Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation was developed in the early 1920s by Edmund Jacobson. He found that psychological tension associates every muscle tension. If it is possible to relieve muscle tension, the psychological tension will be relieved as well. Patients learn to voluntarily tense the important muscle groups consecutively (progressive), and then release the muscles and relax. Patients also learn to more accurately distinguish tension and tension release in the body.

The goal is to restore the involuntary or unconscious balance between the stimulatory elements (fight or flight), which strains skeletal muscles, and relaxatory elements of the autonomous nervous system (e.g. digestion). This method is practiced by psychotherapists at the Wunschbaby Center. Progressive muscle relaxation is not as well known in Austria as is Autogenic Training.

More on this topic:
www.frauensache.at/thema/thema-muskel.html and
www.psyonline.at/oebvp/oebvp_start.asp