Russian Association of Body-Oriented Psychotherapists
The Association is the public organisation consisting of psychologists, psychotherapists, physicians, working in the field of body-oriented psychotherapy and participating in long-term educating programs.
The Association is invoked to raise the status of this kind of psychotherapy, to promote further professional and personal growth of its members, for their professional and legal protection, free exchange of our specialists with the foreign colleagues. Within the framework of association annual conferences are conducted. We also are publishing the professional literature.
The Association consists of specialists, having status of the member or candidate.
The member of Association can be the specialist having higher education in the field of psychology, medicine, psychotherapy; accepting participation in long-term education programs on body-oriented Psychotherapy; applying body-oriented psychotherapy in his work under the guidance of other members of Association (supervisors).
The candidate can be everybody, interested in the body-oriented psychotherapy and participating in the programs under the management of the Association.
For more information You can e-mail the Association
M.Sandomirsky, L.Belogorodsky (C) 2001
The beginning of the BOP physiological fundamentals creation in Russia are dated as early as 1861 (nearly half a century earlier, then Pierre Janet's works in France). At this time the well-known book was published - "The Reflexes of The Brain" by I.M.Sechenov. In this pioneer work Sechenov proved that all human psyhological activity is nothing else but physiological reflexes, and that our emotional state is determined by the so-called "muscle feeling" (thus anticipating the works of W.Reich).
This physiological approach to the psychology was continued by I.P.Pavlov, who created the theory of conditioned reflexes, describing the most fundamental mechanism of human learning. We can say that deletion of the 'wrong" conditioned reflexes and creation of the new ones instead them forms the basis of great variety of psychotherapeutic methods.
The work of Pavlov was evolved by his follower N.A.Bernshtein, who has developed the systemic approach to the human movements and muscle tone. According to his scheme, every movement is not the simple stereotyped action, but the really creative one. Every time the human brain creates the corresponding complex motor program from the very beginning, calculating and taking into account numerous influences of the organism's internal state and external conditions. This non-standard, variable part of movement enables an opportunity for the therapist to transform the patient's motor activity (and through these changes - the psychological sphere as well).
Another universal physiological mechanism, which is important to psychotherapy, is the phenomena of the so called permanent abnormal brain state, studied in 1980-1990 yr. by prof. N.P.Behtereva. It means, that the source of psychological problem is the brain focus of stagnant excitation, which has the quality of self-sustaining process (in terms of psychotherapy, the so called resistance). It can exist in 2 forms: the dominant focus, attracting excitation from another regions of brain (described by A.A.Ouhtomsky) and determinant focus, controlling activity of the other brain focuses (G.M.Kryzanovsky).
Among the modern psychophysiological models, describing the psychotherapeutic process, we can mention:
One of the important problems of psychotherapy represents an objective evaluation of it efficiency (Tsapkin, 1992). Specially it is actual for the body-oriented psychotherapy because its original connection with the objective physiological processes in the body. The founder of body-oriented psychotherapy W.Reich has formulated the notion about the leading role of the increased muscle tone [the modern term, used by Ivanichev (1995), is LMH - local muscle hypertone] and straitened breathing in formation of psychological disorders. Therefore great attention is paid in the body-oriented psychotherapy to the work with muscle hypertone and breathing exercises. So the objective evaluation of LMH zones and the breathing function can be used as criteria of the psychotherapeutic procedures effectiveness.
Objective evaluation of muscle hypertone, connected with the psychological status, and its dynamics during psychotherapy is possible by the aid of the well-known clinical and physiological techniques of muscle tone measurement. These methods include myotonometry, electrical stimulation of muscle with plotting of the excitability curve (intensity of stimulation - duration of contraction), electromyography. It is possible also to use measurement of pain sensitivity (tensoalgimetry), detecting sites with muscle tendernes (both at the time of palpation and during movement). The positive effect criteria are the decreasing of hypertone degree, and also reduction of the LMH site area measured during palpation and its tenderness.
Objective evaluation of breathing function can be conducted on the basis of indexes, traditionally used in pulmonological functional diagnostics. These indexes include volumetric (total lungs biotic capacity, vital capacity and forced vital capacity, volume of forced exhalation for the 1st second and some indexes, derivative of mentioned above) and speed indexes (bound with flow velocity of exhaled air). Here the increase of described breathing indexes can serve as the criteria of positive effect. Among the physiological mechanisms of such effect can be mentioned increase in thorax excursion, improved coordination of diaphragmatic and abdominal breathing, and also reduction of bronchial tree resistance to the airflow passing.
List of references:
1. Ivanichev G.A. Klinika, diagnostika, mehanizmy razvitiya i lechenie
miofascialnyh gipertonicheskih sindromov [Clinics, diagnostics, mechanisms
of development and treatment of myofascial hypertonic syndromes] - Diss.
doct. med. sci. - Kazan: 1985.
2. Reich W. The Character Analysis. - Moscow: 2000. - 528 pp.
3. Tsapkin V.N. Edinstvo i mnogoobrazie psihoterapevticheskogo opyta
[Unity and diversity of psychotherapeutic experience] // Moscow
Psychotherapeutic Journal. - 1992, No. 2. - Pp. 5-40.
Sensory experience of intrauterine period and connected with it emotional experience has the dramatic effect on the personality development (Krenz I., 1999). Deviations of this experience from the physiological standards, caused by perinatal stress, lead to the person's psychological problems in the adult age. Although impressions of this period are saved in a long-term memory, they remain unavailable for reproduction in ordinary states of consciousness. Different psychotherapy techniques are used to create special states of consciousness in order to remember this experience (for example, holotropic breathwork by S.Grof) or imitate it (for example, psychodynamic body-therapy by H.Krenz). We propose to use virtual reality (VR) technology for the creation of sensory environment similar to the intrauterine surroundings.
The visual representation of the intrauterine environment is produced by the aid of the special VR-glasses or helmet, containing liquid-crystal displays (separate for the left and right eyes), connected with computer. The screen pictures are reproduced by computer graphics. They include the views of intrauterine surrounding and the foetus body, changing accordingly to the spatial position of the VR-device.
The sound accompaniment which the patient can hear through the headphones, include reproduction of such acoustic phenomena, which the fetus can perceive in the womb. These are for example the heart beats and breathing of the mother, sounds of her voice (in that part of frequency band, which can be diffused through the uterus walls and amniotic liquid), peristaltic noises. Some components of sound stimulation, especially different patterns of heart rhythm and breathing, may be associated with different emotional states of the mother.
Imitation of amniotic fluid environment can be achieved by the immersion technique (including the so called 'dry immersion'), traditionally used for sensory deprivation. Another way of creating , the 'virtual sphere' device. Such device constitutes a sphere with diameter about 2,5 metres at less, resting on the roller basis. The patient is placed inside the sphere, which can turning because of his movements. The space inside the sphere can be filled, for example, with elastic balls, imitating liquid environment.
The analysis of heart rate variability, described below, can serve as one more method of objective diagnostics in body-oriented psychotherapy.
Published in: Breathcollection. - August, 1992. - P.5 (Australia)
Introduction.
Heart rate variability analysis (HRVA) is an original method of diagnostics, based on the approach, developed by V.V.Parin, R.M.Baevsky a.o. in the USSR. The variability of heart rate (HR) is described in terms of cybernetics as the product of complex regulation system activity (called 'stabilization through fluctuations', or balancing between chaos and organization). This system, including many of the autonomic regulation levels, from the peripheral mechanisms up to the cortex, not only controls the HR, but the other autonomous functions as well. So this approach makes possible to determine the state of autonomous control in whole, on the base of HR variability analysis. In addition to the commonly used parameter - heart rate - we obtain some indexes, describing the state of autonomous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, subcortex autonomous centres and cortex) and the states of the whole organism stress and adaptation.
In our work the HRVA was applied to the evaluation of physiological changes during contiously controlled breathing in persons, practicing hyperventilation according to the special psychotherapeutic method (Free Breathing techniques). The special measuring system for the HRVA, based on the IBM PC compatible computer, was created. After the computer-aided registration of the electrocardiogram (100 cycles or more), R-wave was automatically selected and R-R time measured. The time series, obtained by this way, was analysed by means of some statistical procedures, such as periodogram, hystogram, autocorrelation and spectral analysis.
The following HRVA indexes were used: 1) average R-R duration, 2) the most frequent R-R duration, or mode, 3) standard deviation of the R-R duration, or the summary effect of heart rhythm regulation, 4) sympathetic activity index, or the mode amplitude, 5) parasympathetic activity index, or the degree of heart rhythm variation, 6) stress index, including (4) and (5), 7) peripheral control index, or the first autocorrelation koefficient, 8) control index, or the speed of autocorrelation function decreasing.
The measurements were fulfilled twice in each person: for the 1st time in the state of rest (these data were considered as the initial, or basic level for the further estimation of dynamics), and for the 2nd time - after 6 minutes of controlled breathing. The investigated persons were primarily divided into 2 groups: the first group (n=5) - persons, having actual psychological or somatic problems, the second group (n=12) - persons with normal adaptation. Both the dynamics of HRVA indexes in each group and the differences between groups were analysed, using statistical criteria.
Results and conclusions.
The used HRVA indexes werw significantly changed during the controlled breathing process (russian psychotherapeutic techniques of Free Breathing) in comparison with the initial state. The degree of HRVA changes depends on the intencity of the emotional changes, related to the depth of the breathwork process and the altered state of consciousness achieved. So the dynamics of HRVA indexes can be used as the indicator for measuring the depth of process, especially in the biofeedback systems.
As so as the dynamics of HRVA indexes in the 1st group (normal adaptation) was considerably greater, then in the 2nd group (persons, having psychological or somatic disorders), it can be applied in different body-oriented psychotherapeutic methods to the estimation of the breathing processes effectiveness on treatment of psychosomatic disorders.