Preface The time of this writing represents the completion of ten years of practice and growth in psychomotor therapy. The completion of my first book marked three years of learning in this process. This writing, therefore, is the fruit of the past three years plus an overview and clarification of all that went on before.
During this time I have had the opportunity to work with hundreds of people in groups and in individual sessions; I have learned how to train others to do psychomotor therapy and how to profit from that experience in teaching another generation of psychomotor therapists. Much new knowledge has come from the experience of teaching and lecture giving. The questions that have arisen regarding the differences between traditional psychotherapy and psychomotor therapy have naturally led to the exploration of answers. The questions are still generating answers in my mind and this present writing will perhaps be a thinking aloud and further clarification of the differences and similarities, as well as an attempt to build a language bridge between the two modes of thinking and working.
Throughout this period I have not been a passive observer/documenter. As well as a therapist/teacher, I have been an active participant/group member. I have been deeply moved in many sessions and I have learned to look at the role of the therapist through the eyes of a real responding, feeling human being. The relationship between therapist and client has been developed differently in psychomotor therapy sessions than in traditional group therapy sessions, perhaps due to the different mode that is used and perhaps due to the personal make-up of the founders of this therapy -- my wife, Diane, and myself. Nonetheless, psychomotor therapy has developed a world view and behavioral modes and attitudes which I feel are valuable and worth presenting.
The basic questions--What is life? What are man's function and role in life? What is a mature man? How does one live in reality with some measure of equanimity and joy?--are responded to differently as a result of experience in psychomotor therapy. I would like to spend some time with those philosophical questions and examine the theoretical concepts and the practices that have led to attempts at answers. I hope to highlight that inquiry with specific case studies which will show how such concepts were arrived at.
