Workshop Programme

The Diploma course consists of the Basic and Advanced Certificate Courses in Biodynamic Massage (for details look in the Biodynamic Massage section of the site), an experiential group and individual process work. Years 2, 3 & 4 consists of 11 three-day weekend workshops and a six-day residential per year. 

A typical Diploma Course workshop day might include:
- Personal sharing and emotional interaction among members of the group
- Presentation of the theory underlying a particular biodynamic technique
- Description of the method, and any counter-indications
- Demonstration of the method, the trainer working with a student "client"
- Detailed reflection on this session, discussing with the group how the therapeutic process evolved, what changes could be observed in the client during the session, and how biodynamic theory was underpinning the work
- Practising the demonstrated method, the students working with each other as "client" and "therapist" under supervision
- Feedback on this work, and discussion of themes arising

Year I

Year I covers the Basic and Advanced Certificate courses in Biodynamic Massage. Twelve forms of biodynamic massage are taught, with discussion of their application to the specific needs of different clients. Students are expected to practice these methods between workshops, keeping notes of these sessions. From their own experience they will develop an understanding of the cumulative effect of the massage on a client's state of mind. Students also learn various orgonomy exercises, which stimulate the movement of subtle energy throughout the body and can open new levels of consciousness.

In the advance certificate students will learn how to help a person stay deeply connected with themselves ("rooted") as they speak. They are taught to listen to a client not with their ears alone, but also with their eyes, watching how the person is holding themselves, how they are breathing, and to understand the significance of these processes. The particular quality of therapeutic presence used in biodynamic work is emphasised, with discussion of why it is so effective. (Other levels of the therapeutic relationship are explored in more detail in the following years.) The concepts of transference and countertransference, projection and introjection, are introduced.
Students will study Anatomy and physiology. An overview of the most common psychosomatic conditions is given, and also of eating disorders, depression, trauma, addictions, and chronic conditions such as ME, diabetes, HIV. Diversity in ethnicity and sexual orientation are discussed. The ethics and limits of clinical practice are explored.

The LSBP Basic Certificate in Biodynamic Massage and Advanced Certificate in Biodynamic Massage:
Students may be assessed for these certificates after completing the courses.
They will need to have completed the required practice sessions and have written one case-study (Basic Course) and an essay and another case-study (Advanced Course) on their 'practice clients'. The LSBP massage certificates are recognised by the British Massage Therapy Council (BMTC) and the Association of Holistic Biodynamic Massage Therapists (AHBMT).

Years II and III

Years II and III study the biodynamic therapeutic process as a whole, in relation to clients with very different needs. Biodynamic massage skills are further developed. More provocative forms of massage are taught, which can 'melt' the armour in the body so as to enable some of the client's repressed emotional energy to come to the surface. We discuss the suitability of the different forms of massage for specific clients, and the contribution such massage can make to a client's psychotherapeutic process. During Year II students who have gained the LSBP massage certificate will start working with biodynamic massage clients.

Students learn to recognise fluctuations of breath and to appreciate its significance for a person's emotional connectedness. As Gerda Boyesen says, "the diaphragm is the gateway to the unconscious". Students learn when to respect and when to challenge a client's breathing defences. Exercises are taught which can stimulate underlying feelings.

The more 'psychological' methods are now emphasised. Although biodynamic psychotherapy may use fewer words than other schools, the biodynamic use of language is subtle. Students learn to appreciate the nuances in the different ways of addressing a client, which can help the person enter new realms of experience and gradually embrace it as their own.

Students learn to work more deeply; they have ample practice working with the client lying on a mattress, helping the client use their body sensations as a pathway in free association. They learn to work with the client's 'stimuli impinging from within', helping the person revisit past experience in order to complete old emotional cycles and so move forward towards self-actualisation.

The biodynamic attitude to 'resistance' is explored and the deep conflicts, needs and fears which may be holding a client back. The multiple levels of relationship between a biodynamic psychotherapist and client are discussed, including the importance of transference and counter-transference as aids or impediments in the process.

The suitability of the various biodynamic techniques to particular clients is studied in detail. Students learn to assess a client's resources and areas of difficulty and to discern profitable modes of working. Some students will be ready to start working under supervision with psychotherapy clients by the end of Year III.

Academic study in years II and III includes child development and the main streams of psychotherapeutic thought: Freud , Reich, Jung and the analytic stream including Klein, Winnicott, object relations theory; the humanistic stream including Maslow, Gestalt, Carl Rogers, Transactional Analysis; transpersonal psychology and existentialism; other schools of body psychotherapy: Lowen, Pierrakos, Keleman, Boadella etc. This course is continued in Year IV.

Year IV

In Year IV the emphasis is on professional clinical practice, including the writing of case reports, managing referrals and other interactions with involved professionals.

We discuss the various forms of major psychiatric disturbance and how to recognise them, and we review current provisions for th e care of people with such conditions. We discuss what makes a client suitable or unsuitable for weekly biodynamic psychotherapy.

Academic study continues with the main streams of psychotherapeutic thought started in Year III: phenomenology; family systems therapy including Hellinger, psychodrama; cognitive and behavioural therapies, NLP. We then take an overview of all the schools covered, discussing the place of Biodynamic Psychotherapy within the whole range of psychotherapeutic thought and practice. 

Research modalities applicable to psychotherapy are explored, and students undertake their own research project. Issues of diversity are studied in depth, including conscious and unconscious value systems, race, colour, ethnicity, religious belief and practice, also major trauma and its impact on subsequent generations. Students present case studies and papers on their reading.

Themes opened up in the academic seminars may be explored further in the experiential group. In practice sessions, student 'therapists' will work several times with the same student 'client', so that their sessions can be considered in the light of the client's ongoing process, and with special attention to transference and counter-transference. Students who are already working with psychotherapy clients will attend small supervision groups on Fridays, bringing the same two 'training clients' for discussion at each meeting.

Yearly evaluation:

Towards the end of each year the training staff will discuss with each student how they are progressing in terms of their personal development, their practical and theoretical grasp of the work and their ability to communicate this understanding simply and clearly. This evaluation will be based on their essays and on their observed practical competence.