Transitional circle (Übergangskreis)

1. Introduction

Version followed: Uwe Christian Dech's own current statement of the Übergangskreis (15 stages, or "Bedeutungsrelationen", each with a development-promoting and a development-inhibiting side), as given in his open-access book Stufen der Argumentation (transcript, 2025, pp. 10–36). That book renames four stages from the original 2001 version. The 2001 monograph Der Übergangskreis und seine Stufen (Afra-Verlag) and the earlier clinical articles (1994, 1998, 1999) are not drawn on here. Where the two versions differ, both names are given. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 12, 19–22, fn. 4; de.wikipedia "Uwe Christian Dech"]

What it is. The Übergangskreis ("transitional circle") is an integrative concept for body psychotherapy and psychotherapy. It was developed by Uwe Christian Dech (born 1959, Nuremberg), who has a practice as a body therapist and psychotherapist in Gießen. He did his doctorate at the University of Hannover (1996) on transitional phenomena ("Übergangsphänomene") in selected methods of "modern body work". German overviews of body psychotherapy list it among the smaller, less widely taught methods (Langfeld & Rellensmann in Marlock & Weiss, Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie, 2006, p. 77, as cited by de.wikipedia). [source: de.wikipedia "Uwe Christian Dech"; de.wikipedia "Körperpsychotherapie"]

Plainly stated: it is a framework or stage model, not a manualised therapy with its own set of exercises. Dech presents it as a hierarchy of action forms that can organise work in very different fields: body psychotherapy, physiotherapy ("Übergangskreis Bewegungshandeln", 1998), psychomotor practice ("Übergangskreis Körper", 1994), work with deaf clients (1999), museum education (2003, 2004), film studies (2011) and debating (2025). In the sources, Dech says that the therapist guides the patient through exercises. He does not name or describe those exercises there. So section 4 gives the procedures Dech describes, and marks all practical operationalisation as [synthesis]. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 12, 20–22; de.wikipedia "Uwe Christian Dech"]

Core idea of change. Dech builds on Jan Tamboer's relational image of the body: a person is always pre-consciously bound into a world that has meaning for them, so body and mind are not separate. Acting means carrying out "meaning relations". These can only be named by verbs (e.g., to embody, to set limits, to play), and they show up in types of action such as speech in psychotherapy or movement in physiotherapy. Development happens when a person moves through an ordered sequence of these relations. The inner connection between the stages is what drives development. Each stage can be lived on its promoting side (e.g., begrenzen, setting limits) or its inhibiting side (e.g., überschreiten, overstepping). Therapy "centres" the patient. That is, it gathers their different forms of action around one intention, mainly through guided exercises. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 19–22]

2. Framework

The stages (version followed). Dech names 15 meaning relations, arranged as a value hierarchy. He presents the order hypothetically as a reflection of human evolution, which he says cannot be proven but can be made plausible. He refers to von Bertalanffy (1949) on the hierarchical, stepwise structure of nature. The numbered list on p. 22 gives 14 pairs; the 15th relation, sich einstellen (to attune / tune in), appears in the list on pp. 19–20 and in a footnote. Its position in the sequence could not be confirmed. [uncertain] The English glosses are my own translations. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 15, 19–22, fn. 4–6]

Phases and goals. In the sources, the stages are the phase structure. Each stage's goal is to realise its promoting verb in the patient's actual movement or speech, rather than its inhibiting counterpart. Dech does not describe whether therapy moves through all stages in order, or whether the therapist works on whichever stage is blocked. [uncertain] Dech's own example: a patient who wants to be able to "let go" of suffering is working at the stage of spielen (formerly loslassen). This suggests the therapist locates the patient's concern at a stage rather than always starting at stage 1. [source: Dech 2025, p. 21]

Session count and format. Not given in the sources. [uncertain] Dech worked in individual practice as a body therapist and psychotherapist. The model is meant for both speech-based psychotherapy and movement-based physiotherapy. A practical default is individual sessions of 50–60 minutes that combine talk and guided body exercises, with no fixed length of treatment. [synthesis]

Criteria for moving between stages. Dech gives explicit rules only for his debating application. A claim at one stage is supported by a justification from the adjacent stage. A higher stage that is not well enough grounded counts as subordinate to a clearly lower one. Transferred to therapy [synthesis]: (a) move on when the patient can carry out the promoting verb of the current stage in action (body and speech), not just talk about it; (b) if work at a higher stage (e.g., entscheiden) keeps collapsing, go back to the lower stage it rests on (e.g., verkörpern, begrenzen); (c) work on neighbouring stages together. Why the model is a circle, and whether fortführen/beenden leads back to the start, is not explained in the text. [uncertain] [source: Dech 2025, pp. 20–21, 25, 36]

3. Guiding principles

• Embodiment of the patient comes first. Dech says he always placed value on his patients' embodiment. → In every session, make sure the issue is lived and noticed in the body, not only discussed. [source: Dech 2025, p. 12]
• No body–mind dualism (relational body image, after Tamboer). → Treat a posture, a movement habit and a verbal statement as the same meaning relation shown in different forms, not as "body symptom" vs "psychological cause". [source: Dech 2025, pp. 19–20]
• Action is the realisation of meaning relations, which are named by verbs. → Phrase goals and observations as verbs ("to set limits", "to approach"), not as traits or diagnoses. [source: Dech 2025, p. 20]
• Centring. The therapist bundles the patient's forms of action around one intention, mostly by guiding exercises; the form depends on the context. → Keep each exercise tied to one stated intention, and choose its form (movement, voice, speech, image) to fit the setting. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 20–21]
• Every stage has two sides. → Look for both the promoting and the inhibiting pole in what the patient does. Name the inhibiting side neutrally, as information about where development is blocked, not as a failing. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 21–22; neutral framing = synthesis]
• Hierarchy and grounding. Higher stages build on lower ones. → When a higher-level task fails, check the lower stages beneath it before pushing harder. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 21–22, 36; clinical transfer = synthesis]
• The same stage appears in different types of action. Stages can be observed in speech (psychotherapy) and in movement (physiotherapy). → Look for the stage in both what the patient says and how they move, and use whichever channel is more accessible. [source: Dech 2025, p. 21]
• Integrative stance. The model came out of a comparison of several "modern body work" methods, and Dech calls it integrative. → Exercises from other trained body methods can be organised by stage. Use only methods you are trained in. [source: de.wikipedia "Uwe Christian Dech"; use of other methods = synthesis]
• The order is a hypothesis. Dech calls the evolutionary ordering plausible but unprovable. → Use the stage sequence as a working map, not as a fixed rule or a measure of the patient's worth. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 15, 21–22]
• Professional safeguards [synthesis]: obtain informed consent to body work; offer no-touch options; keep within your licence and training; screen before any exercise that raises arousal.

4. Intervention inventory

Scope note. The primary text describes the procedures in 4.1–4.3 directly. It gives the rules behind 4.4–4.6 only for Dech's debating application, so their clinical form here is my transfer. It names "exercises" but describes none. The 2001 monograph and the 1994/1998/1999 clinical articles probably contain Dech's concrete exercises, but they are not drawn on here. Those exercises are therefore not reproduced or guessed at here. [uncertain] Entries 4.7–4.9 are my own practical operationalisation. They are generic body-psychotherapy procedures sorted by Dech's stages, are not attributed to Dech, and are marked [synthesis]. No touch technique appears in the sources. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 20–36]

4.1 Locating the concern at a stage (stage mapping)

• Purpose / when: At intake and whenever a new theme comes up. It translates the patient's wish or complaint into a meaning relation, so that you know which stage the work is about. Dech's example: a patient's wish to "let go" of suffering belongs to the stage spielen (formerly loslassen). [source: Dech 2025, p. 21]
• Steps [synthesis, built on the source principle]: (1) Ask what the patient wants to be able to do differently. (2) Rephrase the answer as a verb ("to say no", "to come closer", "to decide"). (3) Match the verb to the stage it best fits in the table in section 2. (4) Name the inhibiting pole that currently dominates (e.g., festhalten, clinging). (5) Check with the patient whether this wording fits, and adjust it. (6) Record the stage, plus the stage below and the stage above it, as the working field.
• Example language (illustrative): "If this went well, what would you be doing — in one verb?" · "It sounds less like 'I want to understand it' and more like 'I want to be able to let it go'. Does that fit?"
• Watch for: The patient picking a high stage (deciding, changing) when lower ones (embodying, setting limits) are clearly missing. Verbs that are really demands on other people ("that he stops") need to be turned back into the patient's own action. It is working when the patient recognises the verb as theirs and it gives the next exercise a clear direction.

4.2 Two-pole observation in speech and movement

• Purpose / when: Ongoing assessment. Dech says the stages can be observed in types of action: speech in psychotherapy and movement in physiotherapy. Each stage has a promoting and an inhibiting side. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 21–22]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) While the patient talks, note which verbs they use about themselves and whether these fall on the promoting or inhibiting side (e.g., "I always leave it open" = offenlassen). (2) During any movement (walking in, sitting, a guided exercise), note the same pair in the body (e.g., a step forward that stops halfway = annähern turning into entfernen). (3) Compare: is the same pole active in speech and in movement? (4) Feed back one observation at a time, descriptively and without interpreting.
• Example language (illustrative): "As you talked about the job, your feet pulled back under the chair. Did you notice that?" · "In words you're already deciding; in your body it still looks undecided. Shall we look at that?"
• Watch for: Over-reading single gestures. Look for repeated patterns. It is working when the patient starts to notice the two poles on their own.

4.3 Centring through a guided exercise (general procedure)

• Purpose / when: Dech's core therapeutic act. The therapist "centres" the patient by guiding them through exercises that bundle their forms of action on one intention. The form depends on the context. [source: Dech 2025, pp. 20–21]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Agree the intention as a verb (from 4.1). (2) Explain the exercise, what it involves and that the patient can stop at any time; get consent. (3) Choose one channel to begin with: movement, posture, breath awareness, voice, image or speech. (4) Guide the exercise with short instructions, and leave pauses for the patient to notice. (5) Ask for a brief report during it ("What do you notice now?"). (6) Close it explicitly: return to a comfortable sitting position and orient to the room. (7) Talk it through: what happened on the promoting side, what happened on the inhibiting side, and what carries over into daily life.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's take your intention 'to set a limit' and try it with your body for a few minutes, not just in words. You can stop whenever you want."
• Watch for: Exercises drifting away from the agreed intention; rising arousal (see section 5). It is working when the patient's movement, speech and felt sense line up around the verb, for example a clearer gesture together with a clearer sentence.

4.4 Pairing adjacent stages

• Purpose / when: When a theme seems stuck at one stage. In Dech's debating application, a claim at one stage is supported by a justification from the neighbouring stage. Clinical transfer [synthesis]: the stage next to the stuck one can give it support.
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Identify the stuck stage (e.g., annähern, approaching). (2) Look at the neighbouring stages in the version followed (begrenzen before it, akzeptieren after it). (3) Do a short exercise on the neighbouring stage first (e.g., set a limit), then return to the stuck one (approach, now with a limit available). (4) Ask what differs.
• Example language (illustrative): "Before we try coming closer again, let's make sure you can stop me. Then let's see what approaching feels like."
• Watch for: Mechanical stage-hopping. It is working when the stuck verb becomes possible once the neighbouring verb is in place. [source for the adjacency rule: Dech 2025, p. 25]

4.5 Grounding check: stepping down to a lower stage

• Purpose / when: Higher-stage work (deciding, changing, giving up) keeps collapsing. Dech's rule in debating: a higher stage that is not well enough grounded is subordinate to a clearly lower one. [source: Dech 2025, p. 36; clinical transfer = synthesis]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Name the collapse neutrally. (2) Go down through the lower stages, starting with verkörpern (can the patient sense the issue in the body?), then nutzen (can they use the resources they already have?), then begrenzen (can they set limits?). (3) Work at the first stage that does not hold. (4) Come back to the higher task later.
• Example language (illustrative): "Perhaps the decision is coming too early. Can we first check whether you can feel where you stand on this?"
• Watch for: The patient hearing this as "going backwards". Frame it as strengthening the foundation. It is working when the higher task becomes easier after the lower stage has been consolidated.

4.6 Embodied speaking ("verkörpertes Reden")

• Purpose / when: Dech holds that persuasive speech must be embodied to reach others. He names standing firmly, arm movement, gesture and facial expression. He develops this for debating; using it in therapy for assertiveness, boundary statements and preparing difficult conversations is my transfer. [source: Dech 2025, p. 31; therapy use = synthesis]
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) The patient formulates one key sentence (e.g., a refusal). (2) First they say it sitting, as usual. (3) Then they stand, feet hip-width apart, knees soft, and feel the floor for a few breaths at their normal pace. (4) They say the sentence again, letting one arm or hand gesture go with it and looking at the therapist or at a point in the room. (5) Compare the two versions: voice, breath, felt sense. (6) Repeat up to 3 times, adjusting one element at a time. (7) Close by sitting down and talking about where the sentence will be used.
• Example language (illustrative): "Say it once more — this time standing, and let your hand go with the words."
• Watch for: Shame or freezing when standing. Offer to do it seated with only a hand gesture. It is working when the patient reports that the sentence feels more "theirs" and the voice gets steadier.

4.7 Choosing an exercise by stage [synthesis]

• Purpose / when: Dech's text gives the stages but no stage-specific exercises. This table is my aid for choosing a generic, low-intensity body-psychotherapy exercise to fit each promoting verb. None of these exercises is attributed to Dech. Use only exercises you are trained in.

4.8 Distance and limit exercise (begrenzen / annähern) [synthesis]

• Purpose / when: For themes of boundaries, intrusion, and closeness versus withdrawal.
• Steps: (1) Explain the exercise and agree a stop signal (the word "stop" or a raised hand). No touch is involved. (2) The patient stands at one end of the room. The therapist stands about 4–5 m away. (3) The therapist walks slowly toward the patient. The patient says "stop" or raises a hand as soon as the distance feels right, and the therapist stops immediately. (4) Both notice what happens: breath, feet, shoulders, impulses. The patient may also ask the therapist to step back. (5) Swap roles: the patient approaches the therapist and stops where it feels right (annähern). (6) Optional: the patient marks their space on the floor with a rope or cushions. (7) Do 2–3 rounds. Close seated and talk it through: where in daily life is the stop too early, too late or missing?
• Example language (illustrative): "I'll come closer very slowly. You decide when I stop. I'll stop the moment you tell me."
• Watch for: Patients who never say stop (fawning or freezing). Halt at a moderate distance yourself and explore that. Signs of a trauma response (see 5.3). It is working when the stop comes on time and in a clearer voice, and the patient can tolerate both distance and approach.

4.9 Standing and locating (festlegen / verkörpern) [synthesis]

• Purpose / when: Early in therapy, or when talk becomes abstract or detached from the body (entkörpern).
• Steps: (1) The patient chooses a place in the room and stands with feet hip-width apart, knees soft and eyes open. Sitting is an equal alternative. (2) They notice the contact of their feet with the floor and their breath, without changing it, for about 1–2 minutes. (3) The therapist names the theme in one sentence. The patient notices where in the body something changes and describes it in plain words (size, temperature, pressure). (4) Optional: put one hand there, the patient's own hand only. (5) Close: shake out the hands and feet lightly, sit down, and name one sentence that sums up what they noticed.
• Example language (illustrative): "Just notice your feet on the floor. Nothing to change. When I mention your sister — where do you notice something?"
• Watch for: Numbness or blankness, which is information, not failure. Dizziness: sit down. It is working when the patient can name a body location and a quality, and the talk becomes more concrete.

4.10 Varying a fixed movement (spielen vs festhalten) [synthesis]

• Purpose / when: Rigid patterns, perfectionism, "I can't let go". Dech places letting go at spielen. [source: Dech 2025, p. 21]
• Steps: (1) Identify one habitual movement or posture (e.g., clenched hands, raised shoulders). (2) The patient deliberately does it, slightly stronger, for a few breaths. (3) Then they vary it, making it smaller, slower, faster, in a different direction or rhythm, about 30 seconds per variation. (4) Then they find a version that feels freer. (5) Close by sitting down. Talk through which variation felt like playing and which like clinging.
• Example language (illustrative): "Let's play with that fist. Make it a bit tighter — now slower — now let it change shape however it wants."
• Watch for: Pain, or forcing (stop any movement that hurts). Self-criticism ("I'm doing it wrong") is a sign of festhalten itself. Name it gently.

4.11 Making it visible (visualisieren vs abstrakt bleiben) [synthesis]

• Purpose / when: The theme stays abstract or intellectual.
• Steps: (1) After 4.9, the patient draws the body sensation or the theme with crayons on paper, or forms it with clay or a posture, for 5–10 minutes. (2) Both look at it together. The patient describes it; the therapist does not interpret. (3) Ask what the image "does" (a verb) and link that to a stage. (4) Close by placing the image somewhere chosen in the room.
• Example language (illustrative): "If that tightness had a shape and a colour, what would it be? Put it on paper, no art skills needed."
• Watch for: Performance anxiety. Offer simple shapes or colours only.

4.12 If touch is added (not described by Dech) [synthesis]

• No touch technique appears in the sources. Touch requires specific training, supervision, and a check of what your licence and jurisdiction allow. If you use supportive touch within another trained method (e.g., a hand placed between the shoulder blades while the patient stands), follow these consent steps: (1) explain exactly where and how you would touch, and why; (2) ask, and accept a no without asking why; (3) offer a no-touch alternative, such as the patient's own hand or a cushion; (4) agree a stop signal; (5) check in during the touch ("Is this still OK?"); (6) after the exercise, ask how the touch was experienced and document consent. Never touch the face, chest, groin, buttocks or any intimate area. Sexual or genital touch is never a therapeutic technique.

5. Handling problems

The Dech sources do not address clinical difficulties. Everything in this section is [synthesis], framed in Dech's stage terms where that helps.

5.1 Stuck clients

• Read the stuck point as an inhibiting pole. For example: verharren (persisting), unschlüssig bleiben (staying undecided), festhalten (clinging). Name the pole neutrally and use 4.5 (step down to a lower stage) or 4.4 (work the neighbouring stage).
• Switch channels. If speech is stuck, use movement or image (4.9–4.11). If the body is stuck, use words and imagery.
• Check that the target verb still fits (4.1). Patients often outgrow, or never owned, the initial goal.

5.2 Resistance and reluctance toward body work

• Treat reluctance as legitimate begrenzen (setting a limit), not as an obstacle. Thank the patient for the limit and offer a smaller step: seated instead of standing, eyes open, hand gestures only, or talking about the body instead of moving.
• Explain the rationale in plain words (body and mind are not separate; small experiments, always optional) and agree on a trial of one or two short exercises.

5.3 Overwhelm, dissociation and trauma reactions

• Signs: fixed gaze, delayed responses, shallow or held breath, pallor, trembling, the patient saying they feel "far away".
• Response: stop the exercise. Have the patient sit with feet on the floor and eyes open. Orient them to the room (name objects, colours, sounds). Ask them to press the feet into the floor or hold a cool object. Speak slowly. Don't resume until they are present again. Then talk it through and lower the intensity next time.
• Prevention: keep exercises short and low-intensity (none of 4.6–4.11 uses breath intensification, stress positions or cathartic discharge). With trauma histories, establish stabilisation and resources first (nutzen, begrenzen) before approach-type exercises (annähern).

5.4 Screening and contraindications for the body exercises

• Dech's sources give no screening criteria. Before standing or movement work, ask about: dizziness or fainting, balance problems, pain, recent injury or surgery, pregnancy, cardiovascular or respiratory illness, epilepsy, current psychosis, severe dissociation, active suicidality, and recent trauma without stabilisation. Adapt (seated, smaller, shorter) or postpone accordingly.
• Do not present any exercise as a treatment for physical illness. Refer bodily complaints for medical assessment.
• Suicidality: if suicidal ideation emerges, pause the body work and carry out a standard risk assessment (ideation, intent, plan, access to means, protective factors). Do safety planning, including lethal-means counselling (safe storage or removal), and involve crisis services as your jurisdiction requires.

5.5 Non-adherence to between-session practice

• Read it at the stage fortführen / beenden (continuing vs ending). Reduce the practice to one micro-action of under a minute, linked to an existing daily routine (e.g., feel the feet while waiting for the kettle). Review it at the start of each session without judgement, and ask what made it hard (a lower stage may be missing).

5.6 Ruptures in the relationship

• Map them onto sich einigen / sich trennen (agreeing vs separating) and annähern / entfernen (approaching vs moving away). Name the rupture openly, acknowledge your part, and ask what the patient needs (more distance, less body work, a different pace). Let the patient set the distance again (as in 4.8). Repair it before any further exercise.
• Exercises involving the therapist's body (approach, mirroring) can trigger transference reactions. Debrief these explicitly.

5.7 Modality-specific difficulties

• No manual is available. The 2001 monograph and the 1994/1998/1999 articles are the most likely sources of Dech's own exercises. Obtain them, or training from Dech, before calling your work "Übergangskreis therapy". Present your own exercises as "working with the stage model", not as Dech's method. [uncertain about training availability: no training institute was found]
• Version confusion. Older texts use bemerken, loslassen, bildhaft werden lassen and sich erinnern, where the newer text uses verkörpern, spielen, visualisieren and verändern. Keep one version in your notes and say which one you follow. The position of sich einstellen is unconfirmed.
• Misusing the hierarchy. Patients may hear a "lower stage" as a judgement. Present the stages as a working map, in line with Dech's own description of the ordering as a hypothesis.
• Language barriers. The model depends on German verbs. With patients who speak other languages, or deaf patients (for whom Dech wrote a 1999 application), build an agreed verb or sign vocabulary with the patient, or work through movement and images.
• Setting and scope. Dech also applies the model in physiotherapy. In mixed settings, keep clear role boundaries between psychotherapy and physical treatment.

Sources

Sources

• Uwe Christian Dech: Stufen der Argumentation. Ein Weg zum verkörperten Debattieren (transcript, open-access PDF). This is the primary source for the version followed (pp. 10–36 read; chapter 3 not in the accessible text).
• Uwe Christian Dech – Wikipedia (de): biography and bibliography.
• Körperpsychotherapie – Wikipedia (de): lists "Übergangskreis nach Uwe Christian Dech", citing Langfeld & Rellensmann 2006.
• Uwe Christian Dech – Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek: catalogue record.
• Vogt 2002, Übergangs-Übertragungs-Objekte (Psychotherapie-Wissenschaft): checked and found not to concern the Übergangskreis; not used.

Further reading (not drawn on)

• Dech, U. C. (1994). Der Übergangskreis Körper. Ein Leitfaden für die Neuorganisation in der Körpertherapie. Praxis der Psychomotorik, 4, 193–197.
• Dech, U. C. (1995). Übergangsphänomene in ausgewählten Methoden der "Modernen Körperarbeit". Regensburg: S. Roderer.
• Dech, U. C. (1998). Ein integratives Modell für die physiotherapeutische Praxis: Der "Übergangskreis Bewegungshandeln" (Teil 1 und 2). Physiotherapie, 9/10.
• Dech, U. C. (1999). Der "Übergangskreis" – Ein Konzept zur körper- und psychotherapeutischen Arbeit mit Gehörlosen. Das Zeichen, 246–258.
• Dech, U. C. (2001). Der Übergangskreis und seine Stufen. Ein integratives Konzept zur Körper- und Psychotherapie. Butzbach-Griedel: Afra.
• Langfeld, H., & Rellensmann, D. (2006). In G. Marlock & H. Weiss (Eds.), Handbuch der Körperpsychotherapie (p. 77). Stuttgart: Schattauer.
• Tamboer, J. W. I. (1991, 1994): the relational body image, cited by Dech 2025.