PBSP®* Name Change Through the Years: 
"Psychomotor" .... "PS" ... "PS/P" ..."PBS/P" ... to Now: 
"Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor - PBSP®"

When the therapy process which is known currently, officially and internationally as Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor -- PBSP® was originally founded back in 1961 by Albert and Diane Pesso, it was named "Psychomotor".  That term was meant to carry the meaning of the mind ("psycho"), and body ("motor"), because they were both the mind and body were being used together in the healing process.  As Louisa Howe wrote in her chapter on the "Origins and History of PS/P [PBSP®]" in the book Moving Psychotherapy, Brookline Books, Brookline, MA, 1990:

The "psycho" part of Psychomotor refers to the psyche (soul or mind; that which is psychological). The "motor" part refers to bodily sensations and movements -- motoric actions -- including incipient or blocked actions, powered by sources of energy connected with the psyche. The word "emotion" quite literally means the outward expression ("e" from the Latin "ex") of that which "moves" us,.

In later years when the Pesso's "Psychomotor" was getting popular in Europe, it was found that there was a need to differentiate it from other unrelated forms of body psychotherapy which coincidentally had the very same name: 'psychomotor therapy'.  So, for example, in Holland the Pesso's therapy process became known as "Pesso Psychotherapy" or "Pesso Psychotherapie", while in the U.S it was often called "Pesso System" or "PS" for short, or even Pesso System / Psychomotor -- PS/P.

People then and even some still to this day just call this therapy system "Pesso" for short, but about the time of one of the first International PBSP® Conferences, both Al Pesso and his wife and co-founder, Diane Boyden-Pesso became aware and increasingly concerned that although PBSP® was the product of them both working together, the public, even within their own organization didn't fully recognize Diane's role as co-founder of the process and tended to assume Al Pesso alone was sole or primary contributor.  So then Pessos decided to rename their discovered and evolving technique to include Diane Boyden-Pesso's maiden name, "Boyden".  The process was thus renamed: "Pesso Boyden System / Psychomotor" or "PBS/P".  

Soon after posting this new name, PBS/P, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) in the United States contacted the Pessos.  PBS had concerns over the similarity of the acronyms and wanted that changed, so the Pesso's changed their therapy's name again, this time removing the the slash.  The name became to what it is now officially: "Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor*" or "PBSP®*" for short.

As you peruse the wealth of articles on this web site spanning many years, you may come across all these various terms.  Let it be known that here they all speak of the same therapeutic process at different periods in time -- the process currently, finally and officially named Pesso Boyden System Psychomotor, PBSP®