My last post explored the value of self knowledge, including understanding our defenses, noting that as we look inward with curiosity we strengthen our self-awareness, gaining a greater sense of integrity, and the freedom to mindfully take action rather than to mindlessly react. To know thyself sounds like a great endeavor, but there's a catch, spending countless hours in introspection can have negative consequences. That's right, introspection can lead to feeling more stress

To embody is to recognize how and where cognition is experienced in the body. What physical and emotional sensations do our thoughts bring about, where does the body manifest the experience, and vice versa. In somatic psychotherapy we work collaboratively with embodied experience to help bring about a greater self-awareness, understanding, and integration of sensations, thoughts and emotions, which in turn can impact the way we inhabit ourselves and the way we live in the wor