{Story Time} Ecstasy Embodied
It’s 2011…I’m at Kripalu in Massachusetts, training in SomaSoul somatic expressive therapy with Dan Leven.
At every single one of our year-long trainings, I move through a very specific sequence of states; I start from a place of feeling ‘fine’ (=not feeling much)…
after a couple days of intensive work, my defences melt and I dive deep into feeling -what in Gestalt Psychology we call- the ‘death layer’ (=my painful emotions, shadow, challenges -all that I have been unconsciously keeping away from)…
and then, something interesting happens.
Body Freedom Work is Inner Work
Food & body symptoms are a -visible- indication that we are operating in -less visible- ways that are not balanced or whole in life in general.
They are a message from our psyche, our Self that something needs to change. That there is some sort of imbalance on an internal level that is calling for our attention. That we have outgrown a phase or version of ourselves and we need to step into a new one -as whole beings, not *just* in this area of our lives.
The Dawn of a New Chapter
Announcing the completion of a decade-long phase of this work and the opening of a brand-new chapter.
The Energy Centres and our Relationship with the Body
As human beings, we are a beautiful mass of energy. And I don’t mean just spiritual energy, but physical, mental and emotional too.
To be well and whole, we need for that energy to flow freely and uninhibitedly through our psyche-soma-soul system.
As we grow up though, things happen that disrupt that free flow of energy.
My Journey back into my Body
My journey back into my body started about 13 years ago.
In late 2006, I was halfway through my bachelor’s degree in Psychology and deep in my struggle with an eating disorder. I spent my days counting calories and compulsively exercising. I loved moving my body -I did contemporary dance almost every day- but was deeply disconnected from it. I had no concept of what living in-the-body meant, nor why it was important.
My Lineage: Psyche - Soma - Soul
I deeply believe that our background says so much about who we are and what we do, so, today I want to name the three major traditions that I bring together in my work and honour the teachers I have been blessed to study with and be formed by.
The nature of my work: embodied, alchemical soul work
In my practice, I bring together a number of elements from different traditions and modalities, so it hasn’t always been easy to accurately describe and define the nature of it. Recently though, through exploration, I have landed in these words: Embodied, Alchemical Soul Work, which I really feel encapsulate the core and essence of it.
On the Alchemical Process of Dissolution
D i s s o l u t i o n
…is the stage in alchemy in which a solid substance turns into liquid.
At a psyche/soul level, it is the process of letting those parts of ourselves that have served their purpose and now cause more harm than good be released, “melt”, dissolve into their original substance -the ‘prima materia’.