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Psychotherapeutic kinesiology: body language as a mirror of a soul

Chobanu Irina, Sklifosovsky Clinical Research Institute for Emergency Medicine,

Russia, Moscow

Dear colleagues! I would like to present you a new Russian modality- psychotherapeutic kinesiology.

Kinesiology today is a rapidly developing and very interesting approach of modern natural treatment. It uses muscle testing as a tool for diagnostic and a combination of techniques as tools for helping patients. Kinesiology deals with different aspects of health from treatment of physical body as in chiropractic, sport medicine till more sophisticated fields as in psychotherapy and healing. Taking into consideration wide sphere of its application we understand that kinesiology became a part of health system in many countries during 90-s.

The word  ‘kinesiology ‘ comes from the Greek word ‘kinesis’, which means ‘motion’ and “logos” – word, science. In the medical sciences it is the name given to the study of muscles and the movement of the body.

A couple of words about history of development of  kinesiology.

‘Applied kinesiology” was the name given by its inventor Dr. George Goodheart, in1964 to the system of applying muscle testing diagnostically and therapeutically to different aspects of health care.

The Kinesiology Federation, the umbrella organization for the UK branches, gives the following definition

Kinesiology, literally the study of body movement, is a holistic approach to balancing the movement and interaction of a person’s energy systems. Gentle assessment of muscle response monitors (those areas) where blocks and imbalances are impairing physical, emotional or energetic well-being. The same method can identify factors, which may be contributing to such imbalances.

The body’s natural healing responses are stimulated by attention to reflex and acupressure points, and by use of specific body movements and nutritional support. These can lead to increased physical and mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Applied kinesiology uses Triad of health which is constituted by 3 main factors influencing on man’s health: mental,  structural, and chemical factors.

One of his closest colleagues was Dr John Thie. He had a vision of making the amazing health-enhancing benefits of kinesiology available to everyone. In 1973 his book ‘Touch for health’ was published. It presented a synthesis of kinesiology techniques in a form that could be understood and safely used by anyone, including people without any medical training or manipulative skills.

A lot of branches have been developed by people whose first kinesiology training was in TFH. For example, well-known in Russia Educational kinesiology which was created by Dr. Paul Dennison in 1980. It is mostly used for improving learning skills.

In the beginning of 1970s Gordon Stokes and Daniel Whiteside created a concept ‘Three in one’, dealing mostly with emotional stress management. Originally it was called “One brain”. The name reflects the expansion of the left\right hemisphere theory of brain function to include the integration of the front and back brain. When a person experiences emotional stress, the full capacity of the brain is not utilized; when the emotional stress is relieved, the brain is able to perceive and function in a calm, effective manner, with full access to left-brain logic and right-brain creativity. The whole brain operates as an integrated unit. Carol Ann Hontz brought Three in One to Russia in 1990s.

A main tool of kinesiology and, it makes a difference from other approaches, is muscle testing. In kinesiology muscles are tested not for their strength as practiced in physiotherapy, but to assess the quality of the muscle response. Muscle testing is a form of muscle biofeedback,

Muscle testing helps us to get an answer from conscious level, subconscious level – past memories – and body level – body memory. The main idea of kinesiology is - Our body knows everything. And it is really so. Through muscle testing it can help us to find psycho emotional stress and trauma that influenced a personality. And it can help to find ways to get rid of them.

We use different body techniques in order to release emotional stress, to reduce body tension, to overcome painful memories. These techniques are simple and effective ways to help people after different kinds of stress, like school stress, accidents, fire, war situations, domestic violence and a lot of other suffering.

The development of kinesiology continues in Russia. A psychotherapeutic kinesiology was registered in 2006 in Moscow. It was created in order to help people with more severe psychiatric conditions.

Psychotherapeutic kinesiology is a personality-oriented method, based on psychogenetic theory and model of a personality, used for treatment of patients with personality disorders, autoaggressive behavior, addictions and other disorders.

A psychogenetic model of a personality was first created by professor Valentik in 1993 and we continue to develop it. It is based on idea that psyche is formed and functions according to development of a genetic program. A personality is formed under certain conditions: living in a society, mastering a language, development of thinking and self-consciousness.

Every qualitatively specific type of human activity, characteristic of interaction with qualitatively specific significant others, is formed during the person’s lifetime into a stable part inside their personality: this is called the ‘personality status’. Each ‘personality status’ is characterized by its patterns of behaviour, personal meanings, values, need cycles; a complex of resulting emotions and experiences. Definite needs connected with interactions with significant others correspond to every ‘status’. These needs could be divided into needs of preferential receiving, interaction, and giving.

The development of personality is seen to be accomplished by the formation of a predictable complex of universal ‘personality statuses’ in adulthood. Several main invariant personality statuses were distinguished. They are developed during the lifetime in the majority of evaluated patients. These are:

  • PS “Me – Body”,
  • PS “Me – Child”,
  • PS  “Me – Man / Woman”,
  • PS “Me – Partner (Husband / Wife)”,
  • PS “Me – Parent”,
  • PS “Me – Professional”,
  • PS “Me – Member of a group”.

Some of these have been studied and well described in literature (Freud S., Lowen A., Bern E., et al.). It is expedient to examine these ‘personality statuses’ in slightly more detail here.

Personality status “Me–Body” is responsible for the person’s body functions, physical health, caring for him/herself and self-preservation; the ability to promote good living conditions; having skills of conscious interactions with one’s body (monitoring, restrictions, control); and the desire to have bodily pleasures and comfort.

Personality status “Me–Child” is connected with the feeling of security and of being wanted. This is a sphere of interaction with parents and authority figures in a process of learning and accomplishment through several types of interaction. Later, this ‘status’ develops and shows up again when caring for the parents.

Personality status “Me–Man/Woman” deals with the formation of sexual identity; sexuality including acceptance of self; gender traits; mastering; and the actualization of sexual behaviour.

Personality status “Me–Partner (husband/wife)” incorporates the potential creation of a family; and interactions with the spouse inside a family “nest”, the sphere of domestic life; setting up home together.

Personality status “Me–Parent” includes all the parental functions; interactions with children; involvement with their education; and receiving pleasure from parenthood.

Personality status “Me–Professional” is connected to one’s work and professional sphere; choosing, learning, and mastering a specialty; professional growth; contacts in work with colleagues, superiors, and others; and receiving positive feedback from professional activities.

Personality status “Me–Member of a group” mostly deals with interactive connections with different communities, societies, groups, peers, with fellow countrymen, and people of the same race.

These fairly universal ‘personality statuses’ usually constitute a normative part of everyone’s personality. To a considerable degree, one of the tasks of psychotherapy is to provide possibilities for the renewal of normative functioning of the patient. Such functioning can promote psychological health and it hinders deviations and disturbances of behaviour.

Besides normative ‘personality statuses,’ pathologic statuses were also distinguished. PS “Me–Autoaggressive” is a sequence of repeated cycles of pathologic need, the development of psycho-traumatic situations and experiences of auto-aggressive behaviour. It accumulates sick attitudes, predispositions, value orientations, meanings, senses, fixed stereotypes of behaviour and a complex of habitual experiences such as hopelessness, despair, helplessness, grief and guilt, a sense of not being needed, psyche-ache, and a sense of meaningless of their life.

Another pathologic status “Me–Addictive” is connected to any addiction to psychoactive substances (alcohol, drugs, and psychotropic substances). It is represented by a complex of pathological dynamic tendencies organized into an addictive sub-personality. This ‘status’ is usually formed by negative experiences and contains all varieties of behaviour connected with the ingestion of psychoactive substances or another addictive communication, pathologic values and meaning. The main process direction reflecting a pathologic need for psychoactive substances is a pathological drive towards those psychoactive substances.

The personality statuses “Me – Addictive” and “Me – Autoaggressive” constitute the pathological part of a personality.

Aims of psychotherapeutic kinesiology are:

  1. to stop or to bloc pathologic statuses
  2. todevelop normative statuses and corresponding spheres of life
  3. to harmonize a person

Psychotherapeutic kinesiology is an integrative approach in kinesiology. We touch body in order to get deep answers about the patient – body is used as a diagnostic tool. We discuss personality issues – normal or pathologic spheres of life. We use a system of integrative tools in order to help a person: emotional release, cognitive part – information and discussions, spiritual part – what is the best for the highest good of a person, and a lot of body work, not only as diagnostic but also as help.

Using muscle testing we can evaluate a personality status that suffered, a situation, which occurred, a basic need that was not satisfied. There are different means to help a person to move through that situation in order to get out of stress. It helps to reconstruct damaged personality status. In case of blocked PS kinesiology helps to ‘turn on’ non-working parts of a personality.

So this method has beautiful advantages:

  • Individual diagnostic through the body response
  • Possibility to work through the early life even prenatal period
  • Very wide range of help: from  stress till personality disorders.
  • Strict scheme of work which helps a specialist and provides safety to patient.

Body is ready to tell us priceless information about different aspects of soul states, about emotional life, painful experiences, and deep problems. Kinesiologists know the body never lies. The most important is to learn it’s language. And in this case the body’s language will become a mirror of a soul.

Thank you.