This is for you if you are:
- Feeling out of touch with your body or your voice…
- Or maybe you look in the mirror and hardly recognise the eyes looking back at you?
- Stuck with a medically unexplained issue you want to explore
Wilhelm Reich (1897–1957) was a psychoanalyst and physician who fundamentally reshaped how we understand the relationship between mind, body, and emotional life. Working initially within Freudian psychoanalysis, Reich observed that psychological defences were not only expressed in thought and behaviour, but were literally organised in the body as chronic patterns of muscular tension, breath restriction, and postural holding. He termed this phenomenon character armour.
Reich was an anti-fascist political revolutionary, creating free clinics for the poorer people in Germany and America who needed help, and trying to break down the walls of race, gender and class. Without Reich’s fundamental work on creating body psychotherapy, we would not have such movers and shakers like Gabor Maté and Bessel Van der Kolk.
This work matters today because many contemporary clinical presentations like chronic tension, medically unexplained symptoms, voice and swallowing difficulties, anxiety, shutdown, and burnout are functional rather than structural. They do not show up clearly on scans, yet profoundly affect quality of life. Reich’s segmental model provides a non-pathologising, body-based framework for working with these patterns safely and relationally.
Facilitator: Stephen R. King
At a glance
- This group meets weekly for 2 hours, for 6 weeks.
- This group is experiential meaning that your camera must be on at all times and the sessions attended LIVE
- You must be confident to use Zoom and connect via an iPad, Laptop or Desktop
- You must have had 6 hours of, or currently be in psychotherapy, (or undergone at least 6 hours of guided somatic practices).
- Unfortunately this is not the appropriate setting for those experiencing recent psychotic/ schizophrenic episodes or currently living with a diagnosis of personality disorder.
Week 1
Whole-Body Orientation
- Character armour as global organisation
- Autonomic tone and baseline holding
- Segmental pattern recognition
Week 2
Ocular & Oral Segments
- Ocular: vigilance, dissociation, attentional narrowing
- Oral: need, dependency, withholding, voice inhibition
Week 3
Cervical Segment
- Control and inhibition
- Head–body separation
- Suppression of impulse and expression
Week 4
Thoracic Segment
- Affective restraint
- Grief, longing, relational loss
- Breath restriction and chest holding
Week 5
Diaphragmatic & Abdominal Segments
- Autonomic crossover
- Fear, anger suppression
- Visceral holding and digestive tension
Week 6
Pelvic Segment
- Grounding and agency
- Vitality and containment
- Autonomy and embodied presence
Dates and times:
Group A
Tuesdays: February 10th, 17th, 24th, March 3rd, 10th, 17th
10:00am – 12:00pm (UK Time)
Group B
Saturdays: April 25th, May 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th 2026
14:30pm – 16:30pm (UK Time)
Fee: suggested remuneration is £180.00 (with a pay what you can option*)
*in the spirit of Reich, those more financially secure may wish to contribute more money to the group fee in order to support those equally in need of the work, and less able to financially contribute.
If you need help with the affordability, contact: manager@bodypsychotherapy.uk
