| Return to Part One Return to Book Excerpts History of Pesso System/Psychomotor Therapy
This is Part Seven of the Article by Louisa Howe, Ph.D. PS/P in the 1980s: B. Concepts, Techniques People whose only contacts with PS/P occurred prior to the 1980s would be surprised to return to a session with Al in the early `90s and find him speaking of the possibility sphere, the center of one's truth, the true scene, shape and countershape, ego wrapping, the witness figure, containing, contact, and comfort as well as resistance figures, to say nothing of numerous fragment figures or voices, plus a pilot. Some of these designations derived from efforts on Al's part to let trainees know more about the thoughts and feelings he himself experienced -- and had trained himself to experience -- in the course of working with a structure enactor. The aim was to help trainees become more fully attuned to what was happening in the client's mind and body. One concept of this sort was that of the possibility sphere, which Al considered applicable to any sort of psychotherapeutic work and not just to PS/P. The emptiness of the possibility sphere is welcoming; it says, "Here living is possible." The client is surrounded with something potentially fertile; metaphorically the possibility sphere represents a womb which is there to help the individual realize possibilities. It provides an accepting, nourishing, life-supporting arena in which to work, and it is conducive to the birthing of the unborn parts of the self into reality and consciousness. It offers a safe "holding environment" where clients can become aware of how they actually experience their lives in the present moment; can explore painful, submerged parts of their personalities, and can experience the symbolic satisfaction of previously unmet basic needs. Al's paper on "Ego Development and the Body" (1988), revised for this volume, includes a more extensive discussion of the possibility sphere. The negative voice was the forerunner of what in the late 1980s became one or several voices that were given more specific designations, such as the voice of shame, the voice of family tradition, the voice of caution, the voice of negative prediction, etc. Like the original negative voice, these voices often represent the structure enactor's resistance to the therapeutic process. Having the voices be roleplayed so that the person hears them from outside rather than just from inside helps significantly in dealing with such resistances. These voices are referred to as those of fragment figures. Their use is in line with a principle Al derived from his work with Leo Reyna: to proceed in small steps, in small increments. A client may recognize that an inner voice is saying "Don't make a fool of yourself!" but not yet realize that this voice of warning represents an internalized negative aspect of a parent. Fragment figures let the sources of early programming about how to conduct one's self in the world be externalized, perhaps becoming part of the true scene, well before the client is ready to ask someone to roleplay this aspect of a parent. It is much the same with the ego wrapping figures. To the earlier resistance figure there have now been added figures providing comfort, contact and containment. These similarly become available to the client at an early stage of the therapeutic process, often before he or she is ready to accept the emotional reality of a pair of ideal parents. The same is true of the witness figure whose perception, naming and assessment of the client's emotion gives it external validation. These figures supply other portions of the information needed for constructing the true scene. Creating a witness figure also furthers the Pessos' aim of reducing transference as far as possible: with a group member playing this role there is someone other than the therapist who is available to perform this essential, and basically parental, ego wrapping function. The positive voice whose messages supported the structure enactor's best interests can probably be considered a forerunner of another recent development, that of the pilot. The pilot exists within the client and can be trusted to steer that person's actions and guide his or her understanding, thoughts and feelings toward a positive outcome. The pilot must, however, have adequate information about early programming, about the old map that had been formed. When this information has been made available by constructing the true scene, the pilot can then make decisions that lead to a positive outcome. Diane (Note 1) says she knows nothing about the "pilot"; Al responds that on the contrary, she has always known about the pilot, has always trusted in and helped people to discover that inner wisdom of the body which enables structure enactors to find their way to a positive outcome. In my already quoted 1975 interview with the Pessos Al spoke of being filled with wonderment at the wisdom of the body: that "we always had a positive outcome, so long as we stayed with the body... Truth was in the body." In the '80s much of Diane's time was taken up with managing Strolling Woods, although she travelled to Europe eighteen times to lead certification training programs with Al. One of the most meaningful things that she did was to help her mother combat cancer. After the funeral of her eighty-year-old father, her seventy-six-year-old mother informed her that she thought she had breast cancer, which had been growing for three years. Within a week her mother was operated on and they learned she also had far advanced bone cancer. Diane did some quick reading up on breast cancer and decided there might be an emotional component to the problem, as there had been with the chronic atypical pain patients she had worked with earlier. The main similarity seemed to be in the inappropriate ways they handled anger. She asked her mother if she wanted to work with her in trying to fight it, in addition to following the advised medical treatment. Her mother was game, and moved to Strolling Woods for many months of work. They did simple physical exercises together each morning plus a playful cathartic anger discharge exercise Diane had designed. In the afternoons there were sessions in which they dealt with certain aspects of her early history through PS/P exercises and some simple structures. The day usually ended with the exercise in which anger is playfully discharged. Staff, friends, trainees, her son, grand-daughter, anyone on hand was semi-humorously enrolled as "negative, nasty, cancer cells." Her mother's assignment was to "kill them off" in a variety of ways. Both Diane and her mother felt the work enabled her to live longer than her physician had anticipated. All sessions were videotaped and someday will be edited and shared with others who would like training in the techniques Diane devised. Most of the videotaping was done by Tia Pesso, who had the unique experience of being with her grandmother as she relived and redid parts of her history through structures. There were times when four generations were symbolically in the room: the role-played negative aspects of Tia's great grandmother; Tia's grandmother, sometimes feeling like and remembering herself as a young child; Tia's mother, Diane, sitting nearby and encouraging her mother to follow what came up and to get assistance from the "ideal" alternative mother; and Tia herself, a caring grand-daughter. One of the fortunate by-products of the work was that Diane's mother became more truly herself -- warmer and more loving. My notes from a training session during the summer of l988 also include a statement by Al that from the beginning he and Diane had searched for the truth of what was going on in a person they were working with, and in themselves. Another way of working that was new in the early 1980s was sometimes to have positive figures partly restrain a structure enactor when he or she was having difficulty expressing angry feelings toward a negative role player, with the latter responding as if smitten by the client's words or blows. Previously the client's anger had either been expressed toward ideal parental figures who limited the anger or toward a negative target who accommodated with sound and movement. Now both could happen at once. The idea of ego wrapping adds a new emphasis to the earlier paradigm of energy --> action --> interaction --> meaning/internalization. Not just any interaction suffices to create an ego that suitably surrounds the soul or core self; rather, it needs to conform precisely to the shape of the core self that is to be comfortably contained within it. Yet this idea, too, had been basically a part of PS/P from the beginning. An example Al often used in describing how positive accommodation should fit what the structure enactor needed was that of the fit between the mouth of a hungry infant and its mother's breast. The emphasis on shapes is not new. In connection with Leo Reyna's influence, Al remarked in the 1975 interview that he (Reyna) "was always aware of the shapes of the behaviors and of the shapes of the programs, and I think of a metaphor as a shape." In all likelihood the concern for matching shapes can further be traced back to the Pessos' involvement with dance and choreography. Al's early interest in science found some expression during the 1980s in his collaboration with Han Wassenaar (1987), a neurobiologist at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, whose interest in Pesso therapy led him to work on constructing a new model to depict the functioning of the central nervous system. As another decade begins, PS/P seems solidly established although still not widely known. About one hundred therapists are currently enrolled in certificate training programs in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, and the United States. Numerous other therapists are enthusiastic about the method and use its techniques even though they may not have chosen to complete certification training. Large numbers of former clients also have warmly positive feelings about their experience with PS/P. The future seems bright. References Cobb, A. L. (1977). Transference and Systematic PsychomotorTherapy. Ubertragung und das Pesso-System der Psycho-Motor-Therapie. In Petzold, H. (Ed.), Die neuen Korpertherapien (The New Body Therapies). Paderborn, West Germany: Junfermann. Ellingsen-Greenwood, C. (1978). Psychomotor: APsychotherapeutic Approach. Submitted in candidacy for the degree of Master of Social Work, George Williams College. (Unpublished). Foulds, M. L. & Hannigan, P. S. (1974). Effects ofPsychomotor group therapy on ratings of self and others. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 2, 351-353. Foulds, M. L. & Hannigan, P. S. (1976). Effects ofPsychomotor group psychotherapy on locus of control and social desirability. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, l6, 2, 81-88. Francis, M. (1973). Psychomotor. Self and Society, London. Kaufman, G. B., Jr. (1981). Body signals of childhood loss:How relational deficits and stress lead to tension and postural insecurity. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Fielding Institute. Levenson, R. (1981). Psychomotor Therapy. Proseminar paperfor Master of Education degree in Counseling Psychology, Cambridge College. (Unpublished). Meyer-von Blon, M. (1986). Pesso Psychomotor Therapy: AnApologia. Position paper for Master's Degree in Human Development, St. Mary's College. (Unpublished). Napier, A. Y. (1988). The Fragile Bond. N.Y.: Harper & Row. Oelman, R. (1978). Object relations theory and experientialpsychotherapy. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Union Graduate School. Pesso, A. (1963). New Perspectives in the Generation ofMovement: With implications Important to Dance Composition, Criticism and Appreciation. (Unpublished). Pesso, A. (l966). The Development of a Theory of PsychomotorTherapy. Submitted to Goddard College Adult Degree Program. (Unpublished). Pesso, A. (1969). Movement in Psychotherapy: Psychomotor Techniques and Training. NY: New York University Press. Pesso, A. (1973) Experience in Action: A PsychomotorPsychology. NY: New York University Press. Pesso, A. (1974). Appendix for Grants and Chapter for EdSmith Book.(Unpublished). Pesso, A. (1980). Pesso System Psychomotor Therapy Video TapeAnnotations. Transcribed by Robert Beloof. Pesso, A. (1984a). Introduction to Pesso System/Psychomotor.Transcribed by C. Marchessault. Franklin, NH: PS Press. Pesso, A. (1984b). Touch and Action: The Use of the Body inPsychotherapy. Fifth World Congress of Psychomotricity at the Hague, the Netherlands. Pesso, A. (1986). Image of the Self and the Body. SeventhWorld Congress of Psychomotricity, Nice, France. Pesso, A. (1986). Dramaturgie des Unbewussten: Eine Einfuhrung in die psychomotorische Therapie. (Dramaturgy of the Unconscious: An Introduction to Psychomotor Therapy), T. Moser, (Ed. & Trans.) Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta. Portele, M. & Portele, H. (1978). Eindrucke und Erfahrungenmit der Psycho-Motor-Therapie von Al und Diane Pesso. (Impressions and Experiences with the Psychomotor Therapy of Al and Diane Pesso), Integrative Therapie, 5, 123-129. (English translation by Dorothy Prickett, unpublished). Psychomotor Institute Newsletter (1973). Vol. 1, No. 1. Reid, C. (1969). Groups Alive - Church Alive. NY: Harper &Row. Scott, P. (1987). The Ego in Psychomotor. Submitted toIndependent Study Program, Lesley College Graduate School, as documentation for Master's Degree in Psychology. (Unpublished). Shurr, G. & Yocom, R.D. (1949). Modern Dance: Techniques andTeaching. NY: A.S. Barnes and Ronald Press. Sokolove, R. (1975). Verbal and motoric styles of therapy: Anoutcome study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Boston University. Wassenaar, J. S., Bolhuis, J., Reynders, K., & Pesso, A.(1987). Van Indruknaar Afdruk: naar een sensor-psycho-motor model. (From impression to expression: Toward a sensor-psycho-motor model). Bewegen & Hulpverlening, 3, 239-250. Notes Note 1. Pesso, A. & Pesso, D. (1989-90). Personal communication. Note 2. Pesso, D. & Pesso A. (1975). Personal communication. Note 3. Pinderhughes, C. (1989). Personal communication Return to Part One Return to Book Excerpts | 
