Compensating role of body-oriented psychotherapy in disorders of early character structure of children with visual deprivation

The psychotherapist Lizbet Marcher, the creator of the bodynamic approach, considered the role of sensations in the development of each person to be special and argued that sensations are a kind of bridge between cognitive and expressive forms of psychotherapy. After studying the psychological content of each muscle and the designation of the period when each of them is first activated in the sequence of psychomotor development of any person, psychologists agree that thanks to bodily psychotherapy it is possible to build a patient’s bodily awareness that will ensure the formation of bodily ego. The latter, in turn, serves as the basis for working with age-related movements, emotional expression and activation of resources. Violations of the early structures of the character of children with visual deprivation can be associated with complex, most often chronically negative relationships in the family, with prolonged depression of the mother, as a result of which the child naturally develops characterologic defenses. In addition, visual impairment affects the child’s activity, including the research and exploratory nature of his activity, which can directly affect the child’s cognitive development. During the two initial stages of character development (structure of needs and autonomy), a child with a visual impairment is at risk of not being able to satisfy his need (because of a limited desire to learn the world) or not forming a sense of reality (balance, development of space). Correcting the development of the child in both cases will help classes with the use of elements of bodily psychotherapy, which is corrective-compensatory orientation. At the same time, it is important to investigate and restore the movements of the previous age level, before proceeding to the solution of the detected problem, which corresponds to the biological age of the child.