Sophrology

Sophrology, coming from Ancient Greek σῶς / SOS ("harmony"), φρήν / PHREN ("mind"), and -λογία / -logia ("study/science"), Sophrology is the study of the consciousness in harmony; a healthcare philosophy made of very practical physical and mental exercises aiming at a prepared mind in a focused body.

This method was developed by Professor Alfonso Caycedo, a Colombian Neuro-Psychiatrist, in 1960’s along his personal and professional journey. He presented in 1970 at the first International Sophrology Conference as an attempt to study scientifically the human consciousness, both a philosophy and a way of life as well as a therapy and a personal development technique.” He later said: "Sophrology is learning to live".

Professor Caycedo (of Spanish Basque origin, born in Bogota, Colombia in 1932), neuropsychiatrist, created 12 Sophrology degrees in 1960 while practicing medicine at a hospital in Madrid, Spain.

He originally set out to find a way of healing depressed and traumatised clients by leading them to health and happiness with the least possible use of drugs and psychiatric treatments.

He also wanted to study human consciousness and the means of varying its states and levels. He started looking into clinical hypnosis, phenomenology and Western relaxation techniques: Jacobson’s progressive relaxation, Schultz’s autogenic training.

From Jacobson, he mainly kept the idea of differential relaxation: use only the minimum muscle tension necessary to do something as well as the ability to reduce anxiety by relaxing muscular tension. No suggestion or psychotherapy, just muscular relaxation for mental peace. With Schultz, which is a more “mental” method, he was inspired by our ability to get relaxed by imagining it, by visualising it. In October 1960, he created the word “Sophrology” and opened the first department of clinical Sophrology in the Santa Isabel Hospital in Madrid.

In 1963, he married a French yoga enthusiast. He started looking into Eastern techniques around that time. Between 1963 and 1964, he worked under the psychiatrist and phenomenologist Ludwig Binswanger (who had studied with Husserl and Heidegger) in Switzerland and was very much influenced by his work.

Then, intrigued by the works of yoga and encouraged by Binswanger, he travelled to India and Japan from 1965 to 1968 where he studied yoga, Tibetan Buddhist meditation and Japanese Zen. He approached each discipline, theory and philosophy with the intention of discovering what, exactly, improved people's health, both physically and mentally, in the fastest possible time and with lasting results.

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