What can you do when your client has a hard time feeling in the body? Read on…
A Reader writes:
I had two clients this week who when I asked them to sense how all that feels they said something like “It feels stuck in my head.” Have you experienced that? I wondered if it meant they were struggling to drop down into the sense of their body.
Dear Reader:
That is indeed an interesting response! I’m not sure exactly what it means either.
The person might mean they are sensing in the physical head. Or they might mean they are having thoughts about what they feel, rather than body senses.
But this much we do know. This person is feeling something! So I might respond with: “So maybe just describe what you are feeling, even if it’s in your head.”
One of the great principles of working with people, with Focusing, is to accept their experience as somehow right for them, at this moment.
If what people are experiencing is accepted, and is seen as OK, that creates a positive, inclusive atmosphere that allows more feeling to come forward.
Maybe you’re right though, in your guess that this person is struggling to drop down into the sense of their body. You can give them some help with that!
“OK, so maybe just feel your body right now, supported by the chair. And then maybe feel the inner area of your body, like your throat… your chest… your stomach and abdomen area. That’s it. And now see if it’s OK to say again what you said before, and say it in here… and see how it feels…”
(I’m assuming they said something before you invited them to sense how all that feels… That’s what we’re hoping they will feel into at the body level.)
Some of us — like me when I first tried to learn Focusing — are not very familiar with feeling our bodies! But we can learn. And when we do, the body becomes such a rich source of communication from the whole self.
