Primal Therapy, St. Gallen

• Therapist
• History
• Therapy
• Your First Step
• Application Form
• Fees

• Feelings of power and powerlessness in human beings - a lecture by Esther Odermatt

Therapist

Esther Odermatt 1989-1993 Trained as a Primal Therapist by Dr. Arthur Janov at the Primal Training, Treatment and Research Centre, Venice, California. 1993-1994 Worked as Primal Therapist at the Primal Training, Treatment and Research Centre, Venice California under direct supervision of Dr. Arthur Janov, PhD, founder of Primal Therapy. 1995-2004 Primal Therapy practice in Geneva in team with Myriam Ansermot-Petit. July 2004 Opened private practice in St. Gallen for Primal Therapy after Dr. Arthur Janov, PhD and Parenting Instructor after Dr. Aletha J. Solter "Aware Parenting Institute" web site: www.awareparenting.com

History

My work is based on the theory and practice of Dr. Arthur Janov, founder of Primal Therapy.

Since his discovery of Primal Therapy and the publication of his first book "The Primal Scream" in 1970, the following books have been published by him:

• The Primal Revolution: Toward a Real World
• The Anatomy of Mental Illness
• The Feeling Child
• Primal Man: The New Consciousness
• Prisoners of Pain
• Imprints: The Lifelong Effects of the Birth Experience
• The New Primal Scream: Primal Therapy 20 Years On
• Why You Get Sick, How You Get Well
• The Biology of Love

In "The New Primal Scream" he describes how the Therapy has developed and changed in the last twenty years.

Therapy

Primal Therapy is a completely natural process, without the use of hypnosis or consciousness-expanding drugs. This process begins in the present and leads us to the past, where injuries took place which could not be fully integrated into consciousness because of their force or violence.

We all know situations in which we overreact to a neutral stimulus:

• Situations which make us angry, so angry that we are frightened by the intensity of our feelings.
• Situations which make us feel helpless, so helpless that we can't stop crying.
• Situations where another person hurts us so much with a word or a gesture that we are convinced that the person wanted to hurt us, that he or she did it on purpose.
• Situations where we feel profoundly lonely, and this in a world full of people.
• Situations that push us into deepest despair, where life becomes completely meaningless.
• Situations in where we can’t bear the screaming of our baby, the sobbing or the temper tantrums of our child. The strength of our reaction frightens us.
• Situations in our private or professional life where we would like to make a step forward but don't dare.

All these situations have one thing in common: we don't know why we react the way we do; we are an enigma to ourselves.

In Primal Therapy you are leading: that means you know, even though unconsciously, where your feelings will carry you, because only you know your own history. After you have felt your feelings, you have the insights into your past, not me. My presence is needed to follow you where your feelings leads you, and to help you if necessary to penetrate your defences softly, so that you can express your feelings safely.

My work differs from the Primal Center in Los Angeles in that I only work with healthy adults and not with the psychically ill or teenagers. To work with me you have to function in the present. That means you must have a job and earn your living.

Your First Step

Contact me by phone or fax, or leave a message on the answering machine, telling me where I can reach you. Or fill out the application form and mail it to me.

As soon as I have your address I will send you a questionnaire. Please fill it out and return it with a brief autobiography and a current photo. This autobiography should be two or three typed pages and should give me an overview of your childhood, adolescence and adult life. Include both good and bad memories. Also, please mention why you want to work with me and what you expect from it.

After receiving your questionnaire and your autobiography I will invite you to an interview. Only after that will I be able to decide if I can work with you. And you also will be able to make up your mind whether you really want to work with me.

If you are accepted, we start with a three-week intensive period, beginning at a mutually-arranged time. It contains fifteen individual sessions and five group sessions. Individual sessions are open-ended: from experience they last between one and a half and two hours, or more if needed. If needed means simply that you have as much time as you need to feel and to integrate what you have felt.

During the three weeks you must live alone in a hotel room or studio. You must not work during this period, so that you have time for yourself and your feelings. Please note that accommodation and meals are not included in the fees.

After the three-week intensive you go back to your daily life to integrate what you have discovered, and come back again for groups, mini-retreats (group on Friday, Saturday and Sunday) or individual sessions when needed.