Somatopsychodynamic vegetotherapy

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Federico Navarro · 1974 · Italy

What it is

"Somatopsychodynamic vegetotherapy" is a label used for this approach. In the sources, the clinical method is called characteranalytic vegetotherapy (vegetoterapia carattero-analitica / caracteroanalítica). Somatopsicodinámica is the title of Navarro's book on a Reichian systematics of pathology…

Format

• Choice of format
• Full characteranalytic vegetotherapy: long-term depth therapy. ES.TE.R gives sessions of 45 or 90 minutes, about twice a week (roughly eight a month), averaging some 250 sessions of 45 minutes over about 2.5–3 years. Group therapy may be combined with the individual work at a suitable point.…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Not drawn on: precise rules for when to move to the next level. A cautious working rule is: move on once the current level's acting is reliably pleasurable, the material it raises has been put into words, and the client stays regulated between sessions.
• Version followed: Federico Navarro's characteranalytic vegetotherapy (his "somatopsychodynamics" systematisation), with its top-down sequence of the seven levels, as his Spanish (ES.TE.R, Valencia: Serrano, Vílchez, Redón), Italian (SIAR; Ferri and associates) and Brazilian (Centro Reichiano, Curitiba: Volpi) successors report it. Ferri's 1983 re-ordering of the levels and his acting timings are flagged where used.…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• : combining raises the intensity. Apply the same screening as 4.3.
• : depression "masquerading as psychosis" during decompensation. Reassess risk and reduce the intensity of body work.
• : freezing, compliance (saying yes but stiffening), or an erotic or transference charge. Name it and process it verbally rather than continuing.
• : intellectualising without feeling (go back to sensation), or flooding with no capacity to reflect (ground the client and postpone interpretation).
• deep-tissue pressure can cause pain, bruising and trauma reactions. Screen for recent injury or surgery, anticoagulant use, skin or vascular conditions, pregnancy and severe dissociation.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.