In this conference will discuss in depth the relationship between The Bülow method (Norwegian Psychomothor Physiotherapy), Gerda Boyesen's Psychoperistalsis and Heart Rate Variability.

Respiration plays a central role in body psychotherapy. In the 1930s, a strong academic community explored how respiration on the one hand is strongly linked to emotional life and on the other hand influences and is linked to posture and tonus conditions in skeletal muscles throughout the body. Professionals such as Wilhelm Reich, Nic Waal, Trygve Braatøy and Aadel Bülow-Hansen were central to this research. This work laid the foundation for what Michael Heller, author of the book Body Psychotherapy: History, Concepts, and Methods, has named ‘The golden age of body psychotherapy in Oslo’.

In this conference, we will take a closer look at this foundation that was laid by these pioneers. Furthermore, we will follow the insights from this work into another aspect of respiration, namely the quality of being a continuous exchange of pressure between the abdominal cavity and the thoracic cavity. In the conference, we will discuss how work with skeletal muscles affects internal organs in the abdominal and thoracic cavities, organs that are connected through the autonomic nervous system. We will also look in particular at how respiration is understood and how to relate to it in Norwegian Psychomotor Physiotherapy. By extension, we will explore how we can connect the breath to the idea of an existential dimension of human existence, as well as what this can tell us about the ability to let go of tension.
From the 1950s onwards, the Norwegian psychologist and physiotherapist Gerd Bøyesen began to investigate the role of the gut in the organism's regulation of emotions. She did this by listening to the sounds of the intestines using a stethoscope, while conducting psychotherapy with the patient. Through this work, she came up with a number of insights that she eventually collectively named psychoperistalsis.

Heart rate variability, and more specifically the part of the variability called respiratory sinus arrhythmia, will be a third theme of the conference. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is a phenomenon that has been known since the middle of the 19th century, and involves the heart rate slowing down when you breathe out and rising when you breathe in. Interest in the study of respiratory sinus arrhythmia has been enormous since the mid-1990s, and low respiratory sinus arrhythmia is statistically associated with an increased risk of a number of disorders, both psychiatric and somatic, without anyone being able to fully explain why. In the third part of this conference, we discuss the relevance of respiratory sinus arrhythmia for relaxation, for our work as body psychotherapists and for how we can understand our work as a work with internal organs. The polyvagal perspective and Sthepen Porges´ work will be addressed.