This is how
Body&Emotion Therapy
helped me
Before starting therapy, I had learned to listen to my body as to which foods were good for me and which were not, to rest when I needed it, to stay away from people I felt were harmful, and to be much more consistent with myself than I had been in the past. Still, I had no energy and my whole body ached, plus I was not able to move an arm and I was limping on my right leg. I was aware that I had a lot of emotions built up inside but I did not know what to do about it.
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A few months into Body&Emotion Therapy, changes started to occur:
Shoulder pain and anger management
Five months into therapy I found by chance a way to relax my shoulders. One day when using the handheld vacuum I noticed that both my anger and shoulder pain were gone. A few months earlier I would not have been able to release anything with that activity because I was used to keeping all my emotions inside. From that moment onwards -with that and other methods- I began to manage my anger by expressiing it effectively and doing something about the situations that caused it.
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​Association of physical pain with emotional discomfort
As mentioned above, I had learned to notice the foods that did not feel good which already meant a big step for me, accustomed as I was to ignoring it. But every so often I would have terrible headaches that were accompanied by indigestion. As I became more in sync with my body I understood that those headaches and indigestion were directly related with the problems I had had during the day. Because of that I started to take care of myself differently, ending certain situations that were no longer sustainable and adding more self-care in my daily routines. This way, indigestions were reduced to once a year.
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I moved abroad
My energy gradually increased. This allowed me to move back to my country of origin, which had been impossible in previous years.
Releasing emotions from trauma
It did not happen in every therapy session. Instead each one of them was paving the way to allow me to access the key emotions that I needed to release. The result was a relief or lightness, a weight that was lifted from my shoulders. And I noticed it in my body, which was not so emotionally charged any more. And I also noticed it in my head, because my need to talk about my traumatic experiences in order to solve it -my previous strategy- gradually faded.
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Now I know what I need
Nowadays I listen and give my body what it needs, be it resting, eating a certain food, or setting boundaries. It may seem something basic, but for many years I completely ignored it.
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Anxiety is gone
This is a direct consequence of living in coherence with myself. By feeling the body and following its guidance, we feel protected and thus no anxiety alerts come out. Nerves, sure! For example, when I'm going to start something new. But those are the good kind of nerves, those who announce changes. And since I know how to distinguish them from anxiety -not possible before-, I can prevent my body from somaticizing.
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My head does not make decisions
That's not to say that I do not use my brain. What I mean is that in the past decision making was a very stressful process: I couldn't choose between the possible options because they all had something good and something bad, and I did not know which one would satisfy me more. As the body is the one who knows what feels good and what doesn't, by being in touch with my feelings decisions started to become something simple.
