We looked at a biodynamic approach to dealing with dysfunction. I am not an expert on substitution of concepts, but I deliberately do not use the word “trauma”. By itself, this word is already beginning to nightmare many, and I am somewhat “tired” of working in the concept of trauma and searching for “the causes of all problems.” Dysfunction, on the other hand, speaks of the “absence” or distortion of the function – the healthy part, which is initially present in us as a whole and in full access. And this means that for work, it is enough to know how to return to contact with the “function”, i.e., healthy state and related states, resources, opportunities. Contact in this case means – knowledge, connection, feeling, and conscious use (management) of this or that state – joy, play, strength – who needs what. SIM like biodynamics, is an approach focused on health, on potential in its purest form, and this is its beauty and versatility – health and potential are given to us upon birth and we, as therapists, “look into it” – we just know that in front of us is a healthy person with potential and in any session, we focus on this.

How can one “get” to the potential under the rubble of anxieties, fears, uncertainties, disappointments, etc.? When we enter the field of the psyche, everything becomes not as obvious as with the body, starting with the request, the forms of manifestation of “symptoms” and the real “problem”. You have to understand that we are “social animals” possessing a body, instincts, emotions, a mental apparatus, and a set of social rules and programs associated with them for survival and success at the social level (and I have not yet taken the spiritual level here ), therefore, when working in the field of psychology (in the SIM approach), we work with everything at once: with the body, with emotions, with the mind, with space (with the World).

I cannot cover in this chapter everything that is necessary to work in SIM. We have touched upon the topic of “orienting the therapist”, briefly touched upon the phenomenon of Contact, completely omit here everything related to diagnostics, readiness for change (and work with resistance), etc. We assume that a client comes to us who has already overcome his own resistance to changes, with the request “I’m tired, I want more energy” (for example), and we understand that this is a kind of fantasy request, under which a level of dissatisfaction has actually accumulated, which brought him to us. This dissatisfaction is accompanied by some compensatory activity, depending on the “stage of the case” and the level of the metamodel (see the video “Lift” (https://youtu.be/SuwMJvN8R1g), Sergey Artemiev). As in the example in the chapter about the formation of trauma, at the level of compensation, a person tries to prove to everyone around that he can, that he is “worth something” (in this case, through excessive activity), and when he fails, he falls into accusations first others and the injustice of the world, and then blaming oneself for one’s own failure (the level of self-destruction).

Again, a little about “mechanics” and defense mechanisms, the most important thing is that all this is an external layer that performs only one task – to prevent a person from touching the internal resource of his own self-value (in this example), the state of “I can”, etc. Why? Because once a person was in contact with these states, something so unpleasant happened that in order to maintain the integrity of the psyche and prevent the same situation in the future, the state is isolated, prohibited, a set of beliefs appears around, and control programs (systems) that lead away attention of the person away from negative experiences.

What happens at the SIM psychological session?

Based on an understanding of the “mechanics” of the process, the therapist, through managing the client’s attention, helps him see the whole picture (remember the mirror metaphor): see where the person’s attention is focused, how much attention and energy is spent on it, what exactly happens in the body, emotions, mind and the space of a person in a given context, which literally “makes” him lead, feel and think in such a way, what beliefs and ideas about the world he is guided by in this. And then, one of the key moments for realizing – there is a “search” for a “moment” (in SIM – “entrance window”), in which all these beliefs appeared, and most importantly – what was the leading state at the same time from the “set” of “traumatic” : powerlessness, emptiness, excessive heaviness, etc., and what conclusions about the world and himself, did the person in this state, or what decisions he made or what he agreed with. An important note – do not try to repeat yourself, but rather learn or consult a specialist – here you need safety techniques and an understanding of the dynamics of the psyche, so as not to fall into the trauma funnel. In the session, in no case there is a re-living or recapitulation of the trauma (and this must be learned – to go “through” the trauma), but through switching of attention they are brought to the area of ​​the conscious state and the decisions of the person in the “moment”.

And what happens when the picture is “seen” in whole? First, memory from negative states becomes noticed, consciousness sees where, in what conditions it was in the system (body, mind, emotions), how it influenced. All this memory, when seen, is dissociated from the person himself, becomes external. Decisions made in a non-resourceful state become irrelevant. A person at this moment sees the “absurdity” of decisions and conclusions, based on the already accumulated life experience. As I said in the section above, most of the distortions and decisions comes at an early age, when the reactions were unconscious and there was not enough experience to make adequate decisions. In an adult state, this all already becomes irrelevant, obviously, it comes to understanding that everything that was held in the psychological field in the context under consideration is just some experience from the past, just “psychological rubbish”.

This moment is felt as quite neutral, balanced – this is the point where resolution may happen. At this moment, he is easily ready to leave old decisions and conclusions, and the memory of states becomes unnecessary, it is also easy to let go. At the same time, we, as therapists, accompany a person helping to see the details in the “mirror” so that everything irrelevant is noticed and released at all levels: in the body, emotions, mind, space, everywhere so that it is clean, clear, still. Unnecessary “garbage” leaves the client’s system (psychological field) by itself, the client’s consciousness essentially does the work – we only reflect everything that happens and at the right time highlight what may have passed the person’s attention (after all, even looking at yourself in the mirror, you can miss a detail, if attention is directed to one thing).

When decisions, conclusions are canceled, the memory of negative states is also gone, “according to the law of polarity,” a resource or state becomes available that preceded the “moment of trauma”, i.e. the moment when the decision was made, to abandon the resource or to transfer control to it to some part of his psyche. We draw the client’s attention to the “other side of the coin”, to what was hidden under the traumatic experience. And this is the stage of “ignition”, when all the energy of the previously blocked resource returns to the system and the client’s consciousness, he realizes that he is the source of this state, and he decides when and how to use it. We return to the client control of his states, his resources. Feelings of self-worth, “everything is all right with me”, fullness, creativity, boundaries, strength, etc. – all those resources that a person could lose or give for temporary management of their fears are again in the realm of the conscious, in access.

In the next chapter we will talk about the combination of biodynamics and SIM and what is important to understand the following:

– when working with the psyche, it is not the superficial layers of compensation or self-destruction that are important, but the states from which “decisions” and conclusions were made that blocked the desired resource or state.

– it is important not to work with the moment of trauma, but only with layers of experiences at the moment of making decisions, noticing them and “separating” them from the client. This is a safety technique, you must not ask a person to remember a “traumatic moment”. It is necessary to learn this technique, the information here is given with the aim of sharing the knowledge with biodynamic specialists with the approaches of SIM, and specialists of SIM with the approaches of biodynamics. Next, I will offer safe options for combining techniques.