A Bioenergetic-Analytical and Phenomenological Approach to Pain Posture, Experience, Expressive Behavior

The somatic and psychological concepts of pain are expanded to include the perspective of the enactment approach. Pain is therefore now (also) conceptualized as a "5E process": Embodied, Embedded, Enacted, Emotive, and Extended. Pain is therefore, in contrast to a biopsychosocial concept, also understood as a relational and emergent process of finding meaning through an experienced body that is inextricably linked to the world that we shape and that shapes us. This model of understanding is discussed in relation to body psychotherapy, in particular bioenergetic analysis. Specifically, this is related to posture, personal experience, and self-expression under stress.