Autogenic Training

Training is an activity that is commonly associated with the more complex aspects of life. It is done in order to groom the finest executives and political leaders worldwide. It is also performed in order to produce an elite force that will safeguard the welfare of a nation. But at times amidst life’s complexities the simple things are the ones that really bring out the smile. Let’s investigate.

It was in 1932 when a German psychiatrist named Johannes Schultz came up with the idea of a relaxation technique called autogenic training. The technique revolves around practice sessions that are to be performed on a daily basis for about 15 minutes. The sessions commonly take place in the morning, at lunch time, and then in the evening.

The essence of each session is within the repetition of a series of visualizations that will bring forth to the practitioner an induced state of relaxation. The position for every session can be patterned on a set of recommended postures which may range from sitting like a rag doll up to lying down. The technique is said to be applicable to fend off stress-related psychosomatic disorders.

There have been several noted effects of autogenic training. It has the capacity to return the equilibrium between the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic aspects of the autonomic nervous system. This presents significant health contributions as the parasympathetic mechanism takes control over digestion and bowel movement. It also promotes the optimum functioning of the immune system while lowering the blood pressure and slowing down the heart rate. But it is important to emphasize that this type of training is contraindicated to individuals with certain heart conditions and psychotic impairment.

This training mechanism has been subjected to various clinical auditing even way before its initial days in Germany which extended up to the early 80s. In 2002 a meta analysis of 60 studies was featured in Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. It tackled relevant positive outcomes from numerous diagnoses associated with autogenic training. Findings also state that the effects documented can be likened to that of the recommended rival therapies but with an additional boost regarding the outlook of patients about life.

From its early inception in Germany autogenic training has reached major countries across the planet. It was in Japan wherein four researchers from the Tokyo Psychology and Counselling Service Center made some efforts in order to measure the clinical effectiveness of the said training method. The technique has also gained popularity in North American practitioners specifically Wolfgang Luthe. It was Luthe who firmly indicated that autogenic training is a powerful method and therefore should only be utilized by qualified professionals.

As professed by Luthe and Schultz in their master tome, autogenic training took over a year to learn and well over a year to learn to teach which is very common as in the case of other prominent techniques like Yoga and Progressive Relaxation. Despite this fact there are biofeedback practitioners who transformed the basic components of autogenic imagery and established a simplified version with which they combined with components of biofeedback. This was achieved at the Menninger foundation by Joe Sargent, Dale Walters, Elmer Green, Patricia Norris, and Steve Fahrio by incorporating the hand warming method of autogenic training towards the development of thermal biofeedback.