Atlas›Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy›Guide 040
Guide IV-040

Thymopraktik

Hilarion G. Petzold, Amélie Berger, Johanna Sieper, Hildegund Heinl1967Paris
A 21 · L 40 · M 3925 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: Thymopraktik as the conflict-centred, emotion- and relationship-focused core of Integrative Leib- und Bewegungstherapie (IBT) within Hilarion G. Petzold's Integrative Therapie, as taught at the Fritz Perls Institut (FPI) and the Europäische Akademie für biopsychosoziale Gesundheit (EAG, Hückeswagen, Germany). This guide follows Reichel & Petzold's handbook chapter (c. 2011), the German Wikipedia summary of IBT, and the abstracts of Petzold & Orth (1993e/2017) and Petzold & Berger (1977). The main primary texts, Petzold & Orth's Integrative Leibtherapie – Thymopraktik (Polyloge 27/2017, full PDF), Petzold's Integrative Bewegungs- und Leibtherapie (1988/1996) and Petzold's 1992 chapter on emotional differentiation work as Thymopraktik, are not drawn on here. Step-level detail below is therefore marked [synthesis] or [uncertain]. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011; Wikipedia IBT; FPI Polyloge 27/2017 abstract]

What it is. Thymopraktik (from Greek thymos, the seat of feeling and spirit; etymology [uncertain]) is not a free-standing school. It is a method inside Integrative Therapy and IBT. Petzold, Berger and Sieper developed it from the late 1960s, and Hildegund Heinl and Ilse Orth contributed later. Thymopraktik (Germany) was developed and is taught through FPI and EAG in Germany. IBT itself goes back to Petzold's work in Paris from 1966. Its roots include:

  • Iljine's therapeutic theatre and his "active analysis" with Ferenczi ("Neokatharsis").
  • Gindler work via Lily Ehrenfried, and Middendorf breath work.
  • Psychodrama, Gestalt therapy, and the martial arts.
  • Leib philosophy (Marcel, Merleau-Ponty).

The developers explicitly call it a non-Reichian body therapy: it does not use character-armour typologies (e.g. Lowen's character structures). [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 351–352; Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract; Polyloge 27/2017 abstract]

The sources define Thymopraktik as relationship- and emotion-centred work on and with the Leib, the lived, ensouled body as opposed to the biological Körper. They also call it "dealing with bodily stirrings". Its core is conflict-centred bodywork that may use touch. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 354]

How change happens (per the authors). The informierter Leib (informed body) stores a person's biography, including experiences that were never verbal, as body memory (Leibgedächtnis). Trauma, conflict and deficits lead to Selbstanästhesierung, a loss of the ability to sense oneself. This loss shows as chronic tension and as dysfunctional breathing, posture and movement patterns. Change proceeds in four moves:

  1. Re-establish eigenleibliches Spüren (sensing one's own body from within).
  2. Use bodily perception to reach the scenes and atmospheres stored in the body.
  3. Work these through expressively, emotionally and verbally, inside a relationship that offers corrective emotional experiences.
  4. Practise new, self-chosen patterns until they are embodied: Umleibung, "re-embodiment", leading to a newly informed body.

The sequence runs from phenomena to structures to Entwürfe (life projections). [source: Wikipedia IBT; Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 351–352]

2. Framework

Structure of the method. Thymopraktik has no phase protocol of its own in the sources. It is delivered within the overall IBT/Integrative Therapy framework. That framework has three organising dimensions: modality, process phase and depth. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 352–353; Wikipedia IBT]

A. Three modalities. The clinician chooses the modality for the case and the session, and may move between them. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 352–353; Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]

  • Exercise-centred / functional (übungszentriert-funktional).
    • Goal: functionally sound breathing and posture, tension–relaxation regulation, balance of narrowing and widening (Engung/Weitung), Eutonus, better perception, and practising new behaviour.
    • Emotional involvement is low; the work relies on will and practice.
    • Methods from Alexander, Jacobson, Ehrenfried and Middendorf may be drawn in.
  • Experience-centred / stimulating (erlebniszentriert-stimulierend; "agogisch" in the 1977 abstract).
    • Goal: widen awareness and room for action, experience one's own capacities, and activate resources through multiple stimulation. This includes nature and "Green Exercises" and biographical links to earlier good experiences.
    • Emotional involvement is moderate.
  • Conflict-centred / uncovering (konfliktzentriert-aufdeckend). This is the home of Thymopraktik in the narrow sense.
    • Goal: work through conflicts, trauma and burdensome biographical events, reaching resolution and free flow of feeling.
    • The work targets chronic tension, posture, expressive patterns and freezing (Erstarrung), followed by cognitive and emotional working-through.
    • Emotional involvement is high.

B. Four process phases ("tetradic system"). Reichel & Petzold name the tetradic system as the structure of a therapy process. Its four phases run at varying depths within a session, a series of sessions and a whole treatment. The phase names and goals below come from the wider Integrative Therapy literature: [uncertain]

  1. Initial phase. Contact, warm-up, sensing, and process diagnosis with the client as co-diagnostician. A theme emerges, often from a body sensation.
  2. Action phase. The theme is experienced and expressed, through movement, breath, voice, posture, touch, imagery or creative media.
  3. Integration phase. What happened is put into words and understood. It is linked to biography (phenomena → structures → Entwürfe) and given meaning.
  4. New-orientation phase (Neuorientierung). New behaviour is tried out and transferred to everyday life (Umleibung).

[source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 353 (system named only); phase content [uncertain]]

C. Depth. Höfner, Mantl & Stefan (2024) list "Ebenen der Tiefung" (levels of deepening) as a core practice concept. Only the table of contents is drawn on here. The commonly cited levels run from reflection, through imagery and affect, and emotional involvement, to autonomous bodily reaction. [uncertain] The practical rule is to choose the depth deliberately and match it to the client's stability. [synthesis]

Session count and format.

  • Settings: individual and group work, in psychiatric and psychosomatic clinics, private practice, social work and education. Outdoor settings are used for running therapy and nature work. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 353–355]
  • No standard number or length of sessions is given in the sources. [uncertain] A typical outpatient format would be weekly 50–90-minute sessions, extending to months or longer for conflict-centred work. [synthesis]
  • Groups (clinic): mainly functional and experience-centred work, such as breathing and movement training, sensitization, expressivity and orientation training, plus behavioural techniques. [source: Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]

Moving between phases and modalities. The sources give no explicit criteria. The following are [synthesis], consistent with the authors' emphasis on a supportive relationship and resource work:

  • Begin in the functional or experience-centred modality. Move to conflict-centred work only when four conditions hold:
    • The working alliance is stable.
    • The client can sense and name body states (eigenleibliches Spüren).
    • The client can down-regulate when asked (breath, grounding, orientation).
    • The client consents to uncovering work.
  • Move from action to integration once the emotional wave has crested and the client can look at it again. Never close a session in the action phase.
  • Move to new orientation when the client can state an insight in their own words and name one concrete thing to try.
  • Step back to a lower modality or depth when any of these appears: dissociation, flooding, crisis or destabilised everyday functioning. The authors list crisis management (Umgang mit Krisen) and crisis-intervention training as a separate part of practice. [source: Höfner et al. 2024 TOC; EAG training page]

3. Guiding principles

  • Leib, not just Körper. Work with the lived, ensouled body as subject, not with an object to be fixed. In practice: ask "how do you experience…" before "what is wrong with…". [source: Wikipedia IBT]
  • Informed body / body memory. Biography is stored in the Leib. In practice: treat tension, posture and breathing patterns as meaningful history, not just mechanics. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 351]
  • Eigenleibliches Spüren is the starting point. In practice: every intervention begins with, and keeps returning to, the client's own inner sensing. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Polyloge 27/2017 abstract]
  • Context and continuum. The person is a "body–soul–mind–world" being, embedded in a life-world and in past, present and future. In practice: ask where a pattern was learned and where it lives now. [source: Wikipedia IBT]
  • Non-Reichian, process-oriented diagnosis. There are no character typologies, and the client is a Kodiagnostiker (co-diagnostician). In practice: share observations as hypotheses and let the client confirm or reject them. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 352; Polyloge 27/2017 abstract]
  • Multilevel assessment. Assess the physical, psychological, social and spiritual levels. In practice: check sleep, pain, network and meaning, not just affect. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 352]
  • Phenomena → structures → projections. In practice: start from what is visible now, then trace it to its biographical roots and to what it shapes for the future. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 351]
  • Ko-respondenz and intersubjectivity. Meaning is co-created between equals, with a "shared locus of control". In practice: negotiate each step rather than prescribing it. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, pp. 8, 14, 17–18]
  • Selective openness and partial engagement instead of analytic abstinence. In practice: share your own resonance briefly and purposefully when it helps the client, never to unload. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, p. 19]
  • Supportive relationship as the base; relationship models are internalised. In practice: the way you attune, hold limits and repair becomes part of what the client takes home. [source: Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]
  • Corrective emotional experience. In practice: aim for the client to have a different experience in the session, not only an insight. [source: Wikipedia IBT]
  • Resource orientation. Support the healthy parts and build new behaviour. In practice: anchor every uncovering session in something that works. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 354–355]
  • Bodily experience is always processed verbally. Use narrative Praxis and integrative hermeneutics. In practice: no bodywork ends without the client putting it into their own words. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 354]
  • Bundles of measures (multimodality). Combine body, movement, creative media, verbal and behavioural techniques. In practice: choose the combination the problem needs, not the one you prefer. [source: Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]
  • Four ways of healing and promotion. The first way is consciousness work and meaning-finding. The fourth is the experience of solidarity. The second and third are usually given as emotional re-nurturing (Nachsozialisation, basic trust) and experience-activating personality development. [uncertain; only ways 1 and 4 confirmed in Renz & Petzold 2006, pp. 18, 20] In practice: ask which way this client most needs now.
  • Do not overwhelm. Repeated probing of feelings can flood clients and stir up traumatic material. In practice: dose the intensity, and stop or slow when arousal outruns integration. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, p. 7]
  • Avoid dependency and "guru" dynamics, especially in groups. In practice: keep the client's autonomy and outside network central. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, p. 10]
  • Lifespan developmental view. In practice: development is possible at any age, so frame work with older and chronically ill clients as development too. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 354]
  • Licensing. Graduation as an IBT movement therapist does not itself license psychotherapy; in Germany that requires Approbation or Heilpraktiker status. In practice: check your own licence and jurisdiction before offering conflict-centred or touch-based work. [source: EAG training page]

4. Intervention inventory

Scope and status. The interventions below are the ones named in the sources: Reichel & Petzold (c. 2011, pp. 353–354), Wikipedia IBT, Petzold & Berger (1977), and Petzold & Orth's Polyloge and EAG titles. None of the sources give step-by-step instructions. Every "Steps" list is therefore [synthesis]: my operationalisation of the purpose the authors state, using standard body-psychotherapy practice. No new named techniques have been added. All therapist wording is illustrative.

Before any body work: screening [synthesis]

Ask about and note:

  • Pregnancy.
  • Cardiovascular or respiratory illness (including asthma and COPD).
  • Epilepsy.
  • Recent injury or surgery, osteoporosis, and current pain conditions.
  • Psychosis.
  • Severe dissociation.
  • Active suicidality.
  • Recent trauma without stabilisation.
  • Eating disorders, when the focus is on the body.
  • Substance use.
  • History of abuse involving touch.

Functional work can usually continue, with adaptations, in the presence of most physical conditions. Conflict-centred, high-arousal work and breath intensification are postponed when psychosis, severe dissociation, active suicidality, unstabilised trauma, or cardiac, respiratory or seizure disorders are present. In those cases, coordinate with the treating physician. These are not medical treatments, and no body method here treats physical disease.

Standard touch-consent protocol (applies wherever touch appears below; all steps are [synthesis], because the sources give none)

  1. Explain the purpose, where your hand will go, how long it will stay and what kind of contact it is. Use only non-intimate areas: hands, forearms, shoulders, upper back between the shoulder blades, and possibly the feet over socks. Never touch the chest, abdomen below the ribs, buttocks, inner thighs or genitals. Sexual or genital touch is never a technique.
  2. Ask, and accept a "no" without discussion.
  3. Offer an equivalent no-touch alternative. Examples: the client places their own hand there; they push against a cushion or a wall instead of your hand; you mirror at a distance.
  4. Agree a stop signal (a word or a raised hand) and practise it once.
  5. During contact, check in briefly every minute or so, and whenever breath, face or posture changes.
  6. Release slowly, then ask how it was, what the client noticed and whether anything felt wrong.
  7. Document the consent and the client's response.

Use touch only after specific training in touch-based body psychotherapy, under supervision, and after checking what your licence and jurisdiction allow. Reichel & Petzold place touch at the conflict-centred core (Thymopraktik). That is the setting with the highest risk of re-enactment, so the bar for using it there is the highest. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 354 (touch named); protocol [synthesis]]

A. Exercise-centred / functional modality

4.1 Eigenleibliches Spüren (sensing one's own body)

  • Purpose / when. The starting point of all IBT work. It restores contact with oneself after "self-anaesthesia" and trains perception of emotion, tension, posture and breath. Use it in every session, at the start, and as a return point whenever the client gets lost. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Polyloge 27/2017 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. The client sits upright or lies on a mat, eyes open or closed as preferred, with feet on the floor.
    2. Guide attention slowly through the contact surfaces (feet, seat, back), then the breath, then regions of the body, without asking for any change.
    3. The client names what they notice: warm or cold, wide or narrow, heavy or light, tense or loose, numb, or "nothing".
    4. Spend 3–10 minutes on this.
    5. Close by asking the client to orient to the room: look around and name three things they see.
    6. Ask what they discovered, and note words and images that came up as possible themes.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let your attention rest where your feet meet the floor. Nothing to change, just notice." "Where in your body do you notice most right now? What is it like there?"
  • Watch for.
    • "Nothing" or numbness is information (self-anaesthesia), not failure. Stay with the edges of what can be felt.
    • Flooding, dissociation (glazed eyes, delayed answers): open the eyes, add orientation, shorten the exercise.
    • It is working when the client's descriptions become more differentiated over the weeks.

4.2 Atemarbeit (breath work: letting breath happen and sensing it)

  • Purpose / when. Reichel & Petzold describe breath work as letting go of the breath and sensing it, in the tradition of Proskauer and Middendorf. In the functional modality the aim is "functionally correct" breathing. It also serves arousal regulation. Breathing training is part of the clinical group programme. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 351–353; Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. The client lies on their back with knees bent or sits upright.
    2. The client places their own hands on the lower ribs or belly.
    3. Invite them to notice the breath coming and going without steering it: where it moves, where it pauses.
    4. Invite them to allow the out-breath to finish and to wait until the in-breath comes by itself. Do not deepen or speed up the breath on purpose.
    5. After 5–10 minutes, ask them to let the breath return to normal and sit up slowly.
    6. Talk through what changed.
    7. Optional touch: with consent, a still hand on the upper back gives breath a place to move towards.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let the breath go out all the way, and see whether the next one comes on its own."
  • Watch for.
    • Effortful or forced breathing.
    • Over-breathing signs: tingling, light-headedness, cramping. Stop, breathe slowly, orient.
    • Breath intensification is not part of the functional work described. Do not use it with the screened-out groups above. [synthesis]
    • It is working when breath becomes freer, there is a felt calming or sense of space, and the client can use the method at home.

4.3 Entspannungs–Spannungs-Regulation (tension–relaxation regulation)

  • Purpose / when. To reach "relaxed alertness" and a balance of narrowing and widening (Eutonus). It draws on Jacobson and Ehrenfried and on Integrative and Differential Relaxation Therapy (IDR). Trauma-specific variants exist. Use it for stress physiology, anxiety, pain and sleep problems, and as a skill before uncovering work. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 352–353; Wikipedia IBT; EAG training page; Höfner et al. 2024 (IDR named)]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Choose a comfortable lying or sitting position.
    2. Work through muscle groups one at a time, for example hands, arms, shoulders, face, legs.
    3. For each group, tense it gently to about half strength for a few seconds, notice the tension, then release and notice the difference for 20–30 seconds.
    4. Next, contrast narrowing and widening: pull the body in, then open it out, and notice which feels right.
    5. Find a middle tone (neither slack nor rigid).
    6. Close with orientation, then agree a short daily home practice.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Tighten your fists only half way … and let go. Notice what happens in the hands after the letting go."
  • Watch for.
    • Relaxation-induced anxiety (loss of control, intrusions). Keep the eyes open, use shorter cycles, emphasise active tensing.
    • It is working when the client can self-induce a calmer tone, and when home practice is used.

4.4 Stimme (voice work)

  • Purpose / when. Breath and voice are named together. Voice serves expressivity and connects breath with emotion. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 354]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. The client sits or stands with feet hip-width apart.
    2. On the out-breath, they let out a sound: a hum, then an open "ah".
    3. Explore volume, pitch and length, and notice where the sound resonates in the body.
    4. Optionally add a word that fits the current theme ("no", "here").
    5. Repeat 5–10 times, then rest and talk through the experience.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let a sound ride on the out-breath, as quiet as you like."
  • Watch for. Shame: let the client face away or join in with them. Throat tightness: invite noticing rather than pushing through. Loud or screaming expression belongs only in conflict-centred work, with screening (see 4.17).

4.5 Haltungsarbeit (posture work, narrowing–widening)

  • Purpose / when. Posture is a carrier of biography and a target for functional correction (Alexander technique may be drawn in). Posture instructions are also one route into Lotung (4.15). [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 352; Wikipedia IBT]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. The client stands and senses their habitual posture.
    2. They exaggerate it slightly, then move into its opposite (e.g. sunken versus upright, closed versus open).
    3. After each variation, ask what it feels like and what mood or memory it carries.
    4. Let them find a posture that feels "right and their own".
    5. Practise moving from the old posture to the new one several times.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let the shoulders do a little more of what they already do … what is that like? Now let them do the opposite."
  • Watch for. Pain, and orthopaedic limits: coordinate with a physician or physiotherapist. Emotional surges signal a shift toward conflict-centred work; check consent before going on.

4.6 Sensibilisierungstraining (sensitization training)

  • Purpose / when. To improve perception and self-confidence and strengthen embodiment. It is used in clinic groups. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 353; Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Invite exploration of different sensory qualities: walking barefoot on different surfaces, holding objects of different weight or texture, and contrasting warm and cool, rough and smooth.
    2. After each, the client names and differentiates the sensations.
    3. In a group, pairs can share their observations.
  • Example language (illustrative): "How is this surface different from the last one? Find a word for it."
  • Watch for. Sensory overload. It is working when perceptions become richer and more precise, and the client shows more confidence in their own judgement.

4.7 Orientierungstraining (orientation training: social, spatial, temporal)

  • Purpose / when. To strengthen embeddedness: orientation in space, time and social field. It is especially useful in psychiatric and geriatric settings and after dissociation. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 353; Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. The client walks through the room and notes walls, corners, distances, and front versus back.
    2. They name the date, the time and what comes next today.
    3. In a group: look at the others, choose a distance to them, and greet one person.
    4. Close by having each person state where they are and with whom.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Find a place in the room that feels right for you now, and look at who is near you."
  • Watch for. Avoidance of eye contact or of other people. It is working when the client is more present and orients faster after stress.

4.8 Integrative Lauftherapie (running therapy)

  • Purpose / when. Developed by Petzold in 1969. An exercise-centred method, described as particularly useful for depression. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 353; Grüne Texte 27/2016 summary]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Obtain medical clearance where needed.
    2. Begin with walking alternated with slow jogging, at a pace that still allows talking.
    3. During and after, attend to breath, rhythm and mood.
    4. Close with a short sitting reflection.
    5. Build regularity and the client's own choice of route and companions. Set no performance targets.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Keep it slow enough that we can still talk. How is your breath finding its rhythm?"
  • Watch for. Physical limits, and compulsive exercise or eating-disorder dynamics: shift the focus to experience, not output. It is working when mood lifts afterwards and the client runs on their own.

B. Experience-centred / stimulating modality

4.9 Green Exercises / Erlebnisaktivierung in nature

  • Purpose / when. Eco-psychosomatic experience: sensory contact with nature and landscape therapy, to activate resources and widen experience. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 352–353; Grüne Texte 27/2016 summary]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Agree an outdoor setting, and address confidentiality and safety.
    2. Walk slowly, inviting the client to notice sounds, smells, light, ground and air temperature.
    3. Pause at a spot the client chooses, and sense the body there.
    4. Close with a sentence about what the place gave them, and plan one nature contact for the week.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let your eyes find something that draws you, and go towards it slowly."
  • Watch for. Privacy in public spaces, weather and mobility. It is working when the client feels more aliveness and uses nature contact on their own.

4.10 Bewegungsimprovisation with music and dance

  • Purpose / when. Music and dance are used for improvisation, giving complex expression and multiple perception. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 352, 354]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Choose music with the client.
    2. Begin with small movements of single body parts, then let the movement spread.
    3. Invite variation in tempo, size, direction and level (floor, standing).
    4. Spend 5–15 minutes improvising, then let the movement come to stillness.
    5. Talk through the images, feelings and memories that came up.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let one hand start, and see where it wants to take you."
  • Watch for. Self-consciousness: dim the light or let the client move without being watched. It is working when movement becomes freer and more varied, and the client enjoys it.

4.11 Expressivitätstraining (expressivity training)

  • Purpose / when. To widen verbal and non-verbal expression. It is a core part of the clinic group programme. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 353; Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. The client picks a feeling or message.
    2. They express it first with a gesture, then a posture, then a sound, then a sentence, increasing intensity step by step on a scale they choose (e.g. 1–10).
    3. In a group, others may mirror the expression back.
    4. Discuss which level felt true.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Show it first only with your hands. Now a little stronger."
  • Watch for. Performing for the therapist rather than expressing. It is working when expression becomes more congruent and the client's range widens.

4.12 Flexibilitätstraining (flexibility training)

  • Purpose / when. To develop differentiated feeling and role flexibility. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 353]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. The client embodies a familiar role or stance (e.g. "the one who always copes") in posture and walking.
    2. They then try an alternative role or stance in posture and walking, and switch between the two several times.
    3. Discuss what each makes possible.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Walk as the one who always copes … now as someone who can ask for help."
  • Watch for. Rigidity: start with small differences. It is working when the client can choose a stance rather than being stuck in one.

4.13 Fantasietraining (imagination training)

  • Purpose / when. To activate imagination and inner images as a resource. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 353]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. After a short body-sensing phase, invite an image: a place, a figure or a movement.
    2. Explore it with all the senses, and notice how the body responds.
    3. The client may draw or move the image afterwards.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let an image come of a place where your body feels at ease."
  • Watch for. Intrusive or negative images: return to orientation and choose a different image. Keep imagery short with clients prone to psychosis. [synthesis]

4.14 Biographical resource work (linking to earlier good experiences)

  • Purpose / when. In the experience-centred modality, biographical work connects to earlier good experiences to activate resources. [source: Wikipedia IBT]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Ask about a time, person or place when the client felt alive, safe or capable.
    2. Invite them to sense in the body now how that was: posture, breath, temperature.
    3. Strengthen the felt sense by letting them take the posture or movement of that time.
    4. Agree a small everyday cue to recall it.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you remember your grandmother's kitchen, what happens in your chest right now?"
  • Watch for. Grief when good memories are tied to losses: acknowledge it, and do not force the work to stay positive. It is working when the client can call up the felt resource on their own.

C. Conflict-centred / uncovering modality (Thymopraktik in the narrow sense)

Before this modality, the screening above must be clear. The client must have shown in 4.1–4.3 that they can sense their body and down-regulate. Consent to uncovering work must be explicit. [synthesis]

4.15 Lotung ("sounding")

  • Purpose / when. Lotung activates perceptions until scenes and atmospheres come into memory and awareness, and causal links become understandable. It works through four channels: focused attention, touch, breath and posture instructions. Use it when a body pattern (a recurring tension, posture or breath-holding) seems to carry an unresolved theme. [source: Wikipedia IBT]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Start from a phenomenon the client has noticed, e.g. "my throat closes when my boss speaks".
    2. Invite focused attention to that place for 1–2 minutes.
    3. Add one channel at a time:
      • breath: let the breath go to that place;
      • posture: let the body take the shape that belongs to the tension;
      • touch, only with the full consent protocol: e.g. a still hand on the upper back or shoulder near the region, or the client's own hand on the throat.
    4. Ask open questions about what comes: images, atmospheres, ages, people, places. The question is "when do you know this from?", not "why".
    5. When a scene emerges, slow down. Let the client describe it in the present tense, from a safe observer position if needed.
    6. Move to integration (4.22) before closing.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Stay with the narrowness in your throat … if it had an atmosphere, what would it be?" "Does this feeling know an earlier place?"
  • Watch for.
    • Suggestion: do not supply scenes or interpretations. Memories that emerge are material to explore, not established facts.
    • Flooding or dissociation: stop sounding, orient, and return to resources.
    • It is working when meaningful connections emerge that the client finds plausible and relieving.

4.16 Thymopraktische Berührungsarbeit (conflict-centred touch work)

  • Purpose / when. Reichel & Petzold call conflict-centred bodywork with touch the core of Leibtherapie, worked through via narrative practice and integrative hermeneutics. Touch can offer support, contact, boundary or counter-pressure where words do not reach early or non-verbal experience. Use it only with stable clients, a strong alliance and specific training. [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 354; Wikipedia IBT]
  • Steps (the sources give no positions or sequences; all of this is [synthesis])
    1. Run the full consent protocol (above), naming the exact contact and the alternative.
    2. Choose one form of contact that fits the theme:
      • Support: while the client sits, a flat, still hand between the shoulder blades, for an experience of being backed.
      • Contact or holding: the client's hand rests in the therapist's hand or on the therapist's forearm.
      • Boundary or counter-pressure: the client pushes against the therapist's palms, or against a cushion the therapist holds, at the client's chosen strength.
    3. Keep the contact still and predictable. Check in after about 30–60 seconds and when you see a change.
    4. Invite the client to notice what the contact evokes: wishes, memories, fear, relief.
    5. Release slowly, on announcement. Continue with integration (4.22).
    6. If touch evokes alarm, stop at once, restore distance, and orient.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I would place my hand flat between your shoulder blades and leave it there quietly. You can also say no, or put a cushion behind your back instead. Say 'stop' and I take it away immediately."
  • Watch for.
    • Compliance: a "yes" from a client who cannot say no. Test this earlier with small choices.
    • Freezing or dissociation.
    • Erotisation and dependency.
    • Re-enactment of abusive contact.
    • Touch is contraindicated, or needs extreme care, after sexual or physical abuse, in psychosis, with paranoid or erotised transference, and with active suicidality. [synthesis]
    • Training, supervision and a licence check are mandatory.

4.17 Work on chronic tension, posture, expressive patterns and freezing (Erstarrung)

  • Purpose / when. Conflict-centred work on chronic tension, postures, expressive patterns and freezing, aiming at resolution and free flow of feeling, followed by cognitive and emotional working-through. The historical background is Iljine and Ferenczi's "Neokatharsis", which used body techniques, breath and movement. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, p. 351]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Identify the chronic pattern together, e.g. clenched jaw or raised shoulders.
    2. Let the client slightly intensify it and sense what it holds back.
    3. Allow a matching expressive movement or sound to emerge in small doses. Examples: pushing the hands forward, stamping, an "ah" or a "no". The client sets the intensity, and you agree the scale beforehand.
    4. After each round, pause, breathe, orient, and ask what the client feels and understands.
    5. Stop at a moderate level rather than pushing for a peak.
    6. Always end with integration and grounding (feet, orientation).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let your hands show what the shoulders are holding back, only as much as feels right."
  • Watch for.
    • Cathartic discharge (hitting, kicking, screaming) is high-risk. Screen it out in pregnancy, cardiovascular or respiratory illness, epilepsy, recent injury or surgery, psychosis, severe dissociation, active suicidality, and unstabilised trauma. [synthesis]
    • The authors warn generally against overwhelm. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, p. 7]
    • It is working when tension changes, there is felt relief, and new meaning emerges. Rising arousal without integration means it is not working.

4.18 Emotionale Differenzierungsarbeit (emotional differentiation work)

  • Purpose / when. Petzold (1992) described Thymopraktik as emotional differentiation work based on an integrative theory of emotion. The EAG curriculum has a seminar on it. Use it to help clients distinguish, name and modulate feelings, e.g. anger from fear, or sadness from shame. [source: EAG Kernthemen bibliography (Petzold 1992b cited); EAG training page; content [uncertain]]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Start from a diffuse state ("I just feel bad").
    2. Locate it in the body.
    3. Explore its qualities: direction (towards or away), temperature, pressure, movement impulse.
    4. Try out candidate names, and let the body "answer" which fits.
    5. Differentiate mixed feelings: "how much is anger, how much is fear?"
    6. Practise a gentle and a stronger version of the expression to train modulation.
  • Example language (illustrative): "If this pressure in your stomach could move, which way would it go?"
  • Watch for. Alexithymia means slow progress, so use body vocabulary first. It is working when the client has a richer emotional vocabulary and better self-regulation.

D. Integration, media and transfer

4.19 Kreative Medien and intermediale Quergänge (creative media and intermedial transitions)

  • Purpose / when. To bring body experience into other media, e.g. drawing, clay, creative writing, music or movement, and to move between them (intermediale Quergänge) to deepen and integrate the experience. [source: Wikipedia IBT; EAG training page; Allkemper 2021 cited]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Straight after body work, offer one medium: paper and crayons, clay, or a writing prompt.
    2. The client expresses what they experienced without aiming for quality, for 5–10 minutes.
    3. Then switch medium, e.g. move the drawing, or write a sentence to the clay figure.
    4. Explore the result together, starting from the client's own descriptions.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Put the feeling from your shoulders on paper, colours and shapes only."
  • Watch for. Performance anxiety about art. It is working when new aspects show up in the move from one medium to another.

4.20 Body charts / Körperbilder

  • Purpose / when. A diagnostic and therapeutic medium for interoception and body image (Petzold & Orth 2018, Polyloge 22/2018). [source: Wikipedia IBT (title cited); content [uncertain]]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Give the client a large sheet with a simple body outline, or let them draw their own.
    2. They mark with colours where they feel tension, pain, warmth, numbness, and "good places".
    3. Optionally they add events or people linked to the places marked.
    4. Repeat the chart over the course of therapy to compare.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Use colours to show how your body feels from inside today."
  • Watch for. Body-image distress, e.g. in eating disorders: offer an abstract outline. It is working when the chart guides the choice of focus and change is visible over time.

4.21 Lebenspanorama / Gesundheits–Krankheitspanorama (life and health–illness panorama)

  • Purpose / when. A media-supported diagnostic technique from Integrative Therapy (Petzold & Orth 1993a, 1994a). It maps the life course, or health and illness over time, as a picture and links it to body experience. [source: EAG Kernthemen bibliography (titles cited); content [uncertain]]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. The client draws their life course from birth to now on a large sheet, as a line, path or landscape.
    2. They mark important events, supportive and burdensome people and periods, and the illness and health phases.
    3. Discuss it together, asking where these periods are felt in the body today.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Draw your life as a path; mark where it was easy and where it was hard."
  • Watch for. Overload when many traumas surface: limit the scope, and work in segments. It is working when the client gains a coherent overview and a place to begin.

4.22 Narrative practice and integrative hermeneutics (verbal integration)

  • Purpose / when. Every bodily experience is worked through verbally. The client moves from phenomena to the structures behind them, and from there to life projections (Entwürfe), constructing meaning together with the therapist (Ko-respondenz). [source: Reichel & Petzold c. 2011, pp. 351, 354; Renz & Petzold 2006]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Ask what happened, in the body and in feeling and image.
    2. Ask what it reminds the client of and where they know it from.
    3. Ask what it says about how they live now.
    4. Ask what they want to do with it.
    5. Offer your own observations tentatively, as hypotheses.
    6. The client formulates the insight in their own words.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Put into a sentence what your hands knew before you did."
  • Watch for. Intellectualisation used to escape feeling: return to the body. It is working when the client tells a coherent new story that fits their body experience.

4.23 Umleibung and transfer (new behaviour; behavioural techniques)

  • Purpose / when. Umleibung means jointly developing new, self-chosen patterns of behaviour, thinking and perceiving, which are emotionally valued and cognitively appraised until they are embodied. Behavioural therapy techniques are included in the clinical programme. [source: Wikipedia IBT; Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]
  • Steps [synthesis]
    1. Derive one concrete new pattern from the session, e.g. standing upright with feet planted when saying no.
    2. Rehearse it bodily in the session with role-play.
    3. Agree a small home exercise and the situation where it will be tried.
    4. Review the experience next session, then adjust and repeat.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Let's practise it here: feet on the floor, breath out, then the sentence."
  • Watch for. Goals that are too large. It is working when the new pattern is used outside therapy and begins to feel "like me".

4.24 Willenstherapie (will therapy) – named only

  • Purpose / when. The EAG curriculum includes "Willenstherapie" (Petzold & Sieper), alongside practice transfer. Functional work relies on will and practice. Use it to support the decision and persistence needed for change. [source: EAG training page; Wikipedia IBT]
  • Steps. Not described in the sources. [uncertain] One option is to use goal-setting with body anchoring (posture, breath) and track implementation. [synthesis]
  • Watch for. Do not turn this into self-coercion. Link the work to values and the client's own wishes. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The sources address problems only in general terms: overwhelm, resistance, dependency, crisis management and a supportive relationship. Guidance labelled [synthesis] is mine.

  • Overwhelm, flooding or dissociation during body work.
    • The authors warn that repeated probing of emotional experience can overwhelm clients and stir up traumatic material. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, p. 7]
    • Respond at once [synthesis]:
      1. Stop the exercise and remove any touch.
      2. Ask the client to open their eyes and orient: name things in the room, feel the feet, press the hands together.
      3. Slow the out-breath, without breathing deeply.
      4. Change from the conflict-centred modality to the exercise-centred one.
      5. Talk about the experience only once arousal has come down.
    • Next session, start lower and agree in advance on intensity scales and a stop signal.
  • The client feels "nothing" (self-anaesthesia).
    • Numbness is expected after trauma and deficits. [source: Wikipedia IBT]
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Do not push.
      • Work at the edges of what can be felt, e.g. contact surfaces, temperature, movement.
      • Use stronger external sensory input (4.6), outdoor work (4.9), or creative media (4.19).
      • Validate numbness as a protective achievement.
  • Resistance and reactance.
    • Integrative Therapy frames the relationship through affiliation and reactance. It warns that expecting resistance can create it as an artefact (the Rosenthal effect), and that interpretations can feel exposing and are sometimes better withheld. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, pp. 5, 17–18, 20]
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Treat reluctance as information.
      • Offer choices: which modality, standing or sitting, touch or none.
      • Reduce exposure, e.g. no audience in groups, eyes closed or open as the client prefers.
      • Return the locus of control to the client.
  • Ruptures.
    • Failure of Ko-respondenz leads to alienation and hardened fronts. A therapist who seems too certain or unreachable is a warning sign. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, pp. 6, 8]
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Name the rupture and take your share of it, using selective openness.
      • Ask what in the body work felt wrong, e.g. a touch or an instruction.
      • Renegotiate consent.
      • Return to safer, chosen work until trust is restored.
  • Non-adherence to home practice.
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Shrink the exercise to 1–2 minutes and link it to an existing routine.
      • Explore obstacles bodily: what happens in the body when the client thinks of practising.
      • Use will-therapy framing, linking the practice to the client's own goals (see 4.24).
  • Stuck process (session after session of repetition, no new meaning).
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Change the modality or the medium, e.g. from talk to movement, or from body to drawing.
      • Move outdoors.
      • Revisit the Lebenspanorama to check for missing themes.
      • Check whether a different "way of healing" is needed, e.g. solidarity or network work rather than uncovering.
      • Take the case to supervision.
  • Dependency and guru dynamics (especially in groups).
    • The authors warn against them. [source: Renz & Petzold 2006, p. 10]
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Strengthen the client's outside network.
      • Make techniques self-applicable.
      • Plan the endings of phases explicitly.
  • Touch-specific difficulties.
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • If the client agrees too easily, slow down and practise saying no first.
      • If touch evokes sexual feelings or erotised transference, stop touch and discuss it calmly and professionally. Do not continue touch work, and seek supervision.
      • If touch triggers an abuse memory, stop, restore distance, orient, and do not use touch again without a renewed, considered agreement.
      • Document all of this.
  • Crisis or suicidality emerging from uncovering work.
    • Crisis management is a defined part of Integrative Therapy practice, and crisis intervention is part of the training. [source: Höfner et al. 2024 TOC; EAG training page]
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Pause uncovering work.
      • Do a structured risk assessment: ideation, intent, plan, history, protective factors.
      • Make a written safety plan with the client.
      • Use lethal-means counselling (safe storage or removal) and involve their network.
      • Arrange more frequent contact or a referral for psychiatric assessment.
      • Resume body work only in the functional or resource modality.
  • Psychiatric clients (psychosis, severe disorders).
    • The 1977 clinic programme emphasised breath and movement training, sensitization, expressivity and orientation training, and behavioural techniques within a supportive relationship. [source: Petzold & Berger 1977 abstract]
    • In practice [synthesis]:
      • Keep work structured, eyes open, short and reality-oriented.
      • Avoid uncovering, regression, imagery-heavy exercises and touch.
  • Physical symptoms during exercises (pain, dizziness, palpitations, tingling).
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Stop, sit down, breathe normally, and orient.
      • Do not interpret symptoms psychologically before medical causes are ruled out.
      • Refer to a physician when symptoms are new or persistent.
  • Scope and licence problems.
    • Respond [synthesis]:
      • Movement-therapy graduates without a psychotherapy licence should stay in the functional and experience-centred modalities and refer conflict-centred work. [source: EAG training page (licensing note); recommendation [synthesis]]

Sources

Sources

Further reading (not drawn on) [uncertain where relied on]

  • Petzold, H.G. & Orth, I. (1993e/2017). Integrative Leibtherapie – Thymopraktik, die Arbeit mit Leib, Bewegung und Gefühl. Polyloge 27/2017. The full PDF returned binary data and could not be read.
  • Petzold, H.G. (1988; 3rd ed. 1996). Integrative Bewegungs- und Leibtherapie (2 vols.). Paderborn: Junfermann.
  • Petzold, H.G. (1992b). Konzepte zu einer integrativen Emotionstheorie und zur emotionalen Differenzierungsarbeit als Thymopraktik. In Integrative Therapie, Bd. II/2; reprinted in Petzold (2003a), pp. 607–663.
  • Petzold, H.G. (2003a). Integrative Therapie: Modelle, Theorien und Methoden einer schulenübergreifenden Psychotherapie (rev. ed.). Paderborn: Junfermann.
  • Petzold, H.G. (2006). Der "informierte Leib", embodied and embedded. In Marlock & Weiss (Eds.), Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie. Stuttgart: Schattauer.
  • Petzold, H.G. & Orth, I. (2018). Interozeptivität/Eigenleibliches Spüren, Körperbilder/Body Charts. Polyloge 22/2018.
  • Petzold, H.G. & Orth, I. (1993a; 1994a). Papers on therapy diaries, Lebenspanorama and media-supported diagnostics. Integrative Therapie.
  • Höhmann-Kost, A. Integrative Leib- und Bewegungstherapie. Theorie und Praxis. Bern: Hogrefe.
  • Hausmann, B. & Neddermeyer, R. (2003). Bewegt sein. Integrative Bewegungs- und Leibtherapie in der Praxis. Paderborn: Junfermann.
  • Waibel, M.J. & Jacob-Krieger, C. (Eds.) (2008). Integrative Bewegungstherapie: Störungsspezifisch – ressourcenorientiert – evidenzbasiert. Stuttgart: Schattauer.
  • Allkemper, S. (2021). Eigene Worte finden. Kreatives Schreiben in der IBT. Polyloge 18/2021.
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