Sensorimotor practice for emotional integration

I often use the phrase “get out of your head and into your body” to reach people who long for a more embodied, felt experience of their lives, undisturbed by overthinking. Sometimes you long for a life with less physical pain and more pleasure. Sometimes you want a life with more feeling, nuance, and emotional depth. Somatic exercises are one of the most powerful tools we have to accomplish this.

“Somatic” used to be interpreted as “only feeling,” but now neuroscience has made it clear that feeling, thinking, and moving are a unified whole.

When I use the word “feeling” I mean both emotional and sensorial, and the golden thread that flows between the two.

Combine the word “feel” with the lightness and easy touch of the Alexander Technique, and you have a powerful antidote to being shut down and disconnected from yourself.

There is lovely state of physical flow, a by-product of which is emotional flow, when you do AT influenced somatic exercises.

Emotional flow became a deeper personal longing for me over time.

At a certain point in my life I began to feel life passing me by. This was before I delved into the somatic side of the AT work. 

Maybe you can relate? Emotions did come and go at times when they were not wanted. They’d disappear when they were wanted. My heart felt like a clumsy hand reaching for a slippery fish. This hampered heartfelt communication and connection with others.

I knew I couldn’t force myself to feel.

Now sensation, that’s another story. I could feel sensation whenever I wanted to. The more sensation I felt, the more emotions rose to the surface of my being. This indirect approach was the key to unlocking my emotional healing.

I felt compelled to go further with my sensory strategy, since it had been so successful. A skilled therapist was of course a great help.

Later on in my career, I worked with advanced actors training in a conservatory setting . They were interested in the same questions. I discovered they intellectually knew about emotion, but they were kind of guessing about how to express it.

Their sensory world was muddy and their sense of the many articulate parts of their bodies undifferentiated. This carried over into their access to emotion, which could seem forced, fake, and overly tense or pushed. Not always, of course, but especially when they “tried hard.”

Together we discovered that sensory literacy plus an articulate body was a very powerful tool for them as well. It was the thrill of my teaching life to witness them discovering a natural, flowing, nuanced emotional palette of expression.

The link between these two aspects of feeling – physical and emotional –  is under appreciated.

One is non-verbal and inwardly sourced, the other is verbal and outwardly expressive. When the two link up, the fire of communication is lit!

We have barely scratched the surface in our understanding of how they connect. Over the years, many psychotherapists have been drawn to me as a practitioner. The last three years in particular have brought more dialogue on these topics.

In addition, of course, to the fact that the work also relieves the tight necks, sore butts, and back pain endemic in a field where you are expected to sit in a chair and listen all day.

I’ve been developing a specific practice called Cranial Nerve Sequencing which uses your brain – your conscious mind – to explore itself – the workings of your own central nervous system.

The phrase “getting your brain wrapped around something” expresses the experience rather well – that’s what it’s like to enter a state of dialogue between the conscious and sub-or even un-conscious sides of your system.

For example, some cranial nerves innervate parts of your skin, which is wrapped around your head and informs what goes on inside it. Like so many aspects of language, this phrase so clearly expresses our embodied experience of reality!

Would you like to get your brain wrapped around the first 12 cranial nerves responsible for so many of your most important sensory and motor functions? The upcoming online retreat is a perfect place to do that.

The retreat is designed especially for embodiment educators and therapists to encourage cross-fertilization, dialogue, and learning.

This work has helped many of my therapist clients, but more research is needed to really know how and why for sure. Do these somatic adjuncts and supports fuel the more cognitive aspects of the therapeutic process and prevent therapist burnout in the process?

I’m extending a special invitation to all the therapists and somatic educators on my list to help me develop this practice in service of you, and your work with your clients.

That’s why, until September 30, I’m offering a 50% discount early bird special for my next weekend online retreat. Please share with any friends who you think would be interested.

GO HERE TO GET THE 50% DISCOUNT BEFORE SEPTEMBER 30.