Haptonomy is a relationship-based approach.

It is a technique of directed stroking and contact that is commonly used during pregnancy.

However, there are different types of haptonomy depending on your needs, so find out what this approach is based on and how a session takes place.

Haptonomy, what is it?

Haptonomy developed from the observation of the importance of the role of affection in human relationships, especially in the psychic and emotional development of the child.

This quality of relationship and interaction between parent and child is expressed through respectful and tender tactile contact.

Haptonomy allows for the maturation and development of the being under construction, which is confirmed by current developments in neuroscience and behavioural science.

Support for mental health problems

Hippo psychotherapy takes into account the whole being of a person in psychological distress or existential malaise.

It is an affective-psycho-corporeal approach.

The therapist implements this affective dimension, which is essential in human relationships:

• Through an approach of kindness and respect
• In an unconditional acceptance of the person as they are
• By affirming that every being is fundamentally "lovable"
• By supporting the potentialities, gifts and talents (used or not) that each person has in him or herself from birth.
• Through a quality of presence expressed in a reassuring and affirming tactile contact, full of tenderness, in total transparency and security.

The basis of psychotherapeutic support is an affective relationship that creates a climate of trust and an experience of inner security within the person.

Haptonomy allows for balanced and fluid interpersonal relationships in which one can express oneself authentically and without fear, express one's emotional needs, the most important of which is to feel unconditionally recognised for who one is.

From the very first sessions, the person discovers the other side, i.e. what in their personal history has led them to be cautious, to fear the other and to say what they really feel.

The therapy takes place in the discovery, recognition and understanding of everything that prevents the relationship from flowing. The process of change is linked to the evolution of his representation of the world (there are other kinds of relationships than those that have marked him).

Therapy appeals to the desire and joy of living that give meaning to life.

Reconnected to their deepest needs, the person gradually gains access to a state of psycho-emotional health and the possibility of realising their full potential.

By developing his basic security, he achieves a sense of the fullness of his being, his "ipseity" (what makes one person unique and absolutely different from another).

The main principles of haptonomy

An unconditional welcome that recognises and affirms a person's intrinsic worth is essential for development.

Respectful and comforting tactile contact reveals the tensions manifested in the body and makes one aware of one's fears and defences.

The therapist creates the conditions for a good relationship. The therapeutic work and the healing of problems develop in the experience and awareness of all that the person is doing, in the here and now of the session.

The trust and sense of security that are gradually built up develop self-confidence and inner security.

This approach favours listening to the emotions and feelings registered even in cellular memories.

When a theme emerges during the work, the body, through its tensions or relaxation, communicates the emotional charge it carries. Listening to it unfolds the process of releasing tension, of relaxing, which signals a state of trust and well-being.

The key is to listen to the hapsys. This is the intelligence that underlies the life of any being (single-celled or much more complex than a human being), the pre-rational and pre-logical intelligence that guides us to the essential. In a state of psychic health, the soul radiates reason and not the other way round.

A brief history of haptonomy

The quality of affective bonds, manifested through tactile contact, presence to others and to oneself, allows the proper development of the human being.

Based on this observation, the Dutchman Frans Veldman (1921-2010) developed Haptonomy, which he called "the science of affectivity" (he liked to quote Paracelsus: "the art of caring is love").

Haptonomy and pregnancy

Haptonomy is best known for accompanying pregnancy and parenthood, helping to mature the affective bonds between father, mother and child.

The different types of haptonomy

But its applications are much broader. The functions of haptonomy concern different areas of care and all ages of life:

• Prenatal and postnatal support
• Hapto-obstetrics
• Hapto-pedagogy
• Haptosynesis
• Hapto-psychotherapy
• And support for people at the end of life

It was in Oms (Eastern Pyrenees) that Frans Veldman created the CIRDH (International Centre for Research and Development of Haptonomy), which continued his research and transferred his teaching to France in the 1980s.

The benefits of haptonomy

Haptonomy has many benefits, including:

• Restoring a person to a state of psycho-emotional health
• Changing the quality of one's presence
• Developing a sense of inner security, self-confidence and one's own abilities
• Mobilisation of resources linked to the desire and joy of living
• Developing a capacity for discernment that allows gradual access to autonomy in affective relationships
• "Developing a fully human art of living and dying" (F. Veldman)

Haptonomy in practice

After a contact about the motivations of the process, if the haptonomic approach proposed by the therapist is accepted by the counsellor, there is a protocol of 3 discovery sessions.

The discovery sessions allow an experience of what the haptonomic approach is, an encounter with the other in the relationship. They also make it possible to identify all the limitations, suspicions and fears that prevent a good relationship from flowing.

All these limitations are usually the result of the psychic construction that has been put in place since childhood, using the means appropriate to that age, or later in the case of subsequent trauma.

These limitations make it possible to respond better to anxieties, frustrations or affective deficiencies of greater or lesser magnitude, even to traumas, mistreatment and abuse suffered during life.

The origin of the client's disorders or complaints is to be found in his or her psychological construction of survival, which has led to a certain internal representation of the world and beliefs about himself or herself and others.

In the therapeutic relationship, this limiting construction evolves through the experience of a different state of being.

One session course

After the discovery sessions, each session begins with this question:

• What would be good for you right now?
• What do you need?
• What are your wishes?

From this starting point, the session takes place, in tactile contact or not, in the need to speak or to feel, in the awareness of new emotions or understandings.

The Haptonomy session is based on this human encounter, on the experience that the presence of the other can be experienced in total safety.

Haptonomy training

Training in hippo psychotherapy is for trained therapists with a regular practice.

The training in hippo-psychotherapy lasts three years (including one year common core with the other specialisations) and a dissertation is required 6 months after the end of the training.

Not all therapists regularly trained in hippo psychotherapy appear in the ICORDH register. Only those who continue to contribute and attend the CIRDH-Frans Veldman are included.

Contraindication to therapy

The contraindications are those that a psychotherapist not trained in haptonomy would mention. There are none specific to haptonomy.