Brian Gleason CSW is the author of Mortal Spirit.

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What is Energy work?

Most people are familiar with the concept of "talk therapy." In this traditional approach, therapist and client utilize language and dialogue as the primary mode of intervention. The value in this method derives from shedding new light, or gaining deeper insight into some life issue that has become the source of difficulty for the person seeking help.

Core Energetics offers a different dimension to this process. Beyond conceptual or cognitive intervention, body-oriented practitioners work with the client’s "energy field." By this, I mean that each one of us carries ourselves in unique ways that create a variety of effects on our overall sense of aliveness. This aliveness is expressed through our emotions, sensations, impulses and general level of vitality which we might call life-force. Psychotherapist Stephen Gilligan says that this work offers "an approach that helps clients put their cognitive (or mental) and somatic (or physical) selves back into good ‘relation’ with each other." Body-oriented psychotherapy brings together talk therapy and work with the client’s energy field in order to deepen the process of personal growth.

In this article I would like to describe, for the benefit of those who are exploring energy work, how the body-oriented approach utilizes the human energy field as a key ingredient in self-transformation. In particular, I will discuss energy work from the perspective of Core Energetics. The Core Energetics model evolved from the work of John Pierrakos, M.D., who worked closely with Wilhelm Reich (the first psychoanalyst to look seriously at the body as a significant component in analysis) and Alexander Lowen (founder of bioenergetics).

To begin, we can look at energy as the basic "stuff" of life. A person who just died is chemically identical to his/her pre-death condition. In a sense, the only real difference is the loss of life-force, or energy. This energy has been described in a variety of ways depending on one’s perspective. It is called everything from electro-magnetic impulses to the Holy Spirit. Reich refers to the life-force as "orgone energy." In this article I will simply refer to it as energy.

In Core Energetics we recognize that for any individual to attain what s/he is capable of becoming we must work with both energy and consciousness. If we look upon a newborn child, for instance, we will notice immediately an abundance of uninhibited energy. The infant moves about unabashedly, with arms and legs wiggling and flailing. The infant’s energy is unharnessed. But this new arrival also exhibits a very low consciousness of self. There is no capacity to coordinate eye and hand movement or to act purposively to exert influence in his/her world beyond simple reflexes. This child does not perceive of an "I" as distinct from an "Other".

Conversely, as we grow, consciousness of self develops but energy becomes inhibited. Shame, fear, doubt, as well as the need to focus our awareness in very constricted ways (such as when we are driving a car or working on a computer) causes our energy field to take on too much form, to calcify. This loss of the free movement of energy contributes significantly to our decreased sense of wellbeing as adults. It is an inevitable aspect of maturation. No one of us escapes the inhibition of our energy field. In cases where we suffered from a negative childhood environment (abuse, neglect, betrayal, manipulation, etc.) we will constrict our energy field even further.

Energy work is designed to establish a harmonious balance between consciousness and energy. Again, to quote Gilligan, "…we have two selves; the tender soft spot of the somatic self through which life flows in all its raw, immediate power – which is experienced in the body – and the specifically human and cultural intelligence of the cognitive self that enables us to understand, nurture and guide the primal life-energy."

So, energy work helps us to establish greater spontaneity but with the wisdom and consciousness of the maturing self. But what, specifically, does energy work look like? First, it is important to understand that energy work is not simply physical exercise. While body movement is frequently involved in energy work, it is much more than mechanical exercise. Energy work can be both passive and active (receiving and expressing). Typically, it involves the specific, purposeful movement of the body in both subtle and more dramatic ways to facilitate the freeing up of crystallized, distorted, or contracted energy. It is also designed to help the client to "ground" or consciously hold the energy rather than wasting it away. The body has learned, over time, to maintain chronic postures intended to protect the individual from unwanted feelings or impulses. But the price we pay is to limit our spontaneity. In body-oriented work the practitioner encourages the client to experiment with uncharacteristic physical movement in order to bypass the holding patterns established over several decades. Core Energetics, for example, is an expressive form of personal growth work that uses bodywork to facilitate the flow of emotions that are often constricted in the body’s musculature. When we hold back grief or fear, for instance, our muscles will tighten against expression. As we learn to move and release certain muscle groups, feelings will arise. The goal of the work is not simply to cry, or feel fear, or get angry. The work holds a much loftier objective. Its intended aim is to allow the client to connect to his/her rightful capacity for fulfillment and pleasure. When we learn to hold down emotions and life-force, we simultaneously squelch the potential for abundant joy and self realization. In Core Energetics, the practitioner assists the client in operating more frequently from one’s "higher self," or from one’s best. Each of us has higher-self qualities that can be awakened through energy work.
In order to accomplish this, energy work involves first the opening and release of negative or primitive energies.

In Core Energetics this is referred to as the "lower self." Unless we allow ourselves to consciously experience our selfish, negative, and destructive energy currents, we will never be fully free to enjoy our full potential for pleasure. Most of us hold fear around the expression of intense feelings (both positive and negative) and consequently we have dampened our overall life-force.

Energy work may involve subtle techniques of breathing, focusing, passive manipulation of muscles, or simply shifting posture or position (e.g. standing in uncharacteristic ways, lying down, shifting facial muscles, etc.).
Energy work will also involve the deepening awareness of what is occurring between practitioner and client. This means that the client will have the opportunity to learn how s/he alters his/her energy field in the presence of the practitioner. By exploring and testing energetic boundaries, significant information becomes available through the body’s reactions (e.g. if a practitioner is too far away, a client may feel empty or lonely, or if the practitioner makes physical contact it may evoke grief, relief, or terror). Thus, a component of energy work is the conscious and respectful use of touch, which is designed to assist the client in deepening awareness of one’s emotions and defenses.

In addition to the more gentle techniques, energy work, using the Core Energetics model, involves the encouragement and elicitation of more powerful and intense affective energy. Our physical selves work extremely hard to hold back the negative energies of the lower self. When these energies remain hidden there is a resulting distortion in our patterns of expression. For example, hostility that is buried in the body and away from consciousness may reveal itself as sarcasm, withdrawal, or inappropriate competitiveness. When these lower-self impulses can be released in a conscious, direct way, they lose their power. When we support the movement of constricted and repressed energies, they flow through the body "organically" and readily dissipate. When they remain unexperienced, they build up and cause a host of problems, from stress to depression to psychosomatic illness. Techniques that allow the client to release the hold of long held energies are a major component in this work.

The ultimate aim in Core Energetics bodywork is to create a harmonious flow between what is called "charge" and "discharge." This means, very simply, that, as a living organism, our natural state is one of movement between tension build up (charge) and tension release (discharge). The desired outcome is not to be pain free or perpetually happy, but rather, to live in the truth of each moment. This suggests that when we are sad we are free to fully feel our sadness. Likewise, when we are frightened we allow fear to move through us. Ultimately, it also suggests that we become more open to love, pleasure, and serenity. When we attempt to halt or resist this organic flow of energy, we are in disharmony with truth. Energy work is a vehicle for helping us to live fully in the truth of who we are. Great freedom comes from this openness to the movement of our entire energetic reality. This is what distinguishes energy work as practiced in Core Energetics from traditional talk therapy.


Brian Gleason, CSW
www.corenergeticsny.com