Somatic Transformation

The skilled somatic psychotherapist is an artist working with the phenomena of human nature. With the role of an artist, Martha Graham tells us there is a “…queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and more alive than the others….” I’m interested to know if others have found that to be true?

Many questions remain. Murray Sinclair asks us to consider….What are we each doing to further reconciliation in our lives?

NetNewsLedger - Statement from Senator Murray Sinclair on Pope Francis Apology WINNIPEG – NEWS — The Honourable Murray Sinclair, former senator and former chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and General Counsel at Cochrane Saxberg Law Firm, issued the following statement: “I want to acknowledge the Pope’s apology today. This is an important moment fo...

"Promise me,
Promise me this day,
Promise me now,
While the Sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith.

Promise me,
Even as they strike you down
with a mountain of hatred
and violence,
Even as they step on you
and crush you like a worm,
Even as they dismember
and disembowel you,
Remember brother,
Remember, man is not
our enemy.

The only thing worthy of you
is compassion –
invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you
face the beast in man.

One day, when you face this beast alone with your courage intact, your eyes kind, untroubled (even as no one sees them), out of your smile will bloom a flower.

And those who love you will behold you across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying.

Alone again, I will go on with bent head, knowing that love has become eternal. On the long, rough road the Sun and Moon will continue to shine.

Man is not the enemy. Our enemy is hatred, anger, ignorance, and fear."

🌻 Thich Nhat Hanh

A clinical glimpse of mental health from the insights of neurobiology. It turns common assumptions upside down. In short, mental illness can be transformed into healthy bodies and minds. Ruth Llinas’ research leads the way.

I Am Fear This video that focuses on the centrality of fear in traumatized people is the first of a series with Sebern Fisher, M.A., author, therapist, and former trau...

A new beginning…a truth and reconciliation process in the United States. So much has been hidden for years. How has this been possible?

St. Benedict nuns apologize for Native boarding school Earlier this year, the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., formally apologized to the White Earth Nation for harm caused to generations of Native Americans at church-run boarding schools. It’s led to the start of a journey toward truth and reconciliation.

Thank you Canada for leading the world in the process of restorative justice. We all need to “read, acknowledge, understand” and take accountability for the ways we comply with injustice.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a time to 'read, acknowledge, understand,' says advocate | CBC News Thursday marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, a new federal statutory holiday to honour the lost children and survivors of residential schools as well as their families and communities. Newfoundland and Labrador is making Sept. 30 a government holiday this year.

I’m so grateful to the Justice Institute in British Columbia for sponsoring this on-line course! Looking forward to seeing colleagues on-line as we go to the root of relational trauma and explore together new, creative body-centered practices for healing!!

Relational Somatic Transformation of Complex Trauma Guide your clients from trauma to wellness

A Buddhist perspective on the concept of forgiveness moves beyond “letting it go” to the transformation of reactive patterns that created a breach.

Those patterns lie in the body’s implicit memory system and can be brought into awareness through interoception and shifted into empathic responses to conflict.

Perhaps the transformation from the unconscious, reactive patterns is what we need to face on an individual and community level.

Forgiveness Is Not Buddhist Buddhist teachings do not advise asking others to absolve us from our misdeeds. Instead, they outline a path to purification that will change our relationship to reactive patterns.

Great malice

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ Kímmapiiyipitssini Brings Empathy to an Opioid Crisis – Point of View Magazine Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’s Kímmapiiyipitssin: The Meaning of Empathy is a masterclass in filming ethically in a community.

Christine Runyan describes the collective trauma of living through a pandemic, a trauma defined by dysregulatiin of our autonomic nervous system. States of anxiety, depression and dissociation with brain fog are normal and adaptive. We will all begin to heal when we feel safe and connected again. That is the work of ST.

Christine Runyan — What’s Happening in Our Nervous Systems? | The On Being Project Pandemic brain and “skin hunger.” How our bodies have been trying to care for us. Strategies for bringing our conscious selves back online.

Research on the link between PTSD and the immune system an essential component for healing. Inflammation from autoimmune disorders is at the source of many illnesses. Trauma can be integrated with relational body-centered practices of psychotherapy. Thanks for posting this Jane Palmer.

Connection between stress and autoimmune disease affirmed by massive 30-year study A massive study spanning 30 years of data and examining a cohort of over one million people has found a strong association between persons suffering from stress disorders, including PTSD, and an increased risk of developing autoimmune diseases such as arthritis and Crohn's disease.

Empathy is communicated more dynamically in gaze than in words.

When Our Gaze Is a Physical Force Research documents a strange illusion

When treating trauma it is essential to take in the impact of culture. Particularly, culture regarding male/ female privilege, authoritarian norms and the freedom to discern the truth of one’s own lived experience.

How knowledge about different cultures is shaking the foundations of psychology Psychological phenomena have long been thought of as universal. But it turns out scientists may have been blinded by their own culture.

A significant yet often forgotten way of knowing. The book, Braiding Sweetgrass takes the reader deeply into the realm of natural beauty.

Why is the world so beautiful? An Indigenous botanist on the spirit of life in everything | CBC Radio Robin Wall Kimmerer is an acclaimed botanist who blends her scientific studies with her Indigenous upbringing . She says there is much to be learned about how to interact respectfully with the earth, from the behaviour of plants.

The inner beauty of life.

The most detailed model of a human cell to date, obtained using x-rays, nuclear magnetic resonance, and cryoelectron microscopy data sets.


Source and Credit: Transformation of the Cellular Landscape through a Eukaryotic Cell, by Evan Ingersoll Ingersoll Gael McGill ~ Digizyme's Custom Maya Molecular Software
Biología Al Instante

Looking forward to an in person presentation in Victoria in November. Hopefully, the COVID restrictions will not interfere.

Relational Somatic Transformation of Trauma | Justice Institute of British Columbia This two-day event will focus on the development of advanced relational somatic principles, therapeutic practices, and specific, precise skills in the journey from trauma to wellness. The learner will come to understand the relationships of the body, mind, and soul involved in different forms of tra...

It is important to watch for signs of numbness, disconnection and dissociation as we continue to walk through this crisis. These indicators of mental health can be met with practices of embodiment; consciously feeling and processing our disappointments, sorrow and anger. We can do this with others..online or in person. When we feel our experience, we can move through it..rather than save it up as trauma to deal with another day.

Mental illness will be 'next wave' of COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiologist says | CBC News An epidemiologist says social isolation could lead to a range of mental health issues as people face the prospect of living under the current COVID-19 restrictions for months.

At a recent conference on neuroscience at Stanford, I heard how inflammation is at the root of many physical and emotional illnesses. Important link to social isolation in males in this research. Anyone have any ideas why it affects males differently?

Social isolation could cause physical inflammation - Neuroscience News Socially isolated individuals may have an increased risk of physical inflammation in the body. Researchers found social isolation was associated with the presence of C-reactive protein and increased levels of glycoprotein fibrinogen. The link between social isolation and physical inflammation was mo...

This article describes how mental illness emerges from early emotional neglect and other adverse events. It’s important to recognize that healing can begin with relational body-centered practices.

The 'Single Biggest Contributor' to Medical and Mental Illness Dr Stephen Strakowski speaks with the authors of a recent review of how childhood maltreatment reshapes the body and brain.

Neural synchrony is at the core of secure attachment. Therapists can practice attunement, resonance, alignment with traumatized people to achieve neural synchrony. The result is that people “feel felt” and develop the capacity to regulate intense motions.

Baby and adult brains ‘sync up’ during play, finds Princeton Baby Lab It's not your imagination -- you and your baby really are on the same wavelength. A team of Princeton researchers has now measured baby and adult brain activity moving in sync as they play and interact together.

When we stimulate the vagus nerve we become less fearful, more at ease in our bodies and minds and more connected with others. Thanks Yogita!

Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve Using These 6 Ways to Relieve Inflammation, Depression, Migraines and More The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in the body. Stimulating the vagus nerve can help relieve various mental and physical pain. Find out how!

The concept of neuroception helps us to understand how we can best help others by first helping ourselves remain calm...particularly in times of stress and adversity. Only then can we help another to co-regulate their reactions and behavior.

The visual of a neuron brings a sense of awe! Thanks Lisa Elliot for sharing.

Neurons in the cerebral cortex

Body-based empathy. feeling with another, is at the core of relationships than can transform the symptoms of trauma.

Why Intentionally Building Empathy Is More Important Now Than Ever Empathy is eroding, says Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki. The average American in 2009 was 30 percent less empathetic than their counterpart thirty years before. But there are ways to strengthen our empathy despite deep divisions in the world today.

Interoception is the medical term that refers to the process of knowing through embodied attention to sensations.

This way of knowing provides essential information regarding our health, relationships and the transformation of trauma.

Like any way of knowing we move from the basic comprehension to more subtle and finely tuned meaning.

My book: Relational and Body Centered Prsctices for

This is an awesome graphic describing interoception:

Identifying creative approaches to trauma could be more useful than a mental health diagnoses.

Psychiatric Diagnoses Found to Be "Scientifically Meaningless" A new study, published in Psychiatry Research, has concluded that psychiatric diagnoses are scientifically worthless as tools to identify discrete mental health disorders.