What Is Autogenic Training

What is Autogenic Training?

Autogenic Training, which means ’generated from within’, is a truly powerful research-based stress management and self-actualization technique, respected by performance, psychology and medical professionals around the world, that enables you to feel well, think well, behave well, work well and work safely.

It is taught as a set of simple to learn validated mental exercises  over an 6 to 8 hour period that target bodily reactions and it’s widely documented benefits are far-reaching for everyone. These mental exercises allow for respiratory, cardiac, gastro-intestinal, vascular and neuro-psychological self-adjustment. The Autogenic process, through psycho-physiological and neurological self- adjustment and regulation, drives the process of homeostasis where the body-mind systems are in harmony and doing as nature intended them to do.

With Autogenic Training you are taught how to switch on at will the Rest, Repair, Regenerative mechanisms of the nervous system and override those internal processes that over time deplete your ability to function at your best.  By switching off the brain-body mechanisms that are at the core of negative stress and fatigue related symptoms positive changes occur in the brain and body that leads to greater resilience, well-being and enhanced performance.

The Autonomic Nervous System is like a see-saw. The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is switched on when we are ‘challenged’ and the Para-Sympathetic Nervous System (PSNS) is switched on when we need to rest, restore, repair and regenerate (RRRR). Unfortunately, in this day and age, we are ‘challenged’ constantly. Our SNS is in over-drive and our PSNS is sluggish causing all kinds of physical, psychological and cognitive problems. Most people are unaware that their internal brain-body processes are compromising their ability to function at their best but for optimal health, resilience and performance, our SNS and PSNS needs to be in balance. Autogenic Training teaches us how to create this balance at will.

Through a state of passive observance of bodily signals as a form of biofeedback, Autogenic Training trains us to consciously direct our brain, using passive instruction, to ‘turn down’ our SNS and ‘switch on’ our PSNS, strengthening the body’s natural repair and regulation mechanism, including the immune system.

Research also highlights the role of Autogenic Training in stimulating the balance between the right and left hemispheres of the brain which is instrumental for emotional regulation and effective decision making, problem solving, concentration. It even improves our ability to communicate more effectively!

Evidence highlights Autogenic Training’s role in boosting organisational safety, performance, productivity and return on investment. On an individual level, Autogenic Training (also know as Autogenic Therapy) assists with the prevention and treatment of psychosomatic complaints such as headaches, ulcers, asthma and reflux and Depression, Anxiety and other psychological conditions.

Based on decades of research and thousands of clinical studies, Autogenic Training is a mind-body regeneration technique that actually works! It is a skill for life and the ultimate in true resilience building, stress management and self-actualization.