Traditional therapy has long emphasized cognitive and verbal processes as its main way of treating distress and disregulation. If you're reading this article, you probably already know that including the wisdom & experience of the body can expand results far beyond talk and behavior modification.

Much to the surprise of the more traditional parts of our profession, physical techniques, somatic practices, and breath work achieve their tremendous effectiveness by beginning at the level of the body.  These systems all address the fundamental organization, activation, and regulation of the nervous system and provides a portal into implicit memories.

 Practices designed to shed light on the body-mind connection can have a direct effect on vitality, resilience, health, wellbeing, ease, energy, relaxation, skill, and coordination. We know from research now that dissociation is an issue of the nervous system.  As such, dissociative issues connected with attention deficit, sensory processing disorders, autism, developmental trauma, and PTSD can benefit from somatic methods.  Even those without severe disorders can benefit, for example persons struggling with anxiety responses, emotional disregulation, and challenges to intimate relationships.

Somatic Experiencing

Somatic Experiencing is a central piece of my teaching online and around the world. Although all of the SE faculty members worldwide teach about the use of somatic wisdom to heal trauma, Steve Hoskinson, a southern California-based therapist and Somatic Experiencing faculty member, specializes in what he calls Organic Intelligence.

His approach emphasizes training a clinician's powers of observation based on elements of the "biological heritage of the human organism."  This means we need "to establish the conditions in which a disregulated nervous system recognizes its innate capacity for balance.... Affect regulation [for example] has to do with the entire system of energy processing within the nervous system."

In terms of our biological advancement, verbal & cognitive changes are secondary to physiological receptiveness - For evolutionary reasons, the human organism prioritizes mechanisms of physical survival over cognitive and intellectual processes. 

 Generally speaking, people cannot take in new information, or make lasting cognitive intellectual or emotional changes if they are caught in a state of persistent panic or defensiveness - a major physiological and neurological feature of chronic anxiety and PTSD, as well as autism and Asperger's. As long as underlying physiological patterns dominate our patients' responses, our clinical interventions are going to be at least mitigated, if not ineffectual, without focus on the body.

Body Intelligence (BQ) and Self-Attunement

IQ is a standardized way of referring to a certain form of reasoning intelligence. Then there's EQ, or "Emotional Intelligence," which refers to a person's interpersonal instincts. More recently, there's also a movement called "BQ," an acronym for Body Intelligence. Building on Howard Gardner's groundbreaking contribution on Multiple Intelligences, Jim Gavin & Margaret Moore outline three pillars of body intelligence (BQ) (visit here).

Body Awareness

Awareness of the body's experience can be grouped into two categories: gross & subtle sensations. Gross refers to experiences like muscle soreness or sitting awkwardly; subtle refers to something less obvious, such as a sensation of fluidity or excitement in the body. They encourage developing a keen attunement to the effect of an action on the body: For example, you can notice the gross sensation of your jaw and throat tightening while drinking a cup of coffee. Then you might notice the subtle sensations and certain thoughts or images arise in your mind while drinking the coffee.

Here it can be helpful to help clients learn mindfulness practices as well as body scans (see below for a simple version). We can encourage them to stop and notice what their body is feeling throughout the day and to reflect on possible influences. Tracking these experiences in a daily log can also be useful and illuminating.

Dr. Norman Farb, who will be co-presenting with Dr. Peter Levine and me at the "Trauma Days" event on Chronic Pain in Zurich in late June (see above), is well-known for his research on the relationship between present-moment awareness and well-being. Farb has specifically examined attention training within present moment awareness. Much of his work features mindfulness meditation training interventions to examine how intensive practice in attending to momentary sensations can alter one's sense of self and well-being. Using momentary body sensation as an anchor to focused attention on the present is an important emphasis. Developing interoceptive attention, through awareness of changing body sensation, seems especially important when responding to problems that are created or perpetuated through negative thinking, as in depression, for example. Turning to the present moment through an anchor such as awareness of body experience can be a powerful tool for disengaging from rumination and disrupting cycles of self-criticism.

Knowledge

BQ's second pillar, knowledge covers scientific knowledge about anatomy, physiology, neuroscience, and nutrition. It also refers to personal understanding of those dynamics within one's own body. For optimized BQ, we need specialized knowledge of health practices for our individual human organism - including how much rest we need for think clearly, which foods make us feel energized, and how to keep our energy up throughout the day. 

To help clients develop their own body knowledge, practitioners can suggest carefully chosen readings, web research, workshops, webinars, conferences, or visits with specialists. Several of my clients have benefitted from is Dr. Norman Doidges' recent books on The Brain's Way of Healing and The Brain that Changes Itself, for example.

Engagement

The third pillar of BQ, Engagement refers to a person's ability to stick with a plan or a practice, create a new habit, or make a lasting change in choices around food and lifestyle. Motivation, self-efficacy, and support from other people all play a part here. We can help clients change patterns and develop positive new habits by mapping the sensations and thoughts that arise during exercise or a specific practice that takes them just a small bit beyond their "comfort zone" or "window of tolerance."

 The ultimate expression of BQ, is a category Gavin and Moore call "Evolutionary." Evolutionary persons are dedicated to integrating and unifying body and mind, cultivating an active core and fluid movements, mindful eating practices, mediation or conscious reflection, and quality rest. Although this is challenging for many of our clients, I have found that the path of embodiment is one that can maximize the possibilities that clients will remain engaged in an evolutionary life.

Somatic Wisdom for Therapists

It's very old news that the right and left hemispheres of the brain differ significantly from each other. What is new is Iain McGilchrist's perspective that the right hemisphere specializes in "betweenness" or taking in the relational field. Its focus is on "us"-how we are related to each other. We also know that the right brain has both/and perspectives and puts us in touch with embodied experience of the present moment.

When we become overwhelmed by the client's difficulty and frightened by our own reactions and issues, one way we cope is to shift our awareness to the left brain so we no longer feel stressed. The consequence, however, is that we are no longer in ventral vagal attunement which means we move out of relationship with one another.

 Since research suggests that about 75% of the population (and certainly our culture as a whole) is living in the "left shift," it is hugely important that we use Steven Porges' research that ventral vagal experience shift us to the right, so that we can provide the safety necessary for deep listening and connection. Instead, rather than focusing on the interventions and protocols we want to use with a client, we must be open, receptive, non-controlling, and non-judgmental in order to open and deepen the mutual experience of safety.

This material is what Bonnie Badenoch will be emphasizing in our webinar on May 27.  Please go here to register. You don't want to miss this important presentation!

I hope your month is an expansive, right-shift time for you,

Maggie