Gerda Boyesen - Life

Life

Gerda Boyesen was born in 1922 in Bergen. Her first marriage was with Carl Boyesen. In 1947 she read a book by Wilhelm Reich which made a strong impression on her. Shortly thereafter she began therapy with Ola Raknes, a vegetotherapist who had been trained by Reich. Later she studied psychology in Oslo and received training as physiotherapist which led to work with Aadel Bülow-Hansen. Through her own therapy Boyesen got to know the connection between repressed emotions and muscle tensions. In her book Über den Körper die Seele heilen she established and partly described in a very personal manner how she developed her own therapeutic method linking the beginnings of Wilhelm Reich, Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud, through her own studies, her own therapeutic experience as well as her own practice.

Gerda Boyesen is the founder of "Biodynamic Psychology and Psychotherapy". In 1969 she left for London and opened a practice and later an international teaching and training institute. In addition to client-oriented work other focus areas were included, most notably she was the first woman in Europe to establish her own psychotherapeutic training institute.

Gerda Boyesen lived and worked in different, mostly European, countries, however, her work influenced body psychotherapy worldwide. Her books were translated into other languages. She trained psychotherapists over several decades and throughout her life she continued to develop her ideas and methods. She was the mother of three children (Mona Lisa, Ebba and Paul) who all got involved with Biodynamics and psychotherapy and partly carried on the work of their mother or continued in their own directions.