Getting out of my head and into my body

Integrative psychotherapy spans a wide spectrum and I often wonder what I am personally drawn to, in terms of what I might integrate into my practice, from the many potential ways of working with clients.  I am sure, for instance, that my gender impacts on what I choose to integrate and what I choose not to integrate. I also speculate whether I could be more or less cognitively centred, or more or less somatic centred. As an aside, it would be a useful research exercise for someone to undertake, to actually go around and ask integrative practitioners what they integrate into their way of working, and why. So often I hear practitioners describe themselves as integrative without knowing what they themselves mean by the term. 

The two hour introductory group session was aimed at those who wished to experience an integrated somatic psychotherapy approach, and who wanted to find out more about CDP courses and/or personal development groups. Somatic experiencing aims to relieve the symptoms associated with past trauma and mental and physical trauma-related health problems by bringing the focus of the work on a client’s perceived body sensations. I viewed the event as an opportunity to potentially get out of my head and engage more with my body.

Last week I had the opportunity of engaging with a different way of working. I had pleasure of attending an embodied psychotherapy taster session, skillfully facilitated by Katarina Gadjanski and Tasha Colbert, which was intended as an introduction to a range of courses being offered by the Institute of Embodied Psychotherapy. Katarina and Tasha are both UKCP accredited psychotherapists based in West London. Together they set up the institute which aims to offer an integrative somatic approach that enhances healing and equips psychotherapists with the skills to work in a more embodied way with their clients.

The themes resonated with my own previous, and perhaps limited, experiential learning when exploring my own mind-body relationship through sensing, moving and reflecting. This can be a very subtle way of working and reminded me very much of aspects of the rich experiential work associated with my original training at CCPE, such as healing with breath and sound and creative imagination.  It also reminded me of the importance for participants at such events to be assessed or screened for their ability to sustain emotional resilience.  Participants should ideally be assessed for physical health, their social support system and any tendency to dissociate. 

What was different about this event last week was that a film crew were recording the proceedings for future marketing purposes, subject to participants having a final say on what is finally released. This may have put others off, and it did slightly inhibit me, knowing that camera operatives were hovering in the room. It did help, however, to know who the film crew were so I had no worries about their ethical ways of working. I also felt that as practitioners we need to step up, when appropriate, and become more visible in how we work, especially when working in creative ways, if the level of stigma about therapy and mental health recovery in society is to be reduced and made more normal.

Katarina and Tasha facilitated the workshop in a skillful and sensitive manner and participants were invited to draw upon techniques from body psychotherapy, dance movement psychotherapy, mindfulness meditation and the creative arts. The importance, for me, in accessing past emotional trauma is to firstly identify with it, hopefully within a safe containing space, and then to try to access an internal safe place, or what might be termed an internal calm place. This work, for me, involves getting out of my head and paying more attention to the energies in my body. When working with the body I often refer to a wise quote that says that the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said. Sometimes, the body will reveal more in communication than the mind.

What was challenging for me with this event last week was that the group unexpectedly also contained one participant (is there ever any coincidences, you may well ask?) who had previously been inappropriately aggressive towards me in a professional setting. This was not a previous client but a practicing counsellor. On the night I initially thought that this individual’s presence in the group might jeopardise a sense of safe place for me to potentially engage with unconscious material, especially whilst being filmed.  There are, of course, risks associated with undertaking deep unconscious work with participants who you may have had prior history with. It would be worth checking with the appropriate people if there might be potential conflicts, although sometimes it might not be possible to know of such potential conflicts. 

Generally speaking, it is my view that one should be very careful with whom one should share their vulnerable material, in the same way that someone should be circumspect about who they share the contents of their dreams with. However, the fight/flight agitation I experienced at seeing this person in the group actually helped me to get in touch with gut level issues around safety, trust and how receptive I might be to letting go. I sought to overcome my weariness and embrace the ethos of the event in spite of having strong reservations. 

I enjoyed working with drawings and my images comprised of two scenarios, one of which was associated with fight/flight and emerged from gut feelings about survival and the other represented my perception of what a calm place might look like for me. I felt like I had accessed and processed some primal emotional material and this proved to be very fruitful. However, I then faced a fairly long complicated train journey home, involving multiple changes given signal problems on the railway network, having had parts of my psyche opened up.

Just like with deep therapy sessions I was reminded that it is important to have some quiet reflection following such work and to have an opportunity to stop and take stock within a calm and peaceful environment, if possible. It is not uncommon when potentially triggered by past emotional trauma to feel slightly scattered, broken or shattered. In such circumstances it is important to understand that your thoughts and nervousness may appear overwhelming.  Difficult memories could potentially make it feel like past emotional trauma is happening again in the present. In extreme cases individuals suffering with PTSD describe a brain that has essentially not detoxed the emotion from the trauma memory. Therefore, every time the memory is relieved (the flashback) so, too, is the emotion, which has not been effectively removed.

It is important to take responsibility for your own self-care if you are thinking of engaging in such potentially deep work at this training centre or any other. There are some basic but very effective techniques you can do with yourself at home or when out and about to anchor and calm your nervous system through body positioning. Creating an internal state of calm and relief through self-loving and self-compassionate exercises can be very grounding.  Knowing how to anchor and calm your nervous system in such circumstances through body positioning can prove to be immensely reassuring. Sometimes you might access some difficult feelings or past emotional trauma and this could prove to be unsettling especially if your social support structure is not robust.  

To find out more about courses offered by the Institute visit their website for more information.