In this interview, we speak with Dieter Rehberg, performance artist, somatic therapist, and founder of the method Physio-mentale Entwicklung (PME). Drawing from his background in movement arts, Buddhist psychology, and therapeutic touch, Dieter has developed a unique approach that supports physical healing and personal transformation. He shares insights into how mindful sensing, movement, and bodywork can help us reconnect with the body, regulate trauma, and foster lasting change. Through The Somatic Training, his accredited international program, Dieter empowers others to become skilled somatic practitioners rooted in compassion, embodiment, and self-regulation.
How does your method of Physio-mentale Entwicklung (PME) integrate somatic movement, bodywork, and Buddhist psychology for healing and personal growth?
In PME, both movement and bodywork-touch are a source of sensations of the body.
In PME we use the plasticity of the qualities of the sensation to develop both movement and functioning of the body. Different movement possibilities changes our thinking and feeling and the base for our behaviour. Different movement and functioning gives us the tools to also adapt and develop the hardware of the body, which is the anatomy.
It is Buddhist psychology that provides us with the knowledge and tools to sense in ways that trigger a helpful and healing development. Buddhist Psychology defines qualities of sensing like trust, mindfulness, compassion and enthusiasm, amongst others, that enable us to change our movement and physical functioning into a helpful and healing direction.
Summing up we can say that in PME we can provide a physical healing as well as a personal growth through mindfully and compassionately sensing the body in movement and touch. Practically we achieve this in the step-by-step approach of the “Somatic Dialogue”, in which we sense a bodypart mindfully and compassionately, wait and listen for any answer and reaction that is developing from within, on its own, and let this development be expressed in movement. At the end of this dialogue there is always also a cognitive self-reflection happening. This setting and process provides a helpful and healing Self-regulation and sustainable development.
What role does mindful sensing, movement, and touch play in the effectiveness of somatic therapy?
Mindfully sensing the body, movement and touch are main tools in the method PME, which is a method in the field of somatic movement therapy. With these tools we can directly work with the physical body and its patterns of functioning. These physical patterns underlie, influence and are the base for our emotional patterns. Our emotional patterns underlie, influence and are the base for our cognitive patterns.
Through having tools to work directly with the body we can work more at the base of the self of a person in a bottom-up approach.
As the physical patterns influence all the above patterns of feeling and thinking, PME is a very holistic and effective therapy and educational system.
How has your experience as both a performance artist and somatic therapist shaped your approach to healing and education?
Both personally and professionally I am a huge fan of experiential learning, because it is a very holistic way of growth and development. Also all the big charismatic founders of somatic methods developed their specific methods from their experience rather than from scientific research.
In my education and training as a performance artist I learned a lot of different practices of movement and dance and was already introduced to different somatic methods such as Alexander Technique, Release Technique, Body-Mind Centering, Skinner Releasing, and Ideokinesis.
In this education I also got the skills to be creative, develop my own work and defend my own work, which became important when I did develop my own somatic method PME.
In my practice as a performance artist I experienced a lot of things that became important for my work as therapist and educator. I experienced the healing power of physical expression and the interrelatedness of body and mind. I used the mighty power of the moment, the power of the here and now, and learned to trust the unknown and to use improvisation as a tool. I also became aware of how old or even inherited patterns of functioning want to be expressed in movement and metaphor, and how true and authentic healing expression is coming from within, on its own.
In my training as a therapist I deepened my expertise in sensing and moving in studying Body-Mind Centering and becoming a Trager Practitioner. I learned the healing power of touch through massage therapy and the osteopathic technique Ortho Bionomy. Through my training in psychological counseling, especially in the method Idiolectics, I understood the need for honest dialogue and the art of asking the right questions and trusting the self-regulation from within. My theoretical and practical training in Buddhist psychology taught me the importance of the quality of perception for a helpful and healing development.
Also receiving bad education and treatment taught me a big lesson: do it differently! In my practice as a therapist I learned the most from my clients as they are the only true experts for their health. This let me establish a very client-centered approach in my work, as well as an honest self-assessment, leading to critical thinking and academic research, culminating in a MA professional practice / somatic studies.
In what ways does your work address trauma, and how does somatic therapy provide a safe and sustainable path to recovery?
The somatic method PME is a perfect tool to develop patterns of living into a helpful and healing direction. That is why PME is also working very well to heal patterns that someone got as a reaction to a trauma. PME is not targeting the memory of the trauma, but is working with the survival patterns that were good for survival, but can be a reason for suffering in normal, everyday life.
Not working with memory processing of a trauma makes PME potentially more safe than other methods that work with trauma recovery, because memory processing has the very high risk of re-traumatising the client.
To make therapy safe, sustainable and successful it needs several ingredients. Besides skills, knowledge and experience of the therapist it needs the ability to build a sustainable working relationship, the ability to uncover the resources of the client and a dialogue that empowers the clients to work on their own healing development.
What are the core principles of The Somatic Training, and how do they support individuals in developing greater physical and mental well-being?
First of all we have to distinguish between THE SOMATIC TRAINING and the somatic method PME. THE SOMATIC TRAINING is an international and professional 500 hours training to become a Somatic Movement Therapist and Body-Psychotherapist. It is international because it is fully online and taught in english. It is professional because it is affiliated with the International Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist Association (ISMETA) and fully accredited by the United States Association for Body-Psychotherapy (USABP).
THE SOMATIC TRAINING is taught exclusively in the somatic method PME.
Another principle of THE SOMATIC TRAINING is its practicability, because it really enables the students to work in this profession as coach, therapist and educator, right after graduation.
This is reached by the most important principle of this training: the strong and very individual support of the students! This support is reached by cohort teaching in very small groups (6-10 people) and by one-to-one teaching as in supervision, therapy, coaching, Q&A and individual feedback on homework. This enables a balance between encouragement and challenge in the learning process.
A principle that enables sustainable and even extended learning is the dialogical sharing which is happening in circle culture where everybody is listening to each other’s experiences.
Supportive communities such as peer groups and social media groups add to the sharing community learning. Another important principle of THE SOMATIC TRAINING is to have a balance between highly experiential learning and cognitive learning. This enables students not only to work well, but also to be able to think, talk and write about what they are doing.
A structural principle of THE SOMATIC TRAINING is its flexibility. The training is delivered in different modules which enables students to start the training at different times and to study at different speeds.
The main tools of the somatic method are sensing the body, movement and touch. PME has four main principles and four keystones.
The four principles are:
- Client-Centeredness
- Process Orientation
- Trust in the body as the source of the solution
- Supporting Resources
The four keystones, that distinguish PME from a most of the other somatic methods, are:
- working with Qualities of Perception, according to Buddhist psychology
- using the Somatic Dialogue, a cyclical model of question and answer, to trigger
- Self-Regulation that is developing from within, on its own.
- Cognitive Reflection is important to holistically integrate the somatic developments.
Applying the above principles and keystones allows for fast and sustainable helpful and healing developments of both body and mind.
I hope you found my answers interesting and informative.
If you want to find out more go to: https://www.somatic-training.com/
