The Character Structures · A 7-session on-demand course · Opens 1 November
Five ways a body learns to survive.
Find yours.
Seven recorded sessions on the five character patterns Reich and Lowen mapped: how they form, where they live in your body, what they do in your relationships, and how to let them soften. With a daily practice for every session, so it changes how you live, not just what you know.
Pre-sale · course opens 1 November
Sessions
7 videos, 60 to 90 min each
Practice
7 guided daily audios
Workbook
A chapter for every session
Access
Opens 1 November, then your own pace
You keep doing the same thing. Your body knows why.
You go blank when things get heated. Or you give and give until there's nothing left. You say yes when you mean no, then stew on it. You can't stop being the strong one. Or you get it all right and still feel oddly flat.
You've probably worked out where it came from. And it keeps happening anyway, because the pattern isn't only a thought. It's in how you breathe, how you stand, where you hold, and what you reach for under stress.
Every pattern started as the smartest thing a young body could do. This course shows you which ones you carry, where they live, and how to give your body a new option.
Five patterns. Everyone has all of them.
Most of us lead with one or two. None is better than another, and none is a diagnosis. Each one is a wound and a gift, and every session ends on the gift.
Leaving
When it gets too much, you go up and out. Into your head, away from your body.
Relaxed, it becomes the visionary and the artist.
Merging
You pour yourself into other people and run on empty.
Relaxed, it becomes the lover who gives from fullness.
Enduring
You hold it all in and keep going. Outwardly fine, quietly stuck.
Relaxed, it becomes real staying power and loyalty.
Challenger
You stay on top of it. Strong, in control, rarely let anyone in.
Relaxed, it becomes the leader strong enough to be soft.
Rigid
You achieve, perform and hold the line. Softening feels like losing.
Relaxed, it becomes passion with the heart and desire aligned.
Not sure where you lead? Take the free quiz and bring your result to Session 1.
The seven sessions
One map. Five patterns. Your blend.
Session 1
The Body Speaks
How feelings become shape, and how to read a body with care. The map every later session uses: Reich's belts, the chakras, and the cycle of charge and release. Meet all five patterns.
You leave knowing how to read your own body.
Session 2
Leaving
The pattern that learned to survive by going away. Why you float off when it gets intense, where it lives in the eyes, feet and breath, and how to build enough ground to stay.
Am I safe to be here?
Session 3
Merging
The pattern that learned there wasn't enough. Giving to get, running on empty, the sunken chest and the hungry gut, and how to stand on your own legs and take in.
Is there enough for me?
Session 4
Enduring
The pattern that holds it all in to keep the peace. The swallowed no, the pressure in the belly and throat, and how to let it out in small, safe doses.
Can I act freely?
Session 5
Challenger
The pattern that learned never to be the one who gets used. Control, charm and adrenaline, a body lifted into the chest, and how to come down and be supported.
Can I let go of control?
Session 6
Rigid
The pattern that learned love comes through getting it right. The armoured heart, the straight back, the gap between heart and pelvis, and how to soften.
Can I want and feel?
Session 7
Your Blend
Bring it together. Your main and second pattern, what happens when your pattern meets someone else's, and a 10-minute daily practice you build for your own body.
You leave with a practice that's yours.
Inside every pattern session
The same six steps, so you can see the patterns side by side.
01
Recognition
What the pattern looks like on an ordinary Tuesday. At work, in love, under stress.
02
Origin
Where it started, the right it called into question, and why it was the smartest thing a young body could do.
03
The body
How it shows in shape, breath and eyes. A mirror exercise so you can see it in yourself.
04
The inside
The belts of tension, the organs and gut, and where it gets stuck between charge and release.
05
Relationships
What it needs, fears and does in closeness, and how it meets the other four.
06
Practice and the gift
A guided practice, then what this pattern turns into once it relaxes.
Why it works
Watching won't change your body. Practice will.
Each session comes with a guided audio you use every day for the week that follows. Grounding for the pattern that leaves. Standing on your own legs for the one that merges. Letting it out for the one that endures. Coming down for the one that controls. Softening for the one that holds back.
A week of 12 minutes a day does more than a weekend of insight. By Session 7 you combine them into one 10-minute practice built for your own blend.
7 video sessions
60 to 90 minutes each. Teaching and guided practice, about 9 hours in all.
7 daily audios
10 to 15 minutes, one for each session, to use every day of the week that follows.
The workbook
A chapter per session: body maps, reflection prompts, trackers and your blend on one page.
Your 10-minute practice
A simple builder to combine the audios into a daily practice for your own blend.
What changes
By the end, you'll be able to:
01
Name your main pattern and your second one, and see them in your own body without shame.
02
Recognise the patterns in the people you love, and stop taking them so personally.
03
Know what your pattern does in a fight, a kiss and a meeting, and what it needs instead.
04
Keep a 10-minute daily practice built for your body, that you actually do.
What it's built on
A hundred years of body psychotherapy, made practical.
Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen on character and armour. Stanley Keleman on how experience takes shape. Anodea Judith on charge and the chakras. Ron Kurtz, Hector Prestera and Ken Dychtwald on reading the body. Jean-Pierre Barral on the organs. Gabor Maté on the cost of hidden stress.
I've studied them, trained in them and practised them on myself and with hundreds of people. This course takes what holds up and leaves out what doesn't: no blaming parents, no blaming you for being ill, no labels to throw at your partner.
This is for you if
- You understand your patterns in your head and your body hasn't caught up
- You keep meeting the same dynamic in relationships and want to see it clearly
- You want a daily practice that fits your body, not a generic routine
- You're a coach, therapist, bodyworker or facilitator who wants a clear, kind map of character
It's not for you if
- You want a label to diagnose your partner with
- You're after one big release. This work is about holding more, not emptying out
- You're in acute crisis right now. One-to-one support will serve you better first
Your guide
Pat Divilly
I've spent 19 years working with the body and the mind. First as a personal trainer, then in personal development, and now in breathwork, trauma release and body psychotherapy. Along the way I've written five bestselling books, including Fit Mind and Shadow Work.
I founded Journey the Breath and have trained more than 120 breathwork facilitators across 20 countries. I'm a certified TRE provider, two years into a three-year Core Energetics training, and I've led over 250 live workshops.
Join before 1 November.
All seven sessions, seven daily audios, the full workbook and the practice builder. Your login arrives the moment you buy, and the course opens on 1 November.
The course
€497
7 sessions, 7 audios, the workbook. Opens 1 November, then self-paced.
Get the coursePre-sale. The course opens 1 November. Digital product, so all sales are final.
Questions
Do I need any experience?
No. If you have a body and some curiosity, you're ready. Each session also ends with a short note for coaches, therapists and bodyworkers.
Should I only watch the session for my pattern?
No. Everyone carries all five in different amounts, and the patterns in your life (partner, parents, colleagues) are in the other sessions. The course works as a whole.
When does it start?
The course opens on 1 November. Buy now and your login arrives straight away, with a welcome note waiting inside. All seven sessions, the daily audios and the workbook unlock on the 1st.
How should I pace it?
One session a week works best, so each daily audio gets a full week. Everything opens on 1 November, and from then you go at your own speed.
How long do I have access?
Lifetime access, including any updates.
How physical is it?
Gentle. Standing, breathing, simple movement, some floor work. Every practice has an easier version, and the early patterns get grounding, not intense breathwork.
Is this therapy?
No. It's education and embodied practice. It sits alongside therapy and medical care, never in place of them. It's a map, not a diagnosis.
Any health considerations?
If you're pregnant, or have epilepsy, a heart condition, high blood pressure or a history of psychosis, check with your doctor first and skip the breath practices you're unsure about.
What's the refund policy?
It's a digital product, so all sales are final and there are no refunds. If you're unsure, take the free quiz first and see if the work speaks to you.