Progressive muscle relaxation

Edmund Jacobson established progressive muscle relaxation therapy in the 1920s. He discovered that psychological tension is often accompanied by muscle tension, leading to the belief that if muscle tension is successfully eliminated, then the psychological tension will also be eliminated. In progressive muscle relaxation therapy, patients learn “progressively” to consciously increase tension in the most important muscle groups, and then to relax and loosen them.

Progressive muscle relaxation is rather uncommon in Austria compared to other techniques, such as autogenic training. In addition to the relaxing effects of this method, patients learn how to adequately distinguish between states of tension and relaxation in the body.

The goal of progressive muscle relaxation training is the (re-)establishment of vegetative balance, meaning a balance between the active stimuli (“fight-or-flight” mode), which are often accompanied with increased skeletal muscles tension, and the calming stimuli (“rest- and-digest” mode) of the autonomous nervous system (unconsciously controlled).

The psychotherapists at the Wunschbaby Institute can teach you this method.

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

You can find further complementary medicine options at http://www.energeticconsulting.co.at.