Psycho-Physical Balance Therapy

Over the last ten years we have seen the influences of different non-conventional modalities become integrated into the practices of health care practitioners and institutions in the United States. This utilization of complementary medicine often accelerates the rehabilitation process and enhances the quality of life. Interest in the ancient Chinese martial and healing art of T'ai Chi Chuan gained attention following the 1992 PBS showing of Bill Moyers' "Healing and the Mind", and the publication of a study conducted by the National Institute on Aging and the National Center for Nursing Research entitled, "Frailty and Injuries: Cooperative Studies of Intervention Techniques." The FICSIT study examined a variety of fall prevention interventions for well elderly people and found that not only was T'ai Chi safe, but that it reduced falls by 47.9% with less loss of upper body strength and reduced the systolic blood pressure with increased cardio-vascular response" when compared with more conventional techniques.

Psycho-Physical Balance Therapy™ was developed to adapt the principles of T'ai Chi Chuan for people with health deviations or who were undergoing rehabilitation. It sought to create a movement based therapy to compliment existing health care practices and to develop a method that could easily be transmitted by trained health care practitioners. The clinical testing of this process took place in a nursing home setting where the staff were taught Psycho-Physical Balance Therapy™ and then went on to work with the residents using the techniques for a period of one year. This development was conducted by Robert Levine and was underwritten by Sheppard Pratt Hospital and Keswick Multi-care Center, both in Baltimore, MD. The current CEU approved workshops for P.T.'s, O.T.'s and C.T.R.S.'s and the college nursing course are a distillation of that original experience.

In 1999 Robert Levine received a "J" Foundation grant to design a Psycho-Physical Balance Therapy™ program for children suffering from sexual trauma and to train the staff at St. Vincent's Center in Baltimore, MD, to deliver it. This program was introduced to psycho-motor therapists in a presentation at the Kinderhospital in Zurich, Switzerland. This is the foundation for the much broader workshop, "Riding Tigers and Repulsing Monkeys: A health professional's guide for moving through the maze of childhood sexuality", scheduled for Spring, 2001 in Zurich. Robert Levine will present this workshop along with the noted sexologist, Kate Thomas.

Robert Levine and Kate Thomas began presenting a workshop entitled Sex in Balance in 1997. It was initially offered to a group of T'ai Chi practitioners at the summer training of the school of T'ai Chi Chuan. It has since been taught in a college sexuality course, at several workshops geared for mental health professionals and to the general public. The course is theoretical, philosophical and experiential in design. Through a combination of the wisdom and practice of T'ai Chi Chuan and modern sexological understanding, the course intends to further a more liberating, open and spontaneous way of using sexual energy.

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