Psycho-organic analysis

1. Introduction

Version followed: Analyse Psycho-Organique (APO) as taught by the École Française d'Analyse Psycho-Organique (EFAPO, Paris) and presented by the FF2P (2021), the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP) and EFAPO-affiliated authors (Marc Tocquet's paper on polarisations). Verified in this revision: the nine stages of the psycho-organic circle (an APO association page), the hands-on "polarisation" procedure and its consent steps (Tocquet), the session setting and length (APO practitioner pages), the waking-dream sequence in Primary Impulse Training and the four-year EFAPO training (EFAPO history text), and the meaning of the "Non Joyeux" and of regression along the life line (APO practitioner page). Not drawn on: Boyesen & Huber (1993), the textbook Champ, Fraisse & Tocquet (2015) and EFAPO's internal teaching manuals (e.g. J. Boyesen 2004, "Régression et symbolisation"). Step-by-step procedures for the Non Joyeux, birth work, linear regression-progression, active relaxation and breathing work therefore remain [synthesis] or [uncertain].

What it is. Psycho-organic analysis is a psychoanalytically based body psychotherapy created by Paul C. Boyesen, son of Gerda Boyesen (founder of Biodynamic Psychology). He began developing it in London from 1970 out of Reichian and neo-Reichian body work; it was first called "bio-analysis" and renamed Analyse Psycho-Organique in 1975. Boyesen ran trainings from 1975; EFAPO was co-founded in 1985 by Paul and Joëlle Boyesen, Jacqueline Besson, Anne Fraisse and Yves Brault; national associations followed in France (1984) and Germany (1985) and the European association EAPOA in 1986. It is recognised as a method by the FF2P and the EAP. [source: FF2P 2021; EAP POA page; everybodywiki Fraisse bio] It is used in individual, group and couple work. [source: EAP POA page; Fraisse bio]

It is a method with a set of named experiential devices, not a fixed session protocol: it synthesises Freud, Ferenczi, Jung and Reich with bio-analysis and biodynamic psychology, keeping psychoanalytic concepts (unconscious, transference, countertransference, the symbolic/imaginary/real) while working with bodily felt sensation, emotion, movement, image and word. [source: FF2P 2021; EAP POA page]

Core idea of change. (a) The person is a psycho-corporal unity; words and thoughts have a bodily form ("the body of the word"). (b) The "situational unconscious": people unconsciously choose present situations that bring them into contact with experiences from the past that were never lived or completed, in order to live and realise them now; "an experience is always a choice of experience" (paraphrase of FF2P). (c) Unconscious impulses emerge as neuro-vegetative, somatic, motor, emotional, verbal or artistic representations; therapy lets these primary impulses emerge, be felt, expressed and symbolised so that an interrupted cycle (Boyesen's psycho-organic cycle, a generalisation of Reich's tension-charge-discharge-relaxation formula) can complete. (d) The goal is "new choices of experience": moving from residual energy (traumatic, destructuring) to consequential energy (creative, structuring). [source: FF2P 2021; EAP POA page; Besson 2002 section headings; Tocquet 2019 review]

2. Framework

The sources describe a process, not numbered treatment phases with fixed session counts. [source: FF2P 2021]

Phase A: Request and frame (first interview). Goal: hear the client's request and psychological suffering, explain the method (talk plus body-centred work) and set the frame (frequency, fee, setting, rules about touch and movement, cancellation). A first session is then agreed. [source: FF2P 2021; frame details are synthesis]

Phase B: Settling into the process, "basic transference". Goal: the client comes to rely on the frame and the relationship (FF2P calls this a basic transference founded on trust). Body work is introduced gradually, starting with attention to sensation and breath while sitting, before more regressive or expressive work. [source: FF2P 2021 for basic transference; gradual introduction is synthesis]

Phase C: Working process. Each session starts from what the client brings; the client, not the method, chooses the subject. The therapist follows emerging material (sensations, emotions, thoughts, associations, dreams, images, memories) through the psycho-organic cycle, uses devices such as Primary Impulse Training, the body of the word, contract work, birth work and regression-progression, and works with the transference. [source: FF2P 2021; Tocquet 2019 review] The "psycho-organic circle" (Cercle Psycho-Organique), created by Boyesen in 1975 as a phenomenological model and a "grille de lecture et de diagnostic", is presented as an integrative cyclical model of the ways into a therapeutic process, and is described as a nine-point spiral: need, accumulation, identity, force, capacity, choice, expression, feeling, orgonomy (see 4.3). [source: EFAPO history text; FF2P 2021; AAPO circle page]

Phase D: Ending. The process ends when the client has found, in their life, answers to the original request. [source: FF2P 2021]

Format and dose. An APO practitioner describes sessions of usually 45–60 minutes, individual or in a group, with no fixed frequency and no "typical" session: the therapist chooses the axis of work according to the theme and the client's history. Work is face to face for relational work, and the client may lie on a couch for work on unconscious roots; in-depth work can run several months to several years. [source: Lauden practitioner page] Hands-on "expérientiels" such as polarisations are proposed at a key moment of the process and may fill one or several sessions (a polarisation lasts at least 15 minutes). [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper] Some practitioners also offer online sessions. [source: Duriez practitioner page] APO is also used in couple work. [source: EAP POA page] Weekly sessions as a starting default, with review of the request every 3–4 months, is [synthesis].

Criteria for moving on (none published in the sources; all [synthesis]):

A to B: a shared, written-down request; risk screen done; consent to body work discussed, including the right to decline any exercise.
B to C: client can notice and name sensations, tolerates brief emotional activation and returns to baseline within the session; trust in the frame is evident (keeps appointments, brings material spontaneously).
Into deeper regressive or birth work: stable affect regulation, no active crisis, a good working alliance, and the client asks for it or the material repeatedly points there.
C to D: the original request is answered in daily life (new choices made and sustained), recurring situations have changed, and the client raises ending; plan several closing sessions.

3. Guiding principles

Unconditional respect for the client's sense and direction (Boyesen's "ethic of intervention"). In practice: you follow the life direction the client wants to pursue and do not impose your own idea of health. [source: EAP POA page; FF2P 2021]
Every experience is a choice of experience. In practice: explore how the client is, unconsciously, choosing the situations they suffer from, framed as meaning-seeking, not blame. [source: FF2P 2021]
The client is active and holds the knowledge about themselves. In practice: the client unconsciously knows the answer to their own question; you help it surface instead of supplying it. [source: Besson 2002 headings; FF2P 2021]
The client chooses the subject of each session. In practice: open each session without your agenda; never steer to a technique because the method "needs" it. [source: FF2P 2021]
Hypotheses give way to lived experience. In practice: hold your formulation lightly and drop it when the client's felt experience points elsewhere. [source: FF2P 2021]
Psychotherapy happens in a relationship. In practice: track transference and countertransference continuously, including what the body work evokes between you. [source: Besson 2002 headings; FF2P 2021; EAP POA page]
Seek a "true speech" (parole vraie). In practice: aim for words that are felt and embodied, not intellectual explanation; notice when speech and body diverge. [source: Besson 2002 headings; meaning inferred, uncertain]
Psycho-corporal unity; "the body of the word". In practice: treat words, thoughts, images and bodily sensations as different forms of the same process and move between them. [source: EAP POA page; Tocquet 2019 review]
Sense and sensation. In practice: "sense" is the chosen direction or meaning, "sensation" its felt quality; check both ("what does this mean for you?" and "how does it feel?"). [source: EAP POA page]
Psychotherapy is a process with a cycle. In practice: let emerging impulses run their course (emerge, be felt, expressed, settle, be symbolised) rather than cutting them short or pushing them. [source: FF2P 2021; EAP POA page; Besson 2002 headings]
Work through "situations". In practice: the unit of work is the problematic situation (a marker event, past or present) and how it still shapes identity. [source: Tocquet 2019 review; FF2P 2021]
Health as regulation (micro- and macro-regulation). In practice: health is the organism's capacity to regulate within a session and across life; illness is a blocked regulation. Exact definitions not drawn on. [source: Besson 2002 headings] [uncertain]
Support consequential over residual energy. In practice: alongside working through trauma, actively notice and strengthen what is creative and structuring. [source: FF2P 2021]
Aim at new choices of experience. In practice: the end point is not insight alone but different choices actually lived. [source: Besson 2002 headings; EAP POA page]
Safety and consent before depth. In practice: no body exercise, touch or regression without first explaining what it involves and how long it lasts, explicit consent, and an agreed stop signal such as raising a hand [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper]; also offer a no-touch alternative and a way back to the present [synthesis].

Bodily experience must be linked to meaning. In practice: bodily abreaction alone is not considered enough; link what is lived in the body to a memory or situation and symbolise it, which also avoids dependence on purely bodily work. [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper]
Body work is offered, not imposed, and the client shapes it. In practice: propose an expérientiel at a key moment, explain it, obtain consent and let the client adjust it (position, pressure); this keeps the client active and limits dependence on the good feeling or on the therapist. [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper]
Work with the body, not necessarily on the body. In practice: much APO work uses attention to sensation, breath, movement and image without touch. [source: Duriez practitioner page, paraphrased]
Continuous supervision. In practice: take body and regressive work, and the transference and countertransference it evokes, to supervision. [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper]

4. Intervention inventory

How to read this inventory. The sources name APO's devices (Primary Impulse Training, psycho-organic cycle and circle, the body of the word, the "Non Joyeux", family, unconscious and relational contracts, birth work, linear regression-progression, active relaxation, breathing and emotions, choice of experience) [source: FF2P 2021; EAP POA page], but give a full procedure only for the hands-on polarisation expérientiel (4.14b) [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper]. For the other devices, the Purpose line reports what sources say; the Steps are a clinician's operationalisation consistent with those descriptions and with general body-psychotherapy practice, marked [synthesis] unless cited. They are not Boyesen's or EFAPO's protocol. EFAPO's basic training runs over four years [source: EFAPO history text]; learn the original procedures in EFAPO/EAPOA-accredited training and supervision before using the regressive devices (4.10, 4.11) or touch (4.14, 4.14b). Touch, regression and expressive body work need specific training, supervision, and a check of what your licence and jurisdiction allow.

4.1 First interview: request and frame

Purpose: hear the request and the suffering, explain the method and frame, schedule a first session. [source: FF2P 2021]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Ask for the request in the client's words and write it down verbatim; you will return to it at the end. (2) Take a history including medical conditions, medication, pregnancy, trauma, dissociation, psychosis, self-harm and suicidality (standard risk assessment). (3) Explain that sessions combine talking with attention to the body (sensations, breath, posture, movement, sometimes lying down) and that the client decides each session's subject. (4) Explain that any body exercise or touch is always proposed, never imposed, can be declined, and has a stop signal. (5) Agree frequency, length, fees, cancellations, contact between sessions, and how ending will be decided.
Example language (illustrative): "What would need to change in your life for you to feel this work was worth it?" / "Here we'll listen to what you say and also to what your body is doing while you say it. You choose what we work on, and you can always say no to an exercise."
Watch for: a request that is someone else's (partner, employer); unstable medical or psychiatric state that calls for referral or stabilisation first. Working: the client can state a request in their own terms and understands the frame.

4.2 Opening and following a session from sensation and association

Purpose: the core session movement; sessions start from bodily sensations linked to emotions and feelings, or from thoughts and associations, following what the client brings. [source: Tocquet 2019 review; FF2P 2021]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Begin with an open invitation and silence. (2) Whatever the client brings (a topic, a dream, a mood), ask where it is felt in the body now. (3) Follow alternately: from a sensation to the image, memory or word that comes with it; from a thought to the sensation that accompanies it. (4) Name small spontaneous movements, breath changes, voice shifts and gestures neutrally and ask about them. (5) Let associations run; do not interpret early. (6) In the last 10 minutes slow down, help the client put words to what happened (symbolisation) and return to the present (see 4.17).
Example language (illustrative): "As you talk about your sister, what are you noticing in your body?" / "Your hand just closed. If that hand could speak, what would it say?" / "Stay with the warmth in your chest a moment. Does an image or a memory come?"
Watch for: intellectualising without felt sense; flooding (rapid breathing, disconnection, glazed look). Working: speech becomes slower, more personal and felt; sensation, emotion and meaning begin to link.

4.3 Following the psycho-organic cycle

Purpose: Boyesen extended Reich's tension-charge-discharge-relaxation formula into a generalised, differentiated cycle (FF2P: built on the charge-tension/discharge-relaxation cycle); therapy helps an interrupted cycle to complete. [source: EAP POA page; FF2P 2021] The related psycho-organic circle (created 1975) is a reading and diagnostic grid for how primary energy takes bodily form in an action or expression [source: EFAPO history text], said to symbolise the link between the psyche and the neuro-vegetative system [source: Arborescens institute page; this is the school's theory]. It has nine points and is described as cyclical "or rather in a spiral" (you return to the start with different content): (1) need (fundamental dependence at birth; obstacle: refusing dependence); (2) accumulation (needs an envelope: too rigid, it cannot receive; too porous, it cannot retain); (3) identity (bodily and psychic identity, explored once safe enough); (4) force (energy to build identity and meet the world and others); (5) capacity (giving that energy a direction; the place of dream, where projects are not yet judged realistic); (6) choice (the pivot of ambivalence; risks: choosing too fast or never choosing); (7) expression (manifesting the choice emotionally; risk: too strong or too weak); (8) feeling, "at the heart" (sharing feeling with another, which breaks solitude; communication, not fusion); (9) orgonomy (a term taken from Reich: circulation complete, a sense of completeness, rest and renewal, leading back to 1). Points 1–5 form the "flux" side (building identity and desire), 6 is the pivot, 7–9 the "déflux" side (relation to others and the cosmos). [source: AAPO circle page, paraphrased] Separate stage names for the cycle as distinct from the circle were not found; an APO practitioner names the "organic connection" as sensation, expression, feeling, and the EAP lists "Situation, Expression and Feeling" among core concepts. [source: de Heaulme practitioner page; EAP POA page] Whether these are the cycle's official stages is [uncertain].
Steps: [synthesis, using the published circle stages] (1) Listen for where the client's process stops on the circle: cannot accept need or dependence (1); cannot take in, or cannot hold on to what is received (2); fragile sense of self (3); lacks energy or drive (4); has no project or dream (5); stuck in ambivalence or deciding impulsively (6); over- or under-expressing (7); cannot share feeling without fusing or withdrawing (8); cannot rest or complete (9). (2) Support only the missing step: e.g. at 2, slow down and help the client let in support or a sensation; at 6, let them feel each option in the body before deciding; at 7, allow a small, safe expression (sound, gesture, words); at 9, give time to rest and notice the after-feeling. (3) Help symbolisation: name what was lived and what it means. (4) Do not push a stage the client cannot yet bear; note the stopping point as material for later sessions. How EFAPO itself uses the circle as a diagnostic grid in session is not drawn on. [uncertain]
Example language (illustrative): "Let's not go further. Just notice what happens after you said that." / "Something wants to move in your arms. You can let a small part of it happen, or just notice it."
Watch for: forced catharsis (expression without settling) and premature closure (talking over a charge). Working: the client reports a distinct after-feeling (calm, sadness, relief, clarity) and can link it to the situation.

4.4 Primary Impulse Training (PIT)

Purpose: Boyesen's system for working with unconscious impulse representations as they emerge: neuro-vegetative, somatic, motor (action), emotional, verbal or artistic, linked to past, present or future experience, and appearing as images, dreams, memories, words, symbols or thoughts. [source: FF2P 2021; EAP lists "Primary Impulse" as a core concept] Primary Impulse Training includes a "waking dream" (rêve éveillé) sequence that generates archetypal images. [source: EFAPO history text] The full training procedure is not drawn on. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Invite the client into a quiet, receptive attention (sitting or lying, eyes open or closed as preferred). (2) Ask them to notice the first impulse that arises, of any kind: a twitch, a wish to move, a sound, a word, an image, a gurgle or warmth (neuro-vegetative). (3) Help them allow the impulse at a tolerable size rather than suppressing or amplifying it (e.g. let the hand move a few centimetres; say the word aloud softly). (4) Ask what it is connected to: a memory, a present situation, a wish for the future. (5) Let it complete and notice the after-effect. (6) Talk it through: what the impulse "wants" and what has stopped it in life.
Example language (illustrative): "Don't decide anything. Just notice the first thing that wants to happen." / "Let your leg do a little of what it wants, as slowly as you like. What is it connected to?"
Watch for: performing impulses to please the therapist; impulses that escalate quickly (stop, open eyes, ground). Working: impulses become more spontaneous and specific and the client links them to meaning.

4.5 The body of the word (le corps des mots)

Purpose: words and thoughts are psycho-organic representations of energy (movement and activity) and can take bodily form at conscious, preconscious and unconscious levels; the device works with the bodily resonance of words. [source: EAP POA page; FF2P 2021 names "le corps des mots" as an experiential device] The specific procedure is not drawn on. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Pick a word or short phrase the client used with evident charge ("abandoned", "I always give in"). (2) Ask the client to say it again slowly, then again, noticing what happens in the body as they say it. (3) Explore the word's body: where it lands, its weight, temperature, shape, movement. (4) Try a variation of tone, volume or posture and notice the difference. (5) Look for the true word: is there a more exact word that the body agrees with? (6) Discuss.
Example language (illustrative): "Say 'enough' once more, and notice where it goes in you." / "Is that the right word, or is there a word your body agrees with more?"
Watch for: mechanical repetition without felt sense; shame at speaking out loud. Working: a shift to a more exact, felt word ("true speech"), often with a breath change.

4.6 Working with situations (Situation, Expression and Feeling)

Purpose: APO focuses on problematic situations, marker events that shaped the person and still influence them; per the situational unconscious, people unconsciously choose present situations that reconnect them with unlived past experience. [source: Tocquet 2019 review; FF2P 2021; EAP POA page lists Situation, Expression and Feeling]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Ask for one concrete recent situation where the problem occurred. (2) Reconstruct it slowly in the present tense: place, people, what happened moment by moment. (3) At the moment of greatest charge, stop and attend to the body: what expression was held back (word, gesture, sound, action)? (4) Allow a small, safe version of that expression in the room. (5) Notice the feeling that follows. (6) Ask: when have you lived this before? Let earlier situations come. (7) Close with: what did this situation give you the chance to live or complete? What new choice could you make next time?
Example language (illustrative): "Take me into that moment in the meeting, as if it's happening now." / "What did you not say?" / "If this situation were bringing you back to something unfinished, what might it be?"
Watch for: the "choice" frame heard as blame (clarify that this is unconscious meaning-seeking, not fault); re-traumatisation with severe trauma memories (see section 5). Working: the client recognises the pattern across situations and tries a different response in life.

4.7 Dream, image and symbol work

Purpose: analysts work with expressions of the unconscious in dreams, imagery, movement, action and speech; dreams and symbols are representations of primary impulses. [source: EAP POA page; FF2P 2021] A dedicated APO dream method is not given in the sources. [uncertain] Jungian influence is acknowledged. [source: FF2P 2021]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Have the client tell the dream in the present tense. (2) Take associations to each element. (3) Ask which image carries the most charge and where it is felt in the body. (4) Invite the client to take the posture or make the movement of that image, or speak as it, briefly. (5) Notice the feeling and associations this brings and link to current situations and to the transference.
Example language (illustrative): "Stay with the image of the locked door. What happens in your body?" / "Take the posture of the door for a moment. What does it feel like to be that door?"
Watch for: interpreting for the client (contrary to the active-client principle). Working: the client reaches their own meaning and a felt shift.

4.8 Family, unconscious and relational contracts

Purpose: experiential devices for the implicit "contracts" a person carries: family contracts, unconscious contracts and relational contracts (EAP: "Unconscious Family Contracts"). [source: FF2P 2021; EAP POA page] Their exact procedure is not drawn on. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) When a repeated pattern appears (always the one who copes, never allowed to succeed beyond a parent), ask what unspoken agreement it might serve. (2) Help the client phrase the contract as a simple sentence in the first person ("I will stay small so that father is not humiliated"). (3) Ask them to say it aloud and notice the body's response (relief, tightening, sadness). (4) Explore who it was made with, when, and what it protected. (5) Ask whether they want to keep, change or end it; let them say a renegotiated version and notice the body's response. (6) Track how the same contract shows in the therapy relationship.
Example language (illustrative): "If there were an unspoken deal in your family about you, what would it say?" / "Say the new version. How does your body take it?"
Watch for: guilt or loyalty conflict when contracts are named; family-of-origin blame without ownership. Working: the client identifies the contract and changes an actual behaviour linked to it.

4.9 The "Non Joyeux" (joyful No)

Purpose: named by FF2P as one of APO's experiential devices [source: FF2P 2021]; an APO practitioner describes it as affirming oneself towards life, within oneself and with others [source: de Heaulme practitioner page, paraphrased]. Its procedure is not given in the sources. [uncertain] Do not present an improvised exercise as the APO device; learn it in training.
Steps: not available from the sources. [uncertain] In the meantime a clinician may use a generic, clearly separate self-affirmation exercise consistent with that description: sitting or standing upright, the client says "no" aloud a few times, attending to posture, breath and whether it can be said with energy and pleasure rather than with anger or guilt; then talk through where in life this affirmation is missing. Do not label it the Non Joyeux. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Try saying no, and notice whether it can feel light rather than heavy."
Watch for: the same as 4.5.

4.10 Birth work (five phases of birth)

Purpose: APO describes five phases of birth, Conception, Incarnation, Movement, Passage and Reunion, linked to an organic and symbolic unity lost at birth that is held to shape later outlook and the sense of life; birth work is an experiential device. [source: FF2P 2021] A related book on telling one's birth story exists (d'Hennezel & Jan 2008). Detailed procedure is not drawn on. [uncertain] The claim that birth shapes later life is the school's theory, not established fact.
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Use only in Phase C with a stable client who requests it. (2) Begin with narrative: what the client knows about their conception, pregnancy, birth and first days (ask family if possible). (3) Take the five phases as a frame for reflection: for each, ask which present-day themes resonate (being wanted; being in the body; movement and initiative; passages and transitions; reunion and contact). (4) Any experiential, regressive or bodily enactment of the birth passage should be done only after APO-specific training and under supervision; keep the client oriented to the present, eyes able to open, stop signal agreed. (5) Close with symbolisation and grounding (4.17).
Example language (illustrative): "When you think of how you arrived in the world, what do you feel now?" / "Of conception, incarnation, movement, passage and reunion, which word speaks to you today?"
Watch for: contraindications for regressive work (synthesis, consistent with brief): psychosis, severe dissociation, active suicidality, unstabilised recent trauma, pregnancy (re-enacting birth), cardiovascular or respiratory illness if any physical exertion or pressure is involved; avoid any physical constraint or compression of the client. Beware of constructing "memories" of birth; treat material as symbolic, not as historical evidence. Working: themes of belonging and transition become accessible and linked to present choices.

4.11 Linear regression-progression

Purpose: named by FF2P as an experiential device. [source: FF2P 2021] An APO practitioner describes accompanied regressions to "redo the life line" [source: de Heaulme practitioner page], which fits the "linear" label: going back along the life line to earlier experience and forward again (inferred). APO also works with "positive regression", attributed to Gerda and Joëlle Boyesen and linked to organic pleasure and security in the bond with the primary object; primal regression is meant to become positive. [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper; EFAPO history text] Joëlle Boyesen's EFAPO teaching manual on regression and symbolisation (2004) is not drawn on; the exact procedure remains [uncertain].
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Start from a present situation and its body sensation. (2) Ask the client to let the sensation lead to an earlier time it was present, then earlier, staying with feeling rather than searching for facts. (3) At the earliest point that comes, explore what was needed and not received. (4) Then move forward step by step to the present, bringing the resource or new choice into each period. (5) End in the present with a concrete next step. Keep it time-limited (e.g. under 20 minutes) and stay in contact verbally throughout. (6) If the regression revives a painful situation, take it as material for analysis and symbolisation in this and later sessions, and look at how the transference can help repair it. [source for step 6: Tocquet, polarisations paper, said of regression during polarisations]
Example language (illustrative): "Let that feeling take you back, without forcing. How old do you feel?" / "Now come forward with what you know, to age ten, to twenty, to today."
Watch for: the same contraindications as 4.10; loss of present orientation (open eyes, describe the room). Working: the client returns clearly to the present with a felt resource and a new choice.

4.12 Active relaxation

Purpose: listed by EAP as a core APO concept; no procedure given in the sources. [source: EAP POA page] [uncertain] Background: in Gerda Boyesen's biodynamic massage, from which APO grew, the work aims at relaxation (détente) in the parasympathetic phase while respecting the person's "organic protections". [source: EFAPO history text; the school's theory] How APO makes relaxation "active" was not found. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Client lies or sits comfortably. (2) Rather than passive "letting go", invite them to notice tension and actively follow it: let a tense area move slightly in the direction it wants, or exaggerate it gently and then release, several times. (3) Follow the breath and any spontaneous sigh, yawn or gut sound (in the biodynamic tradition such sounds are read as signs of self-regulation; this is the school's view). (4) Rest 2–3 minutes and notice. (5) Talk through what was felt.
Example language (illustrative): "Don't try to relax. Notice what wants to happen in your shoulders and follow it a little."
Watch for: relaxation-induced anxiety or dissociation in trauma survivors (keep eyes open, shorten, ground). Working: spontaneous breath deepening and a sense of calm alertness.

4.13 Breathing and emotions

Purpose: listed by EAP as a core APO concept linking breath to emotional process; APO practitioners name breathing, movement and creativity among their body tools. [source: EAP POA page; Lauden practitioner page] No procedure is given in the sources. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Observe the client's natural breath without changing it; name what you see. (2) Invite them to notice how breath changes when an emotional topic arises (held, high, shallow). (3) Offer gentle permission for the breath to go where it wants, without deliberate deepening or speeding. (4) Notice emotions that come with the change; link to situation and meaning. Avoid hyperventilation or breath intensification; if used at all by a trained practitioner, screen first.
Example language (illustrative): "You stopped breathing for a moment when you mentioned him. What happens if you let the breath continue?"
Watch for: tingling, dizziness, panic (signs of overbreathing: return to slow natural breath, eyes open, feet on floor). Contraindications for any breath intensification [synthesis, per brief]: pregnancy, cardiovascular or respiratory disease, epilepsy, panic disorder without preparation, psychosis, severe dissociation, recent surgery. Working: emotion arises and settles with the breath.

4.14 Touch (where used)

Purpose: APO grew out of Biodynamic Psychology, in which massage is central. [source: EFAPO history text; FF2P 2021] APO practitioners describe supportive or containing touch on the head and limbs and wrapping (enveloppements), framed as contact with the deep self rather than massage, alongside cushions, drawing and writing [source: de Heaulme practitioner page]; another says APO works with the body "but not necessarily on the body" [source: Duriez practitioner page]. Touch should be firm enough to support and contain but supple enough not to oppress. [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper, paraphrased] The structured hands-on expérientiel published in detail is the polarisation (4.14b).
Steps: consent steps given by the sources: propose touch at a suitable moment, explain what it involves and how long it lasts, obtain consent, and agree that the client can stop at any time by raising a hand. [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper] Added [synthesis]: (1) say exactly where the hands will go (e.g. head, forearm, upper back; wrapping in a blanket); (2) accept no without discussion; (3) offer a no-touch alternative (the client's own hand, a cushion, a blanket, imagining it); (4) check in during ("Is this still OK?") and after; (5) document consent. Never touch genital areas, breasts or buttocks, and never sexual touch. Touch requires specific training, supervision, and a check of what your licence and jurisdiction allow.
Example language (illustrative): "I could put a hand between your shoulder blades for support. Would you like that, or would you rather not?"
Watch for: freezing, compliance, erotic or parental transference, any trauma history involving touch. Working: the client can say yes and no freely and the touch supports rather than replaces their own sensing.

4.14b Polarisations (hands-on expérientiel)

Purpose: an expérientiel offered at a key moment of the process, in which the analyst's two hands rest on two points of the body to support a "positive regression" (organic pleasure, felt security in the bond); the body's topology serves as a landmark for the client during the regression. [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper] Linking two body "poles" is the school's theory, not established physiology.
Steps: [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper, paraphrased; additions marked] (1) Judge that the process has reached a moment where an expérientiel fits. (2) Present it: what it is, its duration (at least 15 minutes) and its components; obtain consent; agree that raising a hand stops it at any time. (3) The client lies on their side, preferably the left, legs drawn up; the analyst sits close. (4) Place the hands in one of five configurations: upper back and lower back (base of the spine); upper back and feet; back of the head and feet; upper back and abdomen; the heart point on the back and the lower end of the sternum. Contact is firm enough to support and contain, soft enough not to oppress. (5) Guide verbally: invite the client to explore the space of contact, sense what is happening and accept whatever comes (sensations, images, affects, emotions). (6) Ask which hand position suits them best and whether the pressure should change; adjust. (7) Afterwards invite the client to share; meaning-making can be left to the next session so that words do not constrain the bodily experience. (8) If a painful situation revives, treat it as material for analysis and symbolisation and explore how the transference can help repair it. Added [synthesis]: offer a no-touch alternative (the client's own hands on the same points); discuss before using the abdomen or sternum configurations with clients who have abdominal or chest trauma or are pregnant; check in briefly part-way.
Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to propose an exercise: you lie on your side and I rest one hand on your upper back and one at the base of your spine, for about fifteen minutes. You can stop it at any moment by raising your hand. Would you like to try?" / "Which hand feels right where it is? More pressure or less?"
Watch for: [synthesis] freezing or compliance (accepting because they think they should), dissociation, sexualised or strongly parental transference, dependence on the good feeling (the source notes that letting the client shape the experience limits dependence on the good feeling or on the therapist). Working: the client reports safety, warmth or settling and later links the experience to a memory or situation. Contraindications [synthesis]: psychosis, severe dissociation, active suicidality, unstabilised trauma, abuse history involving touch unless worked through, and any situation where consent is not freely given. Requires APO training, supervision and a check of what your licence and jurisdiction allow.

4.15 Working with transference and countertransference

Purpose: Boyesen analysed unconscious transference and countertransference dynamics; basic transference based on trust carries the work. [source: FF2P 2021; EAP POA page]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Notice your own bodily countertransference (sleepiness, tension, urge to rescue) as information. (2) Notice how contracts and situations reappear with you (e.g. the client complies with every exercise). (3) Name it tentatively when the alliance can hold it. (4) Explore the body side of it with the client. (5) Take strong countertransference, especially around touch and regression, to supervision.
Example language (illustrative): "I notice you agree to everything I suggest. I wonder if that is familiar."
Watch for: idealisation of the therapist during regressive work. Working: the relationship becomes a place where the client makes a new choice.

4.16 Group and couple application

Purpose: APO is practised in individual and group settings and applied to couple therapy. [source: Fraisse bio; EAP POA page] No group or couple protocol is described in the sources. [uncertain]
Steps: [synthesis] Use the same devices at lower intensity: shared opening round on sensations; one member works while others witness; contracts work on the couple's implicit agreements; group closing round. Set ground rules on confidentiality, touch between members (none without explicit consent) and the right to pass.
Example language (illustrative): "What's present in your body as you listened to Marie?"
Watch for: contagion of emotion; members pressured to "go deep". Working: members can witness and be witnessed.

4.17 Closing each session

Purpose: symbolisation and return; the FF2P stresses elaboration of lived experience. [source: FF2P 2021 for elaboration; steps synthesis]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Signal time 10 minutes before the end. (2) Return to sitting, eyes open, feet on the floor. (3) Ask the client to name in a sentence what happened and what it means. (4) Check activation level and orientation to the present. (5) If still activated, ground (describe the room, slow breath, press feet down).
Example language (illustrative): "What will you take from today, in one sentence?"
Watch for: leaving dysregulated. Working: the client leaves calm and oriented.

4.18 Ending the therapy

Purpose: the process ends when the client has found, in their life, answers to the original request. [source: FF2P 2021]
Steps: [synthesis] (1) Re-read the original request together. (2) Review new choices actually made. (3) Agree a number of closing sessions. (4) Work on the ending as a situation in its own right (separation, reunion). (5) Leave the door open for return.
Example language (illustrative): "When you first came you said you wanted X. Where are you with that now?"
Watch for: reenactment of earlier separations. Working: an ending that is chosen, not fled.

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about problem management. What they do state: the client chooses the subject; respect for the client's direction; transference work [source: FF2P 2021; EAP POA page]; bodily abreaction must be linked to a memory or situation to bring lasting change, letting the client shape body work limits dependence, and continuous supervision is needed [source: Tocquet, polarisations paper]. Everything else below is [synthesis].

Stuck client (sessions circle, nothing emerges). Apply the client-led principle: ask what they want from today rather than adding a technique. Then locate where the cycle stops (4.3) and support only that step. Look for a repeated situation or contract (4.6, 4.8) that is also being lived with you ("we keep circling here; maybe this circling is itself the situation"). Review the original request: is it still the client's own? [source for client-led stance: FF2P 2021; rest synthesis]
Resistance or refusal of body work. Treat refusal as a legitimate choice of experience, not an obstacle (FF2P principle). Offer purely verbal work with attention to sensation in the chair; explore the meaning of the refusal and the bodily feel of saying no. Never insist. [source: FF2P 2021 for respect of the client's choices; synthesis]
Overwhelm, flooding or dissociation during body, breath or regressive work. Stop the exercise. Eyes open, sit up, feet on the floor, describe five things in the room, slow natural breathing, temperature or texture cues. Speak in short, present-tense sentences. Do not interpret until the client is regulated; spend the rest of the session on stabilisation. Next time reduce intensity and time, and do more resource work before resuming. If dissociation recurs, pause regressive devices (4.10, 4.11) and consider a trauma-stabilisation phase or referral. [synthesis]
Unexpected trauma memory or apparent recovered memory. Stay with what is felt now; do not suggest content, confirm it as fact or encourage confrontation of family on the basis of session imagery. Treat birth and early-life material as symbolic. [synthesis]
Suicidality or self-harm emerges. Pause depth work; do a standard structured risk assessment; collaborative safety plan; lethal-means counselling (safe storage or removal); involve medical or crisis services as indicated; resume body work only once stable. [synthesis per standard practice]
Non-adherence (missed sessions, lateness, no between-session practice). APO prescribes no homework in the sources, so lack of practice is not itself a problem. Treat absences as material about the frame and basic transference; restate the frame calmly; explore whether the pace or intensity has been too high. [synthesis]
Ruptures. Typical triggers: an intervention experienced as intrusive (touch, a proposal to lie down), an interpretation of "choice" heard as blame, a missed attunement. Acknowledge your part, ask what it was like, adjust, and invite the client to say how they want to proceed; use the repair as a new relational experience. Take it to supervision. [synthesis]
"Choice of experience" heard as victim-blaming. Clarify that APO's choice concept refers to unconscious meaning-seeking, not responsibility for abuse or illness; never use it with survivors of abuse or with physical illness in a way that implies fault. [synthesis]
Erotic or regressive transference, especially with touch. Keep strict boundaries: no touch beyond what was explicitly agreed, never sexual or genital contact, and end touch work if the transference becomes sexualised. Explore verbally; seek supervision; consider referral if the frame cannot be held. [synthesis]
Catharsis without integration (client wants repeated big releases). Slow down; emphasise the settling and symbolisation steps of the cycle (4.3, 4.17); ask what changes in life afterwards. [synthesis]
Physical conditions. For any client with cardiovascular, respiratory or neurological conditions, epilepsy, pregnancy, recent injury or surgery, keep work gentle and non-exertional, avoid breath intensification and pressure, and consult the client's physician where relevant. Body psychotherapy is not a treatment for physical disease; refer physical symptoms for medical assessment. [synthesis]
Severe mental illness (psychosis, mania, severe personality disorder with frequent crises, eating disorders at medical risk). Prioritise psychiatric care and stabilisation; use only grounding and verbal work; avoid regression. Note that FF2P lists personality disorders linked to narcissistic deficits as an indication, so careful selection and supervision matter. [source for indication: FF2P 2021; rest synthesis]
Practising without APO training. EFAPO's basic training runs over four years. [source: EFAPO history text] The devices in section 4 are partly reconstructed. A clinician without EFAPO/EAPOA-accredited training should keep to sensation-and-association work (4.2), situation work (4.6) and closing (4.17), and seek training and supervision before birth work, regression, polarisations or other touch. [synthesis]

Sources

Sources: