Bodynamic analysis

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Bodynamic System of Lisbeth Marcher and colleagues (Denmark) as Marcher herself described it in her 1992 interview with Peter Bernhardt; the Bodynamic International Foundation Training as advertised in London (Michael Rupp, 2022 dates) and Cologne (Lisbeth Marcher, Ditte Marcher and Michael Rupp, 2019–2020); the Body Encyclopedia (Marcher & Fich, 2010; I read only the publisher's description); and, for shock work, the Bodynamic Institute's Danish shock-trauma book (Kreatik, Copenhagen, 1993) as summarised by Elklit (2001). Not drawn on here: the full manuals, the Body Encyclopedia text, the full ego-function model or the shock-trauma book. Where this guide relies on them it says so with [uncertain].

Bodynamic Analysis (also called Bodynamics or the Bodynamic System) is a developmental somatic psychotherapy. Lisbeth Marcher began developing it in the 1960s, working with colleagues in Denmark. Its influences include the Norwegian physiotherapist Lillemor Johnsen and Danish relaxation pedagogy. Marcher later read Reich, Bowlby, Mahler and research on psychomotor development. Boadella called her "the Scandinavian legacy of Wilhelm Reich". [source: Bernhardt 1992] The authors mapped the psychological functions of 154 muscles and related tissues. Each muscle is tied to the age at which it first becomes active and to the psychological themes of that age. [source: North Atlantic Books / Penguin Random House book pages]

How change happens: Marcher treats the drive toward mutual connection as the basic human drive. Connection here means being yourself while staying in contact. When a child had to give up an impulse to keep that connection, the muscles tied to that age carry the result in one of two ways. A hyporesponsive muscle has given up: it is undertoned and gives little feeling. A hyperresponsive muscle holds on rigidly: it is overtense and fights for the impulse. [source: Bernhardt 1992] Therapy uses precise body awareness and the activation of specific muscles to reawaken impulses that were given up, which the method calls resources. The therapist holds and supports the client while they practise each new impulse, and the client carries it into daily life. The aim is a new psychomotor imprint and real choice. Marcher's view is that re-experiencing old pain or releasing armour is not enough on its own. [source: Bernhardt 1992; PESI UK foundation page; UTA Akademie brochure]

2. Framework

Bodynamic is a developmental model plus a set of methods. It is not a fixed session protocol, and no published phase manual with session counts is cited. The structure below follows the model's own building blocks. Where the sequence and the criteria for moving on are my inference, they are marked [synthesis]. [source: Bernhardt 1992; PESI UK; UTA Akademie]

Developmental map. The model covers seven stages of psychomotor development, from the second trimester in utero to about age 12–13. Each stage has a social theme and a character structure. In the version followed (Bernhardt 1992):

Existence (in utero, birth, first month): the right to exist.
Need: the right to have needs. No age range is given in the source.
Autonomy (from about 8 months): exploring while staying connected.
Will (2–4 years): doing, planning, saying no, early altruism.
Love/Sexuality (3–6 years): romance and sensuality.
Opinions (6–8 years): forming beliefs and a worldview.
Solidarity/Performance (7–12 years): belonging to a group while also being able to compete and shine.

Secondary and training sources give overlapping age bands that differ in detail. Use the ages as rough guides, not fixed cut-offs. [uncertain]

Early vs late positions. Within each character structure the training describes a more hypotonic early type and a more hypertonic late type, and each needs a different approach. [source: UTA Akademie brochure] Roughly: an earlier, harsher or more overwhelming disruption leaves the impulse given up (hyporesponsive). A later one leaves it fought for (hyperresponsive). [source: Bernhardt 1992 for the hypo/hyper meaning; the timing link is my reading of the brochure, uncertain]

Ego functions. Bodynamic also uses a second map, the Bodynamic Ego Functions, which links muscles to personality functions. [source: upsihologa.com.ua description] Centering, grounding and boundaries are the ones the training names as resources. [source: PESI UK; HKUST] The full list is not drawn on here [uncertain]. Other functions commonly listed in the Bodynamic literature, such as connectedness, positioning, social balance, cognitive skills, self-assertion and energy management, are [uncertain].

Working phases (sequence assembled from the sources, ordering partly [synthesis]):

Assessment and contract. Goals: get the history, gauge how well the client can sense their body, do body reading, and optionally do bodymapping (palpation-based muscle testing). Together these give a working hypothesis about which developmental themes and early or late positions are active. Format: individual sessions, usually 50–60 minutes [synthesis]. Typical length: several sessions; the full bodymap is a longer, separate procedure [uncertain: duration not given in sources]. Move on when there is a shared, body-anchored picture of the main themes and a working alliance [synthesis].
Resource building. Goals: develop centering, grounding and boundaries as bodily skills, and reawaken given-up impulses in the muscles that matter for the client's themes, one issue at a time. [source: PESI UK; Bernhardt 1992] Move on when the client can find their resources on their own, in session and at home, and can calm themselves when activation rises [synthesis].
Character-structure work. Goals: work theme by theme on the structures that are active, using muscle activation, developmental holding, role-play and the "parenting component". Marcher works from later issues toward earlier ones. Later structures help contain earlier, traumatised ones. [source: Bernhardt 1992; PESI UK] Move on to an earlier theme when the current one is integrated, meaning the new impulse is available in daily life and not only in session [synthesis].
Shock-trauma work (when indicated). Bodynamic treats shock (assault, sexual abuse, accidents, surgery, severe illness) differently from character formation. It uses its own sequence: safe place, running and stopping, narration, the orientation reflex, reconstruction (see 4.17–4.21). [source: Bernhardt 1992; Elklit 2001] Start only on a resourced base [synthesis based on the stated principle that releasing armour at the wrong time can destabilise; PESI UK].
Integration and ending. Goals: carry new patterns into relationships and work, and make room for any spiritual integration, which Marcher says usually comes near the end. [source: Bernhardt 1992] End when the client's goals are met and new impulses hold up under everyday stress [synthesis].

Overall length. Marcher says "Therapy is a long term, slow process." [source: Bernhardt 1992] No session counts were found. Expect months to years for character work. Shock work on a single event may be shorter. [uncertain]

Training. The Foundation is four modules over one year in London, or six modules over 12–18 months in Cologne. It is followed by three years of practitioner training, recognised by the EABP. Shock-trauma training is a separate certification. [source: PESI UK; UTA Akademie; Somatic Perspectives page on Evertsen]

3. Guiding principles

[source: Bernhardt 1992 unless noted]

Mutual connection is the core drive. In practice: frame every symptom as a compromise the client made to stay in contact. Look for what was given up and what it cost them.
Defences are resources. In practice: never strip armour. Character structures are "a resource and defense", and releasing muscle armour at the wrong time can destabilise or harm the client. [source: PESI UK; UTA Akademie]
Hypo and hyper need opposite moves. In practice: an undertoned, given-up muscle is gently woken up. An overtensed one is not forced open; you help it find a flexible middle range, "neither giving up nor rigidly fighting".
Specific, not global. In practice: activate the particular muscles tied to the current theme, one issue at a time. Marcher sets this against high-activation breathing work.
Build new, don't just relive. In practice: every exploration of the past ends with a new movement, sensation or experience that the client practises.
Developmental holding. In practice: stay with the client in a developmental movement until the old impulse wakes up, then help them practise it.
Active, parenting-like support. In practice: supply, out loud and in your behaviour, messages the client missed at the relevant age. Keep your role as therapist clear while you do it.
Quality of contact is the medium. In practice: track your own resonance and the contact between you moment to moment. "Ein besonderer Fokus liegt auf der Qualität des Kontaktes" (a special focus lies on the quality of contact). [source: UTA Akademie]
Body awareness first. In practice: start with whether the client can sense specific body areas. Gaps in that sensing point you to the relevant history.
Shock is not character. In practice: sort out single overwhelming events, including sexual abuse, from developmental patterns and treat them with the shock sequence.
Work later to earlier. In practice: strengthen later structures first so they can hold earlier ones. [source: Bernhardt 1992; PESI UK]
Avoid regression as a goal. In practice: keep the client oriented in adult reality. Marcher warns that regression can become a defence.
Choice over peak experience. In practice: don't chase catharsis or "aliveness". Success means the client has more real options.
Integrate into daily life. In practice: give homework and check it, so that gains raise stress and affect regulation outside sessions. [source: PESI UK; UTA Akademie]
Energy language is theory. In practice: Marcher holds that the connection drive is energetic and that the body is its conductor. Treat this as the school's model, not as physiology. [source: Bernhardt 1992]

4. Intervention inventory

This inventory covers every intervention named in the sources. The sources name most techniques but rarely give step-by-step instructions. For each one I mark the steps as follows: [source] where a source describes the procedure; [synthesis] where I have built a workable procedure from the stated purpose and the muscle-theme pairings Marcher gives; [uncertain] where the official training version may differ. All example wording is illustrative.

4.0 Safeguards for touch and intensity (apply to every technique below)

Purpose: bodymapping, gentle touch to muscles and the shock-trauma running work are physical. They need explicit consent and screening.
Steps:
- Training and scope. Touch and the shock-trauma method need specific training (Bodynamic certifies shock-trauma therapists separately), ongoing supervision, and a check of what your licence, your jurisdiction and your insurer allow. [source: Somatic Perspectives page on Evertsen for the separate certification; the rest is synthesis]
- Consent for any touch [synthesis; the sources give no consent protocol]:
  1. Explain what you propose, where your hand will go and why, before you do anything.
  2. Ask, and accept no as a full answer.
  3. Offer a no-touch alternative, such as the client placing their own hand, pressing against a cushion or a wall, or you demonstrating on yourself.
  4. Agree a stop signal, verbal and non-verbal.
  5. Check in during the touch and afterwards.
  6. Write down that consent was given.
  7. Touch only non-intimate areas: limbs, shoulders, upper back, the sides of the trunk.
- Never sexual touch. Never touch genitals, breasts or buttocks, and never touch in a sexual way. The Love/Sexuality structure is worked with through themes, posture, role-play and talk, never through sexual touch [synthesis].
- Screening before the running reflex, vigorous activation or stress work [synthesis; the sources name no contraindications]: pregnancy; cardiovascular or respiratory illness; epilepsy; recent injury or surgery; joint problems; psychosis; severe dissociation; active suicidality; recent trauma without stabilisation. Get medical clearance where in doubt.
Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to feel how this muscle on the outside of your thigh responds. I'd put two fingers here, lightly, for about a minute. You can say no, or you can press your own hand there instead. If you want me to stop, just say 'stop' or lift your hand."
Watch for: consent that is compliant rather than real, which is common in Need and Autonomy themes [synthesis]; freezing; breath-holding; going blank. Any of these means stop and ask.

4.1 Body-awareness inquiry and tracking breaks in sensing

Purpose: to start where Marcher starts, with body awareness. You look for areas the client cannot sense, read them as breaks in mutual connection, and trace each one to their current character, their body and their history. Use it from the first session and throughout. [source: Bernhardt 1992]
Steps:
1. Seated or standing, ask the client to bring their attention to one area at a time: feet, legs, pelvis, belly, chest, back, shoulders, arms, neck, face [synthesis: order].
2. Ask what they sense: warmth, tension, tingling, nothing, "far away".
3. Note blank or vague areas and areas of strong tension.
4. In each gap, ask what age, situation or relationship comes to mind.
5. Link it to the developmental theme of the muscles in that area (see the bodymap, 4.3) [synthesis].
6. Close by asking the client to sense one area that feels clear or good.
Example language (illustrative): "As you sense down the backs of your arms, what's there? … Nothing much? Let's just notice that gap. When in your life did pushing something away stop being possible?"
Watch for: sensing becoming more differentiated over sessions, which is progress. Distress rising when attention goes to a gap means slowing down, going back to a resource area, and working at the edge of the gap, not in its centre [synthesis].

4.2 Body reading

Purpose: to form hypotheses about active character structures and early or late positions from posture, tone and movement. Use it at assessment and to track change. The training practises it "in different settings" and with mirrors and pictures. [source: PESI UK; HKUST]
Steps [synthesis: the procedure is not given in the sources]:
1. With consent, watch the client standing, walking, sitting and making a few simple movements, such as reaching out, pushing away or turning the head.
2. Note where the body looks collapsed or undertoned (possible hyporesponse) and where it looks held, rigid or overtensed (possible hyperresponse).
3. Optionally, the client looks in a mirror or at photographs of themselves and describes what they see and feel.
4. Share your observations tentatively, as hypotheses, and ask how they fit the client's experience.
Example language (illustrative): "When you reach toward me, your shoulders lift and your elbows stay bent. Does that match anything you feel inside when you want something from someone?"
Watch for: shame at being looked at. Ask before observing, and let the client say when to stop. Treat a reading as a hypothesis until bodymapping or the client's experience confirms it.

4.3 Bodymapping (muscle-response testing)

Purpose: a "hands-on procedure that involves palpating and registering muscle response". Each muscle is tested and rated as hypo-, neutral or hyperresponsive. The resulting map shows which developmental themes are given up or fought for, and where resources are. [source: North Atlantic Books / Penguin Random House pages; Bernhardt 1992 for muscle-by-muscle testing linked to age of first activation]
Steps [the source names only the outline; the official protocol and rating scale are in Marcher & Fich 2010 and in training, so the detailed steps are uncertain]:
1. Get consent as in 4.0, with special care because the procedure involves many touches.
2. The client lies or sits comfortably.
3. The therapist palpates one muscle at a time with light, standardised pressure and registers its response: does it sink in and give nothing back (hypo), meet the finger in a flexible, lively way (neutral), or resist hard (hyper)?
4. Record each response on a body chart.
5. Afterwards, link the clusters to developmental stages and ego functions using the Body Encyclopedia entries (movement, age of activation, psychological themes).
6. Close with the client sitting up, orienting to the room, and talking through the experience.
Example language (illustrative): "I'll go muscle by muscle, pressing very lightly and holding a few seconds. You don't need to do anything, just tell me what you notice. We can pause at any point."
Watch for: fatigue, emotional surfacing during palpation, or dissociation. Pause or stop and use what came up as material. Without the book and supervised training, don't present a self-made map as a Bodynamic bodymap [synthesis].

4.4 Specific muscle activation (one theme at a time)

Purpose: to wake up the particular muscles tied to the theme being worked on, instead of using global methods such as high-activation breathing. This is the core Bodynamic technique, used in resource building and character work. [source: Bernhardt 1992]
Steps [the three teaching aspects are from Jarlnaes, EABP 2023; the details are synthesis]:
1. Choose one muscle or movement that fits the theme. For example, the triceps for pushing away and the medial deltoids for personal space. [source: Bernhardt 1992]
2. Teach the movement slowly, at low effort (the client should be able to keep breathing easily), for a few repetitions [synthesis: dosage not given].
3. Aspect 1: the client activates the muscle and senses it in action.
4. Aspect 2: the client puts words to the emotional tone and the psychological meaning of the movement.
5. Aspect 3: the client reports the whole experience to you, and you support and reflect it back.
6. Repeat until the movement feels like the client's own.
7. Agree how they will practise it in daily life.
Example language (illustrative): "Straighten your arms slowly against my hands … or against the wall, if you prefer. Feel the backs of your arms working. What's the feeling in that? … What would you say with this movement?"
Watch for: the client overriding effort, going too hard or holding the breath. That may be the late, hyper pattern itself, so slow them down. Feeling that comes with the movement, a spontaneous word or image, or a calmer or brighter sense afterwards means it is working [synthesis]. Jarlnaes stresses that the therapist senses when a movement is needed, which takes clinical judgement and is not a recipe. [source: EABP 2023]

4.5 Gentle touch to hyporesponsive muscles

Purpose: to reawaken the function of a given-up (hyporesponsive) muscle through very gentle touch. Marcher took this approach from Lillemor Johnsen. [source: Bernhardt 1992]
Steps [only the principle is sourced; the steps are synthesis]:
1. Get consent as in 4.0.
2. With the client relaxed, rest a light, still contact on the undertoned muscle. The pressure should be no more than resting your fingertips.
3. Ask the client to sense the area under your touch and, if they can, to send a tiny movement into it.
4. Hold for about a minute, or as long as the client is comfortable [synthesis: no duration was given in the sources].
5. Remove your hand slowly.
6. Ask what the client felt and whether any image, age or wish came up.
7. No-touch option: the client places their own hand on the muscle.
Example language (illustrative): "Just let your attention come to where my fingers are. You don't need to make anything happen. Maybe a tiny wish to move here?"
Watch for: warmth, a twitch, the area "coming back", or a feeling such as longing or sadness. These mean the muscle is responding. Collapse, sleepiness or going blank means too much or too soon. Stop, and give the client a resource such as grounding.

4.6 Working with hyperresponsive (held) muscles

Purpose: to help a rigidly held muscle find a flexible range, "neither giving up nor rigidly fighting", without stripping the defence. [source: Bernhardt 1992 for the goal; PESI UK for the caution against releasing armour at the wrong time]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Help the client sense the tension and its function, asking what it fights for or holds back.
2. Invite small variations: tighten a little more, then a little less.
3. Explore the impulse the tension protects, in a contained form, through small movements and words.
4. Recognise the tension's protective value before you ask what else it could do.
5. Don't use forced deep-tissue pressure to "break" it.
Example language (illustrative): "Your jaw is working hard. Let's respect that. What is it holding on to? … Can you let it hold 10% less, and notice what happens?"
Watch for: the tension coming back stronger, or anxiety rising, which means the defence is still needed. Go back to resources. Small, voluntary shifts the client can choose are the target.

4.7 Developmental holding

Purpose: Marcher's term for holding the client in a developmental movement until the old impulse wakes up and can be practised. [source: Bernhardt 1992]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Identify the developmental movement of the theme, for example reaching toward someone (Need), turning away to explore and then back (Autonomy), or pushing and saying no (Will).
2. Set up the movement, with your support as the relational partner. You might be the person reached toward, or the steady presence the client explores away from and returns to. Use touch only with consent.
3. Keep the movement going, slowly and with repetitions, while the client tracks their sensations.
4. When the impulse wakes up, support it and help the client practise it several times.
5. Close by asking how the client can use it this week.
Example language (illustrative): "Reach toward me again, slowly … I'm here. Stay with the wanting. … There, that's the impulse. Let's do it a few more times so your body learns it."
Watch for: the session sliding into regression. Marcher warns that regression can become a defence. Keep the client oriented in adult reality while they practise the impulse.

4.8 Parenting component (supplying missed messages)

Purpose: the therapist actively supplies, in words and behaviour, messages the child needed at a given stage and didn't get. This supports a new imprint. [source: Bernhardt 1992]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Identify the missing message from the stage theme, for example: you have the right to exist (Existence); your needs are welcome (Need); you can go and come back (Autonomy); your no is OK (Will); your opinion counts (Opinions); you belong and you can shine (Solidarity/Performance).
2. Say it while the client is in the related body experience (4.4 or 4.7).
3. Ask how it lands in the body.
4. Help the client find their own adult version of the message.
Example language (illustrative): "Your 'no' is welcome here. I'm still with you after you say it."
Watch for: dependency on you as parent. Keep it time-limited, and turn the message into the client's own words and into other people in their life. This links to the role separation in the shock work (4.17).

4.9 Centering

Purpose: a core resource the training names. It helps the client find a felt inner centre and sense of self, to return to under pressure. [source: PESI UK; HKUST]
Steps [synthesis: the official Bodynamic centering exercise is not given in the sources, and the muscles it targets may differ, uncertain]:
1. Standing, feet hip-width apart, knees soft.
2. The client brings attention to the middle of the body, below the navel and at the core of the trunk.
3. They gently activate the deep abdominal and back muscles, as if lengthening upward from the pelvis, and sense the line through the middle of the body.
4. A few slow breaths into that area.
5. Small shifts of weight front and back and side to side, finding the middle each time.
6. 2–3 minutes.
7. Close by asking what this centre feels like and where in life the client could use it.
Example language (illustrative): "Find the middle of you, the place you'd move from. Sway a little and come back to it. What is it like to stand here, in your own centre?"
Watch for: the client saying they feel "more me" or calmer, or that it is easier to hold their position in the conversation. If no centre can be found, practise with eyes open and with a smaller movement.

4.10 Grounding

Purpose: a core resource for staying in contact with the ground, with reality and with the present moment, especially under activation. [source: PESI UK; HKUST]
Steps [synthesis: the official version is uncertain]:
1. Standing, feet parallel, knees soft.
2. The client senses the soles of the feet and their contact with the floor.
3. They gently press the feet down and activate the thighs, as if about to stand up from a chair, then let go. 5–8 slow repetitions.
4. They notice the legs as support.
5. Seated version: press the feet into the floor and the thighs into the chair.
6. Close by asking the client to look around the room and name what they see.
Example language (illustrative): "Press down through your feet a little, as if the floor could push back. Feel your legs holding you. Look around: what do you see right now?"
Watch for: a steadier voice, eye contact, slower breathing. Grounding is also your first response to overwhelm (see section 5).

4.11 Boundaries

Purpose: to build the felt ability to sense one's own space, to mark it and to defend it. Marcher links the iliotibial tract (side of the legs) to boundaries, the medial deltoids to personal space and the triceps to pushing away. She also describes sensing the body's energy field as a resource, and practising new boundary skills at home after sessions. [source: Bernhardt 1992; PESI UK]
Steps [synthesis built on those muscle pairings]:
1. Sensing space: the client stands. You or a cushion move slowly closer, and the client says "stop" where their space begins. You stop at once. Repeat from different directions.
2. Personal-space muscles: the client lifts their arms sideways to about shoulder height (the medial deltoid) and senses "this much space is mine". Hold briefly. Repeat 3–5 times.
3. Side-of-legs boundary: standing, the client presses the outer thighs outward, against their own hands or against a wall, and senses the outline of their legs.
4. Pushing away: with arms extended, the client pushes against a wall, a cushion you hold, or your palms if they consent, and adds a word such as "no" or "back".
5. Energy-field sensing (Marcher's concept): the client senses the space around the body at arm's length and imagines it as theirs. Present this as Marcher's model, not as physiology.
6. Close by talking through where this boundary is needed in the client's life, and set a home practice.
Example language (illustrative): "Tell me 'stop' as soon as I'm close enough. … I stopped. Notice: your stop worked."
Watch for: saying stop very late, or not at all. This is common in early positions; reinforce any earlier signal. If the boundary is too hard or rigid, which is common in late positions, work on letting a welcome person come closer. Real change shows when the client can name and keep boundaries outside sessions.

4.12 Character-structure exercises and role-play

Purpose: the Foundation training teaches physical exercises and role-play for each of the seven character structures. It includes the resources of each structure in the healing work, with demonstration sessions per structure. [source: PESI UK] The training's own exercises are not published in the sources. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Choose the structure that is active now.
2. Name its theme and its resource as well as its defence. For example, Will: the capacity for effort and persistence alongside the habit of holding back a direct no.
3. Combine a muscle activation tied to the theme (4.4) with a short role-play of a real situation, such as refusing a request at work.
4. Replay the scene with the new impulse active in the body.
5. Talk through the difference.
6. Set a real-life experiment.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's set up your manager's request again. This time, keep the push in your arms while you answer, and notice what you want to say."
Watch for: performing the "right" response without feeling it, which is common in Solidarity/Performance themes [synthesis]. Ask for the body report every time.

4.13 Bodyknot (Bodynamic communication model)

Purpose: the training teaches a Bodynamic model of communication called Bodyknot. [source: PESI UK] Its content is not described in any source. [uncertain: do not use it without the training material]
Steps: not available from sources. A practitioner should learn it in the Foundation training.
Watch for: do not improvise a version and label it Bodyknot.

4.14 Group work

Purpose: the Foundation includes group work. Groups give natural material for the Solidarity/Performance theme (belonging versus shining) and for practising boundaries and connection with several people. [source: PESI UK; Bernhardt 1992 for the stage theme]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Open with a centering or grounding round.
2. Do paired or small-group exercises on one theme, for example a boundary exercise in pairs (4.11).
3. Each person reports their body experience.
4. Hold a group round on the stage theme, for example how each person balances fitting in with standing out.
5. Close with a grounding exercise.
Watch for: shame and comparison. Use clear rules for consent between participants, and allow people to sit out.

4.15 Voice and layers of identity (practitioner variant)

Purpose: Lidy Evertsen, a Bodynamic and Bodynamic Trauma therapist, describes layers of identity formed in different developmental periods and in crises or trauma. Each layer relates to areas of the body and has "their own sound". She explores them through voice, imagery, embodiment and memory-systems work. [source: EABP 2023] This is one trainer's extension, not a core Foundation technique. [uncertain]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Ground first.
2. The client senses one body area tied to a developmental theme.
3. They let a sound arise from there, such as a hum, a tone or a word, without forcing it.
4. They notice what age or state it belongs to.
5. Compare it with the sound of another area or layer.
6. Talk through how these layers interact.
Watch for: in clients with severe dissociation, voicing separate layers can increase switching. Evertsen specialises in dissociation and DID, so work in this area needs specific training [synthesis].

4.16 Homework and daily-life integration

Purpose: gains have to carry into daily life. Marcher describes clients practising new boundary skills after sessions. The training stresses integration into everyday life to raise stress and affect regulation. [source: Bernhardt 1992; PESI UK; UTA Akademie]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. At the end of every session, agree one small practice: a movement, a resource, or a boundary experiment.
2. Say when and where the client will do it, and for how long (for example, a 1-minute grounding before a meeting).
3. At the start of the next session, review it: what happened in the body and in the relationship?
4. Adjust the practice.
Example language (illustrative): "Before you open the door at home tonight, take three presses through your feet and notice whether you arrive differently."
Watch for: non-practice (see section 5). Track any change outside sessions; it is the main sign of progress.

Shock-trauma work (4.17–4.21)

Bodynamic treats shock (violent assault, sexual abuse, accidents, surgery, severe illness, events lived through alone) as separate from character formation. Marcher holds that reliving the event is not enough: a new psychomotor imprint and active resources are needed. [source: Bernhardt 1992] The sequence below follows the Bodynamic Institute's Danish shock book (Kreatik, 1993) as summarised by Elklit (2001). The book is not drawn on directly, so the steps are a secondary account. [uncertain] Elklit also criticises the method's directiveness. Section 5 takes this into account.

4.17 Safe place and contact persons

Purpose: to set up, before any narration, a concrete shelter where the client can get contact and care. Elklit describes it as a real place with responsible adults present. The client brings contact persons, real people who witness that the event happened and who give the "care and protection" that was missing. Bodynamic keeps the contact-person role separate from the therapist role to limit transference. [source: Elklit 2001]
Steps [ordering from the source; details are synthesis]:
1. Explain the method and get consent, including consent to the physical parts.
2. Together, build a detailed image of a safe place, with the responsible adults the client chooses.
3. Mark it physically in the room, for example with a mat or cushions [synthesis].
4. Invite the client's chosen contact persons, who have been briefed beforehand on their role: to be present, to believe the client and to offer care, not to interpret.
5. Practise arriving at the safe place and receiving contact before going any further.
Example language (illustrative): "Before we go anywhere near what happened, we build where you can run to. Who would be there? What would they do when you arrive?"
Watch for: contact persons who are themselves overwhelmed or judgemental. Brief and screen them, and keep them out of sessions if they are unsafe or involved in the event [synthesis].

4.18 Running reflex and "stop"

Purpose: to re-establish the running reflex, the escape impulse that was blocked in the shock, and to practise stopping, which brings contact with the present. [source: Elklit 2001]
Steps [source for the elements; dosage and safety steps are synthesis]:
1. Screen as in 4.0. This is vigorous leg movement, so check for cardiovascular, respiratory, joint and pregnancy issues.
2. The client lies on their back on a mattress and makes continuous running movements with the legs, which are free to move.
3. At an agreed signal the client stops. They feel the stillness and orient to the room.
4. Repeat in short rounds of seconds to a minute or so, with rests [synthesis: no durations given].
5. Let the client give the stop signal themselves as well, not only you.
6. Close with grounding (4.10) and talk through what happened.
Example language (illustrative): "Run, your legs know how … and when you're ready, or when I say, stop. Feel the stillness. Look around: where are you now?"
Watch for: breathlessness, chest pain, dizziness or panic. Stop at once. A sense that "I could get away" and a calm, clear stop mean it is working. Elklit reports commands being used with clients who sometimes did not want to run or stop. Agree every move in advance and never insist [synthesis].

4.19 Narrating the shock with titration to the safe place

Purpose: to let the client tell the event while staying regulated. At any sign of anxiety, stiffness or numbness, the client "runs" to the safe place to receive contact and care. [source: Elklit 2001]
Steps:
1. The client starts to tell the event slowly, in present-day orientation.
2. You track the body for tightening, a frozen gaze, held breath or numbness.
3. At the first sign, the client runs, using the movement from 4.18 or imagined running, to the safe place.
4. The client receives contact there from the contact persons.
5. When regulated, they go back to the story at the same point.
6. End every session at the safe place, followed by grounding.
Example language (illustrative): "You've just gone stiff. Run now, to your place … who's there? … Take what you need. When you're ready, we go back to the moment the car turned."
Watch for: pushing on through rising activation. The rule is to go back to the safe place early. Progress shows when the client can tell more of the story with less shutdown.

4.20 Orientation reflex, locked tension and "inexpedient decisions"

Purpose: to process the orientation reflex, the turning toward the danger, and to treat muscle tension locked in the shock and the "inexpedient decisions" made at that moment (for example "I must never trust anyone"). [source: Elklit 2001]
Steps [synthesis: no detail given]:
1. Slowly re-enact the moment of orienting, for example turning the head and eyes toward the sound, with full present-day awareness.
2. Let the movement finish.
3. Identify locked areas, and use specific activation (4.4) or a gentle touch with consent (4.5) to let them move.
4. Name the decision made at that moment, and weigh it against present reality and the resources the client now has.
Example language (illustrative): "Turn your head toward where the noise came from, very slowly. … What did you decide in that second?"
Watch for: startle, freezing or dissociation. Go back to the safe place. A completed orienting movement and a revised decision the client can say out loud are the markers.

4.21 Return, repetition and reconstruction

Purpose: with the new tools, the client goes back to the event and relives it until it can be recalled without memory gaps or shock reactions. The event is then changed step by step through "a precise and bodily rooted reconstruction and reorganization", with the aim to "recognize, to treat and to integrate the polarity". [source: Elklit 2001, quoting the method]
Steps [synthesis]:
1. Go through the event again in sequence, with running and the safe place available.
2. Repeat across sessions until recall is continuous and calm.
3. Rebuild the event step by step, adding the protective or escape movements and the contact that were missing, enacted in the body.
4. Integrate the event: the client's present-day reflection on what happened and on who they are now.
Example language (illustrative): "This time, when he reaches for you, let your legs do what they wanted to do. … And who arrives?"
Watch for: reconstruction being taken as a denial of what really happened. Make clear that it builds a new body response, not a new history [synthesis]. Elklit criticises the method for a victim-blaming subtext ("Teaching has replaced therapy"). Never suggest the client failed or should have acted differently [synthesis in response to that critique].

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about how to handle problems. Marcher's interview supplies the principles (go slowly, avoid regression, don't release defences too early, build resources). Most of the specific responses below are my own synthesis and are marked as such.

Overwhelm or flooding (body or emotion).
- Stop the exercise. Move to grounding (4.10): press through the feet and name things in the room.
- Lower the intensity: smaller movements, eyes open, sitting up.
- In shock work, run to the safe place early (4.19). [source: Elklit 2001 for running to the safe place; the rest is synthesis]
- Afterwards, ask whether the session went too deep. Releasing armour at the wrong time can destabilise the client. [source: PESI UK]
Collapse, sleepiness or going blank during work with a hyporesponsive muscle. This is a sign the given-up pattern has come up. Reduce the touch or activation to almost nothing, use eye contact and your voice, and come back to the muscle another day. [synthesis]
Dissociation or switching. Orient to the present (date, room, your voice). Use grounding and centering. Don't use voice-layer or reliving work until the client is stable. Refer to or consult someone trained in dissociation. [synthesis; EABP 2023 for Evertsen's specialism]
Stuck: the same pattern every session.
- Check whether you are working on an earlier theme before the later structures can contain it. Marcher works from later to earlier. [source: Bernhardt 1992; PESI UK]
- Check whether the client is practising outside sessions (see non-adherence below).
- Change the channel, for example from movement to role-play (4.12) or to body reading in a mirror (4.2). [synthesis]
Resistance: "this is silly" or refusing to move.
- Treat the refusal as a resource. Saying no is the Will theme. Work with the no itself, for example with a pushing movement (4.11). [synthesis based on the principle that defences are resources]
- Offer a talk-only or observing option, and never coerce. Elklit specifically criticised therapists commanding unwilling clients to run or stop. [source: Elklit 2001; the response is synthesis]
Compliance that looks like progress (common where Need, Opinions or Solidarity/Performance themes are active). Ask for the body report, not for agreement. Ask what the client would want to change about the exercise. Praise any objection. [synthesis]
Non-adherence to home practice. Shrink the task to under a minute and attach it to a fixed daily cue. Explore what in the body says no to it. Review it every session. [synthesis]
Regression or dependency on the therapist. Marcher warns that regression can become a defence. [source: Bernhardt 1992] Keep the client oriented in adult time. Limit the time spent in the parenting component (4.8). Transfer the supportive messages to the client's own voice and to the people around them. Shock work separates the contact-person role from the therapist role partly for this reason. [source: Elklit 2001]
Chasing peak experiences. If the client or the therapist starts "worshipping" intense states, catharsis or aliveness, bring the focus back to choice and reality. [source: Bernhardt 1992]
Ruptures, including a touch that felt wrong.
- Stop. Name what happened and take responsibility for your part.
- Ask what the client needed instead. Go back to a no-touch way of working until the client asks for touch again.
- Record the event and take it to supervision. [synthesis]
- If the client was, or felt, sexually violated, follow your professional body's complaint and reporting rules. [synthesis]
Shame or victim-blaming in shock work. Make clear that the client did nothing wrong. The new movements are about the body getting what it needed, not about what the client should have done. Elklit flagged this risk. [source: Elklit 2001; the response is synthesis]
Contact persons who are unsuitable or unavailable. Use an imagined safe figure, or a person from the client's present life briefed outside session. If no one fits, rely on the therapist's steady presence while keeping the reconstruction focus. Note that this is a departure from the method as Elklit describes it. [synthesis]
Medical red flags during physical work. Chest pain, fainting, a seizure or acute injury: stop, give first aid or call emergency services as needed, and get medical clearance before resuming. Never present Bodynamic work as treatment for physical disease. [synthesis]
Suicidality or self-harm emerging. Pause body work. Do a standard risk assessment and safety plan, including lethal-means counselling about storage and removal where relevant. Increase support. Resume developmental work only once the client is stable. [synthesis]
Muscle findings that don't fit the client's story. Treat the bodymap as a hypothesis. Let the client's own experience lead. Don't tell clients what happened to them based on muscle tone. [synthesis]
Working without the full training. Use only the low-risk elements (body-awareness inquiry, centering, grounding, simple boundary exercises without touch) with clear consent. Leave bodymapping, touch to hyporesponsive muscles and the shock-trauma sequence until you are trained and supervised. [synthesis]

Sources

Sources: