From breathing to ritual gestures to sensory relaxation, the French military has been perfecting its stress management techniques for thirty years to gain efficiency and prevent trauma, a method that is now spreading throughout society. The TOP (potential optimization techniques) mix hypnosis and yoga with a simple goal: psychologically harden to mobilize resources, whatever the emergency, and improve the quality of sleep.
These mental preparation strategies were born at the Fontainebleau joint sports school in the early 1990s. At the time, “stress was a dirty word in armies and the problem of well-being at work did not exist,” says Edith Perreaut-Pierre, later a military doctor and responsible for devising a method for managing operational stress and fatigue.
Sophrology, neurolinguistics and meditation
To do this, she borrows from sophrology, neuro-linguistic programming or, as she says, “processes as old as humanity” such as meditation.
Breathing becomes one of the components of this “tool box” usable in the middle of the night as in the middle of the desert, and this without equipment and in total autonomy. Mental imagery is another that, due to the effect of repetition, creates Pavlovian conditioning leading to unfailing concentration, supporters of the method say. This is not a therapy, domain of psychiatrists and psychologists, nor a spiritual search as in yoga, but an accelerator of adaptation to stress.
Pragmatic
Very pragmatic, it is supposed to energize, regulate or relax before, during and after an action. “Regulating stress also means limiting energy expenditure and coping better over time,” emphasizes Dr. Perreaut-Pierre. “Fighter pilots and special forces are immediately interested” because “fatigue and stress are two of the biggest accident-prone factors,” he continues.
At first, “the ‘sophro’ side can be postponed, especially among the military”, comments André Pisani, ex-military and TOP expert. Skeptical when he discovered the technique when he joined the Army in 1998, he realized that appropriating it was “limiting and preventing” post-traumatic stress disorder because it “reduces feelings of helplessness.” He sticks to it and then becomes a trainer.
Manage stress to better manage the workforce
During the same period, the foreign operations of the French military forces multiplied, sometimes long and difficult. The notions of “psychological damage” and post-traumatic stress disorder are intruding into the military vocabulary.
In 1996, President Chirac also announced the professionalization of the French armies. Since the number is reduced, it is necessary to limit the number of injured as much as possible. In this context, and while US troops surrounded by squads of psychologists explore the benefits of meditation and breathing exercises for cardiac coherence, France spreads TOP in its ranks. It relies on clinical trials to motivate its deployment.
One of them, carried out in 2014 by the Armed Forces Biomedical Research Institute with young military firefighter recruits, concludes that this method “significantly increases the quality of functioning of the parasympathetic system at rest and reduces perceived stress and mood. negative”.
to companies
The method extends, upon returning from operations abroad, to the Saint-Cyr school, where army executives are trained, to the foreign legion “where the mentality is rather to say ‘we are strong, we don’t need to sleep’ “. , stressed a soldier during a conference on stress management organized at the end of June by the gendarmerie.
It is precisely in this body where the TOPs penetrate the most, in a context of increasing suicides. An April 2021 circular provides for all recruits to be introduced to this technique renamed “Armed Forces Resource Optimization”. “Les mentalités évoluent et des axes de réflexion sont en cours dans les trois armées pour accroître les forces morales”, c’est-à-dire la capacité à ffronter l’adversité, explains the captain Gilles F. du center national des sports de the defense.
The TOPs are also winning over the police, but also companies, the sports and hospital world, where former military personnel in particular, including Dr. Perreaut-Pierre and André Pisani, offer training. Five recognized organizations, or around a hundred professionals, operate in a market driven, according to André Pisani, by the “long uncertainty” linked to Covid.
Source: BFM TV
