Sometimes it is helpful to look from the top down at what we are doing. In my opinion, both biodynamics and SIM are the art of the therapist to control attention and the work of attention.

In the case of biodynamics, all the “work” of attention management is done by the therapist. The therapist monitors his own state, the state of the client’s system at each of the levels available for perception, the state of space, makes attunement to embryonic forces, redistributes attention between resources, dysfunctions, space, etc. For the client all processes (with seldom exception) happens in the area of ​​the unconscious. Moreover, often these unconscious processes then influence (in a positive way) on the psychological state of the client. The processes of working with a client for the most part go through the non-verbal channel.

In the case of a psychological SIM session, the therapist also directs his attention, and at the same time directs the client’s attention, through various defense mechanisms, back to the resource state and contact with the potential. The processes of working with a client for the most part go through the verbal channel (as it seems at first glance). Here there is more work going on through the client’s consciousness, and the attention of consciousness is directed to different levels, including the level of the body, the results of realizations are reflected both in the psychological field and in the body.

Both approaches work. In both cases, a predominantly “clean” approach is used, when the therapist only reflects what is happening in the client’s system, giving him/her the opportunity to find a solution on his/her own. Cleanness lies in the therapist’s ability to be open to any manifestations of the client’s system, without judgments, but in his own stability and with compassion (the word sounds a little about suffering in Russian, but in this context – the tonality is more about recognizing someone else’s suffering and knowledge / vision of health and potential hidden under him, the opportunity to be with the client on his way with patience and love).

Why did I need a combination of biodynamics and psychology? Sometimes you can hear that it is necessary to adhere to one school, one method and achieve perfection in it, before introducing something new into it. And I agree with that. Therefore, I have no desire to turn biodynamics or SIM into something new, for example, BSIM;). I am sure that any request can be solved within any of these approaches, but sometimes it requires a state of the “highest standard” in this approach – the ability to be a crystal clear mirror, stable, compassionate and loving. I think that such a state is not always and not available for everyone, the cleanliness, integrity, evenness of the mirror may not be up to par, and then what is reflected in it is not enough to resolve the request presented by the client system. So you can wait 10-100 years before enlightenment, when you can help the client, or help him here and now at by inclusion of additional knowledge from related areas. It seems to me that this is about expanding the therapist’s range by better understanding the phenomena of the body and mind and increasing his (her) “resolution capability” within the session. When I talk about “resolution”, I’m talking about the therapist’s ability to keep in attention and at the same time perceive the details of the client’s “picture”, and possibly compensate for the inability to “see and reflect” something in the biodynamic approach using tools from the field of psychology. When we are just learning, for example, in osteopathy, I remember this well – the first touch to the body as part of training is just a “storm” of signals through the hands, without the slightest idea how to interpret it and what to do with it. Gradually, the signals become clearer, the brain learns to recognize signals from different tissues, from different levels of work with the body, on the way you learn to control attention and direct it to the “right sides”, and then become a mirror. And it so happened that even before I went to study psychology, within the biodynamics sessions, I began to perceive signals from the psychological field – emotional states. And at the same time, notice that some bodily dysfunctions “do not want” to be released, even when using the phenomenon of the mirror, attunement to the embryonic forces of health or synchronization with the Primary Respiration. It’s like in the example with the mirror – a person came up, looked in the mirror, saw that his forehead was dirty, but didn’t want to do anything about it. And this is about “freedom of choice.” Yes, at this moment a person shows freedom of choice, but this choice is most likely limited by the “blinders” hidden from him – there is a reason why he does not want to change something. And at these moments, knowledge of psychology is very useful – understanding the mechanisms of protection of the whole, and methods to “open up” the blinders. It is enough to show through the “mirror” these blinders, to hint that under them there is real life – and bodily processes take their place – the process of healing goes on. In this example, by introducing new data into the therapist-client system, we simply allow the system to find a solution faster, without distorting or changing the original techniques and traditions of biodynamics.

In addition to a clean non-verbal mirror, a biodynamic therapist can “connect” the client’s level of consciousness through the verbal channel (words), and the psychologist can also see and explicitly direct the client’s attention to the changes that have occurred through the feeling of the client’s bodily processes. The fact that bodily changes are passed through the channel of consciousness is very important for me, it allows the client not to “miss”, and not to devalue the result of his work, to acknowledge the “seen” at the level of consciousness and this will give him more inner support and more stable “result”. How to do it, read on.