Therapeutic Facilitation
Primal tHeraPY
Primal Therapy covers the basic needs aspect of development—if such needs
go unmet pain is laid down in the brain and pathologies develop. Work on the
primary matrix of our initial neural development always has to be returned to prior
to any significant movement ahead in development. As such one cannot even really
say that it is regressive; it is more like overhauling and shoring up our foundations.
I like to think of it as contemporary dissolution to provide the space for new
patterns of growth. The old must be “released” for the new to be born.
“The memory of birth represents an important reservoir of difficult emotions and
physical sensations that can contribute later in life to the development of various
forms of emotional and psychosomatic disorders. Reliving and integrating pre- and
perinatal traumas can have very beneficial effects; it can result in healing and profound
psychospiritual transformation...And a difficult birth and poor postnatal circumstances
can constitute a profound trauma that colors the entire life history of the individual.”
Stan Grof primal-page.com/grofken.htm
The only contraindication for conducting primal therapy during kundalini
awakenings is to not do so during either radical high or low events. Besides chemical
and diet intervention there are many behavioral activities one can undertake to
increase neural detoxification and speed recovery such as: any exercise, hanging,
alternating hot and cold, dancing, breathing, singing, toning, drumming, spinal
shower, hydrotherapy, cathartic emoting, gestalt and voice dialogue role playing,
rebirthing, bodywork, tantric sex and enjoyable social events. I would like to add
shopping, but I think this errs on the side of being just a temporary fix.
Someone who has been bound in chains their whole life can never know what it
is to experience psychosomatic freedom, and such freedom must be reached before
forgiveness or en-lightenment is possible. The deprived child doesn’t know what
is it is missing, it only knows there is “pain.” Arthur Janov a leading proponent of
Primal Theory says that repression of pain is the hidden force behind illness and
that feeling this pain is the end of suffering. This primal work always has to be
returned to prior to any significant movement ahead in development. As such one
cannot even really say that it is regressive—I like to think of it as contemporary
dissolution to provide the space for new patterns of growth. The old must die for
the new to be born.
Dr. Arthur Janov believes that repressed pain splits the self into two warring
factions, which represent the neurotic or divided self; creating the menial mind
of compartmentalized man. On the inside is the real but hidden self loaded with
needs and pain that are repressed and on the outside is the unreal “coping” self
that attempts to deal with the outside world by trying to fulfill unmet needs with
neurotic habits or behaviors such as obsessions or addictions. Primal pain is the
result of needs and feelings that have gone unfulfilled in early life. Trauma, neglect
or feeling unloved as a child are examples of such pain. Because the child is ill
equipped to deal with such pain it is anaesthetized, repressed and stored away.