Extract from the thesis concluding the ASPIC professional counselling course
in Milan, presented in December 2015
“Keep everything” – the application of Counselling for the integration process
by Silvia Signorelli – April 2018
The relationship between you and me consists in that the ego is confronted with something external, that is, by an entity that is radically other and is confirmed as such. This confirmation of alterity does not consist in the fact that one develops an idea of otherness, it is not a matter of thinking about the other, nor less of thinking about them as Other, but rather of turning towards them, to say to them: You
Emmanuel Lévinas, Humanism of the Other
The language by which meaning is generated in the being, is a language spoken by incarnate spirits. The incarnation of thought is not an accident that has happened, something that made the task heavier … Body is the fact that thought dives into the thought world…
Emmanuel Lévinas, Humanism of the Other
The epiphany of the Face is living. Its life consists in undoing the form in which every entity has already dissimulated when it enters into immanence. The Other, which manifests itself in the Face, breaks through its plastic essence, like one who opens the window on which, however, his figure was already drawn.
Emmanuel Lévinas, Humanism of the Other
My freedom does not have the last word, I am not alone. And then we can say that only ethical conscience comes out of itself. Or again, in an ethical conscience I make an experience that has no common measure with any a priori scheme, an experience without a concept, every other experience is conceptual … The ethical conscience is concretely welcoming others.
Emmanuel Lévinas, Ethics as a first philosophy
… Both in the Rogers’ approach and in Gestalt Theory I perceive a certain level of harmony with Biodanza’s Theory.
For me this general harmony has been a decisive element since the beginning of the journey with ASPIC; I am aware that if I had perceived a lack of synergy of thought, at a philosophical level, between Counselling and Biodanza, it would have represented a problem for me.
In addition to their pluralistic-integrated approach, I chose ASPIC because the President of the Milan office, Dr. Margherita Serpi is also a Biodanza teacher. I was counting therefore on the possible harmony between the ASPIC approach to Counselling and Biodanza at the level of underlying principles.
In general, experience more than learning, and the dimension of the here and now are elements that belong to both approaches. Further, the concept of Homeostasis and the Cycle of Contact, I also found in the Biodanza methodology in the application of what is called the Physiological Curve of the Vivencia (the subjective experience of the individual being in the here and now with intensity).
Also, belonging to both Counselling and Biodanza is the focus on the healthy, functional part of the person, of the resources, together with an overall approach to Health genesis.
Biodanza is not, in fact, a therapy, it promotes health and personal development to achieve greater integration on a personal, relational and “cosmic” level.
Initially, when I was in the first year, when I realized that the “phrase” so criticized by Prof. Rolando Toro Araneda, the creator of Biodanza, was a fragment of Fritz Perls’ Gestalt Prayer, I was hurt, it was like being punched in the stomach. Then slowly I realized that the thought that Perls had expressed in the Prayer and that of Toro Araneda when he provocatively insisted: “If we do not meet it is a catastrophe!” were not in opposition, but highlighted two different and complementary aspects: Perls had communicated an aspect of the human relationship relative to the fact that we did not come into the world to respond to the expectations of others, thus underlining the most important mission of each human being, that is to become their self, while Toro Araneda intended to emphasize the possibility, or better, of the existential necessity of the real and profound encounter between human beings as a unique condition for becoming oneself.
Friz Perls Gestalt Prayer:
I do my thing
and you do your thing.
I am not in this world
to live up to your expectations
And you are not in this world
to live up to mine.
You are you and I am I.
And if by chance
we find each other, it’s beautiful,
If not, it can’t be helped.
“The practice of Biodanza arises from the point of view of the encounter. It is committed to the development and nurturing of the bonds that unite one to oneself, to the other, to the world. Through the singular experience of the body and of sensitivity. Here, dance does not depend on free expression nor on imposed forms. It does not use learning nor imagination. More simply, it is the search for one’s personal gesture, for a single word that brings and gives shape to our potentials. Its basis is therefore the individual, but in the perspective of the life that surrounds them “[1]
I see a very strong connection between Gestalt and Biodanza also in relation to the body and the emotions.
Biodanza is the experience of the body, the dimension of feeling: “I feel and therefore I am”.
Ginger, in the chapter The body and the emotions of his book Initiation into Gestalt writes: “The great majority of those who practice Gestalt reserve a privileged role in the client’s bodily experience, as well as that of the therapist themself. They are as interested in the receptive sensoriality (What do you feel at this moment?) as in the motor activity of the organism (I propose that you get up and take a few steps …) and do not hesitate to move themselves … It is no longer just talking about the body, but rather speaking with the body, through one’s body, from ‘body to body’, as we speak ‘heart to heart’ “[2].
Biodanza is the vivencia of the body, the pure bodily experience, without elaboration, without analysis, without explanations; the intrinsically wise expression of the body’s feeling.
“The body is not in itself a separate part, dense and massive, but the totality of being in the form of sensitivity. In the depths of matter it is language that which in itself, is always in contact with things and beings and is moved. It is that which touches and is touched, that which necessitates a gesture and always searches for it. It makes itself felt in the skin that delimits the particular space of my being and which, from the world, gathers touch. [3]
Serge Ginger instead speaks of bodily awareness: “In fact, those who practice Gestalt prefer to exploit every moment, with a constant awareness, what emerges spontaneously, ‘in the way it which it manifests itself and if it manifests’. He is particularly attentive to every body manifestation of his client …. Do not forget that the body is both a personal expression (I feel tired) and a language of interpersonal communication (I show you that I am tired) … he will therefore encourage the client to be attentive to what they feel, it is becoming aware or awareness .[4]
… I am struck by the definition of the contact cycle as an organismic cycle, that is to say, as a natural flow of the organism’s wisdom, which tends by nature towards satisfy the needs on the instinctive path towards homeostasis.
I find this aspect particularly interesting for the connection that I find with what I experience with Biodanza and what I teach the people who practice it, guiding them through the cycle of contact with the experience of the vivencia (an experience lived by a person in the here and now with intensity), through the natural cycle of a single session and of the entire annual course, or in a workshop, with progression, from the pre-contact phase to the commencement of contact, up until the central phase of full contact, the heart of the experience (which in fact provides an exercise-objective) then to the post-contact phase that harmoniously closes the experience.
… Starting from the realization of this project, and this precious three-year training period, I move with confidence and desire towards the future.
My desire is to experiment soon with other clients, with reference always to the supervision as an indispensable support tool, and to continue the integration between Counselling and Biodanza.
Despite the diversity of the two proposals for personal growth and the distinction in the fields of application, my project is to integrate them more and more so that my Counselling approach will benefit increasingly from my attitudes and skills with Biodanza and, vice versa, my proposal for Biodanza is nourished more and more by the attitudes and skills of Counselling.
I want to concretely realize the integration between Counselling and Biodanza that I perceive within myself in both areas of activity.
… I want to continue to grow and embody the client that Carl Rogers evokes like this:
“He has incorporated, the qualities of movement, of evolution, of modifiability, in every aspect of his psychical life, and these constitute his evident characteristics. He lives consciously in his feelings, which he accepts with absolute trust. He builds his experience in ever-new ways, and his personal constructs are modified in contact with the progress of life. His current experience is essentially a process by which he feels the novelty of every situation and which he interprets in a new way, using the terms of the past only to the extent that the present is identical to the past. He appreciates exactly the difference between his different feelings and the different meanings of his own experience. Intra-personal communication is free and free of blocks inside himself. He communicates himself freely in interpersonal relationships and such relationships are not stereotypical, but “from man to man”. He is conscious of himself but not as an object. Rather, as having reflexive consciousness, a subjective feeling of living as a dynamic self. He perceives himself in a responsible relationship with all the dynamic aspects of his own life. He lives fully in itself, like the ever-changing flow of a process. “[5]
…. “Now, from an unforgettable personal experience, I know with certainty that there states that exist in which the laces of the personality seem to abandon us, and we experience an indivisible unity … He who lives in dialogue knows a lived unity. And it is precisely the unity of life, as a unity that, once truly acquired, is no longer torn by any transformation; it is no longer divided in half between creatural daily life and solemn divinized moments. It is the unity of the uninterrupted permanence, persevering in the concreteness, in which the word is perceived and it is possible to stammer an answer. “
Martin Buber, The life of Dialogue, 1930
“When we go down the road and meet a man who has come to meet us and he too was going along that road, we only know our stretch of road, not his; in fact, we come to know about his only through the encounter.”
“Of the completed process of the relationship we know, for having lived it, the path we have travelled, our stretch of road.”
“The rest happens to us, we do not know. This happens in the encounter “.
Martin Buber, Distance and Relation, 1950
“The inner growth of the I is not accomplished, as we tend to believe today, in the relationship between man and himself, but rather in that between one and another, among men therefore, especially in the reciprocity of becoming present – in rendering another I present and in knowing oneself made present in the other – that makes a unity with reciprocity of acceptance, affirmation, confirmation. Man wants to be confirmed in his being through man, and wants to acquire presence in the being of the other. The human being needs to be confirmed because being human as such they need it. Confirmation is not necessary for an animal, because that is what it is, in a way that is not problematic. For man it is different: destined, from the reign of natural species, at risk of being in an isolated category, threatened by a chaos born within him, furtively and timidly, he turns his gaze to the search for an affirmation that makes his being possible, which can come only from a human person, that a human person addresses him; men offer each other the heavenly bread of being an I “,
Martin Buber, Original distance and relation, 1950
… I am struck by the definition of the contact cycle as an organismic cycle, that is to say as a natural flow of the organism’s wisdom which tends by nature to satisfy the need in the instinctive path towards homeostasis.
I find this particularly interesting for the connection that I find with what I experience with Biodanza and then I teach the people who practice it, guiding them through the cycle of contact with the experience of vivencia (experience lived by the person in the here and now with intensity) through the natural cycle of the single session and of the entire annual course or of an internship, progressively, from the pre-contact phase and the initiation of contact, to the central phase of full contact, the heart of the experience (which exercise-objective) until then the post-contact phase that harmoniously closes the experience.
… Starting from the realization of this project, and the precious three-year training period, I move with confidence and desire towards the future.
My desire is to experiment with other clients soon, always referring to supervision as an indispensable support tool, and to continue the integration between Counselling and Biodanza.
Despite the diversity of the two proposals for personal growth and the distinction between the fields of application, my project is to integrate them more and more so that my Counselling approach increasingly benefits from my aptitudes and skills in Biodanza and, vice versa, that my proposal for Biodanza is nourished more and more by the attitudes and skills of Counselling.
[1] Rolando Toro Araneda, Biodanza, Red Editions, Milano, page. 12
[2] Serge Ginger, Initiation into Gestalt, Edizioni Mediterranee, Roma, pagg. 95/96
[3] Alain Antille, Inhabiting gestures, residing in words, preface of the book Biodanza by Rolando Toro Araneda, Red Editions, Milano, page. 13
[4] S. Ginger, Initiation into Gestalt, Ed. Mediterranee, Roma, page. 98
[5] ***sul sito non c’è
0 Comments