School of Simplicity

Short-term therapy for long-term wellbeing.
RELAX your mind and body with AUTOGENIC TRAINING (AT) for RELAXATION.

On a ten week Autogenic Training course you will learn a simple but powerful deep relaxation technique which will help you tap into your body’s automatic healing processes and embark on a journey towards sustained wellbeing and resilience.

1. Why choose Autogenic Training
2. What is Autogenic Training
3. How does Autogenic Training work
4. How will Autogenic Training benefit me
5. What does the Autogenic Training course involve
6. Conditions that Autogenic Training can help with
7. Client testimonials
8. Terms and Conditions

Why choose Autogenic Training

It’s autogenic: a self- generated process so you won’t be dependent on a voice, environment, or time.
It’s fast: the exercises take only 10 minutes
It’s cost effective: no special equipment or clothes are required
It can be practiced almost anywhere, according to the time you have available.

The training is an inexpensive and effective method to keep yourself both
physically and emotionally healthy for the rest of your life.

What is Autogenic Training

Autogenic Therapy (AT) is a powerful mind and body technique involving simple relaxation and body awareness exercises. These reduce the intensity of the body’s stress response, and replace it with a calmer physiological state in which self-healing naturally begins to occur.

The basic AT exercises focus on various physical manifestations of relaxation in the body: heaviness in the musculo-skeletal system and warmth in the circulatory system (*). These are followed by awareness of the heartbeat, breathing, the abdomen and a cool forehead.

During the course we talk about the biological and cultural background of the exercises and also about body symbolism. Together with learning the deep-relaxation programme, you will be shown various verbal and physical off-loading exercises (helping you manage anger, anxiety and crying) to deal with releasing both current and previously suppressed emotions. This is based on the fact common to Autogenic therapists and many other therapists, especially body therapists, that emotion which is experienced but not expressed often becomes stored in the body.

(*)When we are in a stressful situation, we react bodily and emotionally. Our whole body and all of our cells store information, and we can also integrate the general state of tension within our muscles. Heaviness and warmth focus on the musculo-skeletal system. The first two exercises give us an opportunity to access this hidden information and begin to process it. The reduction of muscular tension sends a powerful message to the body’s network: it transmits the information through the brain stem to all areas of the brain that the body and muscles are resting, and so the mind can relax.

How does Autogenic Training work

AT involves learning a set of easy mental exercises using designated phrases that are repeated as silent thoughts while sitting or lying in a specific, supported and neutral posture. It allows the mind and body to switch off the ‘fight/flight/freeze’ stress response, and instead promotes rest, recuperation and recovery. Autogenic means self-generating, – you are, in effect, treating yourself. With the support and guidance of a therapist, you gradually learn to trust your own process of self-healing.

In our society we tend to favour our left brain hemisphere which is a place of logical thinking and working with information, while the right brain hemisphere, which is a place of emotions, pictures and imaginations, is often neglected. When you practice AT, the two hemispheres work together, moving towards balance.

How will Autogenic Training benefit me

Helps you switch from stress to relaxation
Increases confidence and self-esteem
Significantly improves sleep quality
Increases concentration and focus
Reduces or eliminates anxiety
Provides a tool for self-empowerment and feeling more in control
Gives you health and emotional balance
Promotes personal growth

Long term benefits
All our reactions (on the level of body, mind and soul) are conditioned during childhood. Also we need to discover what we really think and what really matters to us, rather than remain stuck with the values and expectations of our parents. In the process of becoming an adult, we need to ask ourselves, ‘what kind of person do I want to be?’.
Autogenic Training gives us the opportunity to look to the past and see what impact it had on us, what was fair or unfair from our point of view, and what we want to change. It gives an opportunity of acknowledgement and acceptance and enables us to take further steps towards change.

As a therapy, Autogenic Training is both inward and outward facing – and can result in a healthy and harmonious personality when practiced regularly. The intensive focus inwards helps us process new information and emotional experience about our own internal dynamics and human nature. It can rearrange our values, and leads us to deeper self-knowledge that makes it easier to adapt to situations and develop our creativity.

What does the Autogenic Training course involve

Following an initial personal assessment you will learn AT over an eight to ten week period, in one-hourly sessions for individuals, or longer sessions when learning in small groups (four to six people). Each week you will learn simple formulas that can be repeated silently to yourself while you are sitting down or lying in a comfortable position. Between the sessions you will be asked to practice the exercise two to three times each day and keep a record of your observations. You will learn to practice ‘passive focus and concentration’ through observing yourself in a completely new way.

Later, the method belongs to you, to use in whatever way best suits your lifestyle.

Conditions that Autogenic Training can help with

The major influence AT can have on any of the above symptoms is reduction of attendant anxiety. The increased confidence that clients develop from knowing they can help themselves can have a significant impact on their state of health.

When the mind is well, it usually follows that the body is well.

Client testimonials

I suffered from insomnia for about two years – and a fortnight after starting the AT course I could sleep again and re-energise my body with the exercise. RK, London, UK

I have had serious digestion problems. Through relaxation this symptoms significantly improved. AL, London, UK

I am much more focused in everyday life and feel when I am getting stressed. Usually I feel my neck and shoulders become tense, but because I am aware of this I can do an exercise and avoid getting a migraine. FK, London, UK

As a student I was very worried about the summer exam period. Using AT reduced my anxiety levels and enabled me to sleep properly during the preparation period. Consequently I was much more effective in my performance. SH, Essex, UK

I learned AT during my pregnancy and I have to say it was the best start for the baby and for me as a ‘new-born mother’. I didn’t know anything about motherhood, but AT gave me the confidence to handle new situations and deal with postnatal depression. KB, Budapest, Hungary

Terms and Conditions