Using the Model of Perinatal Matrices in Psychotherapy
by Ted Riskin, LCSW
In
psychology, as in life, there is an abundance of models to use in classifying
people and experiences.
Some examples are the psychiatric diagnoses of the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual, the character structures of Reich and Lowen (schizoid, oral,
psychopathic, masochistic, and rigid), the various systems of personality typing
such as Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram, Freud’s stages of psychosexual
development, Erickson’s eight stages of the life cycle, and so on.
Whether there is any truth to these models is hard to say; perhaps they
are all examples of the human tendency to impose order on chaos, just as we see
constellations in the randomness of the night sky.
A better gauge of a model’s value is its usefulness.
I
have been finding Stanislav Grof ’s model of perinatal matrices useful with
some of my therapy clients. Briefly, this model divides the birth process into
four stages, or Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPM I, II, III and IV).
The First Matrix (BPM I) is the intrauterine existence, which in its
uncomplicated aspects is characterized by only positive feelings of floating,
warmth, connectedness, and having all needs met.
The Second Matrix (BPM II) begins
when the chemistry in the womb changes and strong contractions push against the
fetus and interrupt its nourishment.
This matrix includes feelings of intense fear, powerlessness,
victimization, and often guilt.
Because the cervix is not yet dilated, there is no way out, adding a
sense of hopelessness.
Once the cervix dilates enough to allow movement through the birth canal,
the Third Matrix elements of struggle, aggression, giving and receiving pain,
and sexual charge begin.
Finally, the birth is completed successfully, and (we hope) the infant
reconnects with the mother, leading to a state (the Fourth Matrix or BPM IV)
that is positive like BPM I, but qualitatively different.
One
goal of psychotherapy is to change dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs, as well
as the resulting dysfunctional behavior. Dysfunctional thoughts arise when an
internal feeling leads someone to decide something incorrect about the
environment or the self. Exploring the past provides benefits when the client
becomes clear that a recurring feeling is actually an unresolved feeling from
the past that is getting triggered. This understanding provides the potential to
reinterpret the feeling this way rather than using it to determine what is true
about reality, thereby fixing the dysfunctional thought. Of course, there is no
substitute for working through resistance to the feeling and being willing to
explore it, embrace it, and contain it; cognitively connecting it to the past is
just one piece of the puzzle.
The
experience of Second Matrix is obviously stressful and very difficult to
integrate. As in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the overwhelming emotion
here, combined with the powerful arousal, will likely cause the feeling state to
be locked in the nervous system. Because the fetus' experience is limited to its
current plight and the memory of the First Matrix, because it does not perceive
the cervix as a door with a lock but rather as no opening at all, and because it
has not yet read Grof's books, it has only one hope -- return to the first
matrix. This reality becomes part of the feeling state (or to use Grof's term -
COEX), so that when the feeling is replayed throughout the person's later life,
it seems evident that the only available strategy is to move backwards into the
First Matrix.
One
of the more difficult therapeutic problems, and one that is riddled with
dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors, is the vicious cycle of depression.
Convinced that effort is useless by the pervasive feelings of hopelessness, the
client is not motivated to make necessary life changes. Sometimes the only thing
he holds onto is a fantasy of having all his needs met through no effort of his
own. In order to help clients dispute the cognition that effort is fruitless, I
have been using the perinatal model to introduce the possibility that the belief
comes from some other source than reality. Though it does seem to help them
understand the need to reorient their agenda to move forward, I do not know yet
whether it creates any clinical improvement.
In
a session with a client who presented with Bulimia, she talked about a bad month
of bingeing with food, alcohol, and sex.
She was able to see these behaviors as a natural attempt to return to the
feeling of no boundaries associated with the First Matrix state.
Perhaps saturating the body with food, especially the typical binge
choices of carbohydrates and fats, approximates the feeling of receiving
abundant nourishment through the placenta.
Sex could be an attempt to reproduce the connection with the mother.
And alcohol creates a state where problems disappear as if they never
existed (First Matrix), rather than having to work through them (Third Matrix)
to conclusion (Fourth Matrix).
When people use 12-Step programs to address these types of addiction
problems, they will often continue the attempt to regress by focusing on the
transcendent spiritual component, resisting the practical work necessary to
change their life circumstances.
A
client came for his third session, and after a bit of silence, said, “I
don’t have anything to talk about.”
This makes me feel that the person wants to be saved or fixed by the
therapist, without wanting to take responsibility for doing the work, an
attitude that he confirmed verbally.
In discussing the perinatal model, he could see how his life reflected Second
Matrix themes: the hopelessness and powerlessness felt in his panic attacks, his
craving for fatty foods (possibly a longing for the First Matrix feeling of
satiation), and the sense of victimization reflected in his belief that
"everyone else gets away with stuff, but I always get caught." Looking
at his career dilemma, he was able to clearly and vividly envision himself doing
the work he loved, but he could not imagine himself going through the schooling
necessary to reach that goal.
Using the Grof perinatal model, we established his task as redirecting
his focus to possibilities of moving forward and developing the willingness to
struggle symbolized by the Third Matrix.
A
client’s low self-esteem and tendency to criticize herself harshly were
clearly aggravated by her mother’s judgmental comments.
Even though she knew she should not stand for this treatment, she was
unable to take a stand, or even ask her mother to stop making such comments.
Using the birth model, what is missing is the ability to access the
energy of Third Matrix, where she would fight for her needs regardless of the
pain it might cause her mother.
As
another example, a client stated, “I wish that I could be oblivious to the
fact that everything sucks.”
Rather than work to move forward
and discover what is positive about his life and the world, he would rather
regress to the First Matrix state of blissful ignorance. Or, consider the person
who was reading a book about how to meet people and got so angry she threw it
across the room.
She told me, "Why should you have to work to meet someone?
It should just happen!"
Or, someone else who was studying for an exam that would open up
wonderful career opportunities, but was experiencing intense anxiety as if the
exam was a uterus closing in on her.
In
an EMDR session in which she was addressing some binge eating, a client who
complained of an intense loneliness used the phrase “sliding back.”
We developed this into an image of climbing a cliff, where the effort
seemed endless.
The bingeing was her protest against this hopeless effort, sliding back
to the bottom of the cliff, where at least she could rest.
In this image, the First Matrix is the bottom of the cliff, where no
effort is required and at least she’s safe, while the Fourth Matrix represents
the top of the cliff, where she has lost enough weight and finds a romantic
relationship. Unfortunately, from her Second Matrix experience, she could not
see the top, so sliding back to the bottom was irresistible.
Recognizing this dynamic allowed us to install an image of her looking
around and finding companionship and connection from other people climbing the
cliff next to her.
Shifting from a goal-oriented stance (the “I have to get out of here”
feeling from birth) where the goal seemed unreachable, she was able to tap into
a process-oriented perspective where needs could be met while life continued;
indeed, she started to comment about some of the relationships she already had
that were fulfilling.
Other
examples present themselves in Holotropic Breathwork workshops.
One participant, who had been in a deep depression for several months,
particularly missed her former psychic ability, a characteristic of a
BPM I-like lack of boundaries.
In her life, when she began to contact her deep anger, she reverted to
choices such as moving to an idyllic location or getting a job in the New Age
field. Another
participant had a feeling that I was not going to check in with her before her
breathing session.
Instead of asking me to come over, which would be a Fourth Matrix way to
obtain connection, she became very upset with me when her First Matrix need for
connection with no effort was not met.
Over several years, we have seen some participants reduce
their need for the facilitators’ attention
(First Matrix) and replace it with a willingness to initiate contact with
their sitters or other participants (Fourth Matrix).
On
the transpersonal level, the Second Matrix corresponds to hell, or the fall from
grace. Again,
the overwhelming desire is to regain the heavenly state.
The possibility of working through the hellish experience is further
obscured by the timelessness of the experience, as eternity is an inherent
characteristic of hell. Sometimes just explaining this COEX in a therapy session
can help the observing ego realize that the depressive hopelessness is an
overlay of the second matrix, allowing the cognition "I'll never feel
better" to be successfully disputed.
The
birth model correlates well with some other approaches.
In The Inner Door,
11(1)8, February 2000, Jim Compton-Schmidt relates it to the grief process
model of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and the process of recovery from chemical
dependency. In
her book, The Hero Within,
Carol Pearson describes psychological development as a progression through six
archetypes, which in their themes and energies correspond to the perinatal
matrices as follows: Innocent (First Matrix), Orphan and Martyr (Second Matrix),
Wanderer and Warrior (Third Matrix), and Magician (Fourth Matrix).
And of course, there is the "Hero’s
Journey," identified as a cross-cultural myth by Joseph Campbell in The
Hero with a Thousand Faces and exemplified in J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic
The Hobbit (subtitled There
and Back Again).
Starting from a very comfortable and well-stocked hole in a hill,
accessed by a long tunnel (First Matrix), which is then imposed upon by 13
dwarves against his wishes (Second Matrix), Bilbo Baggins survives many dark and
perilous adventures (Third Matrix) before returning home, having gained honor,
wealth, and a sense of self (Fourth Matrix).
Ken
Wilber describes the “Pre/Trans Fallacy,” essentially a confusion between
two types of nonpersonal consciousness.
The prepersonal is irrational, an infantile state of fusion, lacking
awareness, and precedes the self-conscious individual ego in development.
The transpersonal is numinous, divine, superconscious, spiritual, and
represents growth beyond the individual ego.
Because both are non-personal, they are often confused in the same way
that First Matrix bliss is confused with Fourth Matrix spirituality.
Similarly, in Eva Pierrakos’s Pathwork, the Guide
discusses issues of unity and duality, and the meaning of evil.
From this perspective, the First Matrix would represent a dualistic
perspective where evil is banished and only good experienced.
The Second Matrix would be the experience of being victimized by evil.
In the Third Matrix, one would either fight evil or identify with it.
And in the Fourth Matrix, there is only good, but unlike the First Matrix
good, it combines both dualistic poles and transcends them both.
For
the final words on this idea, let’s turn to T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets:
We
shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.