In this part of the book, we will take a more systematic look at the nuts and bolts of how to go about the process of embodying emotions. We can use this information to work with emotions in our clients and, to a certain extent, ourselves.
If you are not a therapist, please note that you need to seek the help of a mental health professional if you find yourself in a difficult place in your practice of embodying your emotions. This advice also applies if you are a
therapist, for two reasons. First, working with your emotions by yourself can go only so far. All of us need emotional support from time to time, from at least one other person, to resolve our emotions. Nature has just set it up that way. It is easier and quicker to process emotions with the support of others than on one’s own. Second, only the most basic information for the practice of embodying emotions is provided here. More detailed technical information in relation to emotional embodiment work is presented in the Integral Somatic Psychology (ISP) professional trainings, which are limited to those working in the helping professions. Regardless, I hope that as many of you as possible, in various therapy modalities as well as other walks of life, find the material in these chapters to be of immediate use for navigating the choppy waters of emotional experiences in yourselves and those you serve.
The process of emotional embodiment has been conceptualized as involving four steps: 1) the situation; 2) the emotion; 3) the expansion; and 4) the integration. Please note that the four steps need not always be implemented in the sequence they are presented. As is often the case, it is possible that a situation might warrant going back and forth between the steps or starting with a later step in the sequence. It is better to look at these four steps as ingredients for an emotional embodiment session that need to be added to the mix as and when needed to keep the process on track, rather than as a rigid sequential protocol. We will examine each of the steps in the four chapters that follow.
When I conceptualized the practice of embodying emotion in four steps, I did not think I would have to write much on the first two steps. I assumed that the tasks of zeroing in on a situation, eliciting a relevant emotion, and keeping it alive by providing adequate support would be second nature to most psychotherapists and that I would have to write more on the more technical steps of expansion and integration. To my surprise, for whatever reason, what I found in country after country is a common difficulty in helping clients find a relevant situation to focus on and then guiding and supporting them to access and stay with an emotion in relation to the situation. Expansion and integration of brain and body physiology without emotion would only regulate unpleasant emotion away if a therapist did not continue to refer to the situation and support the emotion, as often as necessary. Even though the four steps have not been clearly defined for you yet, please keep in mind the importance of the first two steps throughout the process of embodying emotion.
As a medium for communicating how to go about the practice of embodying emotion, a book containing words and pictures is limited at best. To overcome this limitation, we have set up free secure online access to videos of complete demonstration sessions of emotional embodiment work, as well as shorter illustrative videos of the steps involved in the practice of embodying emotion. To gain access to this free online resource, please visit www.integralsomaticpsychology.com, then click “Books,” then “Embodying Emotion,” and then “Resources” in successive dropdown menus, and register.