Neo-Reichian therapy

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Em Edmondson, Nick Totton · 1988 · Britain

What it is

"Neo-Reichian therapy" is an umbrella term, not a single manualised therapy. It covers the body psychotherapies that grew from Wilhelm Reich's character analysis and vegetotherapy (1930s–1950s) but dropped or loosened orthodox orgonomy, his medically restricted later method. This guide gives the…

Format

• Neo-Reichian work has no fixed session-by-session protocol. The structure below combines the sources' stated sequences.
• Format. Individual sessions. Part of each session is talk, often face to face; part may be bodywork, with the client usually lying on a mattress or flat couch. Bodywork alternates with talk without abrupt switches. Energy Stream also ran groups, residentials and peer triads (one works, one is…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Reich named "termination" as the second main task: resolving the transference and teaching the patient to deal with reality. He stated the final aim in sexual-economic terms ("genital primacy"). Neo-Reichians usually reframe this as capacity for pleasure, contact and self-regulation.
• Version followed: the British post-/neo-Reichian model of Energy Stream (the Post-Reichian Therapy Training) as set out by Em Edmondson and Nick Totton in Reichian Growth Work (1988; revised edition PCCS Books, 2009) and as Totton later moved it towards embodied-relational work (Totton 1998). For the concrete segmental body techniques, which this school shares with other neo-Reichians, the guide follows the classic…

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

• Transference intensity, and compliance (doing it to please you).
• Flat spots and areas the client skips; these become later focus areas.
• The attitude becoming felt and recognisable ("this is how I was at school").
• Easy, ready-made emotion that may defend against something deeper. Pre-oedipal fragility.
• Overwhelm and regression beyond the client's adult capacity. Keep contact and adult orientation.

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.