“At normal development each stage fulfills its basic function, untraumatized and in future life serves its pleasure seeking capacity. Inherent are pleasurable feelings of expansion and relaxation which is the antidote to contraction and tension.”
Reichian Character Analysis
Orgonomy as founded by Wilhelm Reich describes the pulsation or life force that naturally streams through an enlivened body and has two oscillating functions of expansion and contraction. Reich likened it to a charge in our bodies that allows for healthy accumulation of energy and adequate healthy discharge. Just like every cell in our body, our inhale and our exhale, and the beating of our hearts, we embody the rhythm of life in our beings.
Early attachment problems, early stressors and traumas can have a chain reaction that results in inhibited or blocked pulsation at the various segments of our body. Blocks at these developmental levels prevent the streaming of energy flow through the whole system. These blocked segments result in various psychological and somatic complaints that may plague the client through their life.
Orgonomic Therapy helps reinstate natural self-regulation in the segments through increasing contactfulness at the segments (awakened presence) and consciousness.
According to Orgonomy, the mind and body are functionally identical. History and character development results in patterns of armoring throughout the body leading to imbalances in our physical expression. One’s psychology leads to lifestyle and behavioral patterns that greatly influence the quality of one’s life. It is from this model of mind/body unification that Reich established Character Analysis, an out-of-the-box, at times confrontative, active and engaged dialogue with the patient’s defensive character patterns and unhealthy coping strategies that are visible and obvious in the room, in the here and now. These defensive patterns are usually integral to the patient’s presenting list of problems and symptoms. By working the character’s maladaptive coping mechanisms and defenses, stuck energy can begin to mobilize again and with it, deep feelings emerge. Finally, the suppressed, denied and sealed-off memories and their concurrent emotions are able to be expressed and resolved. In this way, the client can begin to touch their authentic core and move in the world in a liberated, energized and conscious state. Pleasure is reinstated and natural regulation returns.
Joanna Fassl offers both somatic and psychological interventions when working with you. Many of us are aware of our habitual character tendencies that can get in the way of healthy relating; but not many of us have ever actively worked these places. In therapy with Joanna, you will come into contact with your unique character stylings whether it be restless eyes, shallow breath, overtalking, controlling the session, chronic cancelling, devaluing or inflating yourself or others, laughing to hide deeper feeling or any other number of ways in which we have learned to fend off pain and discomfort. As you increase your capacity to be embodied, to tolerate feeling and regulate your life, together we can begin the journey into working biophysically with breathe, expressive exercises and subtle manipulations. The body armor will dissolve and the fraught body/mind can experience uncaged relief.
In addition to working with Orgonomy, Joanna also draws from Attachment Theory, Internal Family Systems, Bowen Family Therapy and Jungian Depth Psychology. She imbues her sessions with both the intricacies of the material world and the richness of the poetic/dream/spirit world. In this way, metaphorically digging in the dirt is a practice in alchemy proving that the greatest golden riches are at once intangible and wholly felt and seen.
