Haptonomy
‘Haptonomy’ is the knowledge of touch and the emotional life in
its widest sense. ‘Hapsis’= ‘touch’, ‘feeling’,
‘emotion’; ‘nomos’= ‘science’, ‘knowledge’,
‘wisdom’, ‘pattern’. It is the knowledge and practice
of contact and communication
In haptonomy I teach to develop personal conscioussness of the body, connecting
to other people and objects by touch, movement (balance-excercises, working
with space, boundaries) and visualisation.
In the therapeutic process I interweave haptonomic excercises or touch with
regression/reincarnation-therapy: in haptonomic therapy we may encounter problems
on the consciousness-level which can be explored with regressionsessions.
In regressionwork we can discover physical and/or emotional blocks which I
use as a startingpoint for haptonomic excercises. These excercises are very
useful while you will be able to do them at home.
The pelvisarea, the so called basis, gets an important therapeutic accent. In
this part of the body resilience and the capability to carry (physical, emotional,
mental, spiritual) burdens are seated.
By appealing to these forces you will be able to handle the stresses in our
Western society better.
Supporting techniques
Apart from the sessions I use as drawing, dreamwork or visualisations.
Literature
As far as I know there are no translations of Dutch publications about haptonomy.
I give you some titles of publications that deal with matters as bonding, contact
and touching.
- Bowlby, John (1979) The making and breaking of affectional bonds. London:
Tavistock
ISBN 90-6001-822-2
- Hall, E.T.(1966) The hidden dimension, New York: Doubleday
- Liedloff, Jean. The continuum concept. 1986.
ISBN 90-6325-260-9
- Montagu,Ashley (1971) Touching, New York en London
- Rosenberg, J.L. (1976) Unmasking the face and facing the mask: Gestalt
Awareness, New York,
Harper and Row
- Sandler, J. (1960), The background of safety, International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,
41:352
- Sugarman, Muriel (1977) Paranatal Influences on maternal-infant attachment,
American Journal
of Orthopsychiatry, July
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