Bioenergetic Analysis is a form of body psychotherapy (body-oriented Reichian psychotherapy) that combines psychological analysis, active work with the body and relational therapeutic work. The approach is grounded in an understanding of the importance of the body--and the energetic underpinnings of body and mind--to psychological development and emotional health. The approach includes development of insight/understanding, expression of feelings and re-establishment of energy flow in the body.

 

Bioenergetic Analysis was developed by Alexander Lowen, M.D. as a modification and extension of Wilhelm Reich's character analytic technique of vegetotherapy. It is practiced under the auspices of the International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis. Bioenergetic Analysis is practiced as both individual and group psychotherapy.

A basic tenet of Bioenergetic Analysis is that a person is his or her body, and all life experience is ultimately body experience. The body's expressions, posture, patterns of muscular holding and energetic integrity (or blocks, splits and fragmentation) tell the story of a person's emotional history. They also shed light on the person's characteristic way of being in the world.