Dear Henry,

While I liked Dr Dohn's response (except the implication that only Hellerwork among SI schools deals openly with emotional issues - let's watch that kind of elitism - I've met many SI practitioners from other schools who are masters of the emotional traverse, and some Hellerworkers whose skills I could not respect.  Every school has its strengths and weaknesses, but PRACTITIONER differences, in my considerable experience, are far greater than SCHOOL differences.)

That said, let me add the fiollowing to Dr Dohn's sound advice:

1) Yes, time is an issue.  Most of the time, I subvert structural and session goals to the somatic unfolding needs of the client.  If necessary (only one side of the adductors got done) I reschedule them for asap, like the next day, to finish the session in terms of structure.  Other times I tell the person in the waiting room that I will be a little late.  In any case, pressing on with the structural goals and subverting the emotional unfolding is almost always a shut-down for the client.

2)  psychotherapy is about 150 years old, if that, as a science.  We are developing its somatic side.  Peter Levine (Waking the Tiger) and others (Ray Castellano, e.g.) are tracking the way.  Taking courses with them, if your training did not cover this, would be helpful, as well as getting some kind of therapy that aloows you through some somato-emotional release would all be good.  But I do not try to play psychotherapist with my clients, and nor did Ida.  I confine myself to the 'ums', and 'goods', and 'oh, my's that any neighbor would say when confronted with such a story.  I do not engage the content of the story, because I am not so licensed.  I do not, as the Hellerwork people do, start using Hakomi 'probes' or other quasi-psych tricks (however effective they are in some cases).

Much better is to learn to track the BODY during these times.  This is what Ida did, what she urged us to do, and it keeps you out of the trouble of practicing psychotherapy where you are not authorized.  The autonomic system is telling you all the time what is going on, you just need to learn to read it.  Pupil dilation, peristalisis, cholinergic vs adrenergic sweating, heart rate, breathing patterns, eye movements, clonic twitches, swallowing, skin color changes - all these and more allow you to track the body's place on the charge-discharge cycle.  In other words, watch the somatic CONTEXT of the release, rather than mucking into the psychological CONTENT of the piece.  These things are all unidgested experience, lodged in the body's pattern.  The recipe, plus your skills, are potent tools for unravelling the pattern.  

Let your clients, unless you are a fully-trained psychoptherapist, work out that content with someone else.  Refer often, and build relationships in your community with people to which to refer.  I have seen a lot of trouble begin when SI practitioners - even including Hellerworkers - tried to act in place of a competent psychotherapist.  Stick with somatotherapy, that's your field of expertise.  Learn to track the autonomic signs.

Good luck.  The fact that it's happening in your practice means your psyche is somehow ready for it.

Tom Myers


Hpk3rd@... wrote:

hello all-
      this past year i have encountered a certain, what seems to me positive and indicative of growth as a practitioner, problem.  as my confidence in session and presentation in general has developed it seems my clients have begun to respond to me in a different way.  regularly now, nay, almost reliably, clients are traversing emotional space openly during session.  to my knowledge there is nothing i am doing to encourage this or suggest it except for just being me.  im not attempting to psychotherapeutically care for these people in any way other than listening with my hands and ears, and total presence of course.  while this feels positive and good, and dare i use the word, healing, it presents certain dilemmas.
      a)  time is an issue.  when someone opens up dramatically, i dont simply nod and dig. i listen, this takes time, time well spent to be sure, but time taken away from the session.  when there are others in line, or a pressing need to attend to i sometimes have to move much more quickly than i would like in order to complete a session.  so the dilemma i suppose is this: what is ethical when the system has time constraints?  tell them to set up other sessions for their process and continue where i left off (but to what effect?) or attend to the present moment and let the structural method suffer?  how has someone else dealt with this?
      b)  should i even be allowing myself to be in this position?  legally i would say no, morally i would say yes, as concerns efficacity i would also say yes.  although i dont anticipate a psychotic break happening,  are there any measures of protection i should be aware of, as much for myself as the client?

      theres plenty i of questions i have concerning this topic, but i will leave this a general question to the group, and i would appreciate any thoughtful response.

thanks in advance,

henry of san diego

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