Bill Say is an experienced therapist offering Core Energetics individual and group work.

Core Energetics is a psychotherapeutic approach based on Wilhelm Reich's theory of character development. Character, in the Reichian sense, is the deep physical, emotional, psychological, and relational patterning that stems from early childhood wounding.

The Core Energetics therapist works with life energy as the medium or vehicle for transformational healing. Life energy is our most fundamental life substance. It is known by many names in Eastern and Western healing cultures, from chi or qi in Chinese medicine and mana to Hawaiian kahunas, to prana for Indian Yogic practitioners and in Ayurveda, ni to Native Americas, and num to African shamans. Life energy is that combination of energy and consciousness that makes love possible, and is the foundation for our most creative and destructive potential. Our life energy breathes, moves, cries, thinks, dances, and falls. It is who we are.

How Early Fulfillment/Nonfulfillment of Needs Shapes Character

All of us begin life with basic needs. Our life energy naturally flows toward fulfilling those needs. We have needs for food, contact, and breath. Although each person is born with an individual temperament and into a very specific environment, we all possess naturally aggressive impulses that reach out toward life to fulfill our needs. As we do so, we are met with either acceptance or thwarting.

When our needs are met, we are free to flow toward greater fulfillment. Energetically, the very process of reaching out and being accepted creates harmony in the system and supports and strengthens the very process of reaching out again. However, when our life energy is met with rejection or opposition, we recoil from pain. There is a discordant shock to the system of the organism and the child experiences primal pain.

Initially, the child will try again to get its needs met. But when it is frustrated repeatedly, the child eventually adapts its energy. The life energy that would normally reach out for its needs is adapted for two reasons. The first is that it becomes unbearable for the child to keep experiencing the primal pain of being frustrated. The second is that the child comes to experience a certain kind of fulfillment by the very act of holding back. So, for instance, a child who cries out when she is hungry and is in a situation with a mother who cannot respond to her cries will eventually stop crying. The energy that moved toward life will be redirected into holding back the cries.

Both processes---acceptance and thwarting---happen in different ways to all of us and create the basis for character structure. Character structure gets developed early on. It is our specific orientation toward life, built and shaped by how our life energy has come to flow freely and be held.

There are a handful of basic character structures that take shape during specific times of childhood development. These structures represent and influence how the individual relates to fundamental issues of existence, emotional and physical need, autonomy, power and vulnerability, and love. Each of us forms unique character structures that are the result of how our individual temperament evolved out of the historic experiences from our childhood. Our character structure governs the way in which our energy flows and is held. It is the frozen history or roadmap in our bodies. Because character structure is based on our historic experience, it keeps us from being fully spontaneous, responsive in the present, and free to experience ourselves fresh and unencumbered.

Each character structure is supported by beliefs and images formed in early childhood with a corresponding effect on the body. There will be a specific defensive posture related to the childhood experience. This basic orientation will carry through life and have an effect on all aspects of experience. The character pattern will result in specific physical, emotional, psychological, and relational tendencies. It can strongly affect us in the areas of work, health, finances, and even spirituality.

For example, if a person suffers from an issue of abandonment, the body will hold itself in a defensive posture related to fear of being left. The defense will probably keep the breath limited, and the feelings related to need and abandonment under a degree of control. Physically, the body will form in a way that shows the early deprivation. The energy of the body will express itself in a holding back of need, for example, with arms that display low energy and ability for reaching out. Emotionally, the person will be vulnerable to feelings that trigger wanting or will fear situations that hold the threat of abandonment or rejection. Psychologically, the person will often be characterized as being stoic and self-sufficient, not needing others so much, or will identify with not being complete without a nurturing relationship. Relationally, there will be behavior and subtle inclinations linked to these emotional and psychological ones that result in over-neediness or under-neediness. The person may also bring his relationship with need into his spiritual life or practices. Because character is formed from our historic experiences and functions to keep us there, it also keeps us from being fully present.

How Core Energetics Identifies Frozen History in the Body

Core Energetics works to melt the frozen history in the body, bring to consciousness the holding patterns, and release the energy that has been blocked. Because of the strong correlation between historical experience and the formation of the body, the therapist can use "body readings" to identify key historic themes, gain information, and find ways to immediately address the issues.

Body readings consist of looking at the physical and energetic structure of the body, and can be accomplished in a number of ways. One way is that the patient stands before the therapist and says what she knows about her body while the therapist also observes. The trained therapist is looking at the actual structure of the body as well as where the energy is flowing and where it is blocked. In the example of abandonment, there might be a concave or deflated appearance in the chest area. There might be a way the neck reaches out in front of the person, clues that there is a deep issue around primal need. The arms may show a lack of energy and a holding back. Such evidence of these chronic holding patterns reveals how deeply the client has been wounded. The therapist also looks for physical and energetic clues as to how this person has been supported, in what areas her needs have been fulfilled and her energy flow unimpeded, and aspects of their strength and spiritual essence or meaning for her. Looking at the body in this way is like looking at a map of the person's history.

Energy/body work addresses the energetic and emotional balance of forces that is an important part of character structure. This energy and emotional status quo seeks to stay more or less stable to protect itself. In the example of abandonment, the usual energetic state is chronic low energy. This keeps the person in a less-than-full state of being. Relationally, this state doesn't support the person in being as independent as she could be or as healthily interdependent as she could be.

The cycle of sexual activity and orgasm provides a useful metaphor for what the cycle of life energy could be. In the "ideal" cycle, there is a resting phase, then an excitation phase, followed by a climax, a precipitous drop in energy, then another rest or resolution phase, before the next cycle repeats itself. In the energetic "economy" established by someone struggling with abandonment issues, the phases might look more like a chronic state of wanting, followed by an excitation phase that doesn't ever fully reach satisfaction, so the phases are not as clearly defined or fully realized.

Some of what is missing in this case is sufficient energetic "charging." Charging is the amount of intensity the life energy gathers and retains as it flows through the body. A low energetic charge, in this case, is the result of the historical lack of sufficiently being fed and nurtured emotionally, and perhaps even physically. An inability to receive nourishment often evolves out of this issue, and so the ideal cycle is further disrupted by the individual's not being able to take in enough energy, love, attention, etc. to bring her to a state of fullness, satisfaction, and a deep sense of self.

Core Energetic Techniques and How They Work

Once we have a base of knowledge of this person's strength and wounding, we can begin to use physical techniques to free the energy and help the client become conscious of the holding patterns. This is done in many different ways. Sometimes we impose stress or bring resistance to areas of holding as a means of helping the held energy flow freely again. This can be accomplished with targeted breathing techniques, hitting, kicking, and holding postures or positions that bring vibrations or energy charge into blocked areas. We can also help people experience movements and feelings that were prohibited. With the issue of abandonment, the simple act of having a person lie down, reach out with the arms, and say "I need you," can evoke profound emotions.

In the example of abandonment, there is usually a chronically low energetic state known as undercharging. There is simply not enough energy. The person will often complain of not being able to complete a task, or complain of feeling overburdened or under-supported. In this case, some of the bodywork will involve charging or bringing more energy into the person's system. This can be accomplished by deeper and fuller breathing. It addresses gradually learning how to take in energy and nourishment, the basic life skill that was missing. Another way to increase bodily charge is by kicking. Kicking one's legs on a mattress for two to five minutes a day is a simple but powerful way to accumulate energy. And it often evokes some of the deep attitudes this person may have. She may resent having to do this hard work. There may be an attitude that says, "The world owes me something and I don't want to have to work for it." There may be deep rage and pain and sadness at not having gotten her needs met. The information that emerges from such bodywork is new and often quite startlingly clear. As new information surfaces, it will be synthesized into consciousness and integrated back into the body's own energetic system.

In the process of allowing the energy to flow freely where it had been held for many years, likely since before the time the individual was even a conscious thinker, the individual will need to re-experience the primal feelings that were blocked from awareness at the time of the wounding. These feelings include primal rage, hatred, pain, terror, love, and need. In the example of the deprived client, the impulses and healthy aggression that reach for nourishment have been blocked. Therefore, supporting the full expression of the rage and deep sorrow that reside at the source of the block is important.

There is often a very profound crying that occurs that also results in, at least temporarily, a sense of fullness and completeness that was previously lacking. Often, the person will feel quite frightened or initially resistant about allowing her energy to flow freely, as there is a deep association of holding with survival, on the energetic level. But when the bodywork releases the block and untraps the energy, the person will feel relief, a profound connection to him or herself, and a rightness or truth to the experience. The individual will experience a flowing of energy and a sense of well being.

The essence of this process is this: These re-experienced feelings were the core truth of the person's original wounding experience, which the person had to deny in order to survive. In doing so, the person stopped knowing and exploring and learning about certain parts of him or herself, and experienced a loss of integrity and a disconnection from her true or potential self.

Ultimately, Core Energetic work is about returning us to the truth and authority that is within our own body.