“When you’re falling — Dive!” —Joseph Campbell “You are here to manifest your innate enlightenment.” —Morihei Ueshiba (Founder of Aikido) “What do you do when you bump up against the client’s resistance? You say ‘Excuse me!’” —Milton Trager The zen master slapped the fan into his palm, “How do you experience this sound?” It was 1982 Read More…
The Yin & Yang of Being & Doing in Therapy
What is Resilience? (OI Tenet #3)
Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. In the world of positive psychology, resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress, such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors. Resilience, in that context, means bouncing Read More…
My Understanding of Organic Intelligence Continues to Expand
Over the years, I have had a fascination with the physiological theories underlying activation and deactivation, fight, fight, and freeze states and social engagement (thank you Stephen Porges!). Intellectually, I could tell you how these theories offer a map for sessions, yet something was missing. It felt as if all of the information I’d learned Read More…
Somatic Self-Similarity: The Fractal Nature of Body & Mind (OI Tenet #2)
OI Tenet #2: The importance of somatic psychology for mapping the phases of the nervous system, providing a clinical approach unique to Organic Intelligence. Somatic psychology claims a clinical and intellectual lineage from many sources, including the legacy of psychodynamics from Reich, Freud, etc. In fact, this young field has grown to the point of documenting its source materials, i.e. Read More…