Hello. Here is Robert Kirby. Hi Robert.

Hi Pete

Thank you. Thanks for having me today.

You’re welcome

A few weeks ago I attended your core energetics workshop and learned about core energetics and you gave me a copy of your Core Connections DVD

Yes I did

Thank you. I really thank you for that. So I can easily do the Core Energetics exercises and nearly every day I do these exercises. Not only do they give me a good stretch and give me flexibility but also they have me centered and present and ready to start the day. So Robert, for those watching this video, what is Core Energetics?

Well Core Energetics is a form of body psychotherapy that was originally started in the early 1970’s by Dr John Pierrakos – the late Dr John Pierrakos. who was a great psychiatrist and it was an evolution of bioenergetics that Dr Pierrakos started with another American psychiatrist Alaxander Lowen in the 50’s. And as luck would have it, they were both students of Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian psychiatrist who began Reichian Therapy around the turn of the century so this work in body psychotherapy in other words psychology in armour body has been around for a century or more.

Some of the unique facets of it is that our character is an attitude that's held in the physical body in chronic muscular tension, in the tissues and the cells and it is shaped by an energy field that Reich called the orgone. In Eastern parts they call it the chi and Westerners tend to call it the life energy. John Pierrakos called it the energy of life but all really means is the same thing, the life force. However the life force and the experiences from the outside also shape the body and the body holds this character in place. Now for example Reich said that these character attitudes are in place by the fourth birthday. And whatever beautiful qualities we have and whatever disturbances there are in other words trauma, difficulties, wounds whatever you call it are also in the body by the age of four and these things tend to get more exaggerated as we get older unless momma bear and poppa bear go through a hell of a lot of therapy. When we are fourteen its more intense going on to adolescence – our strengths and our difficulties.

So what do you consider to be the most important thing that people need to know about core energetics?

Well the basic beauty of core energetics is that we want to penetrate the persona – the veneer or the social mask that we put out, and underneath that to get to where the wounding is and rather than see it as a psychiopathology in other words we don’t label people as depressed or having an anxiety disorder or you know so on and so forth. We tend to see it as blocked energy or stuck energy in the body’s energy system and by being able to access some of those painful feelings or negative feelings that are underneath the mask or the social veneer we are able to charge and discharge those feelings and increase the flow and the speed of the energy through the physical body. Now what does that do? It does something marvellous. It allows us to not live from our wounds but to live from our beautiful qualities – from our core. Pierrakos called the core the centre of the being or the heart, the essence. I like to call it just the soul, the inner person that we want to access so we can live from our innermost self. So I think that is the single most important thing to penetrate the darkness, to bring the real light out and the beautiful creative qualities that we all possess.

Thank you.

You’re welcome.

I guess that we can do that by doing the core energetics.

Well there’s two aspects of it. One is, on the Core Connections DVD, there are exercises. That are. One is a full core energetics process its the first track and by doing that as often as possible – I’d say at least once a week – twice a week would be better – one gets an opportunity to learn about charging and discharging the energy allowing them to stay in the present time, to stay focused. It gives you a feeling of wellbeing about yourself. You feel good about yourself after you do it. I’ve been doing it for years and it never lets me down and so many of my colleagues and clients who do the same thing every day just feel the benefits as they go through their lives. When you start the day with the exercises you are going to have a much better day than when not doing them.

Thank you.

You’re welcome.

And Robert, where can people find out more about Core Energetics?

Well in Australia of course you can go to my website which is robertkirby.com. It has a lot of body psychotherapy based articles and information and there’s also programs that we hold. Many of them are free. And also there is www.coreenergetics.com.au which is also a website which I’ve created that gives you more specifics just about that that modality. The work I’m doing these days is more comprehensive in that I include other modalities like you know body mind science and mysticism and constellations and things like that. Which I’ve integrated in the body of knowledge from body psychotherapy, Core Energetics, Bioenergetics, Reikian therapy, Heart Energetics and so forth.

Thank you very much Robert.

You're very welcome.

Thank you.

Nice talking with you.

Thank you.