An interview with Alison Taylor, Gestalt Psychotherapist and Alexander Technique teacher
While the world gets increasingly stressed out, those of us who are lucky enough to have found a good therapist, and are well resourced enough to continue working with them, count our blessings.
This blessed relationship sometimes makes the difference between things falling apart completely; or, us being able to feel, process, learn, and adapt.
Yet therapist burnout is extremely high in general, and it’s highest among those in their early years of practice. I knew this was true from personal experience, but research also backs it up.
I have a strong suspicion that early somatic training could be part of the solution if it was integrated across the board into the process of becoming a therapist. Right now, it’s an add on or a post-training specialty item that therapists pay for on their own.
I’m talking about the first 7 years or so post-graduation, when folks are still involved with training and gaining practicum hours for licensure. Why couldn’t we introduce it then?
Still, I don’t want to simplify what is a very complex problem.
There are many systemic reasons that psychologists and counselors are overworked, underpaid, and (cognitively) overtrained.
Then, with little experience, they may end up working for an agency or large company, with maxed out caseloads of the highest need clients which are hardest to work with. A therapist may have great training and still not be able to face those challenges.
In fact, what is really needed is more support during those early years.
Could it be that if somatic work was included earlier in the training process, though, some of this might change?
Alison Taylor and I wonder about this in this weeks interview! Alison is an Alexander Technique teacher who has gone on to train as a Gestalt psychotherapist.
Alison is also versed in the Wholeness Activism of Babette Lightner, an innovative somatic teacher rooted in the Alexander Technique and Learning Methods.
Clearly I am biased. My personal healing journey did not start with therapy.
I was a burned-out dancer who didn’t even know how burned-out I was. I didn’t have a life outside the dance studio, and I didn’t want one.
Then I had an Alexander Technique dance class experience.
It was the first somatic practice that cut through my strong habitual preference for stress and pain. First, I experienced expending shockingly less energy and effort in dancing.
This experience revealed just how hard I was working, and just how much it was hurting me. And it showed me I could do something about it!
Right away, I had a sense of self-agency and a rainbow of new choices that might be available to me.
Therapy ended up being one of them, but it wasn’t the original catalyst for healing.
So you know my answer to this question is yes, somatic training could be a powerful foundation for therapists.
If it’s that kind of tool for musicians, dancers, and actors, if it makes their training more effective and their careers longer…why wouldn’t it work that way for those who empathically relate to other humans for a living?
I can say on my own behalf that I am not the only one who thinks this. The following skills are considered foundational for all therapeutic work and training by Ulf Geuter in his new book, Body Psychotherapy: A Theoretical Foundation for Clinical Practice.
- Perception and bodily feeling
- Awareness and presence
- Regulating and modulating
These are all realms of somatic experience and processing that bodyworkers like me teach every day. We spend as many hours as psychotherapists do in learning those skills.
Unfortunately, somatic practitioners are not considered serious professionals by the healthcare system because our culture still preferences mind over body.
Mindfulness is still the word of the day, not bodyfulness.
If you are curious as to what some of those foundational skills are, you might be interested in an upcoming Cranial Nerve Sequencing course I’ll be scheduling in the new year.
Feel free to reach out if you are interested, I’d love to hear from you.