When a heated conversation about the Israel-Palestine conflict erupted in Thailand, Hadi didn't see enemies—he saw bodies bracing for safety. Using Bodynamic, a method that reads trauma through muscle tension and posture, he transformed a potentially explosive moment into an embrace between two men whose families have been at war for 70 years. What if understanding the body's defenses could help us meet division with dignity instead of fear?
“The Bodyknot” is a Bodynamic-based, nine-element framework for “untying” misunderstandings and stuck patterns in communication by tracking experience from context/basic mood all the way to actions. It’s presented as a practical map for therapists as well as for managers and individuals who want clearer, more grounded conflict resolution and self-expression. The piece also highlights how different character structures tend to fixate on—or skip—specific stages, and it offers structured guidance and exercises to build more complete processing and relational clarity.
I stared to learn about Bodynamic when I was a child. My grandmother, Lisbeth developed the system and my mother was teaching it. A lot of the work was about how to heal after various types of trauma. I used the system and its methods and understanding a lot, consciously to make myself better in different areas. Unconsciously it was used by my parents and grandparents to heal my personal traumas as a child, as I had a serious health issue. I remember clearly how often Lisbeth would remind me to put focus on my center. I thought it was very irritating. She would often say: “sense your center, sense your center”.
The process of returning to civilian life might begin with the decision to end the service or to go home - in case of a volunteer battalion. However, while the body returns home, our mind might take a long time to integrate the experiences of war and to learn how to live at peace with ourselves and people around us. This process is often complex and manifests itself as insomnia, impulsiveness, excessive aggression, loss of interest in the profession (or other familiar activities) that the person engaged in before the war, depression, and lack of enjoyment in life.
Bodynamic is offering a Free Webinar in these Corona times. If you are feeling down or feel like you have lost hope, this webinar is for you. Hope can create miracles. Hope can decide who lives and who dies. Hope can support you in choosing life instead of the fear of death. Hope is contagious – the best virus in the world. You can do what you want, if you want what you [...]
It Takes Courage to Stay in the Shy Moments By Hadi Bahlawan Marcher and Lene Wisbom A man enters a party with many new people. To join in and as an attempt to connect with these unfamiliar people he makes a joke. Everyone stares at him, no one laughs. The joke falls flat because it was loaded with harsh humour and this party was not the best place to share [...]
A central hypothesis in Bodynamic Analysis concerns the time period in which individual muscles come under voluntary control. There is observed to be a critical time period in which they acquire an imprint. This imprint is not simply about physical strength or kinesthetic ability. It concerns the psychological content or issue associated with the activity or function of this muscle. Thus the muscle encodes or "remembers" what happened in the emotional/ psychological environment in the time period in which it came under conscious control.
Because of new research into child development, the developmental perspective has captured the attention of the therapeutic community for the last fifteen years, and it is transforming the way therapy is being carried out. Most schools of body psychotherapy have also been deeply impacted by this shift, but most have had to rely on theories that address primarily psychological development to inform their work. In this interview, I discuss the formation of a truly somatically based theory of human development with its founder, Lisbeth Marcher.
Since the mid-80s, the Bodynamic System has developed new ways to work with trauma and stress-related conditions by incorporating the body in a very concrete, physical manner. In this article we describe how we work with the Ego split that is caused by shock.
Overcoming Shock Trauma and PTSD Bodynamics Training for the Ukrainian veterans is aimed at the post traumatic growth of the combat operations participants and is based on the “equal to equal” principle. The training is created by Ditte Marcher, Director of Bodynamics International, and is based on the 30 years of experience working in the war zones. The training was first carried out in Denmark for the Danish veterans in 2013-2014, and the veteran organization VaKa was established as the result. The first training in Ukraine was taught by Ditte Marcher and the Ukrainian assistants in 2015 based on the contract and the request of the Healing War Scars organization.
