaughter. Al’s recent autobiography, Honoring the Body (Lowen, 2004), provides a deeper glimpse into the life of this remarkable man.
References
Hanna, T. (1986). What is somatic? Somatics, 5(4), 4–9.
Lowen, A. (1977). Bioenergetics: The revolutionary therapy that uses the language of the body to heal the problems of the mind. New York: Penguin.
Lowen, A. (2004). Honoring the body. Alachua, FL: Bioenergetic Press.
Lowen, A. (2006/1958). Language of the body: Physical dynamics of character structure.
Alachua, FL: Bioenergetics Press.
Perls, F. (1969). In and out of the garbage pail. Lafayette, CA.: Real People Press
Reich, W. (1980). Character analysis (3rd ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Sharaf, M. (1994). Fury on earth: A biography of Wilhelm Reich. Cambridge, MA:
DaCapo Press.
Author Biographies Harris L. Friedman is Research Professor of Psychology at University of Florida. He is Editor of the International Journal of Transpersonal Studies and Associate Editor of The Humanistic Psychologist, as well as a Florida licensed psychologist and certified bioenergetic therapist. Robert Glazer is Director of Florida Society for Bioenergetic Analysis and founded Bioenergetics Press. He is a Florida licensed psychologist in private practice and certified bioenergetic therapist. He worked closely with Alexander Lowen for many years, including editing his autobiography, Honoring the Body.
January 3rd - January 10, 2009
Preview of the material to be presented at the Miami Workshop Memorial Dinner....
For more information please go to the Events Page.
"The Brazilians waited for eight years for Al to come to Brazil. When he arrived in 1989, along
with Frank Hladky and myself, he had a hero’s welcome. He was greeted with love, excitement,
and television cameras in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador da Bahia. His picture was on
the front page of the main newspaper in Rio. He offered workshops where participants sat on the
edge of their chairs or sometimes stood or kneeled on them, thoroughly engrossed in watching
the master work. He spoke with dignity and ease to hundreds of people at conferences in each of
these cities. The lecture presented here was transcribed from a tape of the conference in Bahia.
The words are Al’s. None were change. The picture above, as well as the ones at the end of this
paper, was taken in Bahia at the site of the final workshop."
[Paper to be shared at the Miami Workshop].
— Leslie Case
A Leader for the Winter Memorial Bioenergetics Workshop
December 26th - January 2, 2009
Happy Holidays from The Alexander Lowen Foundation
to the Vibrant Bioenergetic Community
and our website's visitors throughout the world!
December 19th - December 26th
Currently The Alexander Lowen Foundation is compiling media for its archives. If you have any media involving Alexander Lowen or Bioenergetics, please send it to the foundation to be archived and possibly used for the Alexander Lowen Memorial Workshop in Miami Beach, Florida this January.
Please send it to:
The Lowen Foundation
19802 Old Bellamy Road
Alachua, FL 32515
United States
Slideshow Tribute to Dr. Lowen
Sent in From Malu Millerman
"Every time that I was with him, he used to say:
'I am an old man but I feel good, I dance and
I move my body to avoid rigidity,'
and his eyes always shinning, very alive"
There is great appreciation for the tributes, memories, and photographs that so many of you are sharing right now through The Foundation's Guestbook Honoring Alexander Lowen. Thank you.
November 13th - November 20th
Alexander Lowen Has Passed Away
Alexander Lowen passed away peacefully in his sleep between midnight and 2am on the morning of Tuesday, October 28, 2008. Al was 97 years of age, 2 months shy of his 98th birthday on December 23rd. Despite a debilitating stroke two years ago, Dr. Lowen enjoyed his last years in loving care at his home in Connecticut. An international group of caregivers, Nana from Ghana, Karen from Jamaica, Eddie from the Bronx, and Monica, his angel on Earth, from Brazil, cared for him and loved him in the comfort of his home. With their help, the help of others, his visitors, and all people wishing him well, he enjoyed and struggled, agreed and disagreed, argued and accepted, listened to music, danced, worked his body, and lived a full life to the end. A student and lover of life, his was a life that wished to live. He will be missed by many, even as he is still with those who knew him.
Dr. Lowen's life touched all of us very deeply. We have been able to cherish and benefit from how he created Bioenergetic Analysis and touched tens of thousands of lives. He always had profound respect for the body and the power of the life force. He was buried at a private family funeral on November 8. His passing is deeply mourned by his son Frederic and family, wife Cheryl, and daughter, Sonia. Dr. Lowen leaves a sister, Sylvia Murray, 93.
Two quotes from Dr Lowen's 14 books are very relevant. In Fear of Life, he wrote:
"As one grows older, the sense of separateness is slowly reduced. Old people do not live on an ego level. Their concerns are not about their individuality but about the river of life, the family, the community, the nation, people, animals, nature, life. They can die easily if they are assured that life will continue positively, for they feel part of the river again, and soon they will be part of the ocean. When they are very old, they no longer belong to our time and space, but to all time and all space."
In his Autobiography, Honoring the Body, he wrote:
"If you have the willingness to accept the realities of life, you will live longer. It has allowed me to reach 93 years of age. I was raised to value the mind and intellect, not the body. Favoring the life of the mind went against my nature. Healing the split between my mind and my body has been my life's challenge. In the 60 years that I have practiced psychotherapy, I have learned that the pathway to emotional health is through the body. The underlying purpose of Bioenergetics Analysis has always been to heal the mind—body split."
A memorial service open to all friends will be held at his home in Connecticut in late Spring 2009.
You are welcome to post a tribute to Dr. Lowen on our website. The link to the "Honoring Alexander Lowen Guestbook" is http://www.lowenfoundation.com/guestbook.html. You can also send us an email at info@LowenFoundation.org. Some of you may even have pictures you can share with us.
The Alexander Lowen Foundation was founded, funded, and established by Dr. Alexander Lowen, M.D. to continue his teachings and further develop his work.
Frederic Lowen, Robert Glazer, John Yong
Directors The Alexander Lowen Foundation
November 5th - November 12th
Au Risque De Vivre (The Risk of the Living)
Video Clip From film by Philippe Georges Girod
October 28th -November 4th
Au Risque De Vivre (The Risk of the Living)
Video Clip From film by Philippe Georges Girod
October 20th - October 27th
Au Risque De Vivre (The Risk of the Living)
Video Clip From film by Philippe Georges Girod
October 12th - October 19th
Au Risque De Vivre (The Risk of the Living)
Video Clip From film by Philippe Georges Girod
October 5th - October 11th
Au Risque De Vivre (The Risk of the Living)
Video by Philippe Georges Girod
These images are taken from a 1983 French documentary on the awareness of the language of Bioenergetics. In the film, a seminar is presented by Bioenergetic's creator Alexander Lowen, who is accompanied by his wife Leslie.
September 28st - October 5th
September 21st - September 28th
"Bioenergetics in Paradise; Costa Rica Workshop" Leader excerpt #5 – John Young, JD on Healing Through the Body.
How would you describe Bioenergetics to someone who has never heard of Bioenergetics?
"We are always looking for expression. We are always looking for love and contact that we didn't get as a young child. The way to do that is through the body. I truly believe that the only way to heal is through the body."
September 14th - September 21st
"Bioenergetics in Paradise; Costa Rica Workshop" Leader excerpt #4 – Robert Glazer, PH.D on Body Reading and the Bioenergetic Therapy Process.
"One of the most important parts of Bioenergetics is body reading. We use the phrase, 'body reading,' to mean how you look at the body in two ways: in the form of the body and the function of the body. Both are extremely important diagnostic processes. First of all, when you first look at the form of the body, the structure, you want to get a sense of the energy function of this organism. Is the body energy sufficient? Is the body deficient? Meaning, does a person have enough energy to cope with the demands of life, the pressures of life? We use positions, Bioenergetics stress positions, to equate some of the stress that life puts on you. Therapy work is kind of a microcosm, the testing grounds for the real world. So, the beginning of the bioenergetic therapy process always starts with... what does the body tell you?"
September 7th - September 14th
"Bioenergetics in Paradise; Costa Rica Workshop" Leader excerpt #3 – Anna Miller, MSW on Bioenergetics and Feeling Better.
"Lets focus on what Bioenergetics people can do to help individuals feel better. When we feel good, we do good for others."
The Alexander Lowen Foundation was honored to have Anna lead this workshop.
September 1st - September 7th
"Bioenergetics in Paradise; Costa Rica Workshop" Leader excerpt #2 - Fred Lowen on Bioenergetics in Everyday Life
"Our ultimate goal is to share Bioenergetics with a critical mass of individuals to affect the quality of their everyday decisions, small and large. We look forward to a day when Bioenergetics is used in schools, fitness centers, hospitals, daycares, nursing homes,YMCA's, town squares, corporations, and workplaces. Bioenergetics is a way and means to heal and nourish that mind-body connection in psychotherapy and in life."
August 26th - September 1st
"Bioenergetics in Paradise; Costa Rica Workshop" Leader excerpt #1 - Scott Winfield, LSW, on Body Reading
"This is interesting for me to be asked to read the body first, because when I was in training, and as a person in the family I grew up with, it was an incredible 'having to know.' I had to know everything. I remember hearing that Alexander Lowen could look at you and tell you what kind of father and mother you had just by looking at you. So I had this idea, by god, that I had to know. It would cause me to try too hard in a mechanical way. So, it's interesting to be doing this. I intend to not try too hard when I work with the person and let the impression come to me.
There is a very good book if anyone is interested for body reading,
Ron Kurtz's The Body Reveals."
August 18th - August 25th
Costa Rica Workshop Comment
"I liked the experience. I found that all of the trainers were solid in their field... if it is possible for me to do another workshop, I will. Thank you for your generosity in your knowledge and kindness."
August 11th - August 17th
A Participant's Thoughts After Costa Rica Workshop.
Beauty of the Sadness
Raining (as usually in Belgium), but this time rain is cold.
Workshop In paradise has been finished.
I was really there, I mean my self was there.
That was a moment of my life when you bend your head not due to guilt or submissiveness but due to pleasure of listening and watching,
That you looking for someone eyes not hoping for approval or understanding but to see other person beauty
It was a moment when suddenly you stop acting all those roles and one most important is acted right now – your life
I am saying that if you crying after beauty then it is beautiful sadness
Life is celebrating natural beauty and that beauty makes you falling in love, in that mystery which in fact is every person, especially when he/she is consciously supporting to let go, to be open, to share, to be so is expressing voice of the body means love to me.
Love,
Rafal
August 4th - August 10th
Excerpt series from The Energetic of Bioenergetics - Interview with Dr. Lowen (5 of 5)
Dr. Hladky - Yes. Because real pleasure is a body awareness. Feeling aliveness.
Dr. Lowen - Sure, sure. So, everybody is worried about health these days, and I think they are right to worry. Because they're not healthy. People are sick out there. Their bodies are grotesque. So let me say this, that a healthy person is really characterized by a body that is alive and vital. Eyes that shine, voice that resonates, a manner that is soft, a sense of grace, a character that is dignified and not dominated by his ego. There is sense of humility when he talks about things. So, I have to find that in myself, and if I find that in myself, I try to share that with my patients and help them reach it. Its a long road, Frank.
These excerpts are taken from an interview of Dr. Alexander Lowen by Dr. Frank Hladky in 1998. The entire interview, along with a recording of Dr. Lowen teaching different aspects of Bioenergetic Analysis and conducting demonstrations with audience participants, is captured on the 90 minute DVD, The Energetics of Bioenergetics. The complete DVD is available through The Alexander Lowen Foundation at www.LowenFoundation.org/donate3.htm
July 28th - August 3rd
Excerpt Series from The Energetics of Bioenergetics - Interview with Dr. Lowen (4 of 5)
Dr. Hladky - Certainly, socially our problems look like they're getting bigger and bigger all the time.
Dr. Lowen - When you lose contact with your body, you enter a little bit of an insane world. That's what insanity is. You become unreal. You don't feel yourself in a human way. As you see there's a lot of that going around here. I'm afrain that is going to get worse. Bu you know, if you're going to help people, you have got to first look at yourself and find out how you can deal with the problems that you've had from your childhood. Whe you can do that, it's not a quick job, but when you do that, you open your heart and your mind and your body to the real understanding of life.
Dr. Hladky - And what people, I think, so often miss in talking about this is that with this comes real pleasure.
Dr. Lowen - Joy, even.
These excerpts are taken from an interview of Dr. Alexander Lowen by Dr. Frank Hladky in 1998. The entire interview, along with a recording of Dr. Lowen teaching different aspects of Bioenergetic Analysis and conducting demonstrations with audience participants, is captured on the 90 minute DVD, The Energetics of Bioenergetics. The complete DVD is available through The Alexander Lowen Foundation at www.LowenFoundation.org/donate3.htm
July 21st - July 27th
Excerpt Series from The Energetics of Bioenergetics - Interview with Dr. Lowen (3 of 5)
Dr. Hladky – And when you see the body, and see what the person’s experience has been, and where they are now, how do you begin the work?
Dr. Lowen – Well, what you find is, that all the problems the person has are structured in his body. And the basic problems he has is that he is afraid to come alive and have feelings fully. That’s the basic problem. For good reason, but the fact is that this is the basic problem.
Dr. Hladky – Oh, sure. Because usually as children they were reprimanded or rejected whenever they showed their emotions.
Dr. Lowen – That’s right, oh even punished. When they get a little wilder, they were beaten you know, all kinds of terrible things happen. So we had to learn to cut off feelings, and the only way to cut off feelings is to deaden your body. That’s the only way for you to cut off feelings—dead bodies don’t feel. But getting back the feelings, when people are so frightened of feeling, is a long hard road. It’s a worthwhile road. The problem that we have is that the culture is not a body culture. It’s a head-end orientated culture.
These excerpts are taken from an interview of Dr. Alexander Lowen by Dr. Frank Hladky in 1998. The entire interview, along with a recording of Dr. Lowen teaching different aspects of Bioenergetic Analysis and conducting demonstrations with audience participants, is captured on the 90 minute DVD, The Energetics of Bioenergetics. The complete DVD is available through The Alexander Lowen Foundation at www.LowenFoundation.org/donate3.htm
July 14th - July 20th
Excerpt Series from The Energetics of Bioenergetics - Interview with Dr. Lowen (2 of 5)
Dr. Lowen - Eventually, I got into therapy with Wilhelm Reich. And everything that I hoped for became possible for me. The road wasn’t easy. I had to work through a [body-mind] split, it is not something you can heal through your mind.
Dr. Hladky - Yeah, you feel it.
Dr. Lowen - You have to feel it and you have to work it out on a dynamic level. You see. Well I was in therapy with Reich for three years and it was body therapy mostly. We didn’t do much talking and focused on breathing. Well, breathing is the most important thing in life. You don’t breathe, you don’t have any life! And he knew something about breathing. I had some great experiences in that session. And it really changed my life.
These excerpts are taken from an interview of Dr. Alexander Lowen by Dr. Frank Hladky in 1998. The entire interview, along with a recording of Dr. Lowen teaching different aspects of Bioenergetic Analysis and conducting demonstrations with audience participants, is captured on the 90 minute DVD, The Energetics of Bioenergetics. The complete DVD is available through The Alexander Lowen Foundation at www.LowenFoundation.org/donate3.htm
July 7th - July 13th
Excerpt Series from The Energetics of Bioenergetics - Interview with Dr. Lowen (1 of 5)
Dr. Hladky – Well, give us some of your basic concepts.
Dr. Lowen – Well, you are your body right? That means if you are going to change in any significant way your body must change. And the body is not something you talk about. Your body is something that can be seen. So if I work with somebody I have to see the physical change on the body level, then I know they’re changing and what’s going on. But in, more important you see, you are your body and it tells the story of your life. And it also tells where your present problems are. It’s all about you. In fact, it is you. So knowing how to read the body, the body language, and understand that it portrays the history of the person, gives you some leverage in helping him make the changes he needs, to find some fulfillment in life. They aren’t easy. But if you don’t make them, I’m sorry for you, because you loose out on the meaning of life. You will never know the fulfillment, the joy of being fully free in your body, and all your life.
These excerpts are taken from an interview of Dr. Alexander Lowen by Dr. Frank Hladky in 1998. The entire interview, along with a recording of Dr. Lowen teaching different aspects of Bioenergetic Analysis and conducting demonstrations with audience participants, is captured on the 90 minute DVD, The Energetics of Bioenergetics. The complete DVD is available through The Alexander Lowen Foundation at www.LowenFoundation.org/donate3.htm
June 30th - July 6th
Courtesy of The Alexander Lowen Foundation Archives; Photo Date: 1970
June 23rd - June 29th
Courtesy of The Alexander Lowen Foundation Archives; Photo Date: 1990
June 16th - June 22nd
Grassroots Campaign "Bioenergetics to the People" Going Strong
As we transition into the summer of 2008, The Alexander Lowen Foundation's Grassroots Campaign, "Bioenergetics to the People", has been received warmly by the Bioenergetic community.
Our main goal is to keep Dr. Lowen's work thriving in the community so many more people can experience the aliveness that accompanies Bioenergetic Analysis. The Foundation embraces all individuals interested in the work to connect with us through our workshops, website and/or forums.
Our summer workshop in 2008 will be "Bioenergetics in Paradise" held at Punta Leona Hotel and Resort in the beautiful country of Costa Rica. The following are quotes from our registered participants:
"I'm so happy to have that fantastic opportunity to meet you and others - it would be my first personal contact with anyone involved in bioenergetics, it would be also my first time in that part of the world."
"I am also more than thrilled to joining you in Costa Rica, one of my dreams is coming true."
"Thank you very much for your attention...I'm very glad about the workshop."
We planned a dynamic workshop that will encompass the wide spectrum of experience in all our participants. Registration is still open and we hope you join us for this experiential workshop.
June 2nd - June 8th
Getting to the Essence and the Core of a Person
"I believe that is the piece that has been missing. Everything that has ever happened to us, in the present...even in the past, way back generations, its all patterned inside of our body. The part that we're most interested in- in Bioenergetic Therapy is what is in the body. My personal belief system is that we have to deal with both aspects. We have to deal with both the body and the mind
...Another reason that I really like this work is that it changes people. That touches me greatly. It moves them internally into a differently place in their life and it makes them feel more fulfilled and satisfied. That's what we're all looking for- we want to live a fuller, richer life. Most of the time we're compensating, just to stay alive. It's not such a good place to be. So I feel that Bioenergetic therapy is an approach to work with the body and mind- you're getting to the essence and the core of a person."
-Eleanor Greenlee at Finding Your Aliveness 2008 (Tulsa, OK)
May 26th - June 1st
Feedback from Participants attending Finding Your Aliveness Tulsa Workshop 2008
"Beyond Belief"
"Frank and Elenor are masters from whom I learn so much. Bob's lesson about the body was very good."
"Lovely setting! Amazing food! Caring, professional community!"
"Strengths: experience over many years, wisdom, kindness, knowledge (Frank's of Freud, Reich and Horney), Eleanor's use of circle to open and close, Frank's matter-of-factness"
"Best about the [workshop]: seeing different clinicians work, seeing the magnitude of ways we all are embodied, morning exercises, the food & setting, the people, the weather.."
May 19th - May 25th
It's not magic...It's the aliveness - Finding Your Aliveness 2008 with Frank Hladky, MD
Dr. Hladky: I have a good feeling with this group working together. . . . John, how are you holding up?
John Young: (Laughter) I am holding up pretty good. I just like to be here, with you, to see the magic. (More laughter). No, it’s true. I feel blessed to be a part of this. I feel happy to be a part of this.
Dr. Hladky: That’s interesting that you had that reaction. I remember that I had that reaction the first time I saw Al work, maybe forty years ago. It’s not magic. It’s the aliveness...the further you get with it, the easier it is to help whoever you are working with. It’s like - I don’t do anything. People say that I do something. . . . But when I get focused, like I did yesterday, or that I almost always do, I really use a lot of energy. One thing that made me aware of this was yesterday which was a pretty warm day. After I finished working, I felt like an athlete that comes off of the field. I really got chilled. I had to put my coat on and keep the car warm. I was charging energy. I knew I was using a lot of energy. But, all I do, mainly, is keep focused...try to hear (I don’t hear much), but I do see and I keep focused on whoever I am working with. I stay in contact. I stay in touch. Then my organism helps me know what’s going on. Not just my thinking. It’s my organism more than my thinking that tells me what’s going on. I think, but it’s more a feeling of what’s going on and what might happen.
May 12th - May 18th
Question about Vibrations at Finding Your Aliveness (Tulsa, OK - 2008)
Workshop Participant: This is related to vibrations [and bioenergetic therapy]. I have the impression that sometimes the vibrations are real gross or sometimes they are real subtle. Does it really matter?
Dr. Frank Hladky: No, it doesn’t matter. You go with whatever is happening. Usually what happens is when they first start, they are strong. That might be because there is so much that needs to be discharged. There was too much to be discharged to just handle it. Then you go with whatever. Another thing is sometimes there are too many blocks. Al says, I think he says it in that book [The Way to Vibrant Health], that [the roughness or subtleness of the vibrations] doesn’t matter. It’s kind of like the old cars, like the Model T’s. When you first started them up, they were rough. But when they got warmed up and ran for a while, they got smoother. That’s the way with us, too. It doesn’t matter. Whatever happens with us and vibrations, you just let it happen.
May 5th - May 11th
Video from "Finding Your Aliveness" 2008 featuring Frank Hladky, MD speaking about Vibrations
April 28th - May 4th
Character Type - Excerpt from Discussion with Frank Hladky During April 18 - 21 Tulsa Workshop
“We used to focus on character [structure] a lot. Al used to teach in terms of character type and we learned something from all of that. But, the reason that he stopped and I stopped is because after people got that information, they would type people.
Al thought, and I thought, that too many people, after they got that information, began to type people. For example, they began to think that this is a ‘schizoid’ character or this is an ‘oral’ character and treat them accordingly. Al felt strongly and I do too, that when we do this, we loose some or even a lot of the contact and the consideration that each of us is an individual and unique...
It does not mean that character structure is not helpful to know. Anybody that is studying Bioenergetics ought to know it. They should actually be able to see the types in the body and then be able to not think in these terms. Each person is an individual. And we should consider what is going on with this individual at this time, and what has happened in the past for them. We ought not to type anybody. We are all mixed anyway. There is no pure anything. [For example], there is no pure ‘schizoid’ – it doesn’t exist.”
-Frank Hladky, MD, Finding Your Aliveness 2008 Workshop
April 21st - April 27th
Join us in Costa Rica for Bioenergetics in Paradise!
Countries in which our website's visitors live throughout
the world!
April 7th - April 13th
Short Clip of Dr. Hladky Speaking at the 2007 Tulsa Workshop
Click here for more information about this year's Finding Your Aliveness workshop.
March 31st - April 6th
Translate The Alexander Lowen Foundation website into your native language!
Thank you Google Translate for providing this translation feature for so many languages. We understand that this is a rough translation but it offers wider availability of this site to all countries. Additionally, we would like to express our gratitude to Kamila Jakimowicz for the pages she translated into Polish. Her dedicated intention of spreading Bioenergetics and Dr. Lowen's work throughout her country is appreciated. Click here to see parts of The Alexander Lowen Foundation site in Polish. The translation fuction for other languages can be found in the upper right corner of the webpages.
March 24th - March 30th
Mind-Body Unity
“Mind-body unity is the most fundamental bioenergetic analytic concept. The unique heritage of a Reichian tradition has been maintained and furthered by bioenergetic analysis, a tradition in which body work is inextricably grounded within a deep understanding of personality and character dynamics, while simultaneously these psychodynamics are grounded within the lived body. Without such a holistic approach, addressing the full-range of human experience, change is likely to be short-lived for those whose issues are more personality and character driven.”
-Harris Friedman, PhD., Introduction to The Language of the Body, 2003.
March 17th - March 23rd
Unity of Opposites
“We will be exploring ways to dissolve the boundary between the mind and body so as to discover again this unity of opposites lying asleep in the depths of our being. 'This split cannot be overcome,’ says Lowen, ‘by a knowledge of the energetic processes in the body. Knowledge itself is a surface phenomenon and belongs to the realm of the ego. One has to feel the flow and sense the course of the excitation in the body. To do this, however, one must give up the rigidity of one’s ego control so that the deep body sensations can reach the surface.'
Simple as it sounds, that is the very difficulty almost every person faces as he tries to connect with this body. He won’t really feel his legs, stomach, or shoulders, but, out of habit, he thinks about his legs, stomach, and shoulders. He pictures them to himself and thus avoids giving feeling-attention to them directly. This is, of course, one of the very mechanisms responsible for the dissociation of the body in the first place. Special attention should be given this tendency to conceptualize our feelings, and a special effort made to suspend, at least temporarily, this habitual translation of feeling-attention into thoughts and pictures.”
-Ken Wilber, No Boundary, 2001, p.97.
March 10th - March 16th
Eleanor Greenlee's "wonderfully unique and respectful" style of Bioenergetic work
"...When a human being gets in touch with himself after discharging the holding patterns, you have this wonderful human being that loves himself. The integrity that they have comes out in the form of their loving themselves. That is the real integrity of this person. They are able to love themselves and then turn around and love each other."
-Eleanor Greenlee, September 2007 interview response
"...The group is so incredibly appreciative of the respect you [Eleanor] give them and continue to give them for the integrity of their work with their bodies and for the integrity of their spirituality and their values...There is always a profound way that you do bioenergetic work that respects the person."
-Robert Glazer, September 2007 interview response
March 3rd - March 9th
Frank Hladky's "rock-solid, anchoring" style of Bioenergetics
". . . .I had the great fortune of meeting my mentor, my surrogate father, Dr. Frank Hladky. I remember my first session with him where I felt very, very "seen." He basically held me like you hold a child and I just cried for 30 minutes. I had never before in my life felt that kind of release and discharge. Actually, as I was driving home, I had to pull over many times just to cry because the vibrations were moving through me.
When he looks at people, he basically feels--within himself--what their developmental issues are. He sees, in my view, everything…He gives, from over his 60 years of experience, at every session. He brings that rock-solid, rancher energy into every session... really something very special.
He is a foundation upon which you can draw energy from and do your own process. That's how I would characterize him. He maintains his own energy so well, so firm and so rooted that you can do what it is that you need to do as a client to seek your own journey with him as an anchor.
He always talks about 'aliveness'….to find your aliveness."
-Interview with John Yong, February 2008
February 25th - March 2nd
Emotions are the Life of the Body
"A psychotherapy which believes in the power of the rational mind to heal the sickness of the soul of modern man is unreal. It ignores the powerful role of emotions in human life and the fact that emotions are the life of the body as thoughts are the life of the mind. One cannot create feeling by a mental process. No one can make himself fall in love by any act of the conscious mind. We cannot feel anger by an act of will. And certainly we cannot feel joy by any kind of mental gymnastics. The conscious mind can suppress feeling but it cannot evoke it. We can destroy life by an act of will but we cannot create it. This is not to say that the mind has no role in the analytic process but that role is limited to understanding what happened. This can lead to change if sufficient emotional force or energy is mobilized to break through the bonds that imprison the spirit. Those bonds are physical and exist in the body as chronic muscular tension that block the full flow of excitation in the body and the full expression of feeling. The reduction of those tensions changes the form and motility of the body: its form becomes more beautiful and its movements more graceful. Only to the degree that one can observe these changes in the body of the patient can one speak of significant improvement."
-Alexander Lowen, Transference and Countertransference, 1994
February 18th - February 24th
Sense of Joyfulness
“I have reached a point now where much of the time there is a sense of joyfulness in the body. It’s really a lovely feeling. Maybe as I get older I am less pushy; less driven. But still that sense of joyfulness is something very beautiful. I’m more connected to the ground. I move slower. I work easier with my patients. I have more understanding. Understanding is a very beautiful word. It means under, therefore the ground; standing on the ground; connected to the base of reality. And when you have that, you find out that you move with a sense of grace.”
-Alexander Lowen, Opening Address to the Ninth International Conference, Montebello, Quebec, May 1988.
February 11th - February 17th
Responses of Participants from the Staff Development Workshop in New Brunswick, Canada
January 19th through 20th, 2008
The energy is uplifting, excited, nervous, anticipatory.
I am feeling more confident, more adult. Life is good...
...am astounded by [my] feelings of change
...still glowing - doing [my] exercises every morning, voicing and pulling [my] hubby and son into doing [the exercises] with [me] - ...have affectionately dubbed you (John Yong) the zen master
The weekend was a new opening for me – a symbolic and literal way of showing myself
I felt new today – I saw my clients through new eyes. I looked into their eyes and saw their fear. I have not been able to see emotion in their eyes. I heard their stories differently.
a veil has started to lift off my eyes
We will begin our exercise group next week and be open to what the universe has in mind for us.
The goal of Staff Development Workshops is to introduce Bioenergetics to psychological and mental health facilities to integrate Bioenergetic skills into their professional activities.
February 4th - February 10th
Finding Your Aliveness - Tulsa, Oklahoma
Dates: Friday, April 18th - Monday, April 21st
Leaders: Frank Hladky, MD; Eleanor Greenlee, MA, MFT; John Yong, JD; Rober Glazer, PhD
Lodging: Best Western Kenosha Inn - 1200 East Lansing; Broken Arrow, OK 74012
When reserving your room, please mention The Alexander Lowen Foundation for discounted group rates. Email Best Western or call them at 918.251.2795
Workshop Fee: $475 (includes four lunches) To Register for Tulsa 2008 click here To contact The Alexander Lowen Foundation for more information click here.
A follow up to last October's very successful workshop presented by Frank Hladky, MD and Eleanor Greenlee, MA, MFT, The Alexander Lowen Foundation presents "Finding Your Aliveness" in Tulsa, Oklahoma from April 18th through the 21st. In addition to Frank and Eleanor, two of the Board of Directors for The Alexander Lowen Foundation, Robert Glazer, PhD and John Yong, JD, will also be workshop leaders. "Finding Your Aliveness" in 2008 will blend the best techniques from all the leaders: Eleanor's strong body work, Frank's deep trust and personal warmth, John's innovative style of integrating group members and Bob's exuberance and masterful use of techniques. We hope you will join us for this refreshingly, powerful workshop led by leaders with over 130 years of combined Bioenergetics experience.
January
28th - February 3rd
Integrity - Quote from Spirituality of the Body
"...It is necessary to formulate and teach ethical
principles by which human beings can guide their behavior.
To be effective, however, such teaching must recognize
the basic role that the body and its feelings have in
all issues of morality. This requires an emphasis upon
the fact that moral behavior is designed to promote
the good feelings of the individual as well as the welfare
of the community. If a major goal of life is to be a
graceful and gracious person, as I believe, then that
must also be the goal of our educational programs, not
the acquisition of knowledge. We must not be reduced
into believing that knowledge and the power it offers
can lead to the "good" life. The failure to
live by principles that embody high ethical standards
entails the loss of the greatest gift life has to offer—joy.
Without integrity, physically and psychologically, one
cannot know the deep pleasure and good feelings that
come from moving gracefully, or experience the spiritual
ecstasy of being a gracious person. Without these qualities,
no matter how powerful or wealthy one is one lives in
a dark prison of fear, distrust, and enmity."
- Alexander Lowen, Spirituality
of the Body, 1988.
January
21st - January 27th
Hope and Illusions - Quote from Betrayal of the
Body
"Hope is realistic even in the deepest
despair, since it admits the possibility of disappointment.
Illusion, on the other hand, permits no doubts, allows
no challenges. . .
The deeper an individual's despair the stronger and
more exaggerated will his illusions be; the more powerful
the illusion the greater is the desperation. As an
illusion gains power it demands fulfillment, thereby
forcing the individual into conflict with reality
which leads to desperate behavior. To pursue the fulfillment
of an illusion requires the sacrifice of good feelings
in the present, and the person who lives in illusion
is, by definition, unable to make demands for pleasure.
In his desperation he is willing to forgo pleasure
and to hold life in abeyance in the hope that his
illusion-come-true will remove his despair."
- Alexander Lowen,
Betrayal of the Body, 1967.
January 14th - January 20th
The Alexander Lowen Foundation Presents Its First
London Event
The Bioenergetic Experience:
Working with the Body in Psychotherapy
This
is a unique opportunity for people interested in the
work of Alexander Lowen, MD and the practice of Bioenergetics
to learn about and experience this work firsthand.
Venue: Stanford Hall - Lutterworth,
Leicestershire, LE17 6DH
Excerpt #3 from Eleanor Greenlee's Exercise
Group at the Tulsa Workshop - The Pelvis
"Ok, now, what I’m going to have you do
is slowly lift your pelvis up off the floor. Just lift
it up a little bit, so that it’s not on the floor.
And I want you to rotate your pelvis. Actually, you
might want to lift it up a little bit more than a little
bit. Rotate your pelvis as you breathe. As you inhale,
your pelvis drops back. We’re kind of exaggerating.
But that’s because we want to get that pelvis
where it’s suppose to be. So inhale, bring your
pelvis way back, almost right where it touches the floor.
And then when you’re ready to exhale, you bring
your pelvis forward up towards the ceiling. Inhale and
bring your pelvis back and exhale to bring your pelvis
forward towards the ceiling. See if you can just move
that pelvis, just that pelvis. You know, it moves all
by itself. It’s not the whole torso. Make that
pelvis move, that segment of its own. Good, good. Take
your time. If you’re moving too fast, that means
you’re hyperventilating. I don’t want you
to do that. Even though you’re lying down on the
floor, and if you pass out you’re already on the
floor. I want you to move in time with your breathing.
So it's inhale and now exhale. And wait for that inhalation.
Wait for it. Ok and down, your pelvis on the floor.
Just rest. Just rest.
And just feel your pelvis. What does your pelvis feel
like? Energized. Ok now, I just want to tell
you that some of you were moving very fast. And If you
were standing and you were breathing that fast, you
would pass out. That’s called hyperventilating,
ok? You can’t do that, ok? We’re going to
do this one more time, but we’re going to do it
with the movement is in time with your breathing. When
your body needs a breath in, that’s when you know
you can put the pelvis back. You wait until you finish
taking that breath in. There’s a moment between
the intake and the exhalation so you wait for that.
Then when you’re ready to exhale, you move your
pelvis forward, ok? And as long as it takes you to exhale,
that’s how long you stay in that upward position.
So try again. Lift your pelvis up off the floor. Maybe
you know you need to bring your pelvis up a little bit
higher than you did before. So now start to move your
pelvis in time with your breathing. As you inhale, you
will take your pelvis down as if you’re about
to touch the floor, and when you exhale, you move it
towards the ceiling as if you going to shoot an arrow
at it."
December 31st - January 6th
Excerpt #2 from Eleanor Greenlee's Exercise
Group at the Tulsa Workshop - The Neck
"Because there are some people who
mentioned the neck to me, drop your head down and lets
see if we can just let it hang this morning. Now let
it stretch. Get those muscles in the back of your neck
here and stretch. And just lift your head up a little
tiny bit like you want to look to the right but your
head is still down. Let a sound out. Move your head
to the other side... to the right... and then the left.
Lift your head up. Scan the ceiling, move your head
down, and begin making circles with your nose. Go around.
Catch a glimpse of those beautiful trees. Now you have
to be very slow and you have to go around the other
direction. Try to keep your head a little bit in. You
know, some of you are feeling movement in your eyes
when you stretch and they are moving. Because you’re
moving your head and there’s that connection between
your eyeball and the back of the head. As you do this,
you’re stretching that connection between the
eyes and the back of the head. One more time down, and
then come to center, check in. We still have to do a
little bit more. Put your ear down to your shoulder,
which obviously you can’t do, so just go down
there and then come back to the other side. Try to make
the motion happen with your head, don’t move your
body, just your head."
December 24th - December 30th
Excerpt #1 from Eleanor Greenlee's Exercise
Group at the Tulsa Workshop - The Aligned Position
"All right, let’s get into the aligned
position. This is really important because this is
the starting place and the ending place that lets
us know what we’re feeling, and where we have
aches and pains. Let's just start the motor going
a little bit. As we take our breath in, let's just
bring our pelvis down and back. We’re bending
our knees. When we’re ready to exhale, you just
bring your knees up and let the pelvis come forward.
Now this is an exaggeration of natural breathing,
but we have to do this with our clients because our
body doesn’t know that. So inhale down, bend
your knees, pelvis down and then exhale up and pushing
forward. Now, remember you are moving in time with
your own breath. You’re not moving in time with
what I’m saying or the person next to you. It’s
your own movement that you have to follow. Inhale
down and exhale up at your own pace. Remember to bring
your pelvis forward when you exhale.
Try to reach down a little further if you can.
Now I’m just going to talk to you while you’re
moving here. Remember that you want to look for that
place, that center place of your body. When you reach
it—sometimes you have to swing to the right
or left, sometimes you have to lean a little forward
or back—it's a magic place. Those of you who
have found it, i'ts in the middle of your body and
as soon as you hit it, the vibrations just roll up
and down. It's wonderful, right to the top of your
head."
December
17th - December 23rd
Excerpts from Letters to the Foundation Written by Participants
after Attending Finding Your Aliveness Workshop with Dr.
Frank Hladky
“I wish to thank
you from the bottom of my heart for all the care you put
into the Foundation and making the workshop a reality.
It was very humbling to be among so many individuals who
have worked so hard on caring for the aliveness in their
own being with gentle - steady - strength form Dr. Hladky
and all.
I keep feeling the workshop is a beautiful crystal
chandelier in my head - each crystal tinkling as a shining
memory. Not soft and watery, but with strong voices
and hard cut edges.”
Rose Danowski
Workshop Participant
“The workshop had Infinite Depth and Infinite
Sensitivity.”
Robert Rabus, PhD
Workshop Participant
December
10th - December 16th
Excerpt #3 from Dr. Frank Hladky's Opening Comments at
the Inaugural Foundation Workshop: Finding Your Aliveness
“The most important thing we
have with our clients is contact. What clients basically
need first is contact....
Freud was the first one that listened to anybody.
Nobody ever listened to people who were emotionally
or mentally ill before. Freud listened. And, he gave
the patient time. He listened for as long as it took.
The patient could lie on that couch and talk and Freud
did not interrupt. He gave the patient time and he listened.
And then he began to understand that there are reasons
for things. What happens in childhood leads to what
happens in adolescence and so forth and so on. And nobody
really got that before. There is a reason for emotional
or mental problems....He also at times felt problems
were energetic. He talked about libido as an energetic
force that even with his genius he did not get hold
of as a force to work with.
It was Reich, who was one of the youngest of Freud’s
disciples and one of the few great geniuses after Freud,
who began to see that problems were not just symptoms.
[He] did not just see the symptom and try to relieve
the symptom, but he began to see that the problem was
each person’s way of being. He called it their
character. [He saw that] their way of being, which we
would call their defense system, was what got them stuck
wherever they were stuck. And as Reich worked on their
character, he tried to understand it and he did understand
it....He also began to see that the way people were
had to do with the way they were in their bodies. It
wasn’t just what they talked about, but, actually,
what they were in their bodies was more important than
what their words were. That was Reich. So, in addition
to Freud hearing the patient, Reich began to see [the
patient].
Lowen and Pierokas were students and patients of Reich...Lowen
got [the patient’s] energy going. He saw them.
He could see the problem and he could tell them the
problem. He could analyze it and help them understand
where they were caught and [how to] find a way out.
Lowen also added a lot. [For example,] he taught the
client to say “No”. Kick and say “No”.
Until you find your “No,” if you don’t
have the ability to say “No,” you have nothing
in terms of being an individual. Lowen was not just
analyzing, not just focusing on pathology, but giving
the patients something they didn’t get. A lot
of strength of the therapy with Lowen was with the contact,
[though] he did not acknowledge it. Once in a while,
he would touch somebody, but very rarely. Sometimes
he would give a little hug. The contact was his personality.
The force of his personality was tremendous.”
December
3rd - December 9th
Excerpt #2 from Dr. Frank Hladky's Opening Comments at
the Inaugural Foundation Workshop: Finding Your Aliveness
“What [Lowen and Pierokas] did is unbelievable.
They got the patient on his feet. Can you imagine? After
all of those years of Freudian psychoanalysis and all
of those wonderful years with the genius Reich, it was
Lowen and Pierokas who got the patient on his feet. Al
has told me, “I feel my main contribution is the
feet.” I believe him because [this] led to all of
our work on grounding.
I did not hear the English language until over 40
years ago when I was forty something years old. “Calm
down”, “settle down”, “let down”,
“slow down” is in the English language.
It knows what it means and I had never heard of it.
And “upset”, “uptight”. It’s
in the language. I had never heard it but Lowen heard
it and started getting patients on their feet. “Feel
your feet, bend your knees, exhale - exhale when you
are bending down.”
Then, from there, they started the patient as the
active one – not only lying on the couch, not
only standing. To express, if [the patient] needs to
kick, he can kick. If he’s angry, he gets the
racket and he hits the block. The patient becomes active.
This changed everything.
And it was with this, the patient being active, that
we get Bioenergetics. We get to the energy. When they
first talked about it, they called it Bioenergetic Analysis.
I don’t like that at all because that says “analysis”
and “analysis” just means analyzing. When
you say analyzing, you are not doing anything physical.
You are analyzing. [But,] the understanding is important,
absolutely important. Al always told me that the first
thing you have to do with a client is to understand
what’s going on. But sometimes, you can look at
them and see what’s going on. You don’t
have to spend hours asking questions. But you have to
understand and then do something. So I like [the term]
Bioenergetics much better because what’s it mean?
Live energy or living energy.
The point is that what I focus on is being alive.
We do need to focus on the pathology [only] to get the
anger out, the fear out, the crying out. [This is] because
you need to free the energy that is used to hold in
all of these things. Anybody that has held in his anger
all of his life is damn near paralyzed.”
November
26th - December 2nd
Excerpt #1 from Dr. Frank Hladky's Opening Comments at
the Inaugural Foundation Workshop: Finding Your Aliveness
“As people are getting more
and more away from their aliveness, it’s not only
that they don’t feel anything, but they don’t
feel any impulses. They don’t know what they want.
They have to think what they want. They have to figure
out what they want....I have a drink of water because
I am thirsty, not because I have to figure out how long
it’s been since I had my last drink....People are
not that in touch any more.
So, a big part of the therapy nowadays is to work with
emotions, to get the imaging going, to get free from the
old stuff. This is so [people] can begin to feel their
aliveness, so they can feel what pleasure is, and feel
what they want to do with their lives....
Lowen got the people on their feet; got the patient active;
got the energy going. [He] believed in the energy, and
worked on the breathing to get the energy moving. When
energy gets going and is grounded, then the organism begins
to integrate itself.”
November
19th - November 25th
Body Awareness
Body awareness has become an important focus in my
analytic practice because of my experience with both
women and men who, despite earnest commitment to their
dreams and their own growth, are still unable to trust
the process. Their souls are dislocated in bodies
so wounded that the ego’s willingness in itself
is simply not enough.
Failure in travailing life’s junctures is not
necessarily the failure of the ego to adopt a new
attitude toward the Self by sacrificing the old. Many
of my analysands have what I believe to be appropriate
ego attitudes; their bodies, however, have at some
point been traumatized. While their egos can be approached
through confrontation, challenge or humor, their bodies
cannot respond. The more quickly the ego moves ahead,
the more terrorized the body becomes. The task then
is to find some means of going back to the point of
wounding to reconnect with the abandoned child. The
body, like the child, tells the truth, and tells it
through movement or lack of movement.
A trained observer can discern whether the soul has
taken up residence in the body, or whether the body
image is so intolerable that the flesh is barely inhabited.
The body can be so retarded that it cannot even imagine
itself as an adult….Body awareness, as I understand
it, has nothing to do with the technology of the body.
It is not fitness or longevity that is at stake, although
these may be by-products. What is a stake is the integration
of body, soul, and spirit.
Marion Woodman, The Pregnant Virgin,
p. 55.
November 12th - November 18th
The Alexander Lowen Foundation
has chosen to present the video, “Man’s
Right To Know - The Story of Wilhelm Reich” to
further participate in the commemoration of the fiftieth
anniversary of Wilhelm Reich’s death.
November
5th - November 11th
Orgone Energy
November 3rd, 2007 was the 50th anniversary
of the death of physician-scientist, Wilhelm Reich.
We are including the following excerpt from Dr. Lowen's
early writings in our Feature of the Week in commemoration
of this event. More of Dr. Lowen's discussion of Reich
can be viewed on the videos within this website entitled
Something to Bring Split Together and Great Experience
with Breathing.
"In the years 1940-1947 Reich was actively
engaged in research about the nature of the life energy.
The research was begun in Norway in 1933 before he came
to the United States. It stemmed from his deep belief
that the libido was a physical energy. In Oslo he demonstrated
that there was an increased electrical charge on the
surface of the skin when it was gently stroked. It was
known that the skin has an electrical charge. This was
called the psycho galvanic reflex. Reich also showed
that painful stimulation of the skin resulted in a decrease
of this charge. Reich postulated that in pleasure there
is an increased flow of energy or excitation to the
surface of the body and a decrease or withdrawal of
charge in situations of pain or anxiety. Reich could
not believe that his energetic movement was electrical
in nature. Electricity is experienced by the body as
an alien force. The energy of the libido had to be different,
life positive. That argument made absolute sense to
me.
When Reich came to the United States in 1940 he brought
his laboratory equipment to further his studies of this
energy. He shared his research with his students. When
I came to his home for a therapy session and later to
attend seminars, he would invite me into his laboratory
and showed me his research. I looked through his microscope,
I saw the bions which were as he described them. He
also had a room built like a Faraday cage to exclude
any outside energy in which one could observe blue streaks
and dots which were supposed to represent the life energy
which he called Orgone. Reich found that working in
this Faraday room he got a tan even though the room
was dark and he also felt alive as if he had been out
in the sun. Experimenting with bions he found that they
had the ability to immobilize smaller particles. These
and other observations made him believe that he was
dealing with a new energy which was life positive as
opposed to electricity which is life negative."
October 29th - November 4th
The Alexander Lowen
Foundation Expanding the Worldwide Bioenergetic Community
The Inaugural Workshop of The Alexander Lowen Foundation
was held October 26th through November 1st in Tulsa,
Oklahoma. Participants attended for three days (Oct.
26 – 28) or for seven days (Oct. 26 – Nov.
1). The workshop was a joyous and extremely rewarding
experience for all 25 participants. Frank Hladky, MD,
Eleanor Greenlee, MFT, John Yong, JD, and Robert Glazer,
PhD, led over 50 individual sessions. Participants came
from all over the world- Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada,
California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Vermont, Florida,
and Michigan. The Inaugural Workshop began the first
of many workshops to continue Alexander Lowen’s
work.
"The Alexander Lowen Foundation has
renewed an opportunity for fellowship and body work
with those who love and use the therapy that Dr. Lowen
founded. Being able to work with Dr.Hladky
again and receive the healing touch and support so necessary
to continue the work has been extremely valuable to
me. Finding the fellowship of other bioenergetic practitioners
and the joy of watching and knowing this will continue
in the spirit of Al Lowen, renews my faith in
life."
Ann Hallock, ACSW
October 22nd - October 28th
~Viewer Responses to the Alexander Lowen Foundation
(continued)~
October 15th -
October 21st
~Viewer Responses to the Alexander Lowen Foundation~
"I read Narcissism
two weeks ago and loved it. I found it so interesting
and it opened my mind up to what narcissism actually
is: the split between the self and the image. The book
concluded perfectly and the last few pages were a knockout
punch. I'd like to learn more so that I can begin to
apply these new insights I've gained. Thanks for an
intriguing book."
Concluding paragraph of Narcissism:
" I am sure some of us have known moments of joy
when our egos took a back seat and the child in us was
free to laugh and love. Unfortunately, we lose our innocence
too soon, an most unfortunately, we prize this loss. We
don't want to be innocents, for that leaves us open to
being ridiculed and hurt. We want to be sophisticated
– that allows us to feel superior. Sophisticated
people seem to have the most fun – partying, drinking,
being a little wild, denying limits. What have the innocents
got? An open heart, simple pleasures, faith. How much
more alluring to have a sharp mind; to know all of life,
the lows as well as the highs; to have power to be admired,
feel special. The seduction of power is hard to resist,
particularly when, as a child, one was hurt and betrayed
by those one loved. To sell out the kingdom of heaven
for power is a devil's bargain. It is the bargain that
the narcissist makes."
Alexander
Lowen, Narcissism (1985), p. 228.
October
1st - October 7th
Below is an excerpt from a note written by Malu Millerman
in 2001 describing her interview with Dr. Lowen:
Dear Friends and Bioenergetics Analysis Colleagues.
My name is Malu Millerman and I am a Bioenergetics analyst
(CBT). I graduated from the Bioenergetics Analysis Institute
in São Paulo. Since I moved to New York City in
1993, I have had the privilege of systematically working
with Dr. Alexander Lowen, both as a client and as a student,
since I do client supervision with him. I also had the
honor of being invited by him to work in his New York
City office where I was able to be in touch with him and
with colleagues, discussing several life issues. This
increased my admiration for the very knowledgeable person
that he is.
This year [referring to the year 2001], Dr. Lowen decided
to close his New York City office and work from his beautiful
home in Connecticut, surrounded by plants, ducks, a lake,
and peaceful living with his wife, Leslie, who still coordinates
the Exercise Classes for groups. This year I still attend
to my sessions at his house and take the opportunity to
record a few questions and answers, something I have been
doing for some time.
In August of 2001, I was with him on a beautiful summer
day. I found him healthy and full of energy, convincing
me ever more of the value of a well-practiced Bioenergetics.
Before beginning my therapy session, I asked him to record
a few words for students and trainers who would be attending
the Latin American Federation meeting in Brazil. He was
happy to do it and I gladly pass along to you this short
interview since due to prior commitments, I am unable
to be with you at this time.
Much success to all and much energy to enjoy life.
Malu Millerman
Click Here to Read Interview
in English Click Here to Read
Interview in Portuguese
September
24th - September 30th
Interview Series with Prominent Bioenergetic Practitioners:
Eleanor Greenlee, M.F.T.
This Feature of the Week is a conversation between Eleanor
Greenlee, M.F.T. and Robert Glazer, Ph.D. Eleanor has
been a bioenergetic trainer since 1976. A year later,
she became an International Bioenergetic Trainer and has
since taught Bioenergetics all over the world, training
hundreds and hundreds of practitioners. The purity of
Eleanor's style of Bioenergetics stems from her deep respect
of the gift of each individual. We are extremely fortunate
that she will join Dr. Frank Hladky in Tulsa, Oklahoma
during the Foundation's inaugural workshop starting on
October 26, 2007.
Please click here to listen
to the audio recording of the conversation.
September
17th - September 23rd
Eleanor Greenlee
Joins Frank Hladky in Presenting “Finding Your
Aliveness” Workshop
We are exceptionally pleased to announce that Eleanor
Greenlee, M.F.T., Senior International Bioenergetic
Trainer with over thirty years of Bioenergetics experience,
is joining Frank Hladky, M.D., in presenting the inaugural
workshop for The Alexander Lowen Foundation in Tulsa,
Oklahoma on October 26th. When Eleanor learned
of the workshop, she said she “absolutely wanted
to be there because of my love for Al Lowen and Bioenergetics.”
The workshop’s afternoon breakout groups will
be led by Eleanor Greenlee, M.F.T., Robert Glazer,
Ph.D., and John Yong, J.D. For more information
or to register, click here.
Left: Eleanor Greenlee, M.F.T., and Alexander Lowen,
M.D., presenting a workshop entitled "The Masters
Workshop" in High Springs, Florida (Gainesville,
Florida) on August 5th - 7th, 2005.
September
10th - September 16th
Closing Statement Taken from a Talk Given by Alexander
Lowen at The Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference, Las
Vegas, Nevada, 1995.
“My
evolution had brought me to understand that the body would
heal itself if one surrenders to it. The surrender to
the body means feeling it fully from head to feet. It
means sensing all the chronic muscular tensions in the
body, understanding their history and their function in
the present. It means feeling one’s pain and sorrow
and crying. It means being able to protest the loss of
one’s innocence and one’s joy. And it means
the ability to be angry about it. Finally it means an
acceptance of the failure of all one’s efforts to
overcome one’s problems, “to make it”,
to succeed. It means to have faith in the body for it
is the abode of God, and trust its feelings because they
express your truth. I had to learn this before I could
teach it to my patients. And I have to learn it again
and again because my narcissistic ego still thinks that
it knows best.”
September
3rd - September 9th
Backward Stretch
"One
of the main purposes of bioenergetic exercises is to help
you sense or get in touch with your body. This is necessary
because too many people live in their heads, with very
little consciousness of what is going on below their necks.
They are not aware when they hold their breath or whether
their breathing is shallow or deep. Most people do not
sense their legs and feet. They know that they are there,
but they use them merely as mechanical supports. Sensing
is not a mechanical function. An automobile may run very
well, but it senses nothing. Sensing is a function of
feeling.
Here is a simple exercise that will help you sense a part
of your body you are not normally aware of. Let us assume
that you are sitting in a chair while reading this book.
Raise your arms and arch backward over the back of the
chair. Make a good stretch and hold it for about thirty
seconds. While doing so, breathe easily and deeply through
your mouth.
* Did you feel your back pressing against the chair? Did
you sense whether your back was tight or relaxed? Was
it painful? Could you breathe easily in this position?
* When you stretched your arms backward, did you feel
any tension in your shoulders?
* After you returned to your usual sitting position, were
you aware that you tended to hunch forward? You may have
sensed a need to stretch backward again to overcome this
common tendency to hunch forward. Do this exercise again
and sense how much easier it is the second time. Stretching
the muscles of the back has relaxed them somewhat."
— Excerpt from Lowen & Lowen, The Way
to Vibrant Health (1977)
August 27th - September 2nd
A map of where our website's visitors live throughout
the world!
August
20th - August 26th
Excerpts
about Character Structure from Fear of Life by Alexander
Lowen:
"The masks, facades, and
roles become structured in the body because the child
believes that this pose will gain the parent's approval
and love. Our bodies are molded by the social forces
in the family that shape our character and determine
our rate…which is that we must try to please to
gain approval and love." (Lowen, Fear of Life,
p. 67).
"The roles we adopt in life become structured
into our bodies as our way of being in the world…but
they become the only way we can be and thus severely
limit our being. This is another way of saying that
a person's fate is determined by his character, which
is structured in the body by chronic muscular tensions".
(Lowen, Fear of Life, p. 95).
"Each tension is part of a total pattern, which
constitutes the character structure and which is intended
to ensure the survival of the individual. To step out
of character is too frightening. It is experienced as
a loss of identity, a momentary nonbeing, or death."
(Lowen, Fear of Life, p. 110).
August
13th - August 19th
FINDING
YOUR ALIVENESS
Workshop with Frank Hladky, MD.
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Oct 26-28, 2007 - 3 Day Track - Fri-Sun
Oct 26-Nov 1, 2007 - 7 Day Track - Fri-Thur
The Alexander Lowen Foundation is pleased to announce
this inaugural workshop led by Frank Hladky, MD. Frank
has played a pivotal role in the development of Bioenergetic
theory and practice. His style of bodywork is based on
his strong bond with Alexander Lowen and over 40 years
of his association with him. Frank's unique contributions
center around boundaries, his integration of group members
in the Bioenergetic Therapy process and his gift of personal
warmth and deep trust in the body. Click
here for more information.
August
6th - August 12th
"The
Energetics of Bioenergetics" Available on Sept. 15,
2007.
The Energetics of Bioenergetics (seen throughout our site)
is a 90 minute DVD with a recording of Dr. Alexander Lowen
teaching different aspects of bioenergetic analysis and
conducting demonstrations with audience participants.
The footage was captured by film maker David Weiser in
1998 at the IIBA's International Conference in Pawling
, New York. Also included in this DVD is an "off
the cuff" interview of Dr. Lowen done by his colleague
Dr. Frank Hladky. David Weiser describes the making of
this film as "a bit magical," and notes that
"Lowen wanted something preserved on film of quality
of himself" that could be used in the future. You
will receive this DVD for free when you make a $125 donation
to the foundation. Click here
for more information.
Available Language: English
July
30th - August 5th
Interview Series with Prominent Bioenergetic
Practitioners: John Yong
In addition to being a practicing attorney in New York
City , John Yong is on the Board of Directors of The
Alexander Lowen Foundation and has led bioenergetic
workshops in North and South America. His expertise
is in leading bioenergetic groups by utilizing a unique
way of integrating group members energetically
into the bioenergetic process while an individual
is receiving a session. In this interview, John describes
some of his experiences with Dr. Lowen, Dr. Hladky,
and Bioenergetic Analysis. John talks about meeting
"(his) mentor, (his) surrogate father" Dr. Hladky, and
his first bioenergetic session with Frank.
These monthly interviews appearing on the Alexander
Lowen Foundation website will result in an anthology
of interviews to be published. If you would like to
be interviewed, please contact
us.
July
23rd - July 29th
Quote from Alexander Lowen - The Betrayal
of the Body, 1967.
"The conflict of modern man stems from the opposing
values represented by his ego and his body. The ego
thinks of achievement, the body of pleasure. The ego
functions with images, the body functions with feelings.
When image and feeling coincide, the result is a healthy
emotional life. When, however, the feeling is subordinated
or suppressed in favor of the ego image, the result
is a life of illusion and desperation. The illusion
contradicts the reality of the body's condition, the
desperation evades its needs.
Behind every illusion is the desire for freedom and
for love. The desperate individual strives for freedom
and love through the illusion of power. In his mind,
power is the key to freedom and love. Although this
illusion serves to sustain his spirit in its despair
and helplessness, we have seen that it also maintains
the despair and helplessness when the critical period
of childhood has passed. To overcome the illusion of
power, the reality of freedom and love must be experienced
as bodily feelings. This is accomplished by concentrating
upon the physical tensions of the body. When a person
feels the rigidity of his body, he will know that he
is not free, regardless of his rebellion and defiance.
If he feels that his body is frozen, he will know that
he is shackled, whatever his external situation may
be. If he becomes aware that his respiration is inhibited
and his motility reduced, he will realize that he is
not able to love.
The emotional significance of muscle tension is not
adequately understood. The unresolved emotional conflicts
of childhood are structured in the body by chronic muscular
tensions that enslave the individual by limiting his
motility and capacity for feeling. These tensions, which
grip the body—mold it, split it, and distort it—must
be eliminated before one can achieve inner freedom.
Without this inner freedom it is illusory to believe
that one can think, feel, act, and love freely."
July
16th - July 22nd
New Portuguese Book Release: Uma Vida Para
O Corpo
We're proud to announce the publication of Honoring
the Body in Portuguese by Dr. Alexander Lowen.
Here is a short synopsis of the book:
Neste livro, Alexander Lowen faz uma retrospectiva de
sua vida e sua carreira de psicoterapeuta. Partindo
da infância e adolescência no Harlem e passando
pelo encontro com Wiulhelm Reich e pela descoberta da
felicidade no casamento, o autor estabelece uma relação
de cumplicidade com o leitor, revelando sua personalidade
vigorosa e a busca incansável do fim da cisão
corpo-mente.
July
9th - July 15th
Interview Series with Prominent Bioenergetic
Practitioners: Dr. Harris Friedman
The Feature of this Week begins a series of live interviews
between Dr. Robert Glazer and eminent bioenergetic theoraticians
and practitioners. The first interview is with Dr. Harris
Friedman, psychologist, certified bioenergetic therapist,
editor of the International Journal of Transpersonal
Studies and author of the foreword to Alexander Lowen's
Voice of the Body and recently republished Language
of the Body.
These monthly interviews appearing on the Alexander
Lowen Foundation website will result in an anthology
of interviews to be published. If you would like to
be interviewed, please contact
us.
July
2nd - July 8th
Exercise 3 / Letting the Belly Out Exercise
"The second commandment is to let the belly out.
Many people find this hard to do at first. It violates
their image of correct posture and good appearance.
They have been brainwashed with the dictum for proper
bearing: “belly in, chest out, shoulders up.”
Perhaps this bearing is proper for a soldier who must
function like an automaton, but it is the epitome of
rigidity. It denies a person autonomy, spontaneity,
and sexuality. The sucked-in belly makes abdominal breathing
very difficult and forces one to over inflate the chest
to get enough air. The continued over inflation of the
chest is one of the factors responsible for emphysema.
In the next chapter we will describe the healthy or
correct breathing pattern more fully. As we shall see,
it is dependent upon a relaxed abdominal musculature."
— Excerpt from Lowen & Lowen, The Way
to Vibrant Health (1977)
If you would like to practice the Letting the Belly
Out Exercise, please click
here.
June
25th - July 1st
Exercise 2 / Flexing the Knees Exercise
"There are two commandments that, if observed,
help you become and stay grounded. The first is to keep
your knees slightly flexed at all times. Locking the
knees when standing turns the whole lower part of the
body from the hips down into a rigid structure, which
then functions as a mechanical support or a mechanical
means of locomotion. It prevents one from flowing into
and identifying with the lower part of the body."
— Excerpt from Lowen & Lowen, The Way
to Vibrant Health (1977)
If you would like to practice the Flexing the Knees
Exercise, please click
here.
June
18th - June 24th
Exercise 1 / Basic Vibratory and Grounding
Exercise
"One of the most fundamental exercises in bioenergetics
is also the easiest and simplest. We use it to start
the vibrations in the legs and to help the person sense
them. It is also our basic grounding exercise. Doing
it without any preliminary warm-up may or may not result
in any vibrations. Young people generally respond quickly.
Older persons, whose bodies are less charged and more
rigid, might not experience them. However, their legs,
too, can vibrate after they have done some of the other
exercises that reduce their rigidity, deepen their breathing,
and increase their energetic charge (amount of energy,
excitation, or current in the body)." — Excerpt
from Lowen & Lowen, The Way to Vibrant Health
(1977)
If you would like to practice the Basic Vibratory and
Grounding exercise, please click
here.
June
11th - June 17th
Quote from Dr. Alexander Lowen's farewell
address as reported in the September 1996 Clinical
Journal of the International Institute for Bioenergetic
Analysis:
"If repression is a frozen state in part of the
body, then the neurotic character structure is a relatively
frozen condition of the whole body which develops over
time in the whole body...the neurotic character structure
becomes a fortress to protect the individual from future
traumatic shocks...Living within the fortress life goes
on, but it is neither free nor joyful...Living in the
fortress one is not frightened, but one is literally
imprisoned by his fears. Living within the fortress
the person is not conscious of his fear. It can be described
as denial. As long as the condition of shock exists
in the person's body as chronic muscular tension he
cannot free himself from the fears that imprison him.
Analysis on a purely verbal level is relatively impotent
to break down the prison walls."
June
4th - June 10th
Audio Clip - "Connecting" from
presentation by Dr. Alexander Lowen
In this short audio clip, Dr. Lowen is discussing the
energetics of connection.
We hope you can join us in a discussion on this topic
in the Bioenergetic Analysis General Discussion page
- click
here.
May
28th - June 3rd
Video - Century of the Self
The BBC Documentary The Century of The Self is a 4
part series that examines the role of psychoanalysis
and its use for the manipulation of the collective unconcious
beginning in America in the 1920s. It is a real eye-opener,
and it clarifies where some of today's craziness comes
from. Very few Americans have seen it, we highly recommend
it.
An interview with Candace Pert, Ph.D. (formerly Chief
of the Section on Brain Biochemistry of the Clinical
Neuroscience Branch at the National Institute of Mental
Health) speaks about the neurological link between the
mind and the body in a system she calls bodymind.
SCOTT WINFIELD, M.S.W. has been studying bioenergetic analysis and psychoanalysis for over thirty years and completed formal training in both. Through the years, Scott has led many workshops in North America and South America teaching Bioenergetics, Psychoanalysis and the therapy process. 
Silvina Henriquez, M.A.
 of IMG_3063.JPG)
Alexander Lowen Has Passed Away
"Lets focus on what Bioenergetics people can do to help individuals feel better. When we feel good, we do good for others."
"Our ultimate goal is to share Bioenergetics with a critical mass of individuals to affect the quality of their everyday decisions, small and large. We look forward to a day when Bioenergetics is used in schools, fitness centers, hospitals, daycares, nursing homes,YMCA's, town squares, corporations, and workplaces. Bioenergetics is a way and means to heal and nourish that mind-body connection in psychotherapy and in life."
"This is interesting for me to be asked to read the body first, because when I was in training, and as a person in the family I grew up with, it was an incredible 'having to know.' I had to know everything. I remember hearing that Alexander Lowen could look at you and tell you what kind of father and mother you had just by looking at you. So I had this idea, by god, that I had to know. It would cause me to try too hard in a mechanical way. So, it's interesting to be doing this. I intend to not try too hard when I work with the person and let the impression come to me. 
Beauty of the Sadness
Dr. Hladky - Yes. Because real pleasure is a body awareness. Feeling aliveness.
"I believe that is the piece that has been missing. Everything that has ever happened to us, in the present...even in the past, way back generations, its all patterned inside of our body. The part that we're most interested in- in Bioenergetic Therapy is what is in the body. My personal belief system is that we have to deal with both aspects. We have to deal with both the body and the mind
Question about Vibrations at Finding Your Aliveness (Tulsa, OK - 2008)
“We used to focus on character [structure] a lot. Al used to teach in terms of character type and we learned something from all of that. But, the reason that he stopped and I stopped is because after people got that information, they would type people. 
“Mind-body unity is the most fundamental bioenergetic analytic concept. The unique heritage of a Reichian tradition has been maintained and furthered by bioenergetic analysis, a tradition in which body work is inextricably grounded within a deep understanding of personality and character dynamics, while simultaneously these psychodynamics are grounded within the lived body. Without such a holistic approach, addressing the full-range of human experience, change is likely to be short-lived for those whose issues are more personality and character driven.” 
“We will be exploring ways to dissolve the boundary between the mind and body so as to discover again this unity of opposites lying asleep in the depths of our being. 'This split cannot be overcome,’ says Lowen, ‘by a knowledge of the energetic processes in the body. Knowledge itself is a surface phenomenon and belongs to the realm of the ego. One has to feel the flow and sense the course of the excitation in the body. To do this, however, one must give up the rigidity of one’s ego control so that the deep body sensations can reach the surface.' 
"...When a human being gets in touch with himself after discharging the holding patterns, you have this wonderful human being that loves himself. The integrity that they have comes out in the form of their loving themselves. That is the real integrity of this person. They are able to love themselves and then turn around and love each other."
". . . .I had the great fortune of meeting my mentor, my surrogate father, Dr. Frank Hladky. I remember my first session with him where I felt very, very "seen." He basically held me like you hold a child and I just cried for 30 minutes. I had never before in my life felt that kind of release and discharge. Actually, as I was driving home, I had to pull over many times just to cry because the vibrations were moving through me.
"A psychotherapy which believes in the power of the rational mind to heal the sickness of the soul of modern man is unreal. It ignores the powerful role of emotions in human life and the fact that emotions are the life of the body as thoughts are the life of the mind. One cannot create feeling by a mental process. No one can make himself fall in love by any act of the conscious mind. We cannot feel anger by an act of will. And certainly we cannot feel joy by any kind of mental gymnastics. The conscious mind can suppress feeling but it cannot evoke it. We can destroy life by an act of will but we cannot create it. This is not to say that the mind has no role in the analytic process but that role is limited to understanding what happened. This can lead to change if sufficient emotional force or energy is mobilized to break through the bonds that imprison the spirit. Those bonds are physical and exist in the body as chronic muscular tension that block the full flow of excitation in the body and the full expression of feeling. The reduction of those tensions changes the form and motility of the body: its form becomes more beautiful and its movements more graceful. Only to the degree that one can observe these changes in the body of the patient can one speak of significant improvement."
“I have reached a point now where much of the time there is a sense of joyfulness in the body. It’s really a lovely feeling. Maybe as I get older I am less pushy; less driven. But still that sense of joyfulness is something very beautiful. I’m more connected to the ground. I move slower. I work easier with my patients. I have more understanding. Understanding is a very beautiful word. It means under, therefore the ground; standing on the ground; connected to the base of reality. And when you have that, you find out that you move with a sense of grace.” 
January
28th - February 3rd
January
21st - January 27th
This
is a unique opportunity for people interested in the
work of Alexander Lowen, MD and the practice of Bioenergetics
to learn about and experience this work firsthand. 
December
17th - December 23rd
December
10th - December 16th
December
3rd - December 9th
November
26th - December 2nd
November
19th - November 25th
November
5th - November 11th 
October
8th - October 14th
October
1st - October 7th
September
24th - September 30th
September
17th - September 23rd
September
10th - September 16th
September
3rd - September 9th
August
20th - August 26th
August
13th - August 19th
August
6th - August 12th
July
30th - August 5th
July
23rd - July 29th
July
16th - July 22nd
July
9th - July 15th
July
2nd - July 8th
June
25th - July 1st
June
18th - June 24th
June
11th - June 17th
June
4th - June 10th
May
28th - June 3rd
May
21st - May 27th