Resources
For DBR Therapists and DBR Clients, Lessons From Yoga About The Being With: Part 1
I feel the bracing in his body as if it were a wave travelling down through the nylon leash, hitting my hand like a tsunami. His breathing shortens, he becomes hyper-focused, and there is an unsettling stillness about him that is not calm, but rather fixated and alert, rigid and vigilant. Right now, as I see it, his brain is on a subcortical pathway. I have a brief moment to intervene, right before bark and snarl comes. My job is to intervene now before this becomes a fear-based learning.
Whether it’s in our horsemanship, as Ray Hunt described, or as I also see it, relative to our clinical and personal work (which really is the same), the key to avoiding trouble lies in tracking the “what happened before what happened ” in our clients and also ourselves. Without this awareness, we miss the moment right in front of us and end up chasing after the proverbial horse that's already left the barn.
It is easy to forget that there is an underlying need for a sense of peace, both internally and externally, that we, and our clients, seek.
We map our internal and external worlds in similar ways, as did my client in her traumatization. One can consider that our current mapping may be based on old data, old, outdated maps, and unprocessed traumatic material.
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