Schultz relaxation

Schultz autogenic training may be the relaxation method to choose if your patient complains of unpleasant sensations that bother them. These feelings, linked to anxiety, often present themselves as sensations of heat, tingling and paresthesias. On the other hand, if your patient tells you that he is tense and that he has muscle pain, then it is rather the Jacobson progressive muscle relaxation method which is recommended.

This method can be considered self-hypnosis, but is not hypnosis. The idea is to recreate, in your patient, the same bodily sensations that you experience when you are hypnotized.

As with all relaxation and meditation methods, your patient should be seated or lying down, relaxed, without their jacket or handbag: comfortable. Once this is done, you will be able to start the session.

Schultz's autogenic training is based on different sensations (heaviness, heat, etc.) that you will induce in your patient through speech. With a deep, warm voice and a slow delivery, you will be able to tell your patient:

"Now you will concentrate on your right arm and you will imagine that it is made of lead. Your right arm is very heavy. Concentrate on this feeling of heaviness. [after a moment] Now let this feeling of heaviness spread throughout your body. Your whole body is heavy. Say to yourself in your head, twice: my arm is heavy, getting heavier and heavier, very heavy. [after a moment] Say in your head, twice: my body is made of lead, my body is heavy, increasingly heavy, very heavy"

Once the sensation of heaviness has been established with your patient, you can begin with the sensation of warmth. Your patient should feel that his right arm is warm as if he were at the edge of a window and he feels the gentle warmth of the sun spreading down his arm. Your patient should focus on this feeling of warmth.

If you ever do this session in summer, you must do this exercise with a feeling of cold. It's not nice to focus on feeling warm when you're already very hot. In this case, you can tell your patient to imagine that he is lying on the edge of a lake and that his right arm is immersed in the water of the lake. That his arm is immersed in cool, pleasant water in a clear lake.

Let's resume our explanation with the example of heat. Ask your patient to say twice and in his head: “my arm is hot, getting hotter, very hot”. Guide your patient so that this feeling of warmth spreads throughout their body as if they were completely exposed to the sun on a beautiful beach. Then ask your patient to say in his head twice: "My body is hot, getting hotter, very hot."

Now your patient should repeat the following phrase twice: "I feel relaxed, more and more relaxed, very relaxed." Ask your patient to imagine themselves in a place that soothes them, such as a tropical beach. The immersive environments of C2Care can support patients who have difficulty projecting themselves into an imaginary place. The wide choice of environments offered by C2Care can make this software your new ally for relaxation sessions. Your patient must concentrate on the sounds, the smells and that he moves, walks around this place. Then, again, ask your patient to repeat twice: "I feel relaxed, more and more relaxed, very relaxed."

Now ask your patient to focus on their heart rate. All one's concentration and mind should be centered on one's heartbeat, the sensations of beating, slight movements of the torso, the sensations of pulsing in the wrists. And he must say twice in his head: "my heart is beating slowly, more and more slowly, very slowly."

Here, your patient will have to concentrate on his breathing but without controlling it. He will have to pay attention to his breathing, observe and feel the movements of the respiratory cycle. That is to say the torso which expands when inhaling and which retracts when exhaling.

Your patient should repeat the following phrase twice: "my breathing is becoming calm, more and more calm, very calm." Then ask your patient who repeats twice: "I feel relaxed, more and more relaxed, very relaxed." Then ask your patient to concentrate on the solar plexus (at the top of the abdomen) and he should have a feeling of warmth as if this part of his body is radiating a gentle light, a gentle warmth. Then he must say to himself twice: “my stomach is hot, getting hotter and hotter, very hot.”

Then, your patient will be able to concentrate on this feeling of freshness in the forehead. It's as if a kind person had placed a cloth soaked in cool water on his forehead. Feeling these sensations through images is the key to successful Schultz relaxation.

Your patient should now say twice to himself: "my forehead is getting cool, getting cooler, very cool." Then, once again: “I am relaxed, more and more relaxed, very relaxed”. Slowly your patient will be able to open their eyes, look around, and make stretching movements. The method is thus completed.

When applying the Schultz relaxation method, it is not uncommon for the patient to fall asleep. This is normal and not serious. However, consider providing him with recordings so that he can listen or re-listen to the stages of relaxation.

Find our article on slogans or positive instructions and the method AWARE.