Structural Integration Can Be Emotional… in a good way.
Occasionally new clients ask me about the emotional nature of my work. For some, they never get any sense of Structural Integration triggering emotions, yet for others the work is a very emotional experience. I believe this work accesses everyone’s emotions. The difference is that for some it is intense and cathartic and for others it is subtle and can even go unnoticed. Now, in my practice I don’t specifically go looking for emotional experiences, but they happen and I am adept at handling it in my own way.
For some emotion can come in the form of laughter. Sometimes gut wrenching laughter that makes it hard to breath. I like that, it’s fun. Other times I have had clients re-live past trauma on my table and I have done my best to simply hold a safe space for them to have that experience. I like that, it can be very beautiful. But there are also the people that just get happy and learn to access a depper level of love with the people around them. What a transformation that is. Here you can read one man’s account of that very thing:
“In my early 20s, I went through Rolfing, a form of deep-tissue bodywork, and I nervously anticipated the fifth session, the one that goes deep into the belly. But instead of gobs of repressed emotional pain, what poured out was love — waves and waves of love that I’d pushed down due to embarrassment, fears of closeness, and my struggles with my mother.
It felt fantastic to let love flow freely. Compassion, empathy, kindness, liking, affection, cooperation, and altruism are all in our nature, woven into the fabric of human DNA, the most social — and most loving — species on the planet. Love is a natural upwelling current inside us all. It doesn’t need to be pushed or pumped, it needs to be released. If authentic love in any of its forms is bottled up, it hurts. For example, one of the greatest pains is thwarted contribution.
Has any aspect of your own love stopped flowing freely?
Besides feeling good in its own right, opening to love heals psychological wounds, builds resilience, and supports personal growth. In your brain, love calms down the stress response and reduces activation in the neural circuits of physical and emotional pain. It nourishes moral behavior and helps keep you out of needless conflicts with others. And cultivating a loving heart is central to spiritual practice in every tradition.”
By: Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
Read the rest of the article [here]
You can’t prepare for what may be awaiting you with a deeper awareness of your body. It’s a mystery. But what an exciting journey to find that piece of yourself that you may have forgotten over time. I am appreciative to be a part of that journey for some of my clients.
Image courtesy of Photokanok / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
