Each body is unique and is made up of much more than a bunch of cells. It reflects each person’s story more faithfully than a written autobiography. The shape of the body and the way it feels is the result of attitudes throughout life. Certain emotional expressions are inevitably inhibited and others are enhanced, but patterns can be set in the subconscious that are maintained over time, even if they are no longer appropriate to current circumstances. Diaphreotherapy helps to recognize these patterns, to discover their emotional origin and to free oneself from unnecessary restrictions.
Therapists who work with diaphreo-integration body therapy (also called diaphreotherapy or simply diaphreo) They accompany their patients on a journey of self-discovery. Through techniques such as stretching of the muscular chains, massages and breathing exercises, tensions and physical blockages are recognized, where emotions that are not wanted to be felt with the mind and heart are isolated. Because rejecting them does not eliminate them, but confines them in the physical structures. As the knots are untied, the body regains the freedom to move harmoniously and to respond to life’s situations with spontaneity and efficiency.
Diaphreotherapy: let the emotions flow
It is interesting to study the etymological definition of the word diaphreotherapy. The word “diaphreo” comes from the Greek verb diaphreinwhich means “let go”. That is the objective: to let the emotion flow to Allow yourself to feel and express.
It is about recovering fragments of our identity that have been buried. The concealment process can go back to the first years of life. The satisfaction of vital needs (food, love, security, etc.) leads to balance and health. But if these are not satisfied, the muscles contract, the perception is reduced and the respiratory flow weakens. As a consequence, body movements are limited, rigid and lacking in naturalness. may appear various tension pains (in the head, extremities, back, neck or abdomen) or sleep and digestive disorders, among other physical and psychological symptoms.
Of course, a problem can have a purely mechanical origin. One of the missions of the therapist, therefore, is Find out if the symptom has an emotional cause. If so, it can be accessed through the musculature, especially through the diaphragm, which functions as a bridge between emotion and physical structures.
Work on muscle chains
Diaphreotherapists take as a reference the principles of muscle physiology established by the physiotherapist Françoise Mézieres in the 1940s. According to Mézières, the muscles are associated in chains, such as the posterior chain, which goes from the skull to the feet, or the lateral chains. The muscles of these chains tend to shorten and be in tension, which produces different compensations and discomfort. Mezières stayed in the physical, but diaphreotherapists affirm that the processes of shortening and contraction also they are due to adaptation processes and psychic traumas.
The promoters of diaphreo, Malén Cirerol (student of Françoise Mézières) and Linda Jent, integrated into the new therapy the theories of Dr. wilhelm reich and his disciple Alexander Lowen. Reich described the muscular armor or character armor, the result of the unexpressed feelings and emotions that are reflected in body posture and limit our way of feeling and acting in the present.
Reich also defined the vital pulsation, that alternates energetic movements of contraction and expansion in the organism. The contraction is associated with pain and activation of the sympathetic nervous system (stress response). Expansion is related to pleasure and the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response). What is healthy is that contraction is followed by expansion, but if this does not occur, if it is retained, different physical limitations and blocks of spontaneity may appear. For Reich, the repression of the sexual impulse It is an essential aspect in the origin of the formation of the muscular shell.
Other references for the diaphreo are the work of Therese Bertherat, creator of anti-gymnastics and author of the influential book The body has its reasons the humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers and the psychoanalyst Alice Miller.
Through bodily and respiratory work, the diaphreus reaches the hidden pain that is both physical and mental. Through stretching of the body chains, the armor is undone and the physical compensations are corrected. But just as important or more than physical work is the empathic accompaniment, present and free from the therapist’s judgments, that favors that the person can finally express everything that had not been allowed before.
Achieve body harmony
The body is organized according to movements outwards (driven by joy or anger) or inwards (promoted by sadness and fear). If a pattern predominates it leads the body to adopt a shape. An example is the shy girl with her knees drawn in and her shoulders and head hunched forward. The opposite example is the man with the legs apart and the protruding chest. In diaphreotherapy it is loosen patterns and seek a balance point, acting both physically on the muscles, and on the emotion, favoring its recognition and expression. By achieving harmony in the body structure and the uninhibited experience of emotions, internal stress is reduced and all the organs and systems of the body have their space to function properly.
What is a diaphreotherapy session like?
- Each therapist has his protocol, but it is very possible that he begins by asking the patient to explain What are your bodily sensations? It can help you by bringing your attention to different parts of the body: feet, neck, lower back, chest, etc. You can also describe how your breath feels and how you act in situations that cause you conflict.
- The therapist performs massages and proposes exercises adapted to each person to stretch contracted muscles and correct compensations. Work on the diaphragm is essential because it is a bridge between the conscious and the subconscious and is involved in breathing and the stability of the body.
- The therapist can use different dynamics, visualizations, games and exercises to work on the patient’s response to different situations. For example, you can draw a rectangle on the floor, ask the client to step inside and defend her position against the therapist’s gentle attempts to push him out.
- It is characteristic of diaphreotherapy that the patient evaluates how he feels physically and emotionally before and after each technique. One of the goals of diaphreotherapy is develop sensitivity and self-observation of the body, considering it as the expression of one’s own being.
Liberating Mézières Breath
Mézières breathing can be done during stretches to unblock and favor the spontaneous movement of the diaphragm. You can do this exercise when you wake up, lying in bed, or at any time of the day on a mat.
It consists of taking the air that is inspired towards the upper area of the thorax, feeling how the clavicles rise. while exhaling, air is pushed down. You feel how the stomach area swells and the pelvis tilts backwards, so that the lower back stretches and sticks to the mattress or mat. The cervicals are also stretched and come closer to the mattress. You can breathe in this way for five minutes. After a few days, more space and interior relaxation are appreciated, as well as more freedom of movement.
You are the only protagonist
Following the teachings of Carl Rogers, it is the patient who bears the weight of the therapy and not the therapist, whose role is to accept the patient in a positive and unconditional way, believe in their ability to transform, and be authentic, congruent, says the diaphreotherapist Celia Lledo, with consultation in Barcelona.
In the process that promotes diaphreus, a reconnection with deep internal spaces Where lies the strength to recover. The patient can use his resilience, his natural ability to develop constructively.
Learning is gradual, the person takes charge of himself, enters the knowledge of their needs and also of their achievements, explains the physiotherapist and diaphreotherapist Pilar Alarcón, from Madrid. Thus, the diaphreo offers an exciting journey to immerse yourself in understanding the language of the body, discover tools to inhabit it in the best way and grow physically and emotionally.