Last week I attended a day’s symposium with the trauma expert Peter Levine. I have followed and admired Peter’s work for several years. His theories on how the body holds trauma, how it can become trapped within viscera and muscles and lead to chronic pain, and mental health issues, have inspired me to explore further how listening to the body in psychotherapy, can offer insight and understanding to a persons experience.
Within this capacity, my aim is to slow things down in a session, to notice sensations, movements, small nuances that manifest in the body. This is a first step in creating a closer, more respectful relationship with our bodies, so that we can be receptive to what it might be telling us.
Peter talked about the Japanese tradition of Wabi Sabi, the art of imperfection. He spoke about human beings as being more beautiful with wounds that have been healed, like the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which is that of repairing pottery with gold.
I am looking to do a creative making workshop that incorporates this idea of repair and mending. I will post further details in the following weeks.
Lisa Snook - Art Psychotherapist 