Psychosomatic Disorders And Body Psychotherapy

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Psychosomatics (Greek psyche - soul, soma - body) is a direction in medicine and psychology that studies the influence of psychological (mainly psychogenic) factors on the occurrence and subsequent dynamics of somatic diseases

The term "psychosomatics" was proposed in 1818 by Heinroth. Ten years later, M. Jacobi introduced the concept of "somatopsychic" as the opposite and at the same time complementary to the "psychosomatic". The term "psychosomatics" was introduced into the medical lexicon only a century later by the German psychiatrist Deutsch.

Psychosomatic disorders (PSD) include a group of painful conditions that arise and develop on the basis of the interaction of mental and physiological factors. PSR is manifested by the development of various functional disorders of organs and systems under the influence of psychogenic factors, somatization of mental disorders and mental disorders as a reaction to somatic diseases.

The problem is that no matter what we feel bad, both body and soul suffer at the same time. We are psychologically difficult to endure our physical ailments. But our mental suffering also manifests itself in bodily problems. "The whole soul ached for him …", "my legs were taken away from fear …", "my heart was busy with excitement …", "the insult fell like a stone on my chest …", "I lost my speech from the horror …" - many folk expressions have come down to us from the depths centuries about these states.

Initially, seven major diseases were attributed to the PSR: essential hypertension, peptic ulcer of the duodenum and stomach, bronchial asthma, diabetes mellitus, neurodermatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative nonspecific colitis.

Later, they began to include anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, conditions associated with the generative cycle of women (syndrome of "premenstrual tension" and "premenstrual dysphoric disorder"; depression of pregnant women and postpartum depression, including the syndrome of "sadness in women in labor"; menopause, etc.), ischemic heart disease, psychosomatic thyrotoxicosis, obesity. This also includes radiculitis, migraine, intestinal colic, irritable bowel syndrome, gallbladder dyskinesia, chronic pancreatitis and infertility with excluded pathology of the reproductive system, cancer, infectious and other diseases.

In a broad sense, according to the famous Russian psychologist Luria A. R. “There are no only mental and only somatic diseases, but there is only a living process in a living organism; his vitality consists precisely in the fact that he combines in himself both the mental and the somatic side of the disease. Thus, psychological help is needed for almost any negative symptoms.

From the point of view of psychosomatics, body-oriented psychology, it is useless to treat the disease only with pills, if the disorder is based on reasons of a psychological nature - constant stress, psychological trauma, emotional experiences, etc. At the same time, the psychological problem could have gone so far that it caused organic disease and the intervention of a doctor is simply necessary. But even if the ailment is of a physical, bodily nature, then psychological suffering can significantly impede treatment.

There are more than 200 concepts for the development of SDP. In modern psychosomatic pathogenesis, multifactoriality is recognized in the explanation of psychosomatic diseases. Somatic and mental, the influence of predisposition and the environment, the actual state of the environment and its subjective processing, physiological, mental and social influences in their totality and in addition to each other - all this matters as a variety of effects on the body, described as "factors", which interact with each other.

Important factors contributing to the development of these disorders are not only stress, but also stress resistance, depending on the physical, psycho-emotional states and social environment; personal characteristics (temperament, character, constitution); predisposition (choice of target organ), etc.

The existence of the so-called pre-psychosomatic personality radical is assumed - those personality traits that lead to the disease; it is a focus of psychosomatic impulses, a fixed pathoplastic experience. It is formed in childhood and adolescence.

Currently, almost every psychotherapeutic direction offers its own methods of correcting PAD: suggestive psychotherapy, psychosynthesis, positive psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, symboldrama, transactional analysis, art therapy, psychodrama, dance-movement therapy, body-oriented psychotherapy, family psychotherapy, neuro-linguistic programming.

The choice of directions and methods for correcting PAD in each specific case depends on the client's situation, his personal characteristics, the therapist's belonging to one or another psychotherapeutic school, the degree of his education and practical preparedness.

Body-oriented psychology postulates the fact that any mental experience, state, problem is reflected in one way or another in our physical body: in posture, posture, tension of certain muscle groups, habitual movements, etc. By influencing this reflection, changing motor stereotypes, one can solve specific psychological problems, get rid of internal conflicts, and become aware of one's inner resources. It is important that the somatic symptoms of mental trauma are understood as bodily manifestations of emotional experiences.

Body-oriented psychotherapy refers to integrative models of psychotherapy. It arose and continues to develop at the present time in two main variants: as an independent direction of psychology and psychotherapy; as a second, additional and necessary, in line with many of the early psychological approaches, primarily in psychoanalysis, the gestalt approach, existential psychology, etc.

At the same time, special principles and techniques for working with the body are used not so much as a source of information, but as the main means of direct therapeutic action.

In various areas of body-oriented psychotherapy, theory and practice have been developed, as well as special methods and techniques for psychocorrection of the PSP. Currently, methods of working with the body are used both in direct bodily contact with a psychotherapist and indirectly, without touching. At the same time, changes in bodily sensations are constantly in the focus of attention of both the client and the psychologist.

In our work, we mainly use contact methods. A. Lowen emphasized the exceptional importance of touching, tactility as the main way of being aware of oneself and the world around for the child, as the main tool of the therapist, as an effective way to convey the quality of the relationship between the therapist and the client, as a way of establishing contact.

The integrability of any methods of psychocorrection is inherent in the very essence of psychological counseling. Regardless of the method and direction of psychotherapy, the combination of two necessary conditions for the success of therapy is common for all directions: the personality of the consultant and the quality of the therapeutic contact.

K. Rogers said that the theory and methods of the consultant are less important than the existence of his role.

Trusting contact between the counselor and the client, based on unconditional respect, empathy, warmth and sincerity of the counselor towards the client, is an integral, and, in the opinion of many professionals, an essential component of psychological counseling and psychotherapy (“… the success of psychotherapy may have nothing to do with the method therapist and the content of verbal interpretations. It depends on factors such as the quality of the relationship in the therapeutic setting, the degree of empathy, or the patient's feeling about how well he or she was understood and supported”).

Common to all directions of psychocorrection within the framework of individual counseling are:

diagnostic conversation according to the scheme: complaints, main manifestations (symptoms) - the exact time of the appearance of complaints - the life situation at the beginning of the complaints (all changes, breakdowns), the situation with relapses - anamnestic retrospective (childhood, attitude towards parents, profession, sexuality, etc.) - a picture of the personality and its conflicts; psychotherapeutic conversation.

Conversation as a diagnostic and therapeutic method is the form of correction that every consultant uses, consciously or unconsciously.

After these preliminary stages have been passed, the further choice of techniques within the framework of the approach under consideration is based on the use of the phenomenon of deep psychophysical relaxation as a way of maximizing muscle relaxation and removing clamps and blocks, isolating conflict zones and realizing them in the form of bodily metaphors. This allows the mechanisms of internal psychosomatic self-regulation to turn on, restores the unity and harmony of a person at all levels.

Deep kinesthetic trance is therapeutic in itself, because it allows psychic restructuring, which is impossible in the ordinary state of consciousness. This state may not be enough for the purposes of psychocorrection of the AKP, therefore the consultant performs certain work in a state of joint trance interaction with the client.

The main method used in our work and allowing to achieve a deep level of bodily and psychoemotional relaxation, necessary for the formation of kinesthetic trance, is the "Relaxation complex" by the Russian psychologist A. V. Minchenkov. This method can be organically complemented by a number of original methods of working with the body: oriental massage, manual therapy of internal organs, holistic massage.

The relaxation complex can be used in integration with the verbal methods of Ericksonian hypnosis, bioenergy system therapy, psychocatalysis, re-perenting and the method of psychocorrection and psychological self-regulation Retrie

Mishurov S. V.