Early in my teaching and clinical work I realized that directing clients to their somatic experience is more easily disorganizing than helpful. This has become a key understanding in the development of the mindfulness-based Organic Intelligence® Clinical Protocol. I have also spoken on this topic of the hazards of interoception at professional conferences, to meditation instructors, in blogs (cf OI Blog, Somatic Self-Similarity), and as an expert panelist in a large qualitative research study (Mehling, W. et al, 2011; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3096919/). However, the depth o ..read more

I am in Louisville, visiting my mom en route to Switzerland. This Saturday morning I’m in my favorite coffee shop and I’m thinking about Aunt Bessie. Aunt Bessie lived just a few hundred yards downhill from Brandenburg Methodist Church, where she had been a lifelong member. On April 3, 1974, a historic “super outbreak” of tornadoes tore across the Midwest, and devastated many communities, including Brandenburg, Kentucky. That day took the lives of many, including Aunt Bessie, and her sister, my grandmother Emma Wilson. At her memorial, the minister spoke of “Miss Bessie,” and how for years, ev ..read more

Feedspot selected the OI Blog as one of the Top 75 PTSD Blogs on the web. Thank you Feedspot readers, and thank you OI Bloggers for your engaging content and sharing your wisdom! See more at Feedspot. The post OI Blog Awarded Top 75 PTSD Blog appeared first on Organic Intelligence | Trauma Safe ..read more

”It’s ethically questionable at this point to use trauma as a focus for work or traumatic sensations or focus on traumatic emotions. There is a better way. There is a more humane way and integrating way. That’s what I am trying to get across to therapy…”  I was talking with Nicole Lemaster here. Her delightful interviewing style really set me at ease, and hopefully I was not too blunt! Listen to the podcast here. I am finding myself with the time to organize my thoughts and actions so much more clearly with the completion of the initial start-up madness with the Organic Intelligence® laun ..read more

I have a fascination with being human, and the ever deepening intricacies this exposes. Interested in things like why did I stop writing little blog posts? Or love letters through monthly newsletters? I appreciate the meaning making through thoughts, such as switching to a fancy phone has been a distraction, and social media has sucked me under her prowess.  There has also been allowance, for time will shift and a knowing that words come, if they must. There was that big hospitalization for my daughter in winter of 2015 as it turned to 2016 that was a bit dizzying to the ability to write ..read more

I was holding my youngest daughter at the Koi pond in a local garden today orienting to our environment by watching the large orange, grey and speckled white, and golden fish lumber through the water.  Something made me look across the rectangular pond to see a panicked mother plunge her hand into the pond and pull out her approximately 18-month old little boy by the ankle.  His head just missed the concrete edging to the pond on his way back out.  She was hitting his back in fear he had swallowed water, and as soon as she heard the sweet and heartbreaking sound of his scream ..read more

One of the first questions I asked Steve when he first opened the floor to questions during training was, “How can I use this with couples?” Steve nodded….thought about it for a few moments…and moved on. We had more basic fish to fry. However, the question continued to surface for me. I’d worked with a lot of couples at that point, and considered it one of my specialties. I kept thinking that somatic psychology was important to treating couples, giving me a way to do it better. I just couldn’t put my finger on how to do it. Now, several years later, I’m learning how to fry those bigger fish. L ..read more

A Veteran’s Day post by Eva Belanger, Executive Director and Founder of Warriors Live On. A nonprofit helping Combat Veterans with PTSD returning to a meaningful life, WLO is rooted in Organic Intelligence®, and engaged in research around the effectiveness of their approach. Additional materials: download the Free Guide “How to Work With Vets.” And watch the recording of our 2016 Veteran’s Day Family Room with Eva Belanger, MA, MFT, and Andrew Barone.   It’s Sunday evening, and I am driving home from getting groceries at Trader Joes. Going East on Hwy 52 I looked up in ..read more

Organic Intelligence® calls for a new and very distinct approach in therapy. Find out how, in a conversation with Serge Prengel. This conversation highlights the key aspects that distinguish OI from therapy and other somatic trauma resolution methods, and why the Organic Intelligence approach is a true paradigm shift in its field. Organic Intelligence & Trauma is a transcription of a conversation between Steve Hoskinson and Serge Prengel for SomaticPerspectives.com. Listen to the original podcast. This conversation was transcribed by Janay Anderson ..read more

“What is it?” The client asked me this as she felt her head, all on its own, turn gently to the right — as if about to look at something over there. Her question meant, “What past trauma is this experience related to?” So, here’s the fundamental problem. Even in somatic psychotherapy circles we still don’t appreciate enough just how fully physical behavior is. The implicit, or body memory, is not at all linear — not one event per behavior. There could be, and likely are, numerous events that might rise to threshold for recollection, and which are associated with any state, any emotion, any ..read more