The Importance of Integrating Pre- and Perinatal Issues into Bioenergetic Analysis

Abstract

This article deals with the importance of integrating preand perinatal issues into Bioenergetic Analysis (BA), since our individual story begins long before we can look into our mother’s eyes. The preand perinatal period creates our first foundation, our first grounding and our first attachment in this world and the way we experienced our time in the womb and our leaving this first abode and what happened in these earliest moments and days can strongly affect our entire later life. After an introduction, a short historical survey and a chart depicting for body-oriented therapy relevant stages of prenatal development, I will describe examples of pre-and perinatal trauma. For some of these examples clinical vignettes are presented that should emphasize that the consideration of these earliest themes are not to be neglected especially in body-oriented therapeutic methods like Bioenergetic Analysis.