Meditation and bodywork are inextricably linked for me. The body reflects everything that happens within us. Our thoughts, emotions and life experiences are literally stored in it.

Think about how you learned to ride a bike as a child. Through practice, your brain has created connections between nerve cells, so that you now effortlessly get on your bike without thinking about it. Your body knows exactly what to do.

Emotions work the same way. An emotion sends a signal to your brain, which in turn activates your nervous system. That signal is valuable information: it tells you that something is affecting you. At that moment, the energy of that emotion is palpable in your body. And just as your body digests food, it also needs a way to process this energy. If that does not happen or does not happen completely, the energy remains behind and over time blockages can arise.

Bodywork helps to release that stored tension and to reconnect with what your body is telling you.

Trauma

When an emotion is overwhelming, it sets off a whole chain of reactions in your body. Just like learning a skill, connections are made between nerve cells that relay the information to your nervous system. But there is an important difference. With intense emotions, logic and reasoning are shut down. Your nervous system switches to survival mode and responds purely to the emotion. Often in the form of a fight, flight or freeze response.

If you are later in a situation that triggers a similar emotion, your nervous system will automatically respond as it has learned, regardless of whether the situation is actually threatening. Logic and reasoning are shut down again at that point and the fight-flight-freeze response takes over.

This is what we call a trauma response. Trauma is not simply what you have experienced, but how your nervous system responds to that experience. Because your nervous system once learned to respond in a certain way, it can also learn a new response. With attention, awareness and bodywork.

Removing blockages via the eightfold path

To recognize blockages, attention is essential. You need the space to be fully present for a certain period of time with everything that presents itself without weaving stories around it. It requires an open, neutral attitude in which you observe without reacting immediately. This is exactly what the Eightfold Path means by right concentration, right effort and right mindfulness. In other words: meditation.

Blockages don’t just happen; they have a cause and an effect. The cause may be outside of you, but the reaction is inside of you, and it’s that reaction that can create a blockage. To understand which reaction leads to a blockage, you need insight into your own behavior. This is what the Eightfold Path means by right speech, right action, and right livelihood. In other words, moral behavior.

What you need for that is explained in the rest of the Eightfold Path: right intention and right thoughts. In other words, wisdom.

Removing blockages therefore requires a combination of wisdom, meditation and moral behavior. That is what my practice is all about. The place where you learn to get in touch with yourself and what lives in you on a deeper level.

Body-oriented coaching

Removing a blockage starts with the intention to be fully present in your body. Through that attention you learn to recognize which reaction causes a blockage in which place in your body. Step by step you gain more insight into your attitude and behavior and you often notice that a blockage then begins to let go by itself. But sometimes you need some extra support to get this process going. Body-oriented coaching offers you that opportunity in a safe space in which you work on yourself with yourself under guidance.

Although conversations are part of the sessions, the emphasis is on feeling and experiencing. The energetic work is central: massage, yoga and meditation help you to feel and release deeper layers of tension and blockages.

Each session consists of a combination of a conversation part and a body-oriented part. In addition, you will receive exercises (yoga and meditation) and if necessary nutritional advice for home, so that you can continue to work on your process outside the sessions.

For the body-oriented part you can choose between yoga coaching and massage coaching. Are you unsure which form suits you best? During the first appointment we will look together at what you need at this moment.

The golden combination of psychotherapy and bodywork (Dutch)

In this video I talk to Annet from Praktijk voor Psychologie en Psychotherapie Aalst-Waalre. Together we experienced how powerful the combination of our disciplines is. We like to share our insights to inspire colleagues!

Want to know more? Please contact us via the website:

Annet Slaats, Praktijk voor Psychologie en Psychotherapie Aalst-Waalre
Baukje Willems, Bewust in Balans met Baukje