Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · Albert Pesso, Diane Boyden-Pesso · 1961 · Massachusetts

What it is

Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP, also called Pesso therapy) was created in 1961 by Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden-Pesso, both dancers and dance teachers. It started as a body therapy and grew into a group method that uses role-played scenes, called structures. Albert Pesso directed the dance…

Format

• PBSP is not delivered in numbered treatment phases. Its unit of work is the structure: one client (the "enactor") works for a single session, guided by the structure leader, while group members serve as role-players. Inside each structure the sources describe a typical sequence, set out below. The…
• Format

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Length. One structure usually takes one session. In group trainings, a structure commonly lasts about 45–60 minutes. A secondary site gives 6–12 weeks overall, and 10–20+ sessions for developmental trauma.
• Version followed: the late (c. 2000–2013) PBSP of Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden-Pesso as defined by the PBSP Psychomotor Institute glossary (pbsp.com) and the UK training glossary, with microtracking as written up by Michael Bachg (2004), a German PBSP trainer. The early psychomotor exercise work of the 1960s–70s and the later "Holes in Roles" extension are noted but not drawn on in detail.
• Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor (PBSP, also called Pesso therapy) was created in 1961 by Albert Pesso and Diane Boyden-Pesso, both dancers and dance teachers. It started as a body therapy and grew into a group method that uses role-played scenes, called structures. Albert Pesso directed the dance division at Emerson College and supervised psychomotor therapy at McLean Hospital (Massachusetts). PBSP is a registered…

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 any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• 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

• : the client stops collapsing the two sides into confusion or self-blame.
• : observers who have been activated themselves (offer them their own time later), and analysis creeping in.
• : relief or lightness as the client watches the gap being filled; the client then becomes able to receive for themselves.
• : a client who is spaced out or still in the past (ground first); role-players still carrying the role (offer them a brief de-roling statement).
• full effort, then letting go and relief, and the sense that "my power can be held". Concerning: panic at being held, or a real fight. Stop at once.

Problems the guide addresses

• Stuck client, or client who cannot take in the ideal figure
• Resistance and defences
• Overwhelm, flooding, dissociation
• Suicidality
• Touch-related problems
• Non-adherence and drop-out
• Ruptures with the therapist or the group
• Modality-specific difficulties

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.