Autogenic Training: How It Works, Benefits, & Tips for Getting Started

What Is Autogenic Training?

Autogenic training is a specific technique used to induce the body’s relaxation response and calm the internal stress response.¹ The approach follows a very specific relaxation procedure involving repetitive phrases and gentle focus on targeted areas of the body in order to create relaxing sensations of heaviness and warmth throughout your whole being.^2,3,4

The ultimate goal of autogenic training is for people to be able to use it on their own. However, it’s also used as a tool in therapy.¹ It can be helpful to learn with professional guidance because it isn’t an easy or quick process to master. It typically takes dedicated time and practice, often four to six months, to learn completely.^4,5

Autogenic Definition

The term “autogenics” means self-created. With this relaxation method, you use autosuggestion—phrases you say to yourself, mind to body—to automatically generate a calmer physical and mental state.^2,6

How Was Autogenic Training Developed?

Autogenic Training was developed by Johannes Schultz in Germany in the 1920s, and has commonly been implemented throughout Europe since. In the 1960s, Wolfgang Luthe brought autogenic training to the United States after co-authoring the book, Autogenic Therapy, with Schultz. The approach was originally derived from hypnotherapy, which dates back to ancient Egypt and Greece.⁷

Autogenic training is thought to work similarly to biofeedback, a relaxation technique used to control body functions that the client typically cannot consciously control.⁸ By engaging in autogenic training, it is believed that clients can move out of the fight-or-flight sympathetic nervous system response into the restful parasympathetic nervous system.⁹

What Can Autogenic Training Help With?

Because autogenic training helps your whole body and mind relax by affecting not just muscle tension but your body’s autonomic processes like heart and respiration rate and temperature, it can help with many different challenges you are facing, whether they are affecting your mental health or your physical health.⁴ The sequential process slows down your body’s operations and quiets the damaging stress response.

People often utilize autogenic training to help with the following:^3,4,5,10

• General or chronic stress
• Anxiety
• Phobias
• Depression
• Addictions
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Pain management
• Tension headaches
• Migraine headaches
• High blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Symptoms related to cancer treatment
• Athletic performance
• Preparation for childbirth

Limitations of Autogenic Training

While autogenic training can serve as a helpful self-regulation tool, it is not a replacement for mental health therapy. It shouldn’t be used with people who are not oriented to reality, like those experiencing psychosis, dissociation, hallucinations, or delusions. It is also not recommended for people with heart conditions or other physical limitations that might impede a client’s ability to participate in this treatment modality.

Young children are also not developmentally ready to participate in autogenic training, making this a more appropriate intervention for adolescents or adults. There are no specific certification requirements for practicing it, and many people implement it in their self-care routine at home in order to manage stress.⁹

How Does Autogenic Training Work?

Autogenic training works by teaching your mind and body to work together to become calm and relaxed on demand. Your body begins to respond directly and immediately to your verbal commands so you can affect your body’s inner workings, including your breathing rate, heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature.⁵ As you learn how to directly influence your body’s autonomic processes, your ability to create a relaxation response improves over time.¹

While you can learn the steps of autogenic training on your own by finding scripts online or with a smartphone app, it’s recommended that you work with a trained professional to learn the process because it can be challenging to implement at first.⁶ Having formal instruction, support, and accountability can help keep you on track and progressing positively.

Rather than learning the autogenic sequence in its entirety up front, you learn the phases one at a time, practicing each one for a few minutes several times a day for two- to three weeks before moving to the next phase.^4,5 Each phase has a distinct purpose and involves the repetition of specific phrases targeted to different parts of the body.

While you can alter the precise wording of the phrases, the general focus of each stage remains the same. The process is slow, relaxed, and repetitive. Autogenic training is progressive, always beginning with the first stage and several repetitions of the associated phrases. Even once you’ve learned all six phases and are engaging in the whole sequence at once, you remain in one phase until your body responds, and you move gradually this way through all six.

Although it takes several weeks to learn one phase and a few months to learn the full sequence, once you have learned the entire process, you begin to move through it smoothly. Once learned, it’s important to use autogenic training at least once per day because relaxation and therapeutic benefits deepen over time.¹ The more you practice, the more quickly your body will respond to your prompts. You’ll begin to notice that you achieve a more thorough state of relaxation in just a few minutes of doing autogenic training.

Autogenic Training Exercises

Autogenic training involves a sequence of six phases designed to progressively and systematically help your mind and body relax and let go of tension. The general purpose of the full sequence is to create sensations of warmth and heaviness throughout the body and coolness of the forehead.

The six standard exercises used in autogenic training include:^1,4,5

1. Heaviness in the muscles of the arms and legs: Starting with one limb at a time, you state something like, “My left arm is growing heavy.” Initially, you begin with only one limb, repeating the phrase several times and allowing yourself to feel the relaxed, heavy sensation in just one limb at a time, each for several days before moving to the next. Once you’ve mastered this phase, you relax your arms and legs at once by stating, “My arms and legs grow heavy.”
2. Warmth in the body: Once you are experiencing heaviness, you move your focus to the sensation of warmth. As before, you first master one body part at a time and then can focus on warmth in your whole body at once.
3. Calm heartbeat: When you feel warm and heavy, you turn your attention to slowing your heart rate. You might state, “My chest feels relaxed and warm. My heartbeat is slow and peaceful.” Like the other stages, you repeat the phrase slowly several times until you feel your heart respond.
4. Calm, deep breathing: Next, you progress to your breathing without directly trying to force it into a certain pattern or rate. To avoid actively controlling your breath, you say something like, “My body breathes me.”
5. Softness and warmth in the abdomen: Gently help your abdominal area let go of tension and pain by stating, “My gut (or chest or solar plexus) is warm and soft.
6. Coolness in your forehead: Soothe tension in your head and face by cooling the internal temperature in this area of your body. You might state, “My forehead is relaxed and cool.”

After you’ve learned each phase separately, you progress through all six phases in one session. The length of time a complete autogenic training session takes will vary according to what your mental and physical state is when you settle in to do the exercises.

Sometimes, you may achieve heaviness, warmth, and relaxation fairly quickly, after only a few repetitions of each phrase. Other times, it may take longer to feel completely relaxed. To reap the benefits of autogenic training, progress slowly and allow your mind and body to respond to each other gradually and naturally.

What Are the Benefits of Autogenic Training?

Through its ability to deeply relax all systems of the body and facilitate calm communication and cooperation between mind and body, autogenic training decreases the body’s stress response to mitigate the damaging effects of stress on mental and physical health.⁵ This systematic, standardized relaxation process overrides the body’s fight-or-flight response and helps regulate systems throughout the body, including the endocrine, immune, and nervous systems.¹

Once you learn the process, you can use it daily for instant relief of mental and physical distress as well as to help the mind and body remain in a calm state over time.⁵ Autogenic training offers both mental and physical benefits to help you experience overall health and wellness.

Physical Benefits of Autogenic Training

Autogenic training has been found to significantly improve symptoms of many different medical conditions. While autogenic training is not a cure for any condition and is not intended to replace standard medical treatment, it can help people better manage symptoms for an improved quality of life.

The physical benefits of autogenic training include:

• System-wide health gains: In an analysis of multiple studies examining the effectiveness of autogenic training on health, researchers found that autogenic training can significantly improve symptoms of headaches, high blood pressure, blood vessel problems, asthma, and pain without an obvious physical cause.²
• Headache relief: A 2018 review found autogenic training to be helpful in decreasing headache pain.¹⁰
• Improvement in chronic health problems: Researchers have concluded that autogenic training is helpful in managing symptoms and psychological distress in people living with chronic health problems.¹

Mental Benefits of Autogenic Training

Just as autogenic training improves physical health, so, too, does it improve mental health. Stress and the body’s fight-or-flight reaction take a toll on mental health.¹¹ As your mind and body respond to your cues throughout the autogenic sequence, you experience mental relaxation and the ability to calm racing thoughts and roiling emotions.

The mental benefits of autogenic training include:

• Anxiety relief: Researchers discovered formal relaxation like autogenic training had a direct and positive impact on anxiety symptoms.¹²
• Anxiety and stress relief following medical procedures: People who learned and used autogenic training in addition to their regular medical care experienced significantly less anxiety following a heart procedure than those who only received standard medical care after the procedure. Further, the group using autogenic training reported improvements in their overall quality of life.¹³
• Improvement in depression and anxiety symptoms: Studies revealed that participants living with depression and/or anxiety who implemented regular autogenic training experienced a significant improvement in symptoms and quality of life.²

Is Autogenic Training Effective?

Autogenic training has been found in studies to be effective in improving both mental and physical health. A 2002 report concluded that this relaxation method is moderately to significantly effective in improving both mental and physical health.²

Autogenic training is considered to be an effective form of relaxation for overall health and well-being.^5,10 However, the degree of success each person experiences can vary. Autogenic training’s effectiveness depends largely on dedication, regular daily practice, patience, and the severity of the problem someone is facing.^4,5

Are There Any Risks?

Autogenic training is generally safe for most people. Those with severe, persistent mental illness, particularly psychosis, might experience distress and should not engage in this treatment. Those with serious health concerns, like heart disease or diabetes, should consult their doctor before practicing as well. This technique is a helpful supplemental tool for stress-reduction and healing, but should not replace medical or mental health care.

When to Get Help for Stress & Anxiety

While relaxation techniques like autogenic training can be very beneficial, if you have more severe symptoms you should present to your doctor and seek out a therapist.

Here are signs that it is time to get help for stress and anxiety:

• Avoiding situations
• Difficulty sleeping
• Changes in appetite
• Challenges meeting work responsibilities
• Relationship difficulties
• Stress-related illness
• Restlessness
• Irritability
• Anxiety about past traumatic events
• Obsessive thoughts
• Panic attacks

How to Find an Autogenic Trainer

You can find autogenic training programs online and with smartphone apps. Websites like Udemy offer classes, and some mental health professionals offer online programs. However, it is often most effective to begin by working directly with a mental health professional, either through individual or group sessions.⁶

The process, while straightforward, can be challenging to learn on your own. A trained, supportive professional can help you work through difficulties and frustrations as well as help you create and follow through with a regular practice schedule.

The International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy (ICBCH) sets the standards of practice for hypnotherapy and related services, including autogenic training.¹⁴ The ICBCH also certifies people to offer autogenic training instruction. Once someone completes and passes an intensive three-week online training program, they become certified to offer autogenic training. The certification program is designed for professionals; however, the ICBCH doesn’t require proof of education or other credentials in order for someone to become certified as an autogenic training instructor.

Finding a certified autogenic training professional may require some work, but the results will likely be worth the effort. As of yet, no online directory exists to streamline the process of finding an instructor. However, mental health professionals who offer autogenic training instructions typically indicate the service on their website or in their office materials. Use an online therapist directory to find therapists near you, and read their bios and use their contact information to ask whether they provide autogenic training instruction. If they don’t, they may know of someone in the area who does.

What to Expect at Your First Appointment

Autogenic training instruction can be offered as one-on-one sessions between an individual and a professional or as a group format, with multiple people learning the process together.^6,15 Sessions can be as short as 15 or 20 minutes, or they may run longer.⁶ In total, a course may last eight to 10 weeks.¹⁵ However, the process of learning autogenic training thoroughly requires daily practice outside of the class and can take about three or four months to master.⁴

Because of the patience, persistence, and practice it takes to learn how to use your mind to influence your body’s autonomic processes and relaxation response, you won’t learn the full six-phase sequence at your first appointment. You’ll instead learn about the process, what you can expect during the instructional sessions, and guidelines for practicing on your own at home. You will likely begin learning the first phase and the process of creating heaviness in one part of your body.

To begin, you will be invited to position yourself comfortably. You may be invited to lie down or sit in a comfortable position with your eyes closed or, if you prefer, open with your gaze cast softly downward. Typically, autogenic training sessions begin with a deep breathing exercise to help calm your nervous system, and then you progress sequentially through each phase.⁴

Autogenic Training Vs. Other Relaxation Techniques

Autogenic training is but one type of formal relaxation techniques designed to reduce stress and positively impact mental and physical health. Learning how to relax can help you deal positively with obstacles and problems as well as manage symptoms of mental health and medical disorders.¹⁶ Numerous studies have found that relaxation training in general correlates with reduced stress and improved symptom management and quality of life.⁷

Autogenic Training Vs. Meditation

Meditation is the formal practice of directing your concentration to a particular object, sound, or experience, such as your breathing. Different types of meditation focus on different ways to focus, and it can be guided (listening to the soothing voice of an instructor) or done without guidance (directing and redirecting your concentration on your own).

Like autogenic training, meditation has been found to offer numerous benefits to mental health, physical health, and overall well-being. While autogenic training is used for directly controlling your body’s autonomic processes, meditation is more about fostering clarity and insights into your inner experience of thoughts and emotions as well as your relationship to yourself and your world.³

Autogenic Training Vs. Mindfulness

Mindfulness differs from autogenic training in that mindfulness isn’t a formal process. Instead, it’s a way of being with yourself, others, and your life in general that involves paying attention fully to the moment you’re in.¹⁶ Unlike autogenic training, mindfulness doesn’t involve you controlling your body’s processes in any way, but it does offer numerous benefits to your mental and physical health, including reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety, chronic pain and improved immune system functioning, sleep, and attention span.^16,17,18,19

Autogenic Training vs. Biofeedback

Biofeedback is similar to autogenic training in that it helps you influence your body’s autonomic processes like heart rate, blood pressure, and even brain waves.^5,16 However, with biofeedback, you learn to recognize how your body is reacting to stressors and problems through the use of painless electrodes attached to your body and providing visual feedback of how your heart and other organs are functioning and reacting.

As you learn to recognize when your heart rate accelerates in response to stress, for example, you can take measures to instantly switch off the stress response. Biofeedback has been found to be particularly effective for reducing stress, anxiety, and symptoms of chronic pain, headaches, and other health problems.¹⁰

Autogenic Training Vs. Breathwork

Autogenic training helps you directly control several autonomic responses, whereas breathwork focuses on indirectly influencing processes by directly controlling the breath.^20,21 Breathwork involves a variety of deep breathing exercises designed to help you breathe more slowly and deeply.

In contrast, the stage of autogenic training that addresses the breath, is not meant to have you manipulate or control the breath directly but to passively slow it down as your chest and diaphragm relax. Deep breathing has been found in studies to be especially helpful in decreasing the body’s stress reaction by lowering cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure, which helps symptoms of negative stress and anxiety.¹⁰

Autogenic Training Vs. Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a therapeutic tool designed to help people achieve deep relaxation and calm as well as focused concentration in order to achieve a desired change.²² Hypnotherapy begins with a trained mental health professional who facilitates deep relaxation. The therapist may provide a dedicated code word so you can enter a state of self-hypnosis at will when desired.¹⁶ Autogenic training does involve deep relaxation that can mimic a trance-like state; however, in autogenic training you remain fully conscious and aware.

Autogenic Training Vs. Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation involves tensing and relaxing large muscle groups of your body in a sequence either from head to toe or toes to head to encourage relaxation and increase awareness of where in the body you hold tension and stress.^3,16 Autogenic training begins by inducing a sense of heaviness in the muscles, but it does so passively through the use of statements about feeling heavy.

Progressive muscle relaxation, on the other hand, is a more direct and active approach that involves inducing relaxation in a muscle group by first tensing the muscles, holding the clench, and then releasing, feeling the muscles let go. Heaviness in the muscles of the body is only one focus of autogenic training, but muscular tension relief is the sole focus of progressive muscle relaxation.

Progressive muscle relaxation is associated with improved mental and physical symptoms. For example, in a 2018 study, people with chronic low back pain who learned and implemented progressive muscle relaxation experienced reduced pain, depression, and anxiety and improved sleep and overall quality of life more so than those who took opioid painkillers.¹⁰

Final Thoughts on Autogenic Training

Autogenic training allows you to self-induce deep relaxation in your body. Through daily practice of using your mind to directly influence your body, you can reap numerous benefits to your physical and mental health. It’s important to note, however, that autogenic training is not intended to be a replacement for other treatments. It can augment medical treatment and work with a mental health therapist, but it isn’t a stand-alone approach. Consider working with a trained professional to learn autogenic training in addition to seeing a therapist to overcome obstacles to living life the way you want to live it.