Your body is the repository for everything known and unknown about you. If you are not fully present in your physical body, everything that you attempt to accomplish will become very complicated and ultimately unproductive. When Freud began expanding on his psychoanalytic theories, he identified what he called numerous defense mechanisms that the human being unconsciously generates under stress, particularly when having experienced trauma. Most people are familiar with these defense mechanisms that include rationalization, denial, minimizing and dissociation. Freud identified these defense mechanisms in the very early 1900s when his psychoanalytic theories were initially published. The general consensus is that Western psychology began with Freud around 1900. Thus, psychology in the West is only just over 100 years old. So what does this have to do with the body?
The Western psychological orientation tends to favor a cognitive behavioral orientation or talk therapy approach for problem solving. I don’t want to get into a large discussion on this post about the history and development of psychology since Freud. I do want to spend a short amount of time reflecting on dissociation as an unconscious adaptive strategy that can become easily habituated that prevents an individual from being able to access their body’s wisdom.
In the Dynamic Energetic Healing model that I use, I have discovered through many years of empirically-based research that most of my clients who have experienced emotional trauma in their past tend to be chronically dissociated. I can always assess this through fine tuned manual muscle testing. Over the years, I have acquired the perceptual abilities to be able to see aspects of the person hovering above their head that have become dissociated. Through muscle testing, I can determine the exact percentage of the degree of dissociation that the individual is experiencing in the moment. When this is revealed, the clinical goal with my client becomes redirected to identify what is in the background that has created this dissociative experience. Usually, it is a consequence of a pattern of trauma that remains unresolved from which this is just one element of the traumatic residue still being carried by the client. Once dissociation has been identified, the related symptoms begin to emerge in my dialogue with the client. These may include difficulty being able to concentrate, mental fogginess, feeling spacey, along with somatic complaints that may include headaches, exacerbation of chronic physical problems that might be digestive issues, musculoskeletal issues or even persistent malaise such as low energy, chronic fatigue or long term depression. The actual process for restoring full embodiment is generally quite straightforward using the DEH techniques. Once the individual is fully present and back in their physical body, it comes as a great surprise to the client to experience a rapid dissipation ( often instantaneous) of what had been persistent and distracting symptoms.
It then becomes our to ask, once all underlying trauma has been eliminated, to establish the practice of cultivating second attention awareness between sessions, to develop the sensitivity to notice when interactional triggers may restimulate what had become the habituated tendency to dissociate as a way to feel safe from the threat.
There is much more to say on this topic and I direct you to my book for a more thorough discussion. To conclude for now, I just want to emphasize that spiritual practices devoted to the development and enhancement of greater facility to interact with the spiritual realms, cannot be sustained unless you are fully present in your physical body. Memories of past lives, merging into Oneness or practicing techniques that develop constructive altered states of consciousness require that you’re fully grounded and fully embodied. It is at this time that you’re able to access all of your infinite potential as it is all channeled through the matrix of your physical body. For your vital force to connect with the Unified Field, it’s important to recognize that your physical body is both the receiving station and the sending transmitter for all the energy that makes up the universe. Honor and take care of your body. If old trauma is still an interfering influence in your life, find a way to resolve it. Your body will be a direct beneficiary and as a consequence, your consciousness can’t help but expand.
Posted August 6, 2008
Howard Brockman, LCSW
Howard Brockman
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