Pesso Boyden
“We are made to be able to be happy in an imperfect world that is endlessly unfolding,
and we are the local agents of that unfolding process.” – Al Pesso
​
Dates for 2025:
Location- South Wraxall, near Bath
Two day Pesso Boyden development groups.
​
Saturday & Sunday March 8-9th
Saturday & Sunday May 10-11th
Sunday & Sunday June 7-8th
Saturday & Sunday September 13-14th
​
£180 for a structure place, £130 for an observer place (price covers the whole weekend).
​
These are small groups - no more than 8-10 people which can aid safety and trust to develop more quickly.
​
​
What is PBSP?
​
The Pesso Boyden System of Psychotherapy (PBSP) is a body-based method. This highly respectful approach helps the client to access the hidden emotional processes and limiting patterns that continue to influence their present-day emotions, attitudes, expectations and decisions. These limiting patterns are often based on experiences from the client’s past. The creation of alternative body-mind experiences – symbolic ‘counter-events’ – help the client to review and redesign these patterns. This releases untapped potential, leading to a more optimistic life-perspective, more successful interpersonal behaviour, a sense of self fulfilment and an ability to trust. Clients experience the delight of becoming more tuned-in to their own and others’ thoughts, feelings and needs, which leads to more pleasure, satisfaction, meaning and connectedness in their daily life.
Where does it come from?
​
Albert Pesso and his wife Diane Boyden were dancers and choreographers. They created this unique and revolutionary body-based method of psychotherapy in the early 1960’s, developing it over the next 50+ years. PBSP combines classical psychology, attachment theory and the latest neuroscience, using a possibility sphere to create a new symbolic, satisfying embodied experience to release and antidote the history of the client. In 2012 Albert Pesso was given one of only six Lifetime Achievement Awards by United States Association for Body Psychotherapy.
​
​One of the greatest advantages PBSP has over other interactive therapies such as drama therapy or family constellations, is that it offers clients complete control. Other interactive therapies generally rely on a group process in which all of the individuals in the group are simultaneously using the process for what they believe to be in their own best interest. By contrast, in PBSP therapy only one person at a time has a session, which is called a “Structure.”
​
​
PBSP in a group
​
A structure is a one-hour session focused on a single client. With the guidance of the therapist, the help of group members and the use of symbolic objects, the client talks about a current issue.
​
As the structure progresses, the therapist works with the individual to keep track of body sensations, emotions, verbal expressions, internalised commands, and core beliefs. The therapist 'micro-tracks' the client, helping them to notice what happens in the present moment which often awakens a memory from the client’s own history, and enables the client to see the causative connections. the individual recalls an emotionally charged memory of a time when a basic childhood need was not satisfied, the therapist asks for permission to recreate an external scene of that memory.
Group members may then be asked to recreate the past memory and is then invited to imagine a new and different ‘ideal’ context. One that would have given them an environment where they felt full aliveness, completely welcomed and a past need satisfied.
​
Group members are often asked to role-play these 'Ideal Figures'. The aim is to give the client a real experience with another person, symbolically representing the figure that was needed. This might be their ideal Mother, their Ideal Father, or another Ideal Figure:
This ideal setting is an ‘antidote’ to the client’s actual history – the scenario that wounded them. Through this alternative situation, co-created by the therapist and the client, the client can imagine receiving, as a child, the ‘right response’ at ‘the right age’ from ‘the right kinship figure’. Thus, a believable ‘new memory’ is produced which has a palpable impact on the body-mind, triggering a genuine shift in attitude and leads to enlivening life changes.
​
A new memory
​
This notion is, amongst others, the most remarkable of Al Pesso’s contributions to healing. Traditionally psychological repair consists of facing our past and grieving the loss of what we should have had, and didn’t get. In PBSP, the therapist helps the client to imagine and install new memories in the client’s ‘hypothetical past’ – how it should have been and what was deeply longed for but denied.
​​
In his acclaimed book 'The Body Keeps the Score' neuropsychologist Bessel Van der Kolk writes of the striking impact of his first experience of Pesso work:
​
"I'd spent several years in psychoanalysis so i did not expect any major revelations". Then, on the conclusion of his 'structure' he reports a dramatic body-mind event typical of Pesso psychotherapy:
"Instantaneously i felt a deep release in my body-the constriction in my chest eased and my breathing became relaxed. That was the moment i decided to become Pesso's student".
​
Van der Kolk notes, “[the Pesso structure] offers, the possibility of forming virtual memories that live side by side with the painful realities of the past and provide sensory experiences of feeling seen, cradled, and supported that can serve as antidotes to memories of hurt and betrayal.”
With focused attention, these ‘new memories’ can be consolidated into a strong and positive inner framework based in our natural birth-right of safety and love – what students of John Bowlby term an ‘earned secure attachment’.
Two Ways to Participate
​
There are two main ways to be involved in the day. One option is to have a 'structure', as a client, which means you’ll work through a personal issue with the support of the group. This is an opportunity to dive into something that’s important to you, with the guidance of the therapist and the collective presence of the group.
The other way to participate is as an 'observer'. In this role, you might be invited to take on a part in someone else’s structure. Although you won’t be the main focus, many people find that they resonate deeply with the process happening for others. It’s a wonderful way to experience the method and understand its impact, without being in the spotlight.
​
What if the group approach doesn't suit me ?
​
I also offer 1-2-1 Pesso Boyden therapy. This is an adapted version, where we will use imagination, placeholders and objects or ‘figures in the air’ to represent the roles typically played by group members. This would give you some of the benefits and a good introduction to the method. I’d be happy to talk about an introduction to Pesso Boyden and how we could bring it into your healing journey.
​
Here’s a link to Bessel van der Kolk, who as an expert in healing trauma , talks about Pesso Boyden saying that 'It's the only thing I feel really works’.
​
​
​
Timings - usually 9:15 for 9.30am start. Finish 5:30-6pm.
We will have a lunch break of 1 hour and some tea breaks. I will provide tea, coffee and various nibbles to have at all breaks. Please bring lunch for yourself.
The plan is to use the time to provide 3-4 full structures (individual sessions), and to have time for some learning about the method.
The expectations of you on the day is that you would be happy to enroll as an Ideal figure for those having a structure. (you will be completely directed as in what is required). Please let me know if this is a problem in any way. There will also be some participant observer places for each day if you wish to just come along and join us with no structure (personal therapy).
​
This is in many ways a physical activity so comfortable loose clothing is advised, you will be getting in close contact with other group members..
​
Please note: Once a booking is made, there are 'no refunds for cancellations or amendments'
​
​
C
​
​
​
​