Why it's all psychosomatic...it's not all in your head, it's in your body too

I work as a transformational integrative (physio)therapist. I treat the whole person body, mind and soul using the latest science and demonstrating to people how unresolved emotions/faulty beliefs or poor programming/patterns influence their health & well being. It is not just about exercise or diet, but also what do we believe about ourselves and our world & what unconscious programming have we been taught, especially in our early childhood, that runs our lives without our even being aware of it. The state of our Autonomic Nervous System, will determine our response consciously & often unconsciously.

Many people often get the impression with this work, if they believe that the physical symptoms can ONLY be explained by what they did or what happened to them and that anything relating to stress, emotions, beliefs, programming etc means they are being told their issues are all in their heads. That they are making it up. We are more than just physical! The body works together as one unit. Even to move a limb requires nearly every system in the body to contribute. It is not only muscles.

I was trained and many still are, that the physical is just physical. I saw it a lot in the physio clinic. But I learned from my own life and issues but also from being open minded and aware, that we are MORE and research shows this…but we have to be open to it. If we don’t believe it we won’t see it. See our beliefs are powerful. Henry Ford has a memorable quote, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” In quantum theory it is known that observing something changes its reality. An outcome cannot be separated from the observer. So what we believe can influence what we ‘see’.

In the past, and sadly still today in some cases, the medical profession have labelled unknown physical malaise to ‘psychsomatic’ origins and they DO imply it is all in the patients’ head, that they had a psychological issue. In truth, EVERYTHING is psychosomatic, that is mind & body, but NOT in the previous way of medical labelling. Everything that happens to us involves our mind & body- both. We cannot think a thought without a biochemical & bioelectrical impulse spreading throughout our bodies. If you get angry, notice what your body does & feels like? Or if you get embarrassed and blush- the body responds to our thoughts. Research has shown that feelings/sensations are generated prior to a thought, so what is felt in our bodies can determine our thoughts.

There is much evidence that we store EVERY memory in our bodies. Not like a memory we see and recall to others, like a day at the beach, that is an explicit memory. But within the body (often fascia & nervous system) is stored all the unprocessed emotions, trauma, circumstances that were too overwhelming at the time to digest. If we don’t have enough balancing variables e.g. loving support from others, having a safe space to witness these emotions, self care practices etc; these stored energies can influence our lives unconsciously to a small or greater extent…just think of your own life, or another person who constantly has the same situation recurring in their life, e.g they lose jobs or have bad relationships….often it is because of the unconscious undigested feeling/program held within our bodies.

Undigested emotions/feelings/sensations can be like food placed in the back of the refrigerator and kept for later, but later never happens. Guess what happens to that food…it becomes off and toxic…so too do our unresolved issues. They spill over into our lives until we bring them into our conscious awareness. These unresolved emotions, programming etc are like having a sludgy toxic monster standing unseenbehind us mocking our every move- we see others’ responding to it, but we cannot see it. We wonder why people are responding to us like this?The sludgy toxic monster is what others are responding to, not what we think we saying and projecting into the world.

Bringing these toxic sludgy monsters a.k.a. emotions/feelings, sensations, programming, beliefs into awareness, is the key to healing them. But like toxic off food, these emotions & feelings are often unpleasant, so sometimes we need the assistance of a safe person to process them with. I do this work. We all have these undigested emotions within us and often we can heal by a combination of our own inner work with the support of a safe other person.

The person working with you can only assist you to the level they have digested their own inner issues. This is why I am constantly going within myself to heal and resolve my own wounds, so I can be a deeper and more expansive space in which to hold others.

But sometimes these emotions/programs can seem so dark and upsetting, we may need someone with a higher level of trauma therapy training to assist. That is also why I always recommend trauma therapists to others when I realise a clients’ issues are above my pay grade/training. Because these therapies (there are few different types, I am learning Compassionate Inquiry) often require the practitioner to work on themselves as part of the training AND they all use the body & the body’s responses as keys to assisting healing. Trauma therapies know there are somatic memories driving the behaviour and healing requires these body feelings to be held and met. This is vital, as a therapist can only assist to the level they have looked into themselves and digested their own faulty programming.

It is interesting that the very thing we need to heal us of our repetitive traumas/patterns that are sabotaging our lives, are the very things we avoid doing because we have been conditioned to avoid the unpleasant and painful. But this inner work is just like if we were avoiding a baby’s soiled nappy. The room can smell terrible, but once observed, attended to and changed, the room smells good again; until the next dirty nappy….it is a process. It is not a once off thing. It is almost like away of life to learn to notice, observe, allow & surrender. It can be unpleasant and painful and that is why we need a safe space and safe person to observe us as we observe ourselves. It is the path less travelled and it leads to a place nobody else will ever know or see - inside our own SELF. But deep inside all of us is our inner Golden Child/SELF- our innocent true essence, that once discovered can allow our lives to be filled with better health, happier relationships, more inner peace, more joy and more love.

When I work, I see people at various levels - not the ones that still believe it is only physical, they require another therapist; but anyone who is open to the idea that our mind and body works together - it is refreshing to observe and witness the wonder and healing that occurs when someone notices there is a relationship between what is happening in their lives i.e. emotions/stress levels and their pain or symptoms & they learn some tools to address this. This is empowering because they realise they can respond with a greater flexibility and understanding. They can have more compassion for themselves and their situation. And compassion is proven scientifically to be vital in healing. Buddha was right:).

When my body is in peace, my mind is usually content & vice versa….I savour these moments and intend to expand my experiencing of them every day.

If you wish to work with Jo- Online Somatic Therapist - www.johadley.online