Closing Remarks

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Dr.Kornelius Roth

In closing our conference I do want to make the one and the other remark and share some of my thoughts to this outstanding meeting. 70 participants from 11 countries shows not only the interest and commitment in this work, but also our resources of knowledge and experience. This could not only be seen by the presenters, but also in the audience, where it was felt that bonding is not only a useful therapeutic tool, but a method where we as professionals identify and where we too found important impulses for our lives.

During these two days we have heard that bonding works. We have good pre-posts results. We know now that oxytocine production is increased even though we don´t know why. The physiology and brain biology of attachment, motivation and reward show what we and our clients have experienced in our clinical work: Closeness is a resource. Bonding work is about teaching attachment pleasure in a non- sexual way and learning a secure attachment style.

Talking about the "Use and Regulation of Emotions" in Bonding psychotherapy, we found out that Dan Casriel ´s four basic emotions plus love might be a couple more and that our attitudes to so called negative emotions have a very powerful foundation in our ecclesiastic background going over two millennia.

As we have seen there are two branches of our motivational system: One for energy and reward and one for attachment. Both function through the release of endorphins, but only the attachment system releases oxytocine and is activated by skin contact, sympathy and love while our reward system primarily exprimates dopamine.

Now these two branches can cooperate and work together, but they can also compete with one another and that seems to make a lot of trouble. When our patients enhance their reward system (that´s the one with the nucleus accumbens in the midbrain and the connection to our limbic system and from there to our thinking modus in the forebrain) with alcohol or drugs or some of the newer drugs like online gaming or online pornography, this leads to an excessive production of reward transmitters like endorphines or dopamine.

Now these transmitters make a bigger hype and have a much greater intensity on a person than the exprimation of oxytocine can have. So we will want to check our patients on these points to make sure they can have a profitable experience from their bonding work.

Now while the pharmaceutical industry is probably feverishly trying to produce an oxytocine to be given as a drug to our patients, the bonding work is biochemically and genetically on the point: Bonding stimulates the attachment system in an natural way - in a nurturing process involving closeness, touch and an open heart. And: Bonding Psychotherapy does not only serve the biological needs, it validates as a person.

Some presenters at our conference added other methods to their bonding work to make it more effective. Body movements and energy psychology are examples for that. Others talked about the application of the bonding process to certain subgroups like priests and monks and showed impressive results. Different aspects of structural therapy and how parts of the new concept can be implanted were presented and the calamity of diagnosis discussed. Thoughts on spirituality and emotions led to an interesting discussion.

A big topic which recurred again and again seemed to cause some controversy. Are traumatized patients to be treated with bonding therapy and if so does the bonding process has to be adapted to the needs of these patients? Now I will not go into this discussion again in any detail. But we all know that every form of psychotherapy has it�s hazards and contraindications. We cannot neglect to find out if this is the case with trauma. We don�t work with a drunk, an acute psychotic or someone with a broken back bone on the mats either. So it is very important that this question comes up and it needs to be looked at with great scrutiny.

My contribution to this topic is this: Dissociation and flash-backs on the mats are only helpful if they can be immediately utilized. In contrast autonomous abreaction followed by amnesia are not helpful for our clients. Especially traumatized patients have a high need for security and control. We have to serve these needs.

But it is true for all of our work: Whatever we as professionals decide of or how we will work emotionally with any of our patients we have to know what we are doing and why we are doing it. This is an unrefutable protection for our patients and for ourselves.

The individualization of treatment has always been an asset of Bonding Psychotherapy and bonding psychotherapists. So I am confident if we continue this important discussion with all our knowledge and experience we will be able to refine our work and see the road that lies ahead. In my groups for instance I have started to use a little cushion which I offer sexual traumatized patients to put on their pelvis during mat work.

Enriched by our good conference the past two days, let me say at the very end of our conference a couple of words in honor of Konrad Stauss. It was probably more than ten years ago that Konni got involved with the developments concerning the attachment theory and he understood quickly that this was a new way to describe and explain what Dan Casriel had developed and bonding therapist were doing all these years. Konny invested a lot of time in writing up all this, publishing his book and doing trainings all over the world - also investing time working for the Bonding Society, nationally and internationally. Thank you very much Konny for putting in all this work. This conference shows it was well worth the effort.