Contemporary Orgone (Reichian) Therapy

Four-Year Online Training in Somatic Psychotherapy
Daniel Schiff, PhD

New sections begin each Fall (September–June)

Overview of the Training

This training in Contemporary Orgone (Reichian) Therapy provides an in-depth education in somatic psychotherapy grounded in the clinical and theoretical work of Wilhelm Reich and its contemporary development.

The program is designed for psychologists, counselors, social workers, and other mental health professionals who wish to develop a rigorous understanding of the relationship between emotional life, bodily experience, and character structure, and to learn how to work with that relationship clinically.

The training presents Contemporary Orgone (Reichian) Therapy as a living clinical tradition that integrates:

• The character analytic, somatic and bioenergetic insights of Wilhelm Reich
• Gestalt therapy’s emphasis on present-centered process and experimentation
• Person-centered therapy’s understanding of empathic attunement and relational contact
• Phenomenological approaches to lived experience
• Contemporary psychodynamic, attachment, and affect theories

The approach taught in the program is process-oriented rather than technique-driven. Students learn to work with clients by tracking the moment-to-moment unfolding of experience in the therapeutic relationship, including tracking of language, flow of emotion, bodily expressive movements, respiratory aliveness and pattern, vocal expression and vocal tone. Within this framework, character structure and its expression in the somatic armor become revealed and understood as functional organizations of the self that shape how a person experiences contact with others and with their own emotional life. Therapy proceeds not through the application of predetermined techniques, but by following the living process as it unfolds between therapist and client, gradually revealing and transforming the patterns through which the client organizes experience.

How the Training is Conducted

The central method of teaching in this program is the direct observation and analysis of clinical process.

A substantial portion of many of the classes is devoted to:

• Live demonstrations which are recorded for subsequent analysis
• Viewing and deconstructing each live demonstration – bringing theory into the real
• Tracking moment-to-moment shifts in emotional and somatic expression
• Examining the therapist’s interventions in real time
• Analyzing the functional relationship between what is observed and what is done

This is not presented as commentary about therapy, but as a careful study of therapy as it unfolds.

Students are repeatedly brought back to questions such as:

• What is happening in the client at this moment?
• How is this visible in verbal language?
• How is this visible in bodily language (the expressive language of the living)?
• What is occurring in the relational field?
• What function does this pattern serve?
• Why this intervention, at this moment, and not another?

Over time, the goal is to help the clinician develop a capacity to perceive the therapeutic process with increasing precision and to find the best manner of deepening contact with the client and the client’s contact with self and other.

This primary method is supported by:

• Experiential exercises, done as a group and between classes
• Lectures
• Discussion of readings
• Discussion of how participants are applying what is being presented in their clinical work

The result is a training that is neither primarily theoretical nor technique-driven, but perceptually and clinically grounded.

Integration of Traditions

The training integrates multiple traditions that converge around the primacy of lived experience:

• Reich’s characterological and somatic (bioenergetic) framework – the bedrock
• The person-centered approach of Carl Rogers – a way of being with
• Phenomenological philosophy, particularly Maurice Merleau-Ponty – understanding of lived experience
• Gestalt therapy’s focus upon contact and process – experimenting with new ways of being
• Affect theory, including the works of Silvan Tomkins, Alexander Lowen, and Stanley Keleman – the bodily roots of emotion

These are not treated as separate models, but as different ways of describing the same functional organization of experience.

Theoretical Orientation

The theoretical foundation of the training is based on several core principles.

1. Functional Identity of Psyche and Soma

Following Reich’s formulation, the program approaches psychological and bodily processes as functionally identical expressions of the same underlying living process.

Emotional states, patterns of thought, bodily posture, breathing, muscular tone, gesture, and vocal expression are understood as different manifestations of a unified biological organization.

This perspective allows the therapist to work simultaneously with:

• emotional experience
• relational dynamics
• bodily expression
• patterns of defense and regulation

2. Character as an Organized Mode of Being

Character is understood not simply as personality traits but as the structured way a person organizes contact with the world.

Character develops historically as an adaptive response to relational environments and emotional conflicts. Over time these adaptations become stabilized patterns of experience, perception, and bodily organization, forming what Reich described as character armor and somatic armor.

The aim of therapy is not to dismantle these structures mechanically, but to bring them into awareness within the living relational process, allowing them to gradually soften and reorganize.

3. Contact as the Central Therapeutic Medium

Across Reichian, Gestalt, and person-centered traditions, contact is the central medium of therapeutic change.

In this program, contact is understood as a dynamic process occurring simultaneously on multiple levels:

• emotional
• relational
• cognitive
• somatic
• energetic

Therapy therefore involves cultivating attuned presence and emotional responsiveness, allowing the therapist and client to explore experience as it emerges in the here-and-now of the therapeutic encounter.

4. The Expressive Language of the Living

A central theme throughout the training is learning to recognize and understand the expressive language of the body.

Emotional life is continuously expressed through:

• breathing patterns
• muscular tone
• posture
• facial expression
• gesture and movement
• rhythm and prosody of speech

Students learn to observe these expressions not as isolated symptoms but as functional communications of the organism.

5. Phenomenological Method in Psychotherapy

The clinical method taught in the program draws heavily from phenomenological inquiry.

Therapists learn to:

• track immediate experience rather than interpret from theory
• describe what is occurring rather than prematurely explaining it
• help clients move from narrative into direct experience
• identify the functional relationships between emotional, relational, and somatic processes

This approach allows therapy to proceed in a deeply experiential and exploratory manner, while still grounded in clear theoretical understanding.

Developmental Progression of the Training

The curriculum follows a specific developmental sequence which in a way mirrors how Reich developed his orgonomic (life energetic) approach to therapy, with each year building directly on the previous one.

• Year One – Relational and Person-Centered Character Analysis – Addressing Character Through Empathic Contact

Students learn to observe and follow the unfolding of emotional, relational, and somatic experience in the present moment. The emphasis is on phenomenological observation, empathic contact, and the emergence of character within the therapeutic process.

• Year Two – The Somatic Organization of Character – Addressing Character via working with the body in dialogue and movement

Attention turns to the body as the expressive organization of emotional life. Students study the functional identity of the character and somatic armor, bioenergetic (orgonotic) pulsation, the relationship between affect, movement, and character structure, and the use of the gestalt experiment as a tool to bring character as a focus of therapy.

• Year Three – Reich’s Orgone Therapeutic approach – Working with the Segmental Armor

Students begin working directly with the segmental organization of the armor, integrating in this process somatic interventions with relational dialogue. Reich’s understanding of the muscular armor and its function in regulating emotion and contact, along with attachment theory, self-psychology, respiration, and emotional regulation are brought into a unified clinical framework.

• Year Four – Integration and Functional Clinical Thinking

The final year focuses on the integration of perception, theory, and intervention into a coherent clinical approach grounded in functional thinking and responsive to the unfolding therapeutic process.

More details on the curriculum for each year can be found by following the tab to the left.

What Distinguishes This Training

A number of contemporary psychotherapy approaches recognize the importance of the body in emotional life. This training is distinctive in that it remains directly grounded in Wilhelm Reich’s original functional understanding of the relationship between emotional experience, bodily organization, and character structure, while integrating important developments from contemporary relational, phenomenological, and developmental psychology.

Several features characterize the orientation of the program.

A. Functional Reichian Perspective

The training is grounded in Reich’s functional approach to psychological and biological processes, in which emotional experience, bodily expression, and relational patterns are understood as different manifestations of a unified living organization.

Rather than approaching psychological phenomena as static categories or diagnostic types, students learn to understand emotional and somatic processes in terms of their functional relationships and developmental origins.

B. Character Analysis as an Ongoing Process

In this program character analysis is not taught as a system of personality typologies or diagnostic classifications. Instead, character structure is understood as the living organization of emotional and relational patterns that becomes visible within the unfolding process of therapy.

Students learn to recognize how character patterns appear moment by moment in:

• emotional expression
• bodily posture and movement
• breathing and vocal tone
• patterns of contact and withdrawal in the therapeutic relationship

This process-oriented perspective allows character to be understood dynamically rather than categorically.

C. Integration of Relational and Somatic Work

Many somatic psychotherapy approaches focus primarily on bodily techniques. In this training, somatic work is always understood within the context of the therapeutic relationship.

Interventions involving breath, movement, or expressive processes emerge from the ongoing relational dialogue between therapist and client, rather than being applied as predetermined techniques. This approach preserves the central importance of contact, empathy, and emotional attunement as the ground of therapeutic work.

D.  Phenomenological Approach to Therapeutic Process

The training places strong emphasis on the phenomenological study of experience. Students learn to track the immediate unfolding of emotional and somatic processes in the present moment rather than relying primarily on theoretical interpretation.

This orientation encourages therapists to remain closely connected to the client’s lived experience while gradually developing a deeper understanding of the processes that organize that experience.

6. Learning Through Observation of Clinical Process

A distinctive feature of the program is its emphasis on detailed observation and analysis of psychotherapy sessions.

Rather than learning primarily through abstract theory or lists of techniques, students study how therapeutic processes actually unfold in practice. Class meetings frequently involve the viewing and analysis of recorded sessions, discussion of clinical work, and careful examination of the therapist’s interventions and their effects.

Through this method students gradually develop the perceptual skills required to recognize subtle shifts in emotional and somatic experience during therapy.

7. Development of the Therapist

Finally, the training recognizes that effective somatic psychotherapy requires not only theoretical knowledge and technical skill, but also the development of the therapist’s own capacity for presence, emotional awareness, and relational responsiveness.

The program therefore places strong emphasis on cultivating the therapist’s ability to perceive and respond to the complex interplay of emotional, relational, and bodily processes that arise within psychotherapy.

Structure of the Program

• Four years (September–June each year)
• Two meetings per month (2 hours each), 40 hours per year
• Small group format (maximum 16 participants)

Continuing Education: 40 CEU credits per year (NASW)

Tuition: $2400 per year / $2000 for full-time graduate students with financial constraints. Payment plans and limited scholarships available.

Applications and Inquiries: dschiff@dschiffphd.com