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Forward by Candace Pert, PhD
-- Research Professor in Psychopharmacology
-- Author of "Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Body/Mind Medicine
-- featured in the movie "What the Bleep Do We Know?"

As a research professor in psychopharmacology, I have spent many years studying the dynamic interaction between neuropeptides and their receptors and how that interface elicits a chemical change as well as a nearly simultaneous emotional response in an individual. It is a union that suggests that the "mind" is not confined to the brain but that the body experiences human emotions. Through this unity, the peptides and their corresponding receptors serve as intercellular mediators responsible for body-wide communication of information and direction of energy flow, therefore unity and energy, Unergi.

In March of 2003, I was a speaker at the Science and Spirituality Conference in New York City during which I had the privilege of interacting with some of the areas finest contemporaries in the healing arts. During a question and answer panel discussion, one woman in the audience caught my attention because she took the microphone several times, and I was intrigued by her comments. Her name was Ute Arnold, I later discovered, and she is the founder and practitioner of Unergi Body Psychotherapy. What Ute had to say resonated with me. The proliferation of body psychotherapy modalities is indicative that the connection between body, mind, emotions and spirit is an idea whose time has come. Body psychotherapy is here to stay and our appreciation and understanding of it is a basic imperative for living human life consciously. 

Ute Arnold's work combines the teachings of other pioneering modalities such as the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method®, Gestalt therapy and Rubenfeld Synergy, blending them all further with the healing forces of nature and the innate creative spark of the human spirit.

Touchback is the cumulative expression of her personal healing journey, which provided the preparation for her work as a therapist. That journey has been about learning to listen authentically to the human psyche and how feelings are experienced in the body. Emotional, mental and physical traumas sustained in childhood can affect the nervous system and encumber chemical messenger relay capabilities. The ultimate consequence is a human being whose capacity to exercise choice is compromised. This can cause limited, debilitating belief systems, physical discomfort, and even disease.

Ute says, "The essence of my work is to communicate through words, touch and movement a memory of wholeness, of universal mind, or unlimited potential. Through the expression of any emotion, obstructed energies are suddenly redirected on the physical as well as mental and emotional levels. The individual is once again freed, to retrieve lost parts of him or herself and to make new choices. We use the body, as a tool to inform the psyche of its forgotten storehouse of possibilities, ultimately leading us back to our inner authority and journey toward wholeness.”

Drawing upon the events and experiences of her life and background as an artist, Ute paints a picture for her readers - through wonderfully rich metaphors and images - of how those experiences became the foundation for the work she was eventually called to do. Later, she presents the reader a bird's eye view of what a client participating in the Unergi work might experience. Following this, a section dedicated to the insightful contributions of her own students will give the reader a flavor for the dynamic transformations they underwent.

The book concludes with creatively designed “Games to Play”. These invite the reader to personally experience what is possible when body, mind, emotion, spirit, and creativity are supported in an interdependent flow. Though our brain may experience these components as separate, our body-mind-heart is designed to embrace this Gestalt simultaneously.

The most intriguing concept central to Touchback is that true healing is not fixing, treating or rearranging energies. Rather, the therapist must be in an expansive state of awareness, which invites both client and therapist into the healing moment naturally.

In an age when the public is expressing more interest in how body, mind and emotions are inseparably interrelated, people will gain insight and confidence leading to more autonomy in their healing process. Ute Arnold's work is relevant and timely. This could be the first step toward the reader's self-healing journey where the natures of the inner and outer worlds are honored as co-creative partners.

Introduction by Ute Arnold

Within the pages of this book, I invite you to meet me in the field of “Touchback”; a relationship in which everyone is touched by some kindness or deep insight through their commitment to self-care and belief in essential self.

As you read about my personal story and those of my Unergi students, I envision you inviting yourself to go on a Self-Healing Adventure with ridiculous courage. Perhaps you will play some of the “games” I have designed, which you will find at the end of this book. As you travel through the pages and photo images and enjoy the paintings and poems on silk, you may enter into the Unergi spirit where you meet yourself in that place of unconditional acceptance and love.

My studies and teachings have shown me that there is such a field of unity and energy , which I have simply called “Unergi” – with an “i” on the end to finally acknowledge my German roots.

I was born into the chaos of World War II in Nazi Germany. I was not welcomed by my parents and therefore no close bonding occurred at the start of my life. Kidnapped from my mother by my father at age one, traded back to my mother during my father's imprisonment by the Allied forces, and later growing up in my father's household, my early years were traumatic and confusing.

Nature was my saving grace. My early education in a one-room schoolhouse was spent with a teacher who knew the value of Nature as a learning resource. In addition, we lived in the country where my family raised horses and all manner of other animals. Left on my own without much adult interference or supervision, I explored my own creative responses to the confusing world surrounding me.

As a child, I would steal out of the house early in the mornings and go to the woods, silently stalking anything that moved.

Follow me down this path, and you can see me in the forest of my childhood: I am on my belly, slowly and ever so quietly creeping up to a deer and her two fawns, hoping that the wind won't shift and carry my human scent to their sensitive noses. Then a twig breaks under my elbow. The deer's ears go up, alert as she moves her head in my direction. We observe each other intensely. I pray to her, asking her to stay so I can watch her freckled children, and though my body is in an awkward position, I know how to be comfortably still. Not even my eyelids move. She senses that I pose no danger and continues to feed on the morning dew grass. We are together in a circle of trust, joined in the endless celebration of natural life teeming with the fragrance and movement of birth, death, and rebirth.

When I opened the Unergi School of Body-Psychotherapy in 1993, I remembered in every cell of my being that the “Healing Forces of Nature” had been the heart of my own healing and had to be the most luminous thread in the tapestry with which to weave the creation of Unergi.

Nature is healing and forgiving. Even as we destroy vast natural areas that have been in harmony and ecological balance for eons, Nature tries her best to make up for our mistakes, withdraws her energy and simply moves it to another place to flourish again. Designed by Nature herself, I believe we have the same astonishing capacity to respond to difficult or joyful situations with compassion, forgiveness, and endless creativity. As we learn to be “in touch” with Nature, we receive guidance about our own deeper Nature.

Our culture's educational systems and learning environments bombard the child and young adult with sensory overload. The inevitable result is people alienated from Nature, their bodies, their families, and their very core. I was thrilled to discover though, that this core, this inner essence, is often hidden with ingeniously designed defense mechanisms for emotional, physical and spiritual survival. No matter what – nothing and no one can destroy our core's immense power and expression.

To stay in touch with my own core, I remember digging in the dirt, building wee houses and rooms with rocks, sticks and flowers, or playing with the nature spirits and fairies in the roots of trees – all the while creating safe environments and conversing with my imaginary playmates who knew how to “talk and listen” to me, since my parents couldn't.

Today I acknowledge that these kinds of activities helped me to survive my dysfunctional family and country. Children know how to “disappear” in a world of their own making. They create desperately needed protection and carefully craft a sense of safety. Their “inner artist” helps them to live and cope with the most hideous crimes and experiences. My research shows that eighty percent of my clients and students have some kind of touch abuse or neglect history. No wonder we are creating a touch phobia in America . A kindergarten teacher is no longer allowed to hug a small child. Likewise our elderly population suffers from touch neglect. Would it be possible to bring safe, respectful, non-sexual touch education into our schools and other institutions? Might this help to end the chain of abuse and heal the American psyche by creating healthful relationships?

So how do we access this core, this hidden potential? How do we overcome our fear of our own bodies and those of other people, or at least become familiar with their miraculous functioning, and not just pay attention to them when they cry out in pain or stop performing optimally?

Each of us is looking for inspiring role models who can demonstrate what is possible. And yet, I have come to believe that at the core, NO PERSON wants to be told what to do.

Could it be that we might willingly become our own best role models and guides? What if we could learn how to mine the creative wealth that lies buried in our psyche and discover unexpected pathways that could lead to an acceptance of our own body, mind and emotions, as well as compassion for others.

When we learn to listen to all of our inner voices, including the redundant, demanding, critical and harmful ones, we can become courageous enough to explore new options. Then we feel safe and inspired to hear the power of our creative choices and passions, leave the influence of our competitive educational systems behind and elect leaders who are sensitive to the rhythms of this Earth and its people.

Unergi offers such a new paradigm of teaching and experiential learning. We invite you to join us in this exploration of healing the body-mind-heart connection to celebrate communion with all of life.

Book Review
By Jacqueline Carleton, PhD. in the Fall 2007 Newsletter issue of the US Association of Body Psychotherapy

In her Introduction, Candace Pert quotes the author: “The essence of my work is to communicate through words, touch and movement a memory of wholeness, of universal mind, or unlimited potential….We use the body, as a tool to inform the psyche of its forgotten storehouse of possibilities, ultimately leading us back to our inner authority and journey toward wholeness.” Utilizing and deeply expanding her background in Gestalt, Feldenkrais and Alexander work as well as her spiritual practice, Ute Arnold’s lavishly illustrated book is both personal narrative and training manual, including theoretical discussions, examples, and well-described exercises from her many years of practice.

Overview by Edie Weinstein-Moser
(former editor of New Visions Magazine)

A growing field of evidence in both mainstream and alternative medicine indicates that the body, mind, emotions and spirit are intricately linked. Ute Arnold, Body-Psychotherapist and artist, has spent the better part of 25 years studying and practicing various modalities indcluding; touch - Alexander Technique, talk - Gestalt Therapy, and movement based on the Feldenkrais Method. Ute combines these with the creative process and the healing forces of nature to create a modality called UNERGI - Unity and Energy. Since 1993, she has been using this new paradigm of teaching and learning at her non-profit Unergi Body-Psychotherapy School.

Ute has just released her first book entitled "Touchback with Unergi Body-Psychotherapy: A Self Healing Journey with Body, Art, and Nature". It is endorsed by Psychopharmacologist Candace Per, Ph. D, one of the scientists interviewed in the movie, "What the Bleep Do We Know?", and author of "Molecules of Emotions". The book is filled with practical, hands-on techniques and experiential exercises that encourage the reader to emerge on the other side, sensing "ridiculous courage" and feel more creative, healthy and lively. It also addresses touch abuse and touch neglect and shows how to reprogram it with skilled touch, talk, movement and art.

Motivational, inspirational and profoundly life changing, this book touches the heart of healing, within and beyond the five senses. It is meant to appeal to an audience with a desire to reach beyond their pre-conceived notions of what life could be and the limitations they may have placed on themselves or accepted from others. It is a teaching tool, allowing the reader to practice what they have learned within its pages in an immediate manner.

"Touchback" comes in the form of easy to absorb lessons, anecdotes from students and clients and dialogues with same. The concepts offered are quite simple. Our bodies are miraculous mirrors for our emotions that reflect our perspective. "Touchback" invites the reader to go deeper in order to unearth treasure that lies within them. Where talk therapy alone misses finding solutions, Body-Psychotherapy is able to peel off layers of resistance to change. Graphic representation of the UNERGI work, including drawings, silk paintings and photographs, enhance this coffee table size selection. The end of the book features self-healing games that the reader can play either independently or with a group.

Testimonials

"Physician burnout is a well known phenomenon in the medical community in this age of managed care, shorter patient visits, and high malpractice insurance costs. We need self-care for the healthcare professional more than ever to help practitioners create the kind of psychological context in which they can deliver compassionate care."

"Unergi is a unique and refreshing way to approach 'healing the wounded healer.' Ute Arnold's book is a courageous, insightful and deeply needed description of how Body Psychotherapy can work to increase awareness of the importance of self-care in creating an environment that supports healing for both practitioner and patient."

-- Birgit Rakel, MD
-- Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center for Integrative Medicine of Jefferson University Hospital
-- Recipient of Andrew Weil's Bravewell Fellowship Award
-- Co-Editor of "Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Older Adults"

"With an artist's eye and a healer's touch, Ute Arnold brings the practice of Body-Psychotherapy alive in this beautiful book."

"For over three decades, Ute has calibrated her soul to the subtle vibrations of life that most of us miss as we hurry through our busy days. Using the tools found in this book, you can allow Ute to guide you to a place of calm awareness, so that you can experience the truth of your authentic self."

"It has been my experience that most of us need guides to help us grow into our true shape, to inhabit our integrity. I've been fortunate to be a student of Ute's, and I hope that this book will help many others reap the benefits of her explorations."

-- Elizabeth Mackenzie, MA, PhD
-- Lecturer; History of Sociology and Science, University of Pennsylvania
-- Co-Editor of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Older Adults