Somatic Praxis in Practice

Have you ever noticed feeling unsettled when a perfectly safe person, be it a colleague, a recent acquaintance, perhaps even your mailman stands close to you? There’s nothing specific to connect the feelings with, just a sense of discomfort, tension, awkwardness. Maybe you feel queasy or shaky, maybe a strong urge to run away over takes you but there’s no logical reason why. Rest assured, you’re not alone.

Shame is often experienced as a massive, tornado-like swirl of helplessness and hopelessness that keeps tearing through our hearts and minds, through the very core of our being. Its redundant looping can become stuck on any number of thoughts of inadequacy: I am such a terrible failure; there is no way anyone could ever love me; I shouldn’t even bother trying, there’s no way I’m gonna measure; I don’t want anyone to see me; No one could ever understand what I am going through. It’s as if these voices trap people inside the black hole of shame’s universe, with seemingly no way out.

In my experience, although chronic shame resolution work involves slow, incremental shifts, when very deep early needs for external protection are finally met, it can shift the very foundation of someone’s experience in a profoundly curative way.

SPT Magazine offers our sincerest thanks to Neal Brodsky and Katelynn Bartleson for their creative and collaborative contributions to SPT Magazine readers! Neal's chapter, entitled,...

People ask me all the time about the importance of compassion in shame resolution work. My response is always the same: “It is crucial at the right time, in the right dose, and with the help of mirror neurons.”

The Danish and European research coalition are hosting a webinar/fundraiser for their up coming research project, February 8, at 5-7 pm CET, 9 -11 am MST.

Serendipity? Fate? Karma? Divine intervention? What force has brought no less than six Christian ministers to this Jewish somatic psychotherapist? Ronan M. Kisch writes about his experience with spirituality, religion, and his role 'preaching' to the preachers.