These notes represent what I think and feel are useful guidelines to help the person acting as the helper in Reichian therapy. Some of the notes are obvious but are well worth stating nevertheless. You can and probably will disagree and disregard some of the points below—rules are made to be broken, especially when one's (core) feelings or intuition say so. But I would stress that the client or person being helped puts themselves into a vulnerable position when they lie down on the mattress and this must not be exploited, so beware of laying your needs on them, beware of sadism on your part, etc.

In the end therapy is a two way process and if you feel unhappy about your relationship with your client it is likely that they will be feeling the same and vice versa. It's important to explore these feelings when they arise -see 17 below.

1) Who to work with? It is important to feel good about the person you intend to work with and vice versa. Without such positive feelings between you therapy can hardly begin. Remember you don't have to work with anyone you feel unhappy with, or you feel unable to help, are afraid of, etc., though you might learn something from exploring why you feel that way.

2) It is useful to have some preliminary getting to know each other -perhaps over a cup of tea—before work begins. Such conversations can be an aid to therapy as well. For example ask why they want to do therapy? And what they want from it? What therapy they've done before? Also it is useful at this point to check out their medical history for anything that might relate to the therapy.

3) Contact between you before, during and after the session is vital. The interaction and intermingling of our orgone energy fields (aurus) is a vital part of the therapy. It enables us to 'intuit' what the other person is feeling. Contact can be achieved and maintained verbally, physically and energetically—especially through eye contact. Such contact should be established before working begins, e.g. when they lie back on the mattress, kneel beside then and ask them "How does it feel?"

4) There's no rush. Arrange to work for say an hour and wait for things to happen. If you don't know what to do, watch and encourage their breathing and wait for something to happen. Some people take several sessions before they begin to move. Baker (see reading list) talks of 100-200 sessions being needed to complete Reichian therapy i.e. you can't dissolve a lifetime's armour in one hour!

5) Work with what's there on the surface before making anything happen. Otherwise encourage your client's breathing unless they seem very energetic already. When their eyes sparkle you know their energy level has risen sufficiently. Then work head downwards and work with what happens. Then after a rest if heavy discharge has occurred once more look to their breathing and work head downwards.

6) After intense discharge and also at the end of the session it can be very useful to let your client talk about their experience. It enables them to assimilate and make a mental adjustment to the new balance in their energy economy.

7) A few minutes before the end of the session calm the client, perhaps by gentle soothing massage, holding them, or by covering them with a blanket. Ask them if there's anything they want, maybe offer them a cup of tea, give them a cuddle, or whatever seems right.

Leaving them for a few minutes while you make the tea can be good—it gives them time to come to and it can help clarify unresolved stuff -- they may well need further attention when you return, especially if there's some (further) crying to come.

8) Talk to them afterwards about how they feel. Make sure they are ready to face the world/give you a session, and if not try to reassure them. Remind them that feeling anxious is a healthy sign for it shows us how much we need to change and that such feelings are an important part of therapy—even if they do feel awful! "A patient gets well by standing or facing his (her) anxiety" - Baker p92. Also warn them of possible after effects, usually within the next few days. These can include feeling good and energetic, but also feeling tired and drained—or both, having a cold and, very rarely 24 hour flu, odd aches and pains as well, as our bodies adjust to the new balance. Thus it is best to take it easy for a day or two after getting a session. Occasionally more long term symptoms can arise—if so an early repeat session may be necessary.

9) Take a bath soon after the session, or at least a very good wash, especially of your hands and face in running cold water. Flick off excess energy, and groan and sigh appropriately. Working with people as a helper/therapist moves our energy in response to theirs, but without much discharge and this can lead to headaches, etc. Hence take a bath and make sure you get enough therapy yourself.

10) Be aware of your own need for therapy. Taking in other people's energy can freak you out if you aren't getting regular therapy yourself.

11) Playing role of therapist/ helper involves one letting one's feelings rise in response to one's client but not strongly expressing or repressing such feelings. These feelings can guide the therapy and are a clue as to what to do, e.g. if I feel sad then it will be likely that it is in response to my client's sadness -so I say "Are you feeling sad?" or "That makes me feel sad", etc.

12) You can divide the techniques into verbal, light massage and heavy massage.

Always use verbal and light massage first, before using a heavier approach.

Try and judge whether your client would respond positively to a heavier touch.

Some people give off a message of "Don't touch me" or "Don't hurt me" which can be explored verbally—"I feel you don't want me to touch you" and a heavy approach can trigger an angry defence where tears were about to flow.

Sometimes the lightest touch or the softest words have the strongest effects, especially with softer feelings that can soon vanish under a clumsy approach. However, heavier massage is appropriate at times, eg, with a very stiff jaw which just won't let anything through. One can approach a tight armoured muscle in two ways:

A/ add to the tightness so it overloads and the emotion is released or B/ sooth the muscle so it relaxes and lets go of the bound emotion.

13) If in doubt ask your client, but treat what they say therapeutically i.e. decide for yourself whether what they say is useful, for people have various defences including words against feeling something. An overtalkative client should be confronted by their behaviour—"You're talking too much, probably to avoid some feelings. Be quiet for a while and let your breathing deepen."

(The breathing will have usually become quite shallow.)

14) All therapists have moments in a therapy session where they are lost and don't know what to do. The trick is to wait and do something simple like watching and working on their breathing rather than panicking and leaping into innumerable different techniques. Relax and wait and things usually clear.

15) In the end, indeed from the beginning, technique is secondary to creating the right receptive atmosphere between you and your client without which any amount of technique is useless. This can't be rushed. For example you may see the need in your client to cry, but it might take several sessions for sufficient trust to build up for this to happen.

16) Sex between client and therapist can ruin a good therapeutic relationship and vice versa, especially if long term relationships are involved, though this is not to say one can't give one off 'first aid' sessions to one's loved ones.

If you feel sexually attracted to your client talk about it with them and consider whether transference and counter transference are involved (see 17) and whether a sexual or a therapeutic relationship is the more important to you should one have to be given up. Avoid laying a sexual demand on a vulnerable client.

17) It is important to recognise and discuss feelings that arise between you and your client. Some of these will be of the kind that arise between any two people working together, but there will also be what Freud called transference and counter transference. Transference is feelings from the client to the therapist which stem from the client's reaction to what the therapist has done or not done to him/her. Again some such feelings will naturally arise, but irrational feelings are possible—e.g. falling hopelessly in love with an idealised version of your therapist, or being very angry because the therapist isn't, or even is a perfect father or mother to the client. Likewise the therapist has a need for a perfect client and can become over involved in the progress of the therapy to an extent which impedes the therapy. So the therapist can equally fall in love, be irrationally angry, etc. The problem is separating out true core feelings from secondary stuff. Reich maintained that transference should be welcomed as a positive and important part of the therapy, for your client is working through their emotional difficulties by sharing them with you, by involving you in them, by projecting them onto you. (Note: Reichian therapy in its search for experiencing the involuntary movements in the body, i.e. the realm of the unconscious, is more intrusive than for example, most forms of co-counselling and thus transference and counter transference will be greater. In addition giving therapy to the person you get it from produces transference and counter transference both ways -which can get confusing and spoil the therapy. A solution suggested by John Southgate is for three or more people to contract to work together so that no-one gets therapy from the person they give therapy to, e.g. A therapises B, B therapises C, C therapises A).