What is IoPT?
IoPT and the Intention Method
Who am I? What do I want?
Exploring one's own identity and the question of how to live a good life is a recurring and lifelong topic for many people.
As a human being, what does a good life actually mean to me? How can I feel safe and content in my life and be in loving relationships? How can I resolve states of loneliness, grief, anger, powerlessness, fear, pain, or physical illness?
What is Trauma and how does it occur?
In IoPT (Identity-Oriented Psychotrauma Theory), the development of one's own identity from conception onwards is considered to be fundamental. The prevailing attitude towards life and the ability to form stable relationships are determined from this point onwards. The quality of the dependency relationship with one's own parents is an important factor that determines one's life later on. Therefore, recurring conflicts with one's partner, coworkers, or children, for example, can be an indication of traumatic experiences in one's own childhood.
Trauma can be a single shocking event (shock trauma) or an experience of emotional overwhelm that extends over a long period of time, e.g., throughout childhood (developmental trauma). Both the theory and practical experience of IoPT show that many shock traumas can also be a consequence of developmental traumas. Memories of traumatic experiences are fragmentary. In everyday life, we often react to situations that activate our trauma memory, which affects our behavior without us being aware of it. In this way, we unconsciously reenact our past experiences over and over again. In that sense, unprocessed trauma feelings always lead a life of their own.
Trauma is a wound that begins in the womb.
The prerequisite for a healthy and happy life is a mother who is happy within and who unconditionally accepts her child's existence from conception forward. If a mother does not want a child, or if she is traumatized, she is not sufficiently emotionally available for her child.
Trauma means separation from myself.
The child’s unsafe life situation caused by insufficient emotional contact from the mother leaves a deep wound that cannot be overcome. The child must repress the pain and split if off from his or her conscious memory. Only then is it possible to maintain the dependent relationship with the mother.
Trauma prevents a person from becoming an adult emotionally.
In order to grow emotionally, a child's needs for safety, acceptance, and nurturing contact must be consistently met with empathy by the mother. If this does not happen, the child's needs will remain into adulthood.
Trauma is a hinderance
to development.
During childhood, experiences with our father and other caregivers can add to the original trauma and require further suppression of feelings. This ongoing split causes us to loose connection with ourselves which is why we don't know who we truly are. Our natural development is disrupted and we are unable to unfold our full potential in life.
Life turns into survival.
Trauma is a wound that does not heal on its own. Instead, we automatically develop survival strategies to maintain the suppression of emotions. Survival strategies numb the pain and help us to carry on with our lives despite our wounds. However, they can also be destructive towards ourselves and others, and prevent us from living our life authentically.
As a result, we live a kind of pseudo-life based on the unfulfilled needs, longings and split-off fears from our infancy and early childhood. Instead of living an autonomous adult life, we are constrained and driven by our survival strategies.
Unresolved trauma is repeated in the here and now.
Early wounds and their repression can cause all kinds of conditions later on, which can also manifest physically. We often encounter them as conflicts in our relationships with our partner, friends, colleagues, and children, and through painful inner states. An unfulfilled desire to have children, miscarriages and stillbirths, birth complications, and cesarean sections can also be the result of early trauma.
Trauma means fighting
instead of cooperating.
Trauma causes a so-called perpetrator-victim dynamic, in which every victim can also act as a perpetrator due to their traumatization. Interpersonal relationships then become a battle against each other instead of collaboration. When we argue and try to make ourselves heard based on our unfulfilled childhood needs, we lose sight of the other person. Becoming a perpetrator is another survival strategy to supress the pain from our own traumatic experiences.
Am I traumatized?
Trauma is often difficult to pinpoint. The absence of a nurturing relationship with one's parents can be obvious through physical or psychological abuse, but it can also be subtle. Many people are unaware that their problems may be a symptom of early trauma. They are often unaware of their wounds, perhaps because they were told to be wanted, or because they believe they made it well through childhood despite their wounds. Trauma even changes our perception such that we can no longer distinguish between reality and illusion. IoPT assumes that most people have had early traumatic experiences.
Stepping out of the trauma biography
With the help of the Intention method, IoPT shows us new ways to step out of our trauma biography. By actively, curiously, and compassionately turning our attention towards ourselves, we discover our own solutions to reclaim ourselves. By developing our own identity, our vitality increases as well. Our innate capacity for healthy autonomy and cooperation is given a solid foundation.
Intention Method
With the formulation of an intention and the use of the resonance phenonemon in a process, inner realities of the psyche are reflected to the client. Inner parts, which act separately from each other due to psychological splits in us, are experienced in their dynamics. The intention holder (client) enters into a dialogue with his parts, which, in a group setting, are represented by other participants (resonators). The aim is to experience what they are holding and want to express. Depending on the intention, insights can be gained, or deep emotional processes can be felt. During a self-encounter, a safe space is created for the unfolding of your process. The intention method protects from overwhelm and gives you the space to take autonomous steps at your own pace.