Body Exercises and an In-Depth Review of Physiological Discharge – Abi Blakeslee, CMT, MFT, PhD, SEP, SE Faculty

This short course is intended for SE students of all levels as well as SEPs. People from the general public interested in increasing their bodily awareness may join in the webinar. Your insula is an area of your brain that is involved with interoception, the conscious awareness of bodily sensations. In this workshop you will be guided through different interoceptive exercises, while learning how to lead others in them. We will also explore how to create your own embodiment exercises based on your internal state or based on an intention toward healing you may have with a particular person or client. The workshop will include how to guide exercises in: Stabilization, Movement (to aid coming out of dissociation, freeze, and increase positive sympathetic tone), Centering, Accessing a Felt Sense of Image and Metaphor, Over and Under Coupling Strategies (Either/Or vs And tracking), Body Mapping and Peripersonal Space, Individual to Collective Regulation, Ideas About How to “Free Style” Somatic Exercises, And more… When we connect to our interoception the brain and body can often spontaneously release highly charged survival states. In SE we call this “discharge” which is a state change from either a freeze (dorsal vagal state) or high sympathetic tone. We will take time to have an in-depth review of physiological discharge. Interoceptive qualities will be explored as well as what certain descriptions and behaviors might indicate about a person’s metabolic state. This will help you discern the direction the ANS may be moving toward. This overview can help SE experiencers, students and practitioners have a clearer road map of the signs of release and reorganization which often leads to trauma resolution and expansion of capacity.

This webinar is 1 hour and 35 minutes long.