2021 Southern California Bioenergetic Conference *ONLINE
Presenting Garry Cockburn
Saturday, February 27, 2021, 2:00 p. m (PST)
The Physical Dynamics of Autism and Psychosis: Regulation at the Extremes
“The Physical Dynamics of Autism and Psychosis: Regulation at the Extremes”
Garry Cockburn, BSW(Hons), MNZAP(ACP), CBT.
Board of Aotearoa New Zealand (PBANZ) Registration #257
This workshop will describe the way people suffering from autism and psychosis use sensori-somatic processes to protect themselves from unbearable suffering and to exclude the influence of other people. Both Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen wrote about schizophrenia, Lowen noting “how close psychoanalytic thinking is to bioenergetic thinking” in the area of schizophrenia. Today many modern psychoanalytic writers in Europe, Latin America and the USA are describing how psychotic people unhook from relational reality and withdraw into bodily and sensory spaces. Insights into these primitive mechanisms of the unconscious mind can help us understand more fully the role of sensori-somatic processes used by “normal” people. This can deepen our capacity for compassion for human suffering and self-regulation in these “crazy” times. Guy Tonella’s ESMER model will be used to develop skills for operationalizing the learnings from this workshop.
This workshop will be presented as an internet lecture using PowerPoint and inviting participants to share their experiences as well as experiment with therapeutic techniques.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will be able to identify three differences in autistic, psychotic and neurotic processes
Participants will compare and distinguish three different ways that sensori-somatic processes are used by autistic, psychotic and “normal” people
Participants will perform three bioenergetic techniques with patients using the structured ESMER model developed by Guy Tonella
Garry Cockburn BSW(Hons), MNZAP(ACP), CBT.
Garry is in private practice at “Mind & Body” in Wellington, the coffee and film capital of New Zealand. He works there with his partner, Pye Bowden, also a bioenergetic therapist. They have two sons and five grandchildren. Garry has been a keynote speaker and panelist at a number of IIBA conferences. He has a theoretical and philosophical interest in recovering the deeper meanings in Lowen’s works that are relevant for the present times. He has published articles in the Bioenergetic Journal and is currently on the Editorial Team. Garry was a member of the Board of Trustees of the IIBA from 2011-2016 and was President of the IIBA for the last three years of his term on the Board.