are gastric ulcers and duodenal ulcers, hypertension, bronchial asthma. The whole list occupies a lot of pages in medical manuals.
In the sphere of interpersonal relations, the harm caused by untreated lumps of resentment in the chest, or balls of irritation in the temples, or the fog of anxiety in the forehead, etc., is well known to everyone. They lead to those «twists’ in our relationships that make life so difficult. The destinies of entire generations, peoples, not just individuals and families, are collapsing. There are more than enough such examples in human history.
Creative activity also suffers from the emotions which do not find their outcome. A person does not fully use their potential and unprocessed charges spoil the results. Not to mention the fact that a one-time failure in psychic functioning can cost a person their life. A heart attack, a fight, a fatal mistake at work – the risk can manifest in thousands of different ways, and it «knows how to wait’. I do not think we should let it just happen.
Something must be done
Everyone intuitively understands this. We rely on our self-regulation: the body seeks to solve problems while asleep, or in the process of life itself. However, when in stress, self-regulation fails, and time is not a cure.
In such situations some people use alcohol or drugs, but they cannot solve the soul’s problems. In cases of failure of the body’s self-regulation, many people turn to a psychotherapist. At the same time, patients often ask the question: how do you expect to help me?
Something new
It is not about medicine, hypnosis, or psychoanalysis. Though, all of them can be used. We are going to talk about working through sensations.
This is an amazing kind of work when such expressions as «lump of resentment in the chest’, «a fog of anxiety in the forehead’, «a steel plate of control in the back of the head’, «a jellyfish of fear in the stomach’, and «a dagger of betrayal in the back’… sound like a diagnosis. «Cupid’s arrows in the heart’ seldom become a reason for complaining. People more often consider them a sign of happiness, though, not always knowing what it really means.
You do not have to be in delirium tremens
Maybe to find such “things’ inside one’s own body a person needs some special conditions? For example, is it necessary to be poisoned with ethyl alcohol to the state of delirium tremens? The doctor holds out an empty hand to the patient and asks:
«What is in my hand?»
«A wire.»
«What will you do with it?»
The patient starts to wrap it around his arm.
Is anything else needed to help people to realize what they are «carrying’ inside their bodies? Not at all! Moreover, it is not about the understanding of what is absent, but only of what is really present.
A person, encouraged by a few questions, is able to describe the «content’ of their inner space. However, they are invited to advance in this a little further than they usually do.
How many cats are there?
Very often people describe their anxiety as “cats are scratching my heart’, “my tower is bursting’, etc. In such cases a psychiatrist begins to think about the medicine for a patient and a psychologist studies the conflict in the relationship that gave rise to such a state, but it is very unlikely that the patient will be asked the clarifying questions: “How many cats? Color? Size? Did they start to tear your heart at the same time or one after another? Are the walls of the tower thick or thin? Is there anything gaseous or liquid in it? Is it like a mass or like a solid body? Anything else?”
Therapy based on sensations opens an amazing opportunity through such questions to go to the energy charge associated with the experience.
The mouth of a shepherd
I was in my early twenties when I was attacked by a male shepherd dog. In the moment, when I saw its open mouth, I automatically put my hand in and grabbed its tongue following my father’s advice. So instead of closing its jaws, it tried to unclench them as much as possible. However, I did not know what to do next. The idea is to swing the dog away. Unfortunately, I realized this later, and had to wait for the owner to arrive. When I let the dog go, it bit my forearm. I still have scars from its teeth.
Why am I telling you this? Well, somatotherapy is something like inserting your hand into the mouth of a shepherd: a movement by the shortest path, then an open confrontation with the agent upsetting the consciousness, «grasping the tongue’… As we see, the most important thing is to understand what to do next.
Three types of psychotherapy
According to the tradition started by Freud, most types of psychotherapy seek to bring out what is “hidden’ or “pushed back’. They consider dreams, free associations, and other manifestations of human mental activity, often similar to a complicated cipher. With the help of a secret code, which is known to a highly experienced psychotherapist, it is possible to open the deep mental movements of the patient during their collision and resolve the conflict.
This applies to the so-called psychodynamic tradition in psychotherapy, working with the content of symptoms in the in the collision of the soul’s motives. Since this approach considers the meaning of symptoms, it can be called psychosemantic.
The so-called clinical psychotherapy is not so interested in the meaning of symptoms, but very closely examines the basis on which they have grown. This psychotherapeutic tradition is addressed primarily to the human constitutional (body structure) and genetic type of the patient and helps a person with the specific traits of personality to find their place among other people. Clinical psychotherapy found its vivid expression in the works of Ernst Kretschmer, who, in my opinion, is a figure, at least equal to Freud.
We can also talk about another way of psychotherapy. In contrast to the psychodynamic and clinical areas, here the main interest is focused on the external elements (in relation to the basic constitutional and genetic personality type) – on how specifically the experience is expressed, and, in particular, on how much energy the body spends on its «feeding’. This approach can be called psychoenergetic, to which somatopsychotherapy belongs.
I’m not interested in “what’ and “how’ – I’m interested in’ how much’
In a simplified form, the position of a somatopsychotherapist can be stated as the following: “I am not interested in what the patients thinks or how they do it, I am interested in how much they think about it, how much energy they give it. If it is more than the “normal’ it is a disease, if it is less than “normal’ it is also the disease.
If, after a trip to England, they think they ate beef infected with «mad cow disease’ (BSE), I am not going to talk to them about the incubation period of variant CJD. I am also not going to dissuade this person that they caught a terrible disease and now they are going to die. (Especially since I do not know if they are infected or not.) I am interested only in one thing: how long are they going to think about it? Now they dedicate to this almost 24 hours a day, spending 99% of their vitality. Is that what it needs, or can it be less?
How can I make a person who has lost sleep and peace think about the amount of energy spent on the experience (and not on solving problems)? Here is the answer: through simple questions about what they experience «at body level’ because of what has happened.
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