Because Adler did not view human problems as forms of sickness, Adlerians see emotional and behavioral difficulties as blocks that people encounter in their attempts to realize themselves. Many of the problems Adlerian therapists treat are therefore considered to be _normal_ problems of living faced by _normal_ people. Many clients enter therapy to learn about themselves and to grow. Adlerians have worked with a wide range of clients with a wide range of human problems: * clients interested in personal development * individuals who have become deeply discouraged about their lives * couples and families * delinquents and criminals EMOTIONAL FLOODING THERAPIES Today there are three main varieties of emotional flooding therapies: bioenergetics, primal therapy, and implosive therapy. They share the central belief that, by taxing you, pushing you to experience frustration, anger, or anxiety, the therapist may help you achieve a lasting sense of emotional relief and well-being. These three therapies do, however, vary a good deal in the techniques they use to encourage clients to experience strong emotions. Bioenergetics makes use of an unusual approach to physical exercise. Primal therapy encourages clients to relive early painful memories. Implosive therapy asks clients to use imagery to increase, in a controlled manner, feelings that cause emotional distress. These approaches share the assumption that {162} emotional difficulties can be helped by a direct release of feelings that have come to be blocked. BIOENERGETICS _For rigid, inhibited people who have pent-up feelings in need of release._ Alexander Lowen (1910-2008) was trained as a physician and then as a psychoanalyst under the direction of Austrian psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). Reich believed that emotional problems resulted from sexual repression. He was a social revolutionary in his attempts to bring about sexual freedom. He became a controversial figure and was not able to put his ideas on a serious and professionally respectable footing. Lowen was interested in the therapeutic implications of Reich's work. He developed an approach to therapy that emphasizes not sexual liberation and pleasure as Reich did, but a sense of freedom that he felt could result only from an approach to the body that allows you to drop tense muscular armor and to feel integrated and fully alive. Lowen found that emotionally troubled people were physically knotted and rigid and tended to breathe in a shallow and constricted way. Lowen devised a variety of physical exercises, such as holding your body in an arched position until exhaustion sets in, making contact with the floor only with hands, head, and feet. These exercises can cause enough stress to arouse intense emotions: crying out, collapsing, feeling rage or tenderness. As these pent-up feelings are released, many clients often discover an increase in positive emotional strength.