Somatic Healing: Connecting Mind and Body in Therapy

Join Jan Winhall in this insightful video as she delves into the interoceptive process of felt sensing and the transformative practice of focusing. Discover the six essential steps that will help you connect with your body's wisdom, enabling you to enhance your therapeutic work, whether it's Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), or any other modality. Learn more: https://therapywisdom.com/6-steps-foc...

In this session, Jan guides you through practical exercises to clear mental space, enabling deeper self-awareness and emotional healing. Learn the vital skills of neuroception and felt sensing, which empower you and your clients to navigate the autonomic nervous system and cultivate a sense of safety and grounding.
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Transcript-
Jan Winhall (00:00)
So in this video, I want to concentrate on the interoceptive process of felt sensing.

And I want to be able to take you through the six steps of focusing so that you can experience sense of what happens in your body as you move through these kinds of movements inside. And then you'll be able to, over time, share this kind of practice, a deep somatic practice, with your clients. The beauty of this felt -sense Polyvagal model,

is that it's a somatic model that you can bring into any kind of practice you're already doing. What you're doing there is bringing in these natural ways that the body has of healing into whatever you're doing with CBT or DBT or any of these other wonderful modalities. And it will really empower what you are already doing because now you're activating body wisdom.

So these two processes are actually skills that you can teach to your clients. And the skill for neuroception I call really being able to identify what state you're in in the nervous system and learning ways to be able to rewire your whole autonomic nervous system into a place that you can feel more grounded and safe in the world. And the other skill is the skill of felt sensing and working with the six steps of focusing.

I'm going to walk you through the six steps of focusing. So preparation, really important. So when you do this practice, just make sure that you're in a quiet and a private space so that you can begin to slow down, begin to pause. And if it isn't a good time right now, then you can come back later and be with me and the six steps of focusing.

Just let yourself have the experience now. Don't worry about taking notes.

And the first step of focusing is actually a mindfulness practice where we clear space inside.

And so we ask down into the center.

of the body.

What's coming between me and feeling really okay today?

Feeling clear and settled.

And usually people have at least four or five things, it's kind of issues in your life that are taking up space inside.

So I want you to just pick one of those things, whatever comes first, and don't go into it. Just gather it up.

put it in a little safe container, or maybe a balloon.

Just let your body help you to gather it and contain it. And then...

Just put it at the right distance so that you can clear it for now. We're not getting rid of it. We're not dismissing it. We're just putting it to the side for now.

so you can begin to clear space inside.

And then just notice, well, with that thing kind of beside me, or maybe really even far away, and ask the question again, well, what else is in here, roaming around inside me that's an issue in my life that I really need to just get some distance from in this moment? And just notice what else comes.

worry or something you have to do and gather it up.

and just get the right distance from you in here and it out there.

You might float it up in a balloon or it might be something tender that wants to just stay beside you. It knows.

And then with those two things cleared, just notice, well, is there something else in here that's just kind of bugging me that I need to just get some distance from for now? I can always go back there, but we just want a clear space in the body for now.

And then you just begin to get a sense inside of an opening, a little bit more of a calm place in there. And just check, is there anything else in there that just needs to be named? You know it's there, you're not denying it, but you're managing it. You're saying, let's just put this out here for now. And then as you come back inside,

And then, because this is focusing, we go on to step two. And in step two, we're looking for a felt sense. So you ask those issues that you put outside, which one of those would like to come in?...