Michel Coster Heller
Psychothérapeute Lausanne
Psychothérapeute Lausanne
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avez-vous lu The Flesh of the soul ? |
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My Life
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| Life (1949-2006) |
| University Studies (1970-1991) |
| Psychotherapy Training: (1970-2004) |
| Career in psychotherapy (1976-2004) |
| Academic Career (1976-2004) |
| Associative experiences (1984-2004) |
Life (1949-2006)I was born USA citizens on the second of June 1949, in Boulogne-Billiancourt, near Paris (France) where I grew up for the first 10 years of my life. I then spent a year in a boarding school in Oxford (England), and then in a boarding school in Lausanne (Switzerland), where I studied until University. I remained in the French speaking part of Switzerland ever since. From 1971 to 1988 I studied and worked in Geneva. I have then gradually moved to Lausanne, where I work full time in a private practice since 2000. Since 1998 I married and moved in a farm of Assens, a village situated in the area of Lausanne. I have received the Swiss nationality the 3 January 2006, as a member of my wife’s original community, in the Bas-Vully of the Fribourg State (Canton) University Studies (1970-1991)I studied experimental psychology in the “Institut Rousseau” of Geneva (Switzerland), which was then directed by a retiring Jean Piaget and Bärbel Inhelder. I specialized in developmental and social experimental psychology. The subject of my 1976 diploma was the replication of studies made by Piaget on how children walked on “all four”, and became conscious of the gestures they were doing. Theoretically, I was looking for a way of coordinating psychological and bodily dynamics. The main hypothesis of this work is that an individual thinks differently in different situations, that in different settings an individual has different awareness capacities. For example one does not think in the same way when one is alone, or when one is in a dialogue, or when one just listens, etc. I did not manage to produce a synthesis between Reich and Piaget, as I had hoped; but in the process in discovered the work of Vygotsky and Luria. At first I thought that their theory could be used as a bridge to link my two idols, but I soon discovered that they could mostly enlarge the realm of my questions, and bring me in realms in which Piaget and Reich formed only two regions. My doctoral dissertation was centered on nonverbal behavior, and was finally directed by Professor Siegfried Frey, in Duisburg University (Germany). There I presented a dissertation entitled Postural dynamics and social status November 15th 1991, and received a “summa cum laude” as an appreciation. In Germany a doctor in psychology must also pass exams in disciplines that are not directly related to one’s specialisation. I passed an oral exam on philosophical epistemology from Plato to Husserl, directed by Professor Helmut Girndt; and an oral exam on the physiology of emotions, directed by Professor André Haynal. Psychotherapy Training: (1970-2004)In the early 1970s I began simultaneously to try and understand myself through meditation (Transcendental Meditation) and a psychoanalytic psychotherapy with Georges Dubal (250 sessions). After two years Dubal advised me, given my interests, to follow a therapy group using bioenergetics, organized by a French association called “Tribut”. Increasingly interested by movement, I abandoned meditation and trained in Tai Chi Chuan with Lizelle Reymond. With several colleagues, we decided to follow training in what was then coined as “Reichian body psychotherapy”. We convinced Gerda Boyesen to organize a regular training group, with her team, in Geneva, of what became known as Biodynamic Psychology. This training lasted from 1974 to 1979. In the mean time, Paul Boyesen, who was Gerda’s son and one of her main trainers, developed his own ideas which activated what is known today as Psycho-Organic Analysis. Although I remained firmly rooted in Biodynamic Psychology until 2000, I was in close contact with the then newly born Psycho-Organic Analysis. In 1989 I began a complementary training in a massage method called Deep-Draining with Gerda Boyesen and her colleagues. By 1995 I felt the need for a second psychotherapeutic process, and went to see Jean-Marie Goël, in Lausanne, for a process based on Bioenergetic Analysis (184 sessions). During the 1970s, those of us who practiced body psychotherapy were few, and knew each other too well to become each other’s supervisors. I therefore oscillated between intervision (supervision between colleagues) and supervision with colleagues who did not really know much about body psychotherapy and biodynamic psychology. In Lausanne, at the end of the 1990s, I managed to have regular supervision with Marulla Hauswirth who had trained in Bioenergetic analysis, and had a good knowledge in ethno-psychiatry which is another area of interest for me. Since 1999 I began training in video therapy with George Downing, which allows me to connect the tools I developed in my research on nonverbal communication and psychotherapy. Career in psychotherapy (1976-2004)I saw my first patients in 1976, and have been practicing ever since, some times as a full time occupation, some times for only a part of the week, in Geneva then in Lausanne. In 1979, I joined Françoise Werner, Caroline Mercier and Alain Ringger, to create a Center of Biodynamic Psychology in Geneva. I also became one of the founders of the French speaking association of Biodynamic Psychology, and participated in the creation of its first French Journal Adire (now journal of Psycho-organic Analysis). From 1984 to 1992 I became a trainer for Biodynamic Psychology and Psycho-Organic Psychology, teaching in Austria, England, France, Germany and Switzerland. I abandoned training when research took most of my time. I gradually realized that Biodynamic Psychology was more of a post-training than a training in psychotherapy. Current clinical notions were clearly insufficiently followed up by Gerda and Paul Boyesen. As I had trained in experimental psychology, but not in clinical psychology, I was not satisfied with my knowledge of current clinical notions. I therefore joined the European Association of Body Psychotherapy to evaluate the state of knowledge psychotherapy schools as ours was in, and realized that the problem was fairly general, not only in body psychotherapies, but in all other forms of psychotherapy training. Every school has its strong and week points. The same can be said of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, who often need to follow an external psychotherapeutic training. We have constructed a web of congresses in which at least some complementary training keeps us up to date with the development of methods and concepts related to psychotherapy. My 11 years as a researcher in psychiatric institutions added complementary information. Academic Career (1976-2004)I completed my studies in experimental psychology at the University of Geneva in 1976, with a diploma dissertation in social psychology on the social variables of consciousness in child development. Embarked on my doctoral thesis research, I received a methodological supervision for the analysis of nonverbal behavior by Siegfried Frey, who was then working in Bern (Switzerland). He introduced me to his approach Times Series Notation which has since become an important asset in my career. In 1987, Professor André Haynal, who was then head of the Geneva University Psychiatric Institutions (IUPG), asked me to create a unit to study the facial behavior of suicidal patients, to see if one could use mimics to predict future suicide attempts. To test this hypothesis he asked me to learn the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) with Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen. Having embarked on this project I explored new avenues of the realm of nonverbal communication, and acquired a detailed knowledge of how depressive and suicidal patients behaved. As this project included collaboration with Klaus Scherer, I also improved my familiarity with the study of voice as an expressive device. To carry out this project I created the Laboratory of Affect and Communication (LAC) of Geneva. I worked there half time, and then most of the time (a large 75%) from 1993 onwards. In 1992 we received a three year grant to support the project of finding facial queues on how to predict suicide reattempt risk, and entered the management team of the IUPG. The grant was provided by the Swiss National Funds for Scientific Research (Subside n. 32 - 33548 du Fonds National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique - Neurologie, Psychiatrie), to Marc Archinard, Michel Heller and André Haynal. Associative experiences (1984-2004)In 1984 I participated in the formation of a French speaking association of Biodynamic Psychology (l'Association Francophone de Psychologie Biodynamique (AFPB)), in which I was founding member. I became a member of the board. In 1989 this association joined Paul Boyesen’s Psycho-organic analysis through bizarre democratic manipulation, so I left this association, which sealed the end of the AFBP. During this period the AFBP co-edited Adire as a French speaking Journal of Biodynamic Psychology. I was chief editor of this Journal. I left the board of this Journal in 1989, when it became the Journal of Psycho-Organic Analysis, but remained in good terms with the editorial board and publish there from time to time. In 1987 I joined the European Association of Body Psychotherapy (EABP), and in 1989 its Swiss branch. I also joined in 1989 the Swiss Association of Bio-dynamic Psychology (APSBP), from which I resigned in 2002. In 1994 I tried to create a French journal of body psychotherapy, independent from particular schools Yves et Jacqueline Brault & Michael Randolph. The Journal was “Diagonales”, but only one number came out but some of the editors were to much involved in their school politics to continue this journal. I participated actively in the EABP Congresses by presenting my research on nonverbal behavior. From 1993 to 1997 I was a member of the EABP ethical committee. In 1995 I became chairman of the EABP ethical committee, which implied joining the EABP Board, where I remained until 2001. In this board I mainly focused on publication and scientific issues. These activities made me represent the EABP in the years 1997-1998, in some board meetings of the European Association of Psychotherapy (EAP), where I participated in the formation of the EAP Scientific committee chaired by David Boadella. I did not pursue this association which seemed to have low ethical standards. In 1995 I joined the Swiss association of psychologists (FSP) as psychologist and psychotherapist, and the Association of psychologists of the State of Vaud (“Association Vaudoise des psychologies”) (AVP). In 1997 I joined the team, chaired by Ilse Schmidt-Zimmermann, which organized the 1999 EABP Congress « The Flesh of the Soul », at Travemünde - Germany. I then edited a volume based on this congress, which appeared at Peter Lang (Bern, Switzerland) in 2001. From 1998 to 2000 I became a never consulted consultant of the scientific board of the US Association of body psychotherapy. In 1999 I became vice-president of the EABP, in a board chaired by Ilse Schmidt-Zimmerman. I stepped down from the EABP in September 2001 for health reasons. In 1999 I became a never consulted member of the International Advisory Board of the journal Energy & Character, edited by David Boadella. |