Yawning

Abstract

Alexander Lowen emphasized the importance of changes in the body as a main goal of a body oriented psychotherapy. He focused especially on breathing and vibrating as involuntary movements and keys of changing and supporting a person’s grounding. Although yawning as another involuntary movement that shows a lot of changes on a body level, it is not in the center of Bioenergetic work yet. In my practice, yawning became an important and welcomed sign of therapeutic process and development which helps guide me through Bioenergetic sessions. The article will give some information about the current scientific findings and neurobiological aspects of yawning. A little study according to a simple yawning exercise gives data of self-experience of participants. Following phenomenological methods, new hypotheses of the reason and the purpose of yawning are presented. Some therapeutic implications, such as how the yawning of the client and of the therapist can be used in the process of a body-oriented psychotherapy, conclude the paper.