Radix theory is rooted in the work of the psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich, who in the first half of the 20th century recognized a ‘functional identity’ between the body and mind. He saw that the mind and body are interrelated and that whatever is happening in one is also reflected in the other. Reich saw the body as a ‘frozen history’ of our life experiences and therefore a direct link to the unconscious material. Thus, whether psychotherapy takes place primarily at a body level, a mental level or an emotional level that work will impact at all three levels. .

Radix practitioners licensed by the Radix Institute agree to be guided in their Radix work by the following Code of Ethics.

Radix® Educational Workshops teach mental and physical health professionals, in an in-depth way, about the energetic viewpoint of psychological and physical dynamics (and their interrelationship), the functional identity between mind and body and the role of the body in the process of healing and personal growth.

In recent decades more and more bridges of scientific theories and data are being built between body and psyche (Schubert, 2015). Neurobiology focuses on brain and nervous system research. In recent years the brain and nervous system research and their relation with Psychology accelerated rapidly. With the new research technologies an expanding number of research findings make the amount of accessible knowledge, during these few years, greater than the respective amount of all knowledge of the previous centuries (Rotschild in Hart, 2008).

Important neuroscientists (Hüther, Le Doux, Bauer, Roth, in Gottwald, 2006) actively support Somatic Psychotherapy, while contemporary research findings consolidate its validity and effectiveness. As the body’s fundamental importance in psycho-emotional states is now recognized with more accuracy in research (Damasio, 1999, 2001in Gottwald, 2006) and human experience is confirmed as a sensorimotor-affective unity, the boundaries of verbally-cognitively-oriented psychotherapy approaches begin to emerge, in relation to Somatic Psychotherapy suggesting a conscious planning of the therapeutic situation within and also beyond the verbal-cognitive framework, including senses, emotions and movement. Especially in trauma psychopathology (PTSD) where, as demonstrated also by modern MRI methods, the traumatic experience is not often verbally accessible, the Body-Oriented Psychotherapy and Trauma Therapy seems to be the most appropriate approach for the implicit traumatic memories to be detected, verbalized and worked through in the healing process.

Zoe Schillat, Dipl.-Psych., ECP, EuroPsy, Psychologist, Psychotherapist
Somatic Psychotherapy and Trauma Therapy