How people inhabit their bodies says much about their life today as a snapshot of their health and wellbeing, mental and emotional equilibrium, self-care or lack thereof. In somatic psychology, we learn to track what we can obviously observe such as the use of energy and gross motor movement like taking up space or making a fist, for example.  We also track the more subtle expressions such as moistening of an eye, a micro twitch of the nostrils or a biting the lip from inside.

The body encodes significant and repeated experiences throughout life which become habituated as predictive expectations both in here and now presentations and shaping future expectations. We can deepen our awareness to the somatic, gestural and behavioural markers that make up some of the key paragraphs and chapters of a life’s inscribed story. Research shows that nearly 60 per cent of our communication happens non-verbally. When we deepen our understanding of these symbolic encoded gestures, we can develop a range of creative interventions to connect more fully with the scripted body as well as the inner state of our clients. This becomes particularly important in the therapy room, where picking up on inconsistencies between spoken and unspoken language can provide meaningful insights into what a client is really saying.

Body reading is an intentional way of deepening insights into what we observe in conjunction with the client’s reports of inner body experience and the therapist’s self-tracking of somatic counter transference. Just as awareness of nonverbal cues – what a client isn’t saying – can give therapists more information about what the client really thinks and feels. Similarly, body reading can turn into an essential tool for effective counselling. Our body language can be instrumental in establishing rapport with the client – building a base of trust so they begin to trust us and open up about their feelings, traumas and emotional challenges.  More importantly, it allows for us, as therapists, to become sufficiently aware of our own reactions and vulnerabilities and bring them to supervision if they are hindering therapeutic interactions. We need to remember that even though body language occurs unconsciously, yet the body language we express, decides to a large extent the quality of our communication.

At this interactive webinar, we invite participants to deepen their capacity for body literacy, both their own and their clients. Through a range of body-study activities, we journey through layers of expression to unveil the meaning housed within the body.  Through study of breath, gesture, posture, facial expression, movements – both voluntary and involuntary – we distinguish autonomic activation stemming from trauma from the embodied encoding of developmental themes more driven by fixed beliefs. We especially examine patterns of stillness and invisibility as encoded learning.

We also examine the peri-personal spaces (PPS) surrounding the body which can become maladaptive and fixated in response to both traumatic experience or developmental wounding patterning. For example, research shows that individuals with high anxiety have a much higher defensive peripersonal space (DPPS), so they perceive threats closer than non-anxious individuals and react much more strongly to them.

Overall, we will look to the body in a spirit of curiosity, mindfulness and open self-awareness while embracing the strengths, competencies, the resourcefulness and wisdom of all bodies in narrating their tale of life navigation.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss body reading and its links to history
• Use bodily wisdom to tell and retell story when the moment is optimum
• Discuss the range of body reading and somatic interventions to safely explore aspects of experience enabling deeper healing expression

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