TUNGKOL SA EPISODE NA ITO
This week, my husband Rabbi Yonasan Reiser and I talked about something I get asked about fairly often: how to choose a somatic training program.
My answer might surprise you.
We're taking a model of learning that's designed for cognitive content and applying it to body-based work. The model is information-heavy and lecture-based, and I think that's a problem for what we have here.
If you're learning a somatic modality, at least 70% of your time in training should be experiential. Learning this modality doesn't work by watching or listening to lectures. To be effective, we need to actually practice it in all three roles: as a practitioner, as a client, and as an observer.
The reason is simple: if you don't have the lived experience of what you're guiding your client through, you can't guide them.
In this week's episode, I also talk about why the nervous system needs a little context before jumping into practice, and why ongoing practice after training is what separates the practitioners who can actually use this work effectively from those who can't.
And then I tell a story I don't share often. When I was looking for a focusing practitioner for myself, I worked with several people who claimed to do focusing, and I was appalled. What they were doing caused re-traumatization. They were good people trying their best, but they didn't have the depth of lived experience that this work requires.
This kind of training needs to be lived. Join the conversation and let me know what you think.
If this episode resonated with you, I recommend The Power of Focusing by Ann Weiser Cornell. Cornell studied directly with Eugene Gendlin, the originator of Focusing, and this is probably the most practical guide to Focusing that exists. It's not theoretical; instead, it walks you through how to actually do it.
This maps directly onto everything we talked about today: the difference between understanding something conceptually and having the lived experience of it. This book won't give you the lived experience that only comes from doing the work with another person, of course, but it's the closest thing to a hands-on guide you'll find in print. Order a copy here. This is an affiliate link which doesn't cost you anything extra and helps support my work.
