WORKING WITH
THE BODY
THE METHOD
Bodywork is a fundamental part of any therapeutic process. When we got hurt, wounded as a child, our needs were not met or we were abused, we left the body to escape the hurt that we had no way to process at that early time. These memories are still there and if we do not include the body we remain disscociated. Not grounded. And these hurts cannot heal and continue drive our behaviours unconsciously. Our psychological suffering is not only cognitive or emotional—it is embodied.
The body stores, expresses (often unconsciously in the form of pain, tension, dysfunction or dis-embodiment), and perpetuates unresolved emotional experience, and therefore must be included directly in the therapeutic process.
Through our early conditioning and psychological wounding, we built defenses in order to survive and our body became the ‘body of tension’ with habitual patterns of tensions, in stead of the ‘Body of Bliss’.
Wilhelm Reich did a lot of research early of last century and showed how being repressed directly leads to changes in our biophysiology and muscular tension which he called ‘armour’. Reich and Alexander Lowen identified specific patterns of tension related to our wounding during different developmental phases identifying five basic what Lowen called body-types.
Bodywork is a fundamental part of any therapeutic process. When we got hurt, wounded as a child, our needs were not met or we were abused, we left the body to escape the hurt that we had no way to process at that early time. These memories are still there and if we do not include the body we remain disscociated. Not grounded. And these hurts cannot heal and continue drive our behaviours unconsciously. Our psychological suffering is not only cognitive or emotional—it is embodied. The body stores, expresses (often unconsciously in the form of pain, tension, dysfunction or dis-embodiment), and perpetuates unresolved emotional experience, and therefore must be included directly in the therapeutic process.
Through our early conditioning and psychological wounding, we built defenses in order to survive and our body became the ‘body of tension’ with habitual patterns of tensions, in stead of the ‘Body of Bliss’. Wilhelm Reich did a lot of research early of last century and showed how being repressed directly leads to changes in our biophysiology and muscular tension which he called ‘armour’. Reich and Alexander Lowen identified specific patterns of tension related to our wounding during different developmental phases identifying five basic what Lowen called body-types.
GETTING STARTED WITH THE WORK THROUGH:
SESSIONS
GROUPS
Sessions are possible in person or online via zoom.
Sessions, groups and other events are conducted either in English or in Dutch, according to individual wishes
To take part in one of the sessions, meditations or events: please email Adhira at contact@lifeandcare.eu or message: 0636002634
body oriented session
These sessions support grounding, breathing, embodiment, and support you to connect with your sense of Self in your body. They can address specific issues that you bring for instance disembodiment, feeling weak in your body, problems with breathing or not feeling connected in your body, physical issues, tension, the need for softening, or the need for specific hold, and more. They can support inner child work or other individual sessions.
The sessions are planned in consultation with you, and can range from an added session as part of the inner child protocol to a stand alone session to support with trauma release, or a series of specific body work sessions to open the body, reveal the truths that have been suppressed there, to restore the flow and aliveness in the body and allow us to feel and enjoy our body once again.
For more information or how you can take part in one of our sessions, meditations or events, please email me: contact@lifeandcare.eu or whatsapp: 0636002634
NEW: body WORK GROUP
We like to invite you to a NEW series of evenings where we will work deeply with the body. The body is our book of life, all our experiences are imprinted in the body.
To experience our authentic Self we have to be in the body, it is our direct contact with reality.
We are born with a body, and our body is supposed to be blissful in its functioning and in giving us pleasure. Unfortunately because of painful early experiences, maybe hurt, neglect, abandonment, humiliation, rejection, or other types of abuse, we disconnected from our body and developed defences to help ourself survive, since we were helpless as a child. Memories of these hurts and abuses are stored in the body in the muscular structure, our nervous system, our fascia’s and other parts of the body. This affects our body greatly. We tense, we become rigid, we close our senses, we feel less. Or we collapse, we have no energy, we become weak.
When we are not connected to our body, we loose our ground and our connection to reality. We feel lost, insecure, and unsafe. We don’t have a sense of Self, because we don’t feel the Self. We feel the Self via the body. We feel empty or a sense of being incomplete, and avoid this feeling by looking to fill ourselves up from the outside, with what we call narcissistic supplies.
In the Bodywork evenings that we will start in September on Tuesdays, we will use a variety of techniques to work with the body and the breath inspired by among others Reich, Lowen and Marcher, to ground ourselves in the body, become aware and let go of tension so we can re-experience the body of Bliss. From there is where we feel the sense of Self.
We work with our body according to what happened to us developmentally and structurally, bringing corrective experiences and techniques, we work with expression, with safe touch, with the breath, and have space for personal sharing and process in an atmosphere of vulnerability and support.
As we open the body, we become aware of the rigidity, the tensions or the flaccidity, the collapse that we carry. We come in touch with the emotional content that impacts the body, and that we have split off. As we release we begin to let go. Slowly we come back to our natural state as we restore the energy flow in our body, feel our aliveness as well as our solidity, and we reconnect with the sense of Self as we get rooted in the body. We experience once again the body of Bliss, ease and relaxation.
The evenings will be facilitated by Adhira with Imani, facilitator and trainee of the Essential Psychotherapy Institute.
On June 16th we will start with a taster for the bodywork evenings.
In this taster we will work with the body in various ways towards grounding and becoming aware of what we have been holding in the body, so that we can start letting go and experience ourself more deeply.
Time: 19.30 – 21.45
Place: Wajid
More information: HERE