The Grinberg Method - an Introductory Article / Michal Ron

The Grinberg method is based on working with our bodies, and enables us to stop unwanted, ongoing, automatic, chronic patterns which we no longer want in our life. With the help of breathing exercises, movement, games, and more, we can put an end to migranes, digestion problems, stress, shyness, fighting with the boss… actually - everything.

The basic concept of the Grinberg method is that as long as we live we are acting with and via our bodies. This is why each and every thing that we do – physical, emotional, mental or behavior – will be also expressed by our bodies. For example: stress could be expressed by short, shalow breathings to the chest and a certain lifting of the shoulders. Migranes could appear after we hold our necks stiff for a while. Feeling insecure usually has something to do with a certain posture in which we hold the chest.

All these different bodily habits were adopted by us during our lives, until nowadays we are not even aware of the effort needed to keep them going. Most people who only breath to their stomachs are hardly aware of it. When I ask them to breath to their chest they experience it as an effort. They are not aware of the constant effort they are doing in order to suppress the natural breathing to their chests. Often they need to exercise in order to go back to that natural way of breathing.

In the same way, a girl who was told 'to keep her belly inside' goes on to be 'a good girl' and to 'keep her belly inside' even when she is 35 years old. Only today she is disturbed by constant constipations. When I asked her to 'blow her belly out' as a funny, simple, playful exercise she became stiff; she forgot how to do it; her body needed to learn that again.

Yet those barriers are not only physical, but psychological also. When that girl put out her belly as a child she was scolded, and therefore today, even when she does it in front of me she is ashamed, she is afraid to let her belly take its place, she feels 'not OK' or 'not pretty'.

The goal of the process in the Grinberg method, therefore, is to re-establish all those simple 'lost' physical abilities with which we were born; those physical abilities whose loss causes us so often physical, emotional and mental pains.

It is important to state that in the Grinberg method there is no 'one, right way' of breathing, walking, sitting, etc. What we are trying to do is to have again all the possibilities we used to naturally have in the past, instead of sticking to those 30% (or so) of the options with which we are left today.

During the sessions we often meet all those original reasons due to which we learned to keep our bellies inside, to raise our shoulders, to stiffen our neck, to tighten our jaws, etc. Those usually have to do with painful events in the past, with emotions we were not allowed to express (go to your room until you are calm again), etc. With the physical release the emotional distress that was kept 'in prison' gets also released, usually via shivering, sweating, crying, a new insight, memories, and even laughter.

Putting an end to the automatic physical effort we used to do, as well as the meeting with the emotional levels that brought it into being, enable us to put an end to the symptom due to which we started the whole process, leaving us happier, more available to life and to love, lighter, and with more energy. (Not to mention all those new options, as well as better relationship with ourselves and others).

Sessions, as well as processes in the Grinberg method are very varied.

Some people come in order to stop physical symptoms, which they find annoying. Yet others come for the same reasons as they would if choosing to go to a therapy – in order to know themselves better, to feel better with themselves, to improve our quality of life, etc.

The process in the Grinberg method begins with an introductory session. (This meeting can also be a one-time-meeting, when people come due to curiosity, in order to hear a second opinion, as a gift from someone else, etc.).

In that session we mainly talk, in order to reveal the main, typical things the person does, which disturb him in his daily life. We talk about the situations in one's history in which he learned to be and behave that way. Those physical, emotional, mental or behavior automatic, repeating patterns are going to be the centre of the process.

Very often people know why they came – they want less stress; they want to find a partner; they want to find a new job; or they don't want those stiff shoulders any more.

Often I like to add to this first meeting also a short physical session of working with the body, so that people will be able to experience in first hand the automatic ongoing effort they do, and the spare energy that can be gained by giving up that effort.

Usually even in this first meeting it is possible to experience a relief in the symptom, past memories that suddenly 'appear', a new understanding concerning some issues, and more.

* Michal Ron, B.A. in psychology and instructor in the Grinberg method (2^nd level), gives private session in the Grinberg Method concerning physical, mental, emotional, and behavior issues, and leads support/self growth groups concerning over-weight.

Michal also guides meditation groups and dreams-interpretation group in San Francisco, CA.

For further information: grinberg_method@yahoo.com.
Tel: (415) 221-5582; (415) 810-5582.