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Contributions to the field of Bodymind HealingContributions to the field of Bodymind Healing |
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APPENDIX I:
Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy (BMHP)
Contributions to the field of Bodymind Healing
Contributions to Psychotherapy and Behavioral Healthcare
1. Offers a ten step holographic, psychoenergetic method (BMHP) which combines
traditional psychotherapies (e.g. cognitive/behavioral, psychodynamic/neo-analytic,
humanistic/existential, Jungian/archetypal, hypnotherapeutic) with various ancient
sacred wisdom traditions (e.g. symbolic process traditions, traditions of postural
initiation, cross-cultural self-healing traditions) to contribute towards developing
an “integralâ€;� psychotherapy ( Wilbur, 2000, Walsh 2006). {Chapters 2, 4, and 5}
2. Drawing from ancient esoteric roots, BMHP brings to Western psychotherapy healing
methods and perspectives from the Western (e.g. Eliade, 1954, 1958, 1959, 1964,
1965; Neumann, 1954; Needham, 1956; Meier, 1967; Rudhyar, 1970; Campbell, 1978;
Jung, Collected Works; Edinger, 1985; Matthews, 1986; Hall, 1988; Goodman, 1990;
Kingsley, 1999) and Eastern (e.g. Wilhelm, 1931; Luk, 1972, 1977; Schafer, 1977;
Tomio, 1994; Mayer, 2004) mystery and initiatory traditions. {Chapters 2, 4, 5}
3. Adds methods from Qigong and other Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy techniques
to the growing field of integrative medicine that is attempting to help resolve the
current healthcare crisis. {Chapters 1, 2, 5-14}
4. Shows how Qigong in general, and when combined with BMHP in particular, can
aid in healing psychological issues in a wide number of areas. The tradition con-
tains useful relaxation methods, activates state-specific states of consciousness that
are both relaxing and energizing, provides specific healing and balancing energetic
techniques, helps to reciprocally inhibit unwanted behaviors, provides methods
to help dissolve mental and somatic fixations, facilitates ego cohesion by helping
our central equilibrium when meeting the emotional tides of life, helps develop a
compassionate relationship to life’s issues, enhances development of cohesiveness of
self, enhances stability for those with reactive attachment styles, helps with develop-
ing affect modulation skills and affect tolerance, adds energy cultivation practices
beneficial to those who are depressed, induces an altered state which is helpful in
issues with addiction, aids in transformation of self identifications, adds beneficial
methods for those who suffer from syndromes involving sympathetic nervous system
overload, and provides tools to allow trauma victims to regain a safety zone in their
bodies. {Chapter 21}
5. Reveals specific approaches and methods from the tradition of Qigong to aid treat-
ment of behavioral healthcare patients suffering with specific conditions such as:
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anxiety, chronic pain, hypertension, insomnia, carpal tunnel syndrome, addictions,
joint problems, depression, energy deficiency, etc. {Chapters 5-14}
6. Enhances "subpersonality work" and hypnotherapeutic methods of trance induction
by activating state-specific states of consciousness with an expanded view of cross-
cultural traditions of shape-shifting. The symbolic process and somatic dimensions
of shape-shifting traditions are combined and utilized to help the patient in psycho-
therapy cultivate new life stances. {Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 15}
7. Contributes to the hypnotherapeutic tradition by coining the term, "transpersonal
state-specific state of consciousness" to refer to the orientation of ancient sacred
wisdom traditions to provide transpersonal anchors to help connect the person to
specific healing altered states. I use the term "transpersonal," as did Dane Rudhyar,
one of the first people to use this term in 1930, to refer to the movement of divine
energies “beyondâ€;� the ego, but also to refer to a descent of spiritual energy "through"
the person (Rudhyar, 1975, p. 38). Each Qigong/Tai Chi posture is like a letter in a
Rosetta Stone of an ancient language of the bodymind — a link to a long-lost, right
brain alphabet. Each letter (posture) represents a transpersonal state-specific state
of consciousness that can bring a person into an altered state beyond his or her
everyday life stance; as well it can bring specific needed healing states through the
person. {Chapter 4, 5}
8. Adds to the hypnotherapeutic technique of ideomotor signaling the method of “whole
body, naturally arising, ideomotor signalingâ€;� to help patients harness the primordial
pathways of the movement of the life force as it emerges at moments of “felt shiftâ€;�
in psychotherapy. Patients in psychotherapy, particularly at key moments of change,
express movements that represent deep, often-unconscious transformative aspects of
their psyches. The movements a martial artist uses to confront physical danger are
often the same, or similar to, movements which spontaneously arise in a person as
he or she deals with emotional dangers. This book, and the practices that lie at its
foundation, can help healers learn to become more aware of the body’s expression of
the primordial Self as it moves toward empowerment and transformation. The ancient
art of Qigong, of which Tai Chi is the best know system, contains some of the best
and most primordial of these empowering movements. The clinician who is aware
of these movements and their multifaceted meanings can help to grease the wheels
and facilitate movement in the direction to where the patient’s psyche is moving, on
the path of its natural healing journey. {Chapter 16}
9. Delineates a full range of symbolic process methods for psychotherapy by adding the
power of somatic processes in general, and Qigong techniques in particular, to ground
and further bring out the power of imaginal methodologies. {Chapter 4 and 5}
10. Combines Gendlin’s Focusing (1978) with Taoist breathing methods and the use of
a mythic storytelling method (the Mythic Journey Process) to create important body-
mind healing tools for psychotherapists. {Chapter 20}
Appendix I: Contributions to the Field of Bodymind Healing
299
11. Introduces the term “transcending/transmuting dialecticâ€;� to differentiate aspects of
psychospiritual traditions that can help people rise above versus work through their
life issues. BMHP focuses on how specifically Qigong, when integrated with Western
psychotherapy, can have both attributes. {Chapter 5}
12. Introduces the River of Life practice which combines a Taoist breathing method and
visualization techniques to help patients activate a transcendent state-specific altered
state and transmute their psychological issues. {Chapter 5}
13. Adds to the Jungian notion of the psychoid nature of archetypes by further integrating
the body with Jungian symbolic process methods, as in the Mythic Journey Process.
{Chapter 4 and 20}
14. Introduces a method of “transpersonal hypnosisâ€;� — a directive, storytelling method
that adds to the field of hypnosis an emphasis on connecting patients with the ele-
ments of the wider whole of which they are a part. {Chapter 19}
15. Provides practices and perspectives from ancient sacred wisdom traditions, including
Qigong, to enrich the field of psychotherapists’ vision and aid in expanding therapists’
repertoire of clinical interventions. {Chapter 23}
16. Provides Qigong practices to aid in the process of “healing the healerâ€;� to help mental
health professionals “recharge their batteries.â€;� {Chapter 24}
17. Extracts the essence of Qigong/Tai Chi so that a therapist can use key elements of
these traditions without practicing Qigong movements or ever mentioning a word
about Qigong. {Chapter 5 and 18}
Contributions to Energy Psychology
1. Proposes using phenomenologically based anchoring methods. BMHP adds a phe-
nomenological orientation to energy psychology methods, i.e. choosing the patients
own movements at the moment of a “felt shiftâ€;� to anchor new state-specific states
of consciousness as a first-choice method. The most common meridian tapping
methods are seen as just one of many energy psychology techniques that are part of
researchers’ differentiated attempts to determine which methods are best for which
people at which times in this pre-paradigmatic stage of energy psychology’s develop-
ment. {Chapter 3, 4}
2. Advocates for explaining the meaning of acu-points used in treatment. In current
energy psychology treatment, often the patient is instructed to tap on various points,
but the meaning of those points is not usually discussed in detail. Bodymind Healing
Psychotherapy proposes that “meaningâ€;� is a key healing agent, and is a significant
component of activating “the mind-body trance state.â€;� I believe that including the
patient’s understanding helps create a mindful, connected awareness, which has many
positive consequences. {Chapter 3 and 16}
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3. Adds depth psychology methods to energy psychology with a focus on symbolic
process methods, including the Mythic Journey Process. {Chapter 4 and 20}
4. Broadens the field of energy psychology by including Qigong. {Chapter 3 and 4}
5. Expands the foundation of energy psychology by introducing relevant historical
foundation material and age-old methods. {Chapter 4}
6. Adds to the self-touch methods of energy psychology the circle, stop, breathe, and
feel method. {Chapter 3}
Contributions to the Traditions of Qigong and Tai Chi
1. Broadens the definition of Qigong by including the use of imagery methods, i.e.
Qigong is a many-thousand-year-old method of cultivating the energy of life through
the use of posture, movement, breath, touch, sound, awareness, and imagery meth-
ods. Also, it broadens the definition of Qigong to include non-movement, energetic,
psychological states that cultivate the universal life force, i.e. the most profound
Qigong is following your true life’s path. {Chapter 4 and 5}
2. In Volume I it was shown that each Tai Chi posture has four different purposes: heal-
ing, spiritual unfoldment, self-defense, and to change the practitioners life stance.
In Volume II, we see that each Tai Chi/Qigong posture is part of a healing alphabet
that can form and induce different state-specific states of consciousness that can be
useful to Qigong practitioners and to the psychotherapeutic or behavioral health
setting. {Chapter 5 and 16}
3. Reveals how Qigong/Tai Chi are “soulful traditions.â€;� Qigong and Tai Chi have been
seen as spiritual traditions. This book is the first to show how Qigong is also a “soulful
traditionâ€;� following in the path of depth psychologists such as Hillman and Moore.
For example, while one is practicing Tai Chi and Qigong, instead of placing most
emphasis on the transcendent, spiritual aspects induced by these practices, one can
also focus on the memories, emotions, and images that arise in the practice — mak-
ing it into a “soulful practice.â€;� {Chapter 5}
4. Shows how the meaning-making orientation of psychotherapy can add to Qigong by
bringing psychological awareness to the postures and movements. This psychological
awareness can help Tai Chi and Qigong practitioners to better use their practice to
change their life stance. {Chapter 5 and 15}
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