Welcome to
Functional Analysis Psychosomatic Psychotherapy Australia
More Webinars & workshops with Will Davis and other members of the Functional Analysis faculty coming soon
watch this space
Training Course in Functional Analysis Psychosomatic Psychotherapy
The course is taught in presence in Melbourne by the Australian practitioners Ermanno Bergami & Maria Sangiorgi.
Will Davis the founder the this Body Psychotherapy approach will join online from France.
Training Program
Level 1
Certificate of Participation in the Training
of basic Points & Position Touch-Technique
Level 2 – Intermediate
Practitioner Certificate in
Points & Positions Touch-Technique
Level 3 – Advanced
Certificate of Functional Analysis Psychosomatic Psychotherapist
Go here for course outline
The current training course is not taking any more students.
We welcome Expressions of interests
To register download the form
Each module counts towards 14 hours of CPD category A
Become a Member of Functional Analysis Psychosomatic Psychotherapy Australia
Benefits of Becoming a Member:
- 10% discount on most activities and events of the association*
- Access to the Vimeo channel of Functional Analysis.
- 10% on the first 4 individuals session with Functional Analysis Practitioners
- Access to excerpts of Will Davis’ books and specialists’ articles
* excluding long term training programs.
How to become a member
What is Functional Analysis?
Functional Analysis developed from the later stages of Wilhelm Reich’s pioneering work. The most important of his discoveries is the energetic qualities of the life force. There is a difference between being dead and being alive. That difference is the result of the pulsation of the life force. In health, the life force flows outward to the periphery and back in again to the center in an open coherent movement. Disease is understood as a pulsatory disturbance of the life force. The two parts of this coordinated energetic flow Reich called expansion and contraction. We call this movement the outstroke and the instroke of the pulsation. CONTINUE READING
Functional Analysis Gems from Will Davis’s wittings
In a humanistic oriented body psychotherapy such as Functional Analysis the “internal environment” of the patient is what has always been focused on; the patient’s experience of him or herself; interpretive interoception
Reich had described the elementary process of the expansive and contractive pulsation in orgone functioning and declared it his most important discovery. Expansion was the expressive movement of the life force within the organism from the core to the periphery and beyond. This was equated with pleasure.
The Points&Positions Touch Technique in Functional Analysis is specifically designed to take advantage of the plasticity of connective tissue but in a different manner than either the manual, and the movement therapies or traditional Body Psychotherapy.
The relevance of connective tissue’s structures and functions to body oriented psy- chotherapies is evident. Its role in all metabolic functions, in creating space, shape and contour, its ability to receive, transmit, transport and amplify energies determining the quality of subjec- tive experiences, its role in protecting us physically and psychically by re-enforcing over stressed muscles, and its plasticity all make it indispensable for in-depth body psychotherapy approaches.
By mobilizing the instroke it is possible to work safely with trauma patients by going below the cortical level of cognition and emotions, below the defenses and even below the trauma itself, thereby contacting the undamaged endo self state whereby the patient can “heal” her/himself.
Reich has taught us that character armor is based on the character, on who we are. We build our defenses on a characteristic we have. It makes no sense to defend ourselves with something we do not possess
It is possible to treat trauma patients below defenses, working with the “undamaged” endo self that exists before the trauma.
I believe that this is why connective tissue is so important: its primal origins, its structure and functioning are what bind body and mind physically and energetically, somatically and psychically. To support a unified body/mind state I have utilized a connective tissue, matrix based, bottom-up model rather than a top-down, central nervous system based, cognitive, understanding of evolution, development and behavior. I have used connective tissue in its myriad forms — from liquid to various solid states on to crystals — as the medium, the means whereby, a unified state of body/mind is forged and maintained.
Functional Analysis Psychosomatic Psychotherapy Australia is a non profit association.
It was established in 2020 by Ermanno Bergami and Maria Sangiorgi two Melbourne based Functional Analysis Certified therapists
Our Purpose
To bring a much sought-after body-oriented approaches to Australia, fulfilling the growing need of linking together anatomy and psychotherapy, physical and talking therapies
To provide health professionals with skills and working knowledge in Body based/Somatic practices through research studies, workshops, seminars, professional development courses and full training programs.
To help practitioners enhancing their therapeutic interventions, bringing back to psychotherapy the lost language of touch in a safe and ethical practice.
To collaborate with other associations and institutes that are interested in contributing to further knowledge in the growing field of somatic psychotherapy.
Maria Sangiorgi
Maria holds an Advanced Diploma in Dance Movement Therapy & is an acredited Functional Analysis Psychosomatic Psychotherapist. She is also an Artist, Performer, Humanitarian, Teacher, the creator of Dancing Isis Sacred Somatic Dance and Embodied Bellydance. Maria’s life work draws on the sacred, spiritual and healing path. She combines her therapeutic skills with a passion for anatomy and phisology her practice of Egyptian Dance. She is informed by her practices of in Somatic Awareness, Authentic Movement, Alexander Technique, Continuum, Sacred Dance, metaphysical studies, other life skills & experiences. These competencies make up her unique & personal healing modality. She lives in Austalia where she has a private practice based at the Inner Movement Centre in Higgett, Victoria. She works both face to face and online with individuals, couples and small groups. Maria also works in Italy, Japan & Bali.
Ermanno Bergami
Ermanno Bergami is a Clinical registered Body Psychotherapist, an Accredited Supervisor with PACFA (Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia) and a fully certified Functional Analyst.
Ermanno was born in Italy and has a Master degree in Human Sciences. He was trained in England in Group Therapy and Body-centered Psychotherapies. The work originated from Wilhelm Reich and expanded by Alexander Lowen and John Pierrakos . He also completed his training in Functional Analysis, a contemporary Reichian body-psychotherapy approach developed by Will Davis.
Ermanno has lived and worked in various countries and continents . He started his private practice In London 40 years ago. He worked in UK, Holland, Germany, Portugal, Italy and Australia.
He has lead thousands of therapy group workshops for individuals, team leaders and organisations. He has devoted many years of his working life in deepening the relationship between traumas and addiction.
Together with colleagues he has contributed to develop a new structured approach in Group Supervision called “Intervision” with a particular focus on burn-out, compassion-fatigue.
He remains passionate about researching and studying the function of the body, energy and consciousness.
The Home and Origins of Functional Analysis
The centre of Functional Analysis in situated in south of France in Will and Lilly Davis ‘s residential seminar facility where they host summer training workshops and week long residential, concentrated therapy programs. They also travel to other countries offering training, as guest trainers in other programs and presenting at professional congresses. They have taught extensively throughout Europe including Senigllia, Italy where Ermano Bergami and Maria Sangiorgi gained their accreditation in Functional Analysis.
Functional Analysis began its development in the early 1980’s when Will began to combine the gentle Potions&Positions touch technique, his instroke methods and a specific verbal approach supporting the instroke which he found was more effective and was offering a unique methodology for the psychosomatic relationship.
To know more about Will Davis and the origins of Functional Analysis click on the link.
Why we chose to be Functional Analysis Therapist
Anna Rosa Francoletti, MD, Orthodontist, Bioenergetic Analyst, Functional Analyst, Senigallia Italia
I have always worked with physical contact, with sensations and emotions, even through meditations and visualisations, in search of silencing the mind and to bring out the true Self, the one that resides in every cell of our body, in every tissue, in every organ.
When I met Will Davis founder of Functional Analysis and saw and experienced his work based on touch (P&P technique), on breathing, on silence, on presence, I had no doubts about joining his training course and later his supervision in Functional Analysis.
The concepts of Instroke, of “going inside”, of listening deeply to our Self, of making ourselves “vast”, welcoming and feeling what is already there, reaching our inner source, have deeply affected me and conquered me so much that I resumed my own personal therapy with this approach to complete and fulfil some unresolved aspects of my life.
The choice, the feeling of going deeper beyond the family history and the events that happened and did not happen, the words spoken and unspoken, was compensated by results, by a more intimate a knowledge of myself in my work but above all at the personal and relational level .
The “Instroke” approach leads us gently and delicately inside, it brings us closer to our true essence, to our basic functioning. Spontaneously ,this meditative-like state, touched during the sessions, triggers a spontaneous process of awareness first and then of change, where the resistances, untouched, melt and we begin to live no longer in protection or in a reactive mode but proactively choosing without fear.
As for the application of this approach to my patients, I can only say that I could no longer do without Functional Analysis, which has become an integral part of my way of working, of my personal style .
One time my Bioenergetic Analysis was centred on intersubjectivity, today there is also the important part of interpersonal therapy ,which is Will Davis’s Functional Analysis. This causes changes in patients’ lives, transforms bodies along with thought, allows the construction of bridges and stairs between the various planes of the personality: from the energetic, to the sensory-proprioceptive, to the physical-motor, to the emotional, to the mental. It creates continuity and unity by overcoming duality, in accord with the modern concepts of Quantum Physics .
In this abolition of separation and duality, we become One, one in one, one in peace, one in the light of being, pure consciousness . This implication, even if not always, can lead to touch spiritual dimensions, I would dare to say mystical, naturally in the secular sense. We are close to the essence of life, of vital energy, of vitality (however we like to call it), ultimately of the sacredness of life.
In this spiritual dimension we can get closer to the meaning that life has for us, to our mission in the world, with an open heart, with senses activated, a vibrant body, a silent mind .
Anna Rosa Francoletti, MD, Orthodontist, Bioenergetic Analyst, Functional Analyst, Senigallia Italia
Maria Sangiorgi, Dance Movement Therapist, Functional Analyst Therapist, Massage Therapist, Artist, Melbourne Australia.
I have a deep reverence for letting the body tell you what it needs. One of the reasons that I chose to train and work with Functional Analysis, that has become the container of my therapeutic practice is the connection I feel with Instroke process.
As a Dance Movment Therapist I am trained in the Authentic Movement process. This process involves me the therapist witnessing the mover/client. I feel that there is a overlap with the Instroke process and AM. It all relates to what Will Davis calls the Endo Self – that we have a part, our axis, our centre that is in tact, that is what we are born with, that is not affected by external forces – the all knowing self. Both FA and DMT therapies involve movement. I am fortunate enough the be able to work with both and sometime together.
Because I am also a Massage Therapsit I have a strong connection to touch. The Points&Positions part of Functional Analysis is absolutely invaluable in creating a wholistic functioning therapy.
Ermanno Bergami, Clinical Psychotherapist, Functional Analyst, Supervisor, Group’s Dynamics Trainer, Melbourne, Australia.
When I encountered Will Davis, his unique synthesis of verbal and physical treatment, his artful, scientific and caring approach brought me back where I started from and what I believed in.
His sensitive, not invasive, respectful touch-technique based on the most recent scientific studies on the importance of the connective tissue made full sense for me.
Psychotherapy cannot exclude the most elementary form of human connection, nurturing and healing: the physical touch.
Functional Analysis also fulfilled my intellectual desire for unity. It brought together in a coherent conceptual syncretism what I was always interested and passionate about: Psychology, Biology, Physiology and Physics. Thank you Will and Lilly.
Looking for a Therapist in Melbourne or Online?
Ermanno Bergami and Maria Sangiorgi are the only Functional Analsysis Psychosomatic Psychotherepists practising in Australia, both based in the Melbourne area.
They trained with Will Davis in Italy and were the instigator the first training program and of the associaton Somaticamente based in Senigalla.
Maria’s work is based in Highett and Ermanno works from Fitzroy and Ferntree Gully.