HMS, a body-oriented art therapy method

The therapeutic effort of Holistic Motion System (HMS) is directed at restoring patient's wholeness, intensifying the individuation process and eliminating the causes of basal inner conflict.
Wholeness in the HMS paradigm, just as a separate and indivisible unity of an individ in analytical psychology, implies not only and not so much an integration of contents and tendencies of consciousness, as the merger of conscious and unconscious components of mental activity. Loss of wholeness, disharmony in the relationships of spirit, soul and body, splitting of the human being, and separation of Ego from the profound roots of the psyche (the total archetype of Self) are the essence of the basal conflict and the prime cause for all other (local) inner conflicts. A successful individuation process (self-cognition, restoration of wholeness) determines psychological health and completeness of personality, its potential for social importance and self-realization possibilities.
The conceptual methodological kernel of HMS connotes with the fundamental principles of Oriental traditions, body-oriented therapy, art therapy and transpersonal psychological techniques, and relies upon Jungian ideas of the structure of psyche and individuation process. Furthermore, both advantages and shortcomings of the above therapeutic paradigms were carefully studied and taken into consideration in the course of development and perfecting of the method. However, HMS is not a compilation of any aspects or techniques of body-oriented and art-therapy methods. The definition of HMS as a body-oriented art therapy approach implies an archetypal rather than genetic link, calling upon the same a priori structures and mechanisms of the psyche.
Philosophical, meta-theoretical and methodological notions of the HM paradigm, unlike the Oriental ones, are contextual with the culture and mental organization of Russian or Western people, which favors their adoption and efficient use. A helix turning, a wave breathing, a fish swimming, a snake sliding - gnostics' and alchemists' symbols of Self - graphically embody the key archetype of Hyperborean mythopoetics, the one leading to the Unus Mundus peak. This embodiment is a space-time dominant ("corporeal wave") organizing static and dynamic behavior of the body of an adept of the Hyperborean system. The static aspect of corporeal wave excludes frustrational spasms, lordoses, kyphoses, scolioses, neurotic hyper- or hypotonic states of muscle groups or single muscles, or "muscle armor", and calls for proper spatial positioning of the body, harmonious distribution of effort, load, metabolism and energy transfer across the structures of muscles, joints and bones, as well as an equilibrium in the nervous system (both central and vegetative). The dynamic aspect of corporeal wave is an unrestrained, flexible, "open" body, uniformity of the load on muscles, reflex zones and sensory systems, correspondence of the motor stereotype to the state of psychic harmony and to the rhythm and pace of nature. The fundamental elements of motor trajectories - that is, graphic embodiments of Self (heliciform and waveform) - are not only the symbol of psychological and psychophysical integration in the Occidental mental paradigm but also the quinta essentia of both body structure and the majority of physiological processes.
One of the major therapeutic principles of HMS is the correlation between the state of human body systems or their fragments (muscle groups, spinal segments, etc.) and factors of mental activity.
The initial phase of a therapeutic course is a tuning (partial restoration) of the body, which is to bring the posture to the static configuration of the corporeal wave and the motor stereotypes - to its dynamic configuration and to the real capabilities of the body. During the subsequent phase, the body becomes the main participant and the medium of communication in a transcendent dialogue, or the instrument to uncover the integrative tendencies of the psyche. Playing corporeal melodies on this instrument (a psycho-motor experiencing), similarly to chanting mantras or listening to spiritual opuses (aural experiencing), awakens the feelings of human-to-nature and human-to-human harmony, helps extending consciousness and transcending the way of thinking by causal logic and discrete discourse as well as spatial, temporal and somatic borders. The program of therapeutic activities includes deep relaxation, entering altered states of consciousness, contemplation of psychoid, and transpersonal experiences.
The psychological aspect of individuation process in HMS is an active dialogue of therapist-instructor with the unconscious of the patient using the continual language of the unconscious. Transparently embedded into the psyche of a participant of the corporeal happening, "spoken out by the body", transforming the state of consciousness, this symbol of Self promotes involvement of the denoted archetype in one's mental activity. HMS activates an autonomous intra-mental resource which S. Grof called Inner Healer. Bright positive experiences of the archetypal reality and ontic structures of being are assimilated by the consciousness and transform it, becoming the initiating and corrective element of the transcendent function linking the consciousness and the unconscious in the process of psychological integration of person.
Our experience of practical application and development of the method has demonstrated its high efficiency in restoring mental integrity of patients and eliminating not only mental disorders (intra- and interpersonal conflicts) but also somatic ones (arthrosis, arthritis, osteochondrosis, vegetosis, hyper- and hypotension).

Under support of Russian Foundation of the Humanities.