Patrick Rihm, Pantarei Approach Practitioner
MOVING THROUGH OR BEYOND AN OBSTACLE
I sat with Patrick outside one evening last month as he and his colleagues spent the week training in the Pantarei module about ‘Emotions’. Participating in the practitioner training program provides a structure for Patrick to dedicate time and energy towards his interest in the body, and personal development. He has always had a broad interest in movement and he loves to dance. These are his connections to touch and communication.
The training program of the Pantarei Approach consist of 6 modules of 5 days each, spread out over the course of 12 to 16 months. I met Patrick when he was in his 3rd module. The focus of this module is on the emotional world of our clients and their ability to acknowledge, give space to and navigate their emotions. I was lucky enough to be an assistant during that module and could perceive the training from an outsider’s point of view.
Both Claudia Glowik and Vered Manasse were teaching this module. I know from them how exited they were to meet Patrick’s class again, after the training had been paused due to the Corona regulations. They had met with their students online during that period. But as the approach has to do with hands-on teaching, everyone was thankful to be able to continue the training in-person.
BACK TO INSPIRATION
While hitchhiking in his early 20s, Patrick got to know a young woman, who was training to become a somatic practitioner at the time. She was looking for clients to practice on, and this piqued his interest. He traveled with her for a short time, and the experience really stuck with him. Now aged 34, Patrick works on an organic farm and started the Pantarei Approach training in 2019.
“I will quit farming at the end of 2020 for a while in order to heal. I feel tension in my body. The biggest drawback of farming is instrumentalizing my body. I put my body at the use of some other goal and I really feel like dedicating some time for being a body.”
I ask Patrick why he chose to join the Pantarei training program. He says, “Last year I decided to look into that again and found that the Pantarei Approach exists in Berlin. I was interested in studying a different method in Vienna, but Pantarei was even more appealing. To be honest, it had a lot to do with the people that offered it, and the setting it was taught in.”
Patrick explains that due to the Coronavirus, he felt the difference coming back to the education last month. The lack of touch in the past months had created a lot of hesitation for him. As a practitioner, you need to become aware of your own body and sensations. Patrick remarked that it was not so easy doing that while keeping the physical distance required by the Corona regulations.
“I was one of the people that was really strict with Corona due to the people in my surroundings. It really alienated me. I had a hard time being close because I wasn’t sure what was appropriate due to the virus.” He feels that this week’s training brought focus back and has allowed for a reconnection with his colleagues. He tells me this week’s training was greatly needed.
YOUR INNER CRITIC
As I spent the week with the class, as their professional assistant, the impression I get of Patrick’s colleagues are of a mature, professional group who are truly interested in each other. They ask poignant questions to their teachers Claudia and Vered, as they learn the responsibility of listening to a client’s emotions. The overall feeling of the group is committed and safe. “I feel at home with that actually,” he says as he agrees with my observation of his colleagues. Patrick looks very comfortable in class, in receiving sessions, as well as giving sessions. He appears present and curious.
How has it been to give sessions this week?
“Your perception of me and how I feel about myself are not the same. I am hyper-critical. Whenever that enters, I get really frustrated. But sometimes I can drop it and it goes away and I’ve had some really interesting moments. Doing something, analyzing it, and being critical is something I do in other aspects of my life and I’m doing it here in the training too.”
Later that week I asked Claudia and Vered about self-judgement. They agreed that it is impressive to see how big a gap there is between the level students believe they are at, and what they are really capable of. “Being able to give such in-depth sessions in module 3, where the practitioner already combines touch, and verbal communication to connect to the emotional experience of their clients, is so impressive.
Students can be busy with what they haven’t done well enough, hypnotized by their own judgement. So much so, that they might miss what they actually are doing.” I was glad to be reminded of this point as it’s something I relate to myself. We are often drawn to criticizing ourselves more harshly than we need to. “For us,” they said, “with over 15 years of experience in teaching hundreds of students, the phenomena is still so puzzling, even if we know it also from ourselves.”
GIVING TIME FOR SPACE
During module 3, Claudia taught the class how to touch the belly of their clients. The class learned to follow the breathing of their clients, to touch in different ways and to encourage their clients to let go and allow flow. Claudia explained, that when we touch the belly, just like any other physical areas, we touch far beyond the physical aspect. We also touch the ability of the person to digest emotions, to let go, or to allow flow.
She explained how to be attentive with your client and to communicate with them while touching.
I met Patrick just after he had given his classmate a session, in which he worked on the belly.
“I was working in the practitioner roll and communicating verbally with my client while touching him on his belly. It was quite clear what emotions he had, he could voice them, but he couldn’t allow them to have more space.” Patrick explains that he felt at first that he was trying to push his client to express something but it didn’t work out, and only when he accepted what was there, his client found his way to be with his emotions, and allowed himself to take more space. “I just gave it time and we returned to it more gradually. We dropped the idea of it having to be a breakthrough. This allowed him to be able to give his emotions some space. It was really an interesting experience.”
YOUR GOALS IN THE TRAINING
During the training program, students exchange sessions. This means, that they not only give sessions to their classmates, but they also receive sessions. In this particular module, Patrick received a few sessions from the same classmate and as such, went through a process himself.
What do you hope to accomplish by the end of the training?
“I want to be able to be more present with people. Touch lives. Change lives in a beneficial way. I want to learn and have more of an idea of social dynamics and the psychology of it. I also wish to reduce my social anxiety. To be more okay with who I am. Basically, I want to develop more social skills to employ in everyday life.”
What have you learned about yourself in sessions?
“Lately I talked about allowing my strength and size to show. I feel like I am making myself small to fit in. In just a few days, I have less of a need already to do that here. I still do it, but already less.”
And the future?
“I want to go back to the farming at some point and if at all possible, connect movement and bodywork to something goal-oriented like organic farming. I feel people in the Pantarei training are really willing to put the focus on what they experience and I find farmers can easily act in the world. Somehow I would like to have these two worlds intertwined and around me to enrich each other, but it’s just an idea for now— to dedicate energy to both of these sides.”
Throughout our talk, Patrick speaks calmly, precisely looking for the right words. His face often lights up unexpectedly with a big smile. He says he wants to make the world a better place. He laughs at himself for this statement, but it’s clear, that as an organic farmer and a new Pantarei practitioner, Patrick seriously cares about the earth and the people on it.
Patrick can be contacted at: pa**********@we*.de
Written by Mike O’Connor 