A student of Wilhelm Reich, he developed bioenergetic analysis, a form of mind-body psychotherapy, with his then-colleague Alexander Lowen (December 23, 1910 – October 28, 2008).
Pierrakos received a Doctor of Medicine from University of the State of New York in 1947, worked as a Junior Staff Psychiatrist at Kings County Psychiatric Hospital in Brooklyn, NY until 1949, where he earned his Ph.D. in psychiatry.
He then went into private psychiatric practice in New York, NY from 1954 to 1955, including experimental research in energy and consciousness with applications to psychotherapy, before founding the Bioenergetics Institute with Lowen.
[8] While Reich worked with his patient's breath while lying on a bed they came to the conclusion that a person's upright position is important to enabling a whole range of movements.
He integrated The Pathwork concepts such as the Mask, Lower Self and Higher Self, the Idealized Self, and Life Task with Bioenergetic physical interventions which addressed the armoring in the body.