TO YOUR HEALTH
knowledge what consciously affects our present state. This is done through a series of movements that combine a multitude of somatic and embodiment practices that I have created from my training in fas - cial therapies, energy work, and occupational therapy. While the mind is not separate from the body, it has the ability to take us out of our body. Our awareness is often stuck just at the surface of somatic expression, replaying that old feedback loop that keeps us from reliving the trauma, but also keeps us stuck in survival patterns. As a result, our personalities often reflect whatever survival pattern we are stuck in, which is often some variation of fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Spending some time doing these embodiment practic - es daily not only helps us to recognize our holding patterns, it can also help us to move through them slowly, using that process of titration I mentioned earlier. Then, we can either stop here and go about our day with more awareness and embodiment, or we can choose to move on to the next Quadrant…. Quadrant Two: Connect It was John F. Barnes who said, “Our bodies will only take us where we are ready to go.” While I agree in theory, sometimes our bodies are begging to heal. If we don’t use a trauma-informed approach, the healing doesn’t integrate and we end up right back where we started. Like my mentors in the fields of bodywork, I believe the fascia is the key to releasing our stored trauma and memories. Finding and re- leasing those moments in time from the body (i.e., like that childhood fall and impact to the tailbone) has the ability to free up a lot of space in the body so we can learn to be perceptive and well-balanced beings. The second Quadrant of Embodiment uses myofascial tools and principles to Connect to the places in the body that come up as import- ant or relevant during the Assess portion of this approach. Connecting to the body takes a level of patience many are no longer conditioned for, so I have created specific models and methods that teach us to go deeper while remaining unattached yet present to what comes up in the body. While this is where the magic happens, it is often not where the integration happens, which brings us to the next Quadrant…. Quadrant Three: Explore Early on, I mentioned one of our body’s primary roles is to seek ho - meostasis as quickly and efficiently as possible. Whenever we change something in our body’s connective tissue, we disrupt the whole com - pensatory pattern in our body. This third quadrant is designed to teach us how to explore what feels different, in order to anchor in the changes. Without this exploration, the body will revert back to its pre- vious state of function (or dysfunction) because that is the pattern it Embodiment: The Bridge Between... ...continued from page 31
has known for months, years, or even decades. Once we change the body’s connective tissue, we need to create repetition of movement. This will allow the brain and the body to repattern itself through the motor feedback loop described earlier. Repetition and routine is vital to learning and repatterning. This is largely what we address in the fourth and final Quadrant…. Quadrant Four: Embody I once had a teacher ask me, “How do we teach our patients to wear the changes?” I thought this was a brilliant way to describe this last step, and, frankly, this is a step often missing from many therapy pro- grams and self-development courses. Neuroscience reveals it takes an average of 21 days to form a new habit and that’s only if the habit is a singular and somewhat familiar step. Applying lifestyle changes can take months or even years of con- sistent and frequent practice. At the end of any approach to healing, it is important to analyze how these new routines will fit into your daily life. What environmental demands could be a potential barrier to building consistency? What tools and techniques did your body re - spond well to that you could come back to easily when life gets in the way? This last step looks at the bigger picture and how that may have an impact on our personal embodiment over time. The body has an simplistic yet profound way of speaking to our mind. It often speaks in whispers composed of fleeting images, thoughts, feelings and emotions. If every wellness professional could learn to interpret this somatic language, we could get to the root cause of our client’s pain, illness, and discomfort a lot quicker. We could take back the intellectual rights to our own bodies and teach our clients to do the same. Nyle is an Occupational Therapist with a speciality in holistic manual therapies that consider the mind-body-spirit interplay. Nyle has worked in clinical settings to address pain in patients for more than 15 years. In 2016 Nyle began teaching patients and other clini - cians how to self-assess and treat their own pain, which later evolved into a 6-week group healing course known as the Embodiment Proj - ect. Nyle also teaches a 9-month Embodiment Certification program to practitioners who wish to incorporate The Four Quadrants of Em - bodiment into their own approach to healing. For more information on their online courses and training pro - grams or to find free resources to get started on your own personal embodiment journey, visit www.bluenyletherapy.com.
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