Nope--not talking about my car...although that is something I had checked last week! :)
One of the fascinating things about Somatic work is the concept of transmission/resonance. I think different theorists call it by different names, but it is the experience of the Bodyworker's emotional (or energetic) state being picked up by the client by means of contact with the therapist. In other words, my own grounding and centered-ness as a Bodyworker can be transmitted to a client through my touch. Of course, in everyday life we do this when we put our hand on the shoulder of a friend who is upset. Our groundedness (peace) can be transferred to them by this contact. Bodywork amplifies this and focuses this experience. Particularly for someone who is anxious or upset.
Conversely--and many of you may have already made this connection--my other emotions can also be transferred to a client....Anxiety for example. If I am anxious before a session--my client may pick this up. Obviously, not a therapeutic session! This is why self-care for bodyworkers is so important--your client will pick up your stuff. Work on your stuff--less stuff for you and client. Very Important!
What this has meant for me as a practitioner is that I have found my own grounded-ness emotionally (energetically) functions like a lightning rod. My clients come in--and their emotional static (energy in the form of anxiety, stress, depression, etc) gets grounded and released by connecting with me through the bodywork. Fascinating Stuff. Hard to explain--but very real.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Change--How does it happen?
Well...have had a few days that were less "scheduled" due to inclement weather (about 8 to 10 inches of snowfall) so I have had time to catch up on some reading I have been wanting to do. I am taking a reading course on Somatic Psychology...and ran across this quote from an article by Ian Grand:
WOW. This explains a bit more about "How does it (bodywork) work?" which I have explored a bit before (Part One here). Change does not just magically happen. Awareness that change is needed is usually the first step--even if one does not know what it is exactly--one just knows something needs to be different. What is the AA definition of insanity? "Doing the same thing the same way and hoping for different results." yeah. Doesn't happen. So change requires us to recognize, hopefully with either some degree of humility and hope--that something different needs to occur.
One of the gifts of Bodywork as a therapy is to introduce more options somatically (through touch, movement, breathing, etc) which then translates emotionally into a person's experience! Is that cool or what? This is good news--for it means there are several ways to introduce change into our lives. A change in one part of the system will impact the others. You can work directly to solve a problem--or go through a back door--but it will work. So, the Dove Chocolate quote of, "Change your mind--Change your Body" could just as easily be written "Change your Body--Change your Mind." (Yes--I love Dove Chocolates :)
Therapists of all stripes introduce new ways of doing things. Problem is with most of us, is we either are afraid to do new things (due to a negative experience) or don't think we can do new things (we reason--we would already be doing them if we could). Ah--but not so...we only THINK or FEEL we cannot do them....and that is where counseling, bodywork, personal training, tutoring, etc. comes in. Someone who is a few steps ahead of us on their journey helps us take the next few steps.
Bodyworkers are therapists--they introduce new ways of doing things.
For example, when a person is emotionally depressed, they often feel they have no more options (things will always be the same and they will never get better.) This feeling of hopelessness causes a person to "shut down" to conserve energy in what feels to be a "closed system." Somatically, a person who is depressed is also often "shut down" or kind of "curled in" on themselves--to save energy and to shield and protect oneself from others who are perceived to be dangerous. Only problem is that this kind of "shut down" prevents a person from at least 2 things:
1.seeing the other options that may be available
2. being open to receive good/nurture from those who are safe
So, a Bodyworker will help them to:
1. discover and work through what the original fear was that caused the "shut down"
2. become more open to life and receive now that danger has passed
3. experience new options that are available.
So...are you ready to try something new in order to experience change? As the chocolate says:
"Change your Body...Change your Mind."
"In working somatically, one of the things one is trying to do is to allow the tissue state of a person to reorganize itself, learn different responses, and grow and form itself in a different way....It is generally recognized that to build a state of muscle with which one can lift several hundred pounds, or the cardiovascular and muscular ability to run 20 miles, requires a training that actually changes the tissue state. Alterations in muscle fiber, metabolism, capacity for oxygenation, liquid flow and hormonalization are required to permit these kinds of performances. The same thing is true emotionally. It is quite easy for someone to want to be more tender or more assertive or able to tolerate anger without violence or collapse; but to actually enact these changes requires an organismic learning so that the tissue itself can tolerate the different streams of sensation and feeling and project them into the world."
WOW. This explains a bit more about "How does it (bodywork) work?" which I have explored a bit before (Part One here). Change does not just magically happen. Awareness that change is needed is usually the first step--even if one does not know what it is exactly--one just knows something needs to be different. What is the AA definition of insanity? "Doing the same thing the same way and hoping for different results." yeah. Doesn't happen. So change requires us to recognize, hopefully with either some degree of humility and hope--that something different needs to occur.
One of the gifts of Bodywork as a therapy is to introduce more options somatically (through touch, movement, breathing, etc) which then translates emotionally into a person's experience! Is that cool or what? This is good news--for it means there are several ways to introduce change into our lives. A change in one part of the system will impact the others. You can work directly to solve a problem--or go through a back door--but it will work. So, the Dove Chocolate quote of, "Change your mind--Change your Body" could just as easily be written "Change your Body--Change your Mind." (Yes--I love Dove Chocolates :)
Therapists of all stripes introduce new ways of doing things. Problem is with most of us, is we either are afraid to do new things (due to a negative experience) or don't think we can do new things (we reason--we would already be doing them if we could). Ah--but not so...we only THINK or FEEL we cannot do them....and that is where counseling, bodywork, personal training, tutoring, etc. comes in. Someone who is a few steps ahead of us on their journey helps us take the next few steps.
Bodyworkers are therapists--they introduce new ways of doing things.
For example, when a person is emotionally depressed, they often feel they have no more options (things will always be the same and they will never get better.) This feeling of hopelessness causes a person to "shut down" to conserve energy in what feels to be a "closed system." Somatically, a person who is depressed is also often "shut down" or kind of "curled in" on themselves--to save energy and to shield and protect oneself from others who are perceived to be dangerous. Only problem is that this kind of "shut down" prevents a person from at least 2 things:
1.seeing the other options that may be available
2. being open to receive good/nurture from those who are safe
So, a Bodyworker will help them to:
1. discover and work through what the original fear was that caused the "shut down"
2. become more open to life and receive now that danger has passed
3. experience new options that are available.
So...are you ready to try something new in order to experience change? As the chocolate says:
"Change your Body...Change your Mind."
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Faith...Can ya feel it?
Hmmm. A feeling faith. What do you think?
I cannot count the number of times I have heard people say, "You know, faith is not what you feel, it is what you believe." The suggestion in this statement is that what we feel is not to be trusted, while what we think/believe is to be trusted. As a psychologist, I can tell you people think a lot of things that are just plain not true. So, thinking our brains are somehow less impacted by the fall is poor theology. But in the West, we have elevated the mind to a point where we do tend to trust our minds more than our feelings. And I am not sure about the wisdom of that.
John Wesley may have had a similar conviction. Wesley believed that we should feel our faith. Faith is not just a mental assent or a cognition--faith should be experienced...i.e., FELT. A historian, Amanda Porterfield writes about Wesley's conviction:
I cannot count the number of times I have heard people say, "You know, faith is not what you feel, it is what you believe." The suggestion in this statement is that what we feel is not to be trusted, while what we think/believe is to be trusted. As a psychologist, I can tell you people think a lot of things that are just plain not true. So, thinking our brains are somehow less impacted by the fall is poor theology. But in the West, we have elevated the mind to a point where we do tend to trust our minds more than our feelings. And I am not sure about the wisdom of that.
John Wesley may have had a similar conviction. Wesley believed that we should feel our faith. Faith is not just a mental assent or a cognition--faith should be experienced...i.e., FELT. A historian, Amanda Porterfield writes about Wesley's conviction:
“Wesley’s investment in religious experience complemented
this interest in health and healing. His understanding of religious conversion affirmed
the presence of bodily sensation in that spiritual transformation…Wesley
expected grace to stimulate feeling…In spite of his dectractors, Wesley’s
openness to bodily sensation as a natural part of Christian life proved
enormously popular both in Britain and in North America. His promotion of
religious experience and encouragement of sensory and emotional feeling as part
of that experience contributed to revivals on both sides of the Atlantic. By
the 19th century, these revivals made the Methodist church the
fastest growing denomination in North America.” p.164-65 Healing in
the History of Christianity (2005).
Why was his view so embraced by the people? BECAUSE PEOPLE FEEL! :) In our everyday lives, we experience feelings and sensations. Why should we expect our faith to be any different?
Every other relationship in this world causes us to feel things...we have feelings about our pets, homes, spouses, loved ones, children, etc...and Evangelical Christianity, by definition cultivates a personal relationship with God. Should we not realize that our feelings are just as much a part of our faith as our beliefs? I believe and feel (with great conviction) the answer is a resounding YES.
What this all has to do with Bodywork is that one of the goals of bodywork is to help people get in touch with how they feel. In general, people's awareness of their feelings increases as they receive bodywork. Some come in with locked muscles so tight--they don't feel anything in an area and usually they also can't move it. Get some focused bodywork and I will make a bet that not only can they start to feel--but the first thing they feel is pain. But the good thing is they usually can also start to move. And better yet--after it loosens up--they don't feel the pain, they begin to feel the good!
Back to faith. I think this is why people are seeking "spiritual experiences." Whether it be in a church, weekend retreat, chanting, yoga, etc....people want to feel their faith--we intuitively know that faith should be an Experience..an Encounter. We should feel something. Just believing is not enough. We want to know with our hearts not just our heads. And part of bodywork--and faith--is awakening to the feeling of the movement of the Spirit.
So...Faith...Can ya feel it?
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