Twig's Se Reflections

Play Episode 69 Here A common challenge for SE Practitioners is accommodating clients who have high expectations for the success (or failure) of this work. Too often immediate demands from either the client or practitioner curtails curiosity, participation and permission to engage with a process that necessarily takes time to develop and unfold. In this episode I look at some of the considerations we can hold while accommodating high expectations in our office. Note: Unfortunately the recoding of this episode included a background buzz that I'm unable to eliminate. This will probably make listening through earbuds or headphones unpleasant. My apologies for that. I'm still learning. I appreciate your patience. - Twig

Play Episode 68 Here Learning new things takes time. You need to experiment with all kinds of different combinations, try different things out, take note inside yourself on what works and what doesn't. Such things take time. Like learning the nuances of a new landscape or city. The local resident has a dozen tricks for getting to the airport on time. The visitor or newbie needs to give extra time for getting stuck in traffic because they simply don't know the secret way. So too with learning a craft like Somatic Experiencing. There are a dozen routes to where you want to go, but you'll need to put some time and attention into learning where you're likely to get stuck and where you found the goods. This episode offers some encouragement to let yourself experiment along the way while you learn this new terrain.

Play Episode 67 Here Without a doubt, some sessions are smoother than others. Some work "like magic" while others can be a long slow torment for clients and practitioners alike. One thing to do is ask what the smooth sessions have in common and what attributes therein can be cultivated to make all sessions ring with a bit more satisfaction. This episode looks at a number of these "positive deviancy" elements that we'd like to see everywhere. The Themes in this podcast have matured in this program...

Play Episode 66 Here Today is January 1st, 2016. In celebration of starting another calendar year I've offered up a little meditation on Looking Back and Looking Forward. To get where we'd like to go is always a process. Things take time. Today you're not troubled by at least some things you found excruciating 5 years ago. Same too with skills and smoothness of execution in our SE sessions. We get better at these things over time. That includes coming through where we were before to where we are now and only then where we'll go next. It's a journey. The New Year is a time I like to see where I'm at along the way. Maybe you too.

Note: Sorry but for some reason iTunes isn't update as normal so you're probably only seeing this if it's fixed or you came to www.liberationispossible.org. I'll get that fixed soon but not this moment. Summary: A short message out of the Winter Silence I've stumbled into as Solstice Season has come on. I'll look forward to being back with more SE Reflections podcast episodes on January 1st. Wishing you all a safe and gentle holiday season. https://vimeo.com/149810598

Play Episode 75 Here There's a hope amongst many of us that if we can just "get this to Pendulate" than the task will be done - we can then sit back and watch the magic happen. I don't offer an exhaustive list of why that's a fantasy or incomplete appreciation of what we're doing but I can assure you it is. In a informal-podcast-kind-of-way I say as much in this episode. Mentions: In the close of this episode I recommended Brad Kammer's webinar introducing Larry Heller's developmental trauma model NARM. I attended this 2 hour program with Brad recently and was appreciative of NARM (and Brad's) ability to distinguish between Shock and Developmental trauma. There are more introduction webinars coming and I find them reasonably priced. Here's a link to the registration page on Brad's site. I also saw that the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute is doing another round of short programs on the Foundations of Disaster Response. I'm just saying...I think that's a really great thing. The locations a

Play Episode 64 Here Continuing with the theme on Pendulation, this story based episode reviews a few reminder details about how to help ensure that things oscillate if they're not going to of their own. Many of the themes I touched on in Episodes 63-64 were addressed extensively in my Guide to the SE Language.

Play Episode 63 Here Here is a critical question behind the scenes in every session...Will this Pendulate? From a repetitive tension pattern to a looping storyline there are plenty of times a felt experience won't find change unless some outside smarts are brought to bare. That's part of our job as Somatic Experiencing Practitioners: to be able to discern whether an element of experience is likely to pendulate or not and what to do based on that assessment. Do we lean on this or that element of experience? Do we trust the pendulum to swing or get in there and direct it? Do we hope for the best or make something else happen? I don't answer these directly but I do look at them all while holding the tension inside the question - will this pendulate? Many of the themes I touched on in Episode 63 were addressed in my Guide to the SE Language.

Play Episode 62 Here There are moments in sessions that stand out as more important than others. These events range from increased curiosity to full fledged tracking of involuntary somatic experience. Typically the attention necessary to catch and follow these moments of significance are lost on our clients due to the general noise or thoughts and expectations common to us all. Before we can expect our clients to hang out in the present moment we're going to need to learn how to guard it for ourselves and we'll often need to protect it for others - sometimes even from ourselves and our professional desires. Here's one group of things I'd like to share about a hidden detail in our SE sessions that makes all the difference - how we protect the moment. Here's another little time-lapse showing part of the process of making these podcasts. https://vimeo.com/143889052

Play Episode 61 Here An episode dedicated to a meditation on the similarity between facilitating SE sessions and the act of hunting in the open field, including notions about shared frame of mind, attitude, challenges and joys of engagement. Along with some thoughts about what we're looking for as key information scent in our sessions and the need to sometimes "Hold back our hearts" while the conditions for success are being cultivated.

Play Episode 60 Here Maybe it doesn't happen to everyone but plenty of us have wondered if we're frauds. It's only natural. This SE stuff is a "different kind of thing" than most of our clients are prepared for. The worry that we don't know what we're doing is easily exacerbated by not having enough traction and felt success in our work. This episode takes a look at some of the pitfalls that can enhance the feeling of being a fraud along with some sincere practical solutions for the time while you're developing your own mastery of this craft us SEP's aspire too. In this episode I mention that my friend Abi Blakeslee and Dave Berger (both SE Faculty) are teaching a workshop together in LA this November 12-16th. The title is: Relational Development, Rupture and Repair A Somatic Developmental Perspective workshop. Go Team!

Play Episode 59 Here Here's an easy going look at what comes of every session - closure. A truly non-exhaustive look at the end of sessions.

Play Episode 58 Here Fall is here and for many of us that means we'll be attending various workshops or trainings focused on our "improvement" (of Self, profession and so on). These are fabulous opportunities to move us along the change process to where we hope to go. We get inspired, feel the difference, expect more from ourselves and others back home. Great! What an opportunity. At the same time, maybe we want to be careful after workshops to not sign any new contracts until we reintegrate with our daily lives. Here a quick, admittedly slightly brambled-up yet forgivingly short episode saying as much.

Play Episode 57 Here I know I'm not alone! Some of us hate the beginning of sessions. If that includes you here's some commiseration, reality testing, suggestions and what I do to cultivate attunement with the aide of Tit for Tat style reciprocity. There's also a description of one of my favorite adapted improv games: Slow Motion Ninja Riot.

Play Episode 56 Here We're back after an unexpected - under-coupling induced - publishing pause! Here's a reflection on the value of people watching for gaining experience in "seeing where a person is" on the various different Somatic maps. Along with the back story on the under-coupling event.

Play Episode 55 Here Finally, a look at the oldest branch of the Autonomic Nervous System as noted in the Polyvagal theory - the Dorsal Vagal Complex, the sub-system in us that is more akin to older, slower, less engaged critters on the family tree. This is a rambling look at a unique part of our biological heritage that has profound clinical implications for Somatic Experiencing practitioners and others tuning into the wisdom hidden in our physiology.

Play Episode 54 Here I needed to step sideways of the review of the polyvagal theory layout and organization of the ANS and go with a topical concern right now while wildfires are back in my area. It's an interesting opportunity to consider where we place our attention and what we focus on when we encounter repetitive dangerous events. My preference is to lean on what's helping things go in the right direction - at least as much as possible. This is a pretty "off-the-cuff" episode. Helpful Links to Episode Mentions: A workshop I think we should all check out: Foundations of Disaster Response for SE Providers by the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute An early post by me with very basic thoughts on working with people after natural disasters. This gives good background story on the fires I talk about in this episode: Twig's SE Reflections Podcast #47 - Natural Disasters in one SEP's Backyard.

Play Episode 53 Here Continuing on with a little series on the Autonomic Nervous System from a Polyvagal perspective - this time focusing on the Ergotropic (mobilization) system, commonly known as the Sympathetic Nervous System. News...I'm letting go of the mini-series format. These podcasts are going back to the chat chatty pattern. I guess that's why this podcast is called "Twig's SE Reflections."

Play Episode 52 Here 2nd in a group of mini-episodes that are supposed to be limited to 5 minutes. Go figure, this one on the basics of the anatomy associated to the Ventral Vagal Complex broke the rules and comes in at 12 minutes. So it goes. Show Notes Page with with additional commentary. Many of us think of the Polyvagal theory as challenging. Understandably so, it's kinda complex. That's necessary and appropriate for what it is, namely: a parsimonious theory that explains a multidude of phenomena with a simpler, more elegant explanation than what science had found before. 3 cheers for Stephen Porges for having changed history and opened up an entirely new understanding of ourselves and the general goings on in evolution. Unfortunately to pull that off requires some pretty big words and that can confuse us. Here's my prediction. Soon enough it'll be completely commonplace in our lexicon and we'll rattle off phrases like Nucleus Ambiguous or Ventral Vagal Complex as though we always knew them.

Play Episode 51 Here The first of an unknown number of mini-episodes from Twig's SE Reflections. This one on a hopefully unnecessary worry of creating an intellectual cultural bias favoring the pro-social or Ventral Vagal stance at the cost of excluding (and stigmatizing?) those who don't have or want it. Show Notes Page with with additional commentary. [Note: I'm still working out some changes for the next 50 episodes of Twig's SE Reflections after recieving positive and helpful feedback from listeners. Many thanks to those who took the time for that. In the meantime I'm going to share some mini-episodes of 5 minutes or less. Here's the first, with a little written commentary in the show notes.] Here's something I don't think is an active problem but something we need to be cautious of as SE Practitioners develop an intellectual community with a common language of what we like and what we don't like. We don't want to become so attached to the idea of being Ventral Vagal oriented that we becom