The Gentle Bio-Energetics Institute

“I hope that every person will grow up with the knowledge of how to heal one’s traumas.”
     --Eva Reich, MD, Founder of Gentle Bio-Energetics

The Gentle Bio-Energetics Institute is a not for profit corporation that serves to help individuals of all ages deal with physical, emotional and spiritual trauma. The Gentle Bio-Energetics techniques, developed by Eva Reich, MD, help individuals melt the energetic armor that they developed after encountering trauma, which interferes with the natural healing process. Learning about trauma and its effects on our lives is an important step to preventing future trauma. We wish to make Eva’s powerful healing tools available to whoever may need them throughout the US and abroad.

The Gentle Bio-Energetics Institute is approved by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTNB) as a continuing education provider under Category “A”. 

A Brief History of Gentle Bio-Energetics

Gentle Bio-Energetics is the name Eva Reich has given to her development of the therapeutic work of her father, Wilhelm Reich. Gentle Bio-Energetics developed from Eva's work as her father’s assistant in the 1950's and her world-wide work until 1992. Drawing on her vast experiences she created an educational and therapeutic model integrating many verbal and body therapy tools for healing and growth.

Wilhelm Reich was a young associate of Sigmund Freud in Vienna, Austria in the 1920's. Wilhelm was a brilliant student in the psychoanalytic movement and became a leader of technical seminars. He later began exploring body memories as well as using cognitive processes. He observed the body to see how it expressed what a person talked about. Seeing tight muscles in his patients, Reich might reach out and touch the tight muscles. The clients would often experience an emotional discharge such as crying, or they might remember an early scene of abuse. He discovered that trauma and abuse causes both cognitive and physical armor and that releasing armor can facilitate recovering of our inner core to free our fundamental life energy. Using this process for many years, Reich became a pioneer in integrating cognitive therapy and body memory. He also became a reformer, believing that what we learn from our clients that is destructive to humanity should be applied to social structures to create a healthy society. His work was radical for the 1920’s and caused a split between Reich and the psychoanalytic community. Eventually he migrated to the United States and continued his work at his research center in Maine until his death in 1957. Many of the body therapies in the United States and Europe have roots back to Wilhelm Reich’s work. 

Dr. Eva Reich moved to the United States in 1938 and eventually became one of her father’s closest assistants. She paid particular attention to her father's gentle touch with children and infants and the resulting expansion of their energy. Then, while working with premature babies in Har­lem Hospital in New York in the 1950's, she used a light delicate touch to help them survive. Eva coined the term Butterfly Touch Therapy to describe this gentle touch. In her later practice she continued to use a gentle touch and approach to melt armor rather than trying to break it down. She found that this level of touch worked with both adults and children with amazing results. While conducting workshops around the world, she incorporated many tools that were compatible with her approach into Gentle Bio-Energetics.

Eva has dedicated her life to both preventing and healing trauma, out of which armor develops. She was an advocate of improving birthing practices, healthy child rearing and community support of its members. Eva has freely given of herself to help humanity around the world. She often worked with low-income people to improve the quality of their lives. Groups around the world have honored her for her contributions to the world community. As a part of that work, Eva taught her philosophy, theory and techniques in workshops and seminars from the mid 1970’s until her retirement in 1992.

Richard Overly met Eva Reich at one of her workshops in 1985. Impressed with the changes that happened in the lives of those treated with Gentle Bio-Energetics techniques, he attended all the workshops Eva presented in his area through 1990. Richard used the tools in his private practice, assisted Eva in her workshops, and started teaching his own workshops with her endorsement.

In 1991 Richard moved to Asheville, North Carolina to continue working in private practice and teaching Gentle Bio-Energetics. Here he began to author training materials and to share his vision of making Gentle Bio-Energetics available to many more people worldwide. In 1997 interested individuals helped establish a not for profit organization, the Gentle Bio-Energetics Foundation with that vision as its mission. The name was changed to Gentle Bio-Energetics Institute to more accurately reflect our commitment to education, in 2002.