School history

The Spanish school grew out of the Scuola Europea di Orgonoterapia (SEOr) that was founded in the 70s by Federico Navarro and Piero Borrelli, who were disciples of Ola Raknes, one of Wilhelm Reich’s (1897-1957) closest collaborators in Europe. In 1982 Xavier Serrano a member of the SEOR, and a small group of professionals, organised the first training courses and didactic analyses in Spain. This initiative culminated in the formation of the Spanish School of Reichian Therapy, which was legally recognised in 1985. Today, in 2005, it has 40 professional members in Spain, including Barcelona, Madrid, Pais Vasco and Valencia.

The school is a member of most of the main international orgonomy, body therapy and sexology associations as well as of the main psychotherapy associations. It is a founding member of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Psychotherapists (FEAP). This organisation works for the recognition of a professional diploma for psychotherapists in Spain and Europe, setting out common criteria for all associated members. These criteria are based both on clinical experience and on the way of acquiring knowledge i.e. through personal analysis for future psychotherapists, clinical supervision and case seminars. These fundamental elements are accompanied by courses in the model represented by the particular schools or associations.

EsTeR, whose history is particularly influenced by the contributions of Federico Navarro (one of its first teachers) has its own clinical and educational identity within the post-Reichian movement, i.e. a structural diagnosis (DIDE), a methodology for therapy groups in Vegetotherapy, and the Brief Character Analysis Therapy (PBC), all developed by Xavier Serrano.

 

Basic theory and concepts

Among the goals of the school are the education of body-psychotherapists and Reichian specialists (vegetotherapy – orgone therapy). Another goal is to spread knowledge of orgonomy and its applications in education, medicine, ecology, urbanism, biophysics, etc. and thus contribute to the increase of knowledge and the means for better development and well-being of human beings. In this task the school counts on specialists of other models as well as on other Spanish and international schools. By means of in-depth studies of the laws of orgonomy and the consequences of its permanent interaction with the physical and social environment, understanding of human nature can be increased and further elements disturbing the functioning and health of human beings can be prevented.

This holistic vision of health, where psychopathology is interlaced with other human and scientific disciplines, implies a particular training that is characterised by its multi-disciplinary nature, resulting from our clinical and prophylactic work as a team. And although, during the training, we strongly insist on stimulating the critical spirit of students, facilitating the sources for them to learn about other models and techniques, (historical, present-day or in the vanguard) we consider ourselves as being inside the new ecological paradigm, based on the original contributions of Wilhelm Reich.

Dr. Reich was a psychiatrist and an expert in sexology, who stood out because of his technical contributions to psychoanalysis. During the 1940s in the Nordic countries and later in the United States, where he had arrived as a refugee from Nazism, he developed his own clinical and psychotherapeutic method - incorporating emotional, somatic and neuromuscular aspects into psychoanalysis. This methodology, first called Character Analytic Vegetotherapy, was later defined as Orgone Therapy, as Dr. Reich started to include functional and psychosomatic diseases from the perspective of the disturbance of bioenergetic pulsation. All current body therapies and psychotherapies arise from this base, which has also had a great influence on the development of gestalt therapy, social psychiatry, sexology and some psychoanalytic trends.

 

Seen from the perspective of our model, the fundamental causes of disease and suffering are social and therefore should be fought through preventive actions on environmental, social and child ecology. However, we still consider that the function of psychotherapy is essential, in general because of its understanding of the doctor-patient relationship, and in particular because of its clinical efficiency, using human communication and expression in the widest sense within the psychotherapeutic setting. Dr. Reich created his psychotherapeutic methodology, developing an integrated and vanguardist line of action that we post-Reichians have deepened and matured.

 

Training description

EsTeR’s Didactic Training Project is multidisciplinary because, as Dr. Reich stated, “with orgonomy, the rigid fence that separated the different scientific fields has been broken”. Our goal is to set a new Reichian paradigm and to spread the knowledge of its contents and meaning in participation with students, making sure that it is done with a critical mind and without fanaticism. The study of comparative texts provides students with a bibliography that helps them understand both the interaction with other holistic disciplines and the influences or differences with other scientific paradigms. Students are also introduced to the way the school works and the theoretical ground it stands on, which includes its own particularities within the Reichian paradigm. This gives them the possibility of acquiring new knowledge as well as the choice of joining our team in the future.

To be a member of the School as an Orgonomist (specialised in education, prophylaxis, biophysics, etc.) or as an orgone therapist, the candidate must do the basic and specialised courses, have a university degree and have made his or her personal analysis with a qualified orgone therapist. To become an orgone therapist, one has to do control analysis and case supervision: to become an orgonomist, there is supervision in his or her speciality.

 

Training in body psychotherapy, orgonomy and post-Reichian clinical applications:

• Clinical Reichian-oriented body-psychotherapists and orgonimists must complete 600 hours (four years plus personal analysis)
• Orgone therapists and specialists in a post-Reichian clinic must complete 800 hours (six years plus personal analysis).

Under the auspices and recognition of:

• The Spanish Federation of Associations of Psychotherapists (FEAP)
• The International Federation of Orgonomic Colleges (IFOC)
• The European Association for Body-Psychotherapy (EABP)
• The Spanish Federation of Sexology Societies (FESS)
• The European Federation of Sexology (EFS)

 

Within the scope of prophylactic assistance, the school works on the one hand on the socio-cultural level, favouring a free sexuality, and on the other, on specific work with children as well as the family and educational systems within the framework of the ecology of human systems.  Sexological socio-cultural means prenatal attendance during pregnancy in individual or groups sessions and orgonomic attendance in childbirth. It also means supervision of the maturity process in newly-born and older children, in order to strengthen the development of their self-regulation. This is done through observation and direct interaction with the child, as well as psychotherapeutic assistance or by providing the necessary psycho-pedagogical information for the family system.

With Orgonomic Biophysical Investigation we try to validate the experiments made by Reich and his collaborators on orgone energy, using tools and means that are more up-to-date. We also try to improve the instrumental means.

Finally, within the socio-cultural intervention and in collaboration with other social associations and movements our practice is based on the following elements: sexological and socio-cultural activities, free periodic conferences and participation in round tables and debates on our premises as well as outside them.  Our public Orgonomy library contains the complete works of Reich as well as all the worldwide magazines of Orgonomy.

 

Trainers

·         Didactic Director: Xavier Serrano Hortelano

·         Responsible for education: Manuel Redón Blanch (Valencia and Barcelona), Maria Montero-Ríos Gil (Valencia), Jose Antonio Larraza Razkin (Pamplona), Juan Antonio Colmenares Gil (Madrid).

·         The EsTeR teaching staff also includes collaborators and specialists from other European and International Schools of Psychotherapy: Markku Välimäki, Mª Beatriz De Paula, Gino Ferri, Clorinda Lubrano-Kotoula, Bjørn Blumenthal and Humberto Liberati.

                                                                                                                                                                   Xavier Hortelano Serrano

State of recognition

The Spanish School of Reichian Therapy was accredited as a Body-Psychotherapy Training Institute by EABP FORUM in March 2001. The Character Analytical Vegetotherapy method was scientifically validated by the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP) in 2004.

 

EABP Member

Xavier Hortelano Serrano

 

Literature - publication - research                                                                                          

The Spanish School of Reichian Therapy has its own publishing house, PUBLICATIONS ORGON, C.B., which has been publishing books, videos and the magazine Energy, character and society since 1982.