THE FOUR PILLARS OF POSTURAL INTEGRATION® comprise
1) Deep Tissuework 2) Emotional Work 3) Energetic Work and 4) Integration
Postural Integration® is based on the insights stemming from pioneers of the beginning of the 20th century like Szandor Ferenczi, Georg Groddeck, Wilhelm Reich and others who found that emotional relief and integration can be obtained through massage and other forms of touch, play and symbolic interaction. For a more elaborate explanation of backgrounds go here. The specialised deep tissue touching, as developed by Jack Painter, Ph.D. is partly based on the innovations of Ida Rolf,PhD, the creator of "Structural Integration" (also known as the Rolfing-method). The layers of myofascia (a connective tissue surrounding muscular tissue) in the body are envisioned in three depths/layers of work: superficial, intermediary deep, and deep work.
The body’s network of myofascia is obvious in anatomical dissection as the fibrous muscle envelopes which merge into tendons and bone. It goes all the way down to the subcellular level, appearing as integrins, which are thin, long rodlike structures that are in constant interplay with the forces of expansion and contraction, communicating on the intra- and extra-cellular web. At that level, integrins let us know where we are in space and time and all that this entails—encounters with stairs and chairs, friend or foe, weather systems, and even the cosmos as a whole.
The work with the network of fascia is organized around the release of segmental armouring (7 segments as described by W. Reich) in twelve paradigm sessions
(more than one session is needed for one paradigm session). Seven are for release of the network and five at the end of the process have a focus on integration. What differentiates PI from other myofascial intervention series is the integration of the physical work on muscles with raised energy (through breathwork), emotional release work (through a range of expression, called the "out stroke- process" and the deep inner-listening of emotional processes, which we call "in stroke-techniques"), and mental work (through gestalt awareness dialogue) and fine energy work (see further)
Like most other systems of hands-on body psychotherapy, Postural Integration® works with a concept of somatic memory; the idea that, as Wilhelm Reich put it, ‘every muscular rigidity’ – or, indeed, every other bodily restriction – ‘contains the history and meaning of its origin’; and that by relieving and releasing the restriction and reowning the memory, most importantly the emotional memory, a person can dissolve a corresponding pattern of psychological constraint. Emotional memories are stored subcortically, via the amygdala, the hypocampus and other limbic related brain areas and also in the tissue itself. PI-practitioners have experienced over the years that special emotional patterns are being fixated in special areas, known as the seven segments of embodied experiences, sometimes in the form of trigger-points. There is considerable evidence that traumatic memories can be stored, and expressed, unconsciously and non-verbally. In other words, emotional memories are unconscious – they appear as feelings, not as memories of feelings – and persistent. Postural Integrators will tend in practice to encourage and support spontaneous bodily impulses and experiences, in the expectation that these will lead to some form of completion, re-enactment and/or emotional release and discharge. They will support your process of self-regulation in different stages of your "affect-cycle", in order for you to learn to charge your emotions in such a way that communication with yourself and with your relatives improves, as well as the discharge of your emotions in such a way that your bodymind has no need to create psychosomatic conditions in order to regulate your emotional needs, wants and desires.
The body is a sensitive unit full of stored memory and the way to tap into feeling and memory differs from person to person and from therapeutic style to the other.
Postural Integrators help the client with a conception of character – a name for the larger pattern of psychosomatic holdings which in part define each individual: our ‘conditioned tendency’. This is why we will often encourage clients to stay with and fully experience unpleasant, painful bodily states. But we are also interested in positive, pleasurable states, that support the realisation of your inner potential, more than old character-fixated limitations of your life-force do . Basically, we seek to help to displace the client 's 'focus from his body as a source of pain to his body as a source of pleasure and comfort, the physical relaxation which diminishes emotional anxiety, and the restoration of the possibility of self-awareness and of a sense of self-control of the situation’.
Here lies the question of what energy means in the lexicons of both common sense and science. In Postural Integration®, this discussion permeates both realms. As a method to achieve structural integration and bodymind functional economy, Postural Integration® induces biological changes that the client senses and describes as improved vitality and well-being. Sometimes, this vitality and well-being is referred to as having/feeling more or less energy. The energetic work in Bodymind Integration is very elaborated. We talk about work with "coarse" and "subtle" energy. We work with acupressure points and the system of 5-elements of traditional Chinese medicine. We work with bio-energetic movements and positions in ways that resemble other Reichian or post-Reichian methods, we work with breath and "awareness through movement"-exercises. We also need to recognize that all our activities go in cycles or waves. Each movement, thought or feeling has a beginning, middle and end. This is a flow of energy, a process of charging, discharging and finishing any given activity of our bodyminds. This idea has been worked out in what is known as "the Energetic Cycle" with its 9 "Stages in Natural Energy Flow" and 9 "Blockages of the Natural Flow of Energy" that can be seen in breathing patterns, posture, myofascial composition etc.. This cycle as described by Jack Painter is a unique description of energy levels within our human potential and in the center of the Bodymind Integration process. A lot of time is taken to explore the depths of the wave, through breathwork, imagery, movement, emotional expression, etc. In different steps one can explore ones capacity to feel secure with one’s own energies building up towards feeling safe within excitement, climax and up a plateau to surrender completely and let go of all voluntary efforts to control life. Childhood developmental themes can be worked through and new states of energetic life can be explored and integrated.
One meaning of "integration" in Postural Integration® is that the experiences one has during sessions are helped to fall into place or are given a conscious place and meaning. Depending on the stage of therapy one is in, integration is different. Integration is written down in "new memory". The practitioner many time uses fine energy techniques, work with images and symbols, etc. to help the client integrate the experience of the session. In the beginning of the PI process a lot of work needs to be done to soften the character-related fixations of life-force in the different body segments (armoring), to let go of the held emotions, and to work on the mental level in order to understand the deeper meaning of the holding of defense pattern. After enough release-work has been done, the body has become more free, the emotions fuller, thoughts clearer. Once the myofascial network has been treated and claimed in its natural energy flow state, all parts of the body want to come together in a new way. A whole organismic body is preparing itself to be born. Integration sessions have as goal to help the body find it’s unified state and to support the deeper trust of clients in their body wisdom. If we say body, it is always also emotions and thoughts. „Integration means that old dimensions of the self are being transformed into this unity and unrealised potential becomes actualised. We found there are these fundamental dimensions: top-bottom, left-right, front-back, inside-outside. In an armored bodymind these divisions are still in stubborn conflict (some more than others, depending on the individual). After release these, previously mostly unconscious, parts begin to coordinate with each other, and our hands help this coming together with a kind of specialised integrating strokes. We look at horizontal integration, as well as vertical integration. And we can say that it is important to connect our egocentric and anthropocentric (vertical) with our biocentric or ecocentric (horizontal) dimension.
The extraordinary power of Postural Integration lies in the willingness of client and practitioner to work on many levels simultaneously in order to reach these goals. To conclude, this process resembles less a technique and more a dance between the practitioner and the client; between inner sensations and outer relations...more a continuous process of becoming who we really are through the symbolic interactive experiences in the process.
- The origins of Postural Integration®
- The View of PI®
- Application of PI®
- Process-oriented & interactive
- New Perspectives
- Practitioners
- Benefit from PI®
Postural Integration® (since 2007 also known as „PsychoCorporal Integration”) originated with Dr. Jack Painter’s work on clients beginning in the late 1960’s. Dr. Painter (1933-2010) was a Ph.D. graduate of Emory University (Atlanta, Ga.) in Ph.D. in Philosophy, Literature and Psychology and served as a professor at the University of Miami for 9 years. Influenced by Reichian (Wilhelm Reich), Rolfing (Ida Rolf) and Gestalt (Fritz Perls) traditions he found in his own search for personal clarity and in work with his clients, that a body-anchored approach was needed to bring these traditions together in his own approach. He received Gestalt training from Marty Fromm (Miami, Florida, an early pioneer in Gestalt work with Dr. Fritz Perls), as well as workshops directly with Perls. He received a complete program of individual sessions from Dr. Ida Rolf and Dr. Bill Williams (the founder of Soma). But through constant experimentation found his own ways of touching the body. In combining touch with a Reichian approach, he studied and collaborated with Dr. Raffaele Estrada Villa, Director of the Instituto Wilhelm Reich in Mexico City. Here he also closely collaborated with Blanca Rosa Anorve, who became the first PI-trainer. He also shared sessions, insights and colleague work with Dr. Peter Levine, author of Waking theTiger and a well-known Reichian therapist, founder of Somatic Experiencing®.
Body and mind are inseparable and do not stand in a causal relationship with “each other” since they are dimensions of the same phenomena. Thus holistic psychocorporal work with awareness and consciousness is always simultaneous work with body expression, movement and energy. And conversely work with the body, including deep work with breathing and myofascia, is also simultaneous work with awareness and consciousness.
Postural Integration is furthermore based on the notion of an „energetic flow” which is taken as the core of human experience. The promotion of this flow is considered as health, its persistent blockage is considered as illness. PsychoCorporal Integration presents a clear theory which uses but goes beyond the theories of F. Perls, MD and W. Reich, MD. It uses Gestalt claiming and experiencing as part of the process of transforming body armour.
Postural Integration® has applications in various fields and has different heuristics, meaning the stimulation of further discoveries in the following four basic orientations of therapy:
1. orientation on personal growth, with the aim to support and to stimulate the individual in the use, cultivation, and development of his/her sources and potential through selfexploration and systematic selfrealisation.
2. salutogenic (able to cause human health and well-being) orientation, that promotes health, wellness and fitness, consciousness of health and a healthpromoting lifestyle through counseling and healthcoaching.
3. clinical orientation, that is curative and palliative, trying to restore health and/or to diminish pain and suffering through clinical methods and therapeutic interventions
4. critical contribution to the culture, for postural integration is an emancipatoric discipline.
Postural Integration (PI)® is a method for furthering personal development & salutogenesis through process-oriented interactive (hands-on) bodywork. Postural Integration® supports you in dealing with the challenges in your life and health in a more creative manner. The uniqueness of this method lies in the simultaneous integration of deep tissue and breath work, movement and body awareness, emotional expression and the wisdom of oriental medicine.
This effective method supports you in re-assessing out-dated patterns of thinking and emotional coping and opens up new perspectives, increase your sense of well-being, your capacity to feel, your ability to consciously express yourself in all your relationships.
The neuro-scientific uniqueness of this method lies in the simultaneous integration of deep tissue and breath work, body movement and awareness, as well as emotional expression.
Thus, this effective method opens up new perspectives in your life and enables you to increase your sense of well-being, your capacity to feel, your ability to consciously express yourself and to heal yourself also in your relationships.
Understanding the concepts of the Porges Polyvagal Theory, that our engagement in social behaviours are governed and regulated by the ever alert amygdala perpetually distinguishing safe from possibly threatening contexts. This in turn influencing the functioning of all organs in the body (especially the heart), interlinked by the vagus nerve.
Practitioners of Postural Integration (PI)® are trained to work in a respectful and interactive manner with their clients. They bring into the relationship with their client professional knowledge and experience and the ability to appropriately share their personal feelings and attitudes. This characteristic creates a unique symmetry in the relationship between practitioner/therapist and client, which allows the use of deep neurophysiological abilities for personal change e.g. mirror-neurons. This symmetry also allows the PI-method to work with pre-verbal states of consciousness, e.g. in working with body image disorders and pre-/perinatal trauma issues.
How can one benefit from Postural Integration®?
For starters: PI can only be practiced by certified ICPIT practitioners.
If you feel blocked in your mind or experience emotional problems, you can't resolve, or if you don't see a way out of frustration, or are looking for a deeper life fulfillment, and want to engage in a deeper commitment towards your body - in order to get rid of the tensions and belief systems you hold in your body and mind as a result of intentional or unintentional conditioning, acquired from early childhood on - PI® is good for you.
If you want to look into the way you have been frustrated in your natural development in your early upbringing and schooling at the level of your energetic, emotional and postural expression of self, and you want to transform that frustration into a sense of fulfilment, go get some Postural Integration® sessions with one of our certified practitioners.
If you want to improve your physical and cognitive sense of fulfilment, if you want greater flexibility… increased breathing capacity … elongation of the torso … greater muscular co-ordination … increase of sense of self …. more centredness … more dynamism …. Increased creativity …. freedom of chest …. increased height …. a from stress freed voice … a from aches and pains removed body … an enhanced quality of your life : Go for it: Find yourself a Postural Integration® therapist.
If you want to resolve personal problems or conflicts in your relationship caused by a diminished ability to express emotions.... become ‘unstuck’...look for the simple pleasure of touch... get to know yourself better... build or re-build your self-esteem...work at relationship/intimacy difficulties.....diminish or resolve symptoms of certain psychosomatic conditions (e.g. cardio-vascular or respiratory problems) or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ....restore energy balance if you lack energy and movement in life ...to learn that there are many different paths you can take and many alternative decisions you can make in life....Postural Integration® is a wonderful treat
If you want to free yourself of old burdens....discover new future prospects and have better happy brighter relationships...and be capable of freely experiencing and expressing your feelings : Postural and/or Energetic Integration®.