Status: not verified, no guide written. No primary or secondary source describing a therapy called "emotional reintegration" attributed to someone named Bolen has been identified. To avoid inventing techniques or putting words in a founder's mouth, this entry records what is known and where to look further. It does not give clinical procedures. [uncertain]
1. Introduction
Version followed: none. No source identified.
- A method called "emotional reintegration (Bolen)" is listed among the "Reichian and post-Reichian" approaches. No founder, institute, book, paper or training programme by that name and author could be confirmed. [uncertain]
- The name "Bolen" does not match any known body psychotherapist. The best-known Bolen in the field is the Jungian psychiatrist Jean Shinoda Bolen. Her published work is archetypal and Jungian, not Reichian body therapy, so she is probably not the source. [uncertain]
- A related lead: emotional-flooding and cathartic therapies of the 1970s were collected in Paul Olsen (ed.), Emotional Flooding (1976). A chapter on a method of this name may appear there, but this is unconfirmed. [uncertain]
2. Framework
Not described in any available source. No phases, session format or criteria for moving between phases can be given. [uncertain]
3. Guiding principles
Not described in any available source. [uncertain]
General Reichian and post-Reichian principles (armour, character, discharge) are covered in the sibling tabs of this family. Don't assume they apply to this method until a primary source confirms it. [synthesis]
4. Intervention inventory
No interventions are listed. None could be traced to a source for this method, and listing generic Reichian techniques under its name would mean attributing techniques without evidence. [uncertain]
5. Handling problems
No method-specific guidance can be given. [uncertain]
Until a source is found, a clinician who meets this name in a referral, CV or workshop advert should do the following [synthesis]:
- Ask the practitioner or training body for their written manual, their lineage and their training standards.
- Ask whether the method uses touch, breath intensification or cathartic discharge (hitting, kicking, screaming). If it does, apply the touch-consent steps and contraindication screening described in the sibling Reichian tabs: pregnancy, cardiovascular or respiratory illness, epilepsy, recent injury or surgery, psychosis, severe dissociation, active suicidality, and recent trauma without stabilisation.
Where to look further
- No mention in: Herink's Psychotherapy Handbook (1980), and body-psychotherapy modality lists.
- Also no mention in: Wikipedia pages on body psychotherapy, Reichian therapy, vegetotherapy and emotional flooding, and Rosendahl, Sattel and Lahmann (2021).
- Herink's guidebook: the chapter list of The Psychotherapy Guidebook (Herink) at freepsychotherapybooks.org has no entry by this name.
- Further reading (not drawn on): a review of Olsen's Emotional Flooding (primal-page.com), C. Young's "Body-Psychotherapy in Europe" (courtenay-young.co.uk), a ResearchGate survey of body psychotherapy practitioners, and a PubMed Central article.
- Where to look:
- Check the contents of Olsen (1976), Emotional Flooding.
- Check Corsini (ed.), Handbook of Innovative Psychotherapies (1981).
- Check the original source of this listing, to confirm the spelling of "Bolen" and the method's name. It may be a misspelling or a confusion with another post-Reichian method.
Sources
Sources (none describe the method):
- Body psychotherapy (Wikipedia)
- Emotional flooding (Wikipedia)
- Reichian therapy (Wikipedia)
- Vegetotherapy (Wikipedia)
- The Psychotherapy Guidebook, chapter list (freepsychotherapybooks.org)
- Effectiveness of Body Psychotherapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Rosendahl, Sattel and Lahmann, 2021)
Books named as leads (not drawn on):
- Olsen, P. (ed.) (1976). Emotional Flooding. New York: Behavioral Publications.
- Herink, R. (ed.) (1980). The Psychotherapy Handbook. New York: New American Library.