The Experience of Emergent Bodywork

(the following is an excerpt from "The Practical Introduction to Emergent Bodywork Manual" which is available for $15 in PDF format and $25 as a hardcopy - email or call for more information)

             The Tide can guide each of us in any discipline we are interested in.  If one was an acupuncturist, the tide can instruct one where to put the needles and at what depth, how long to keep them in etc.  It is not an informal process by any stretch.  There is great intimacy to the Tide.  What I intend to share here is simply what goes on for me in preparing for a session and then in relating to my clients during a session. 

            Before my client arrives I link into his or her energetic field.  I do this by seeing them on the table.  Where do I feel that the flow is strongest?  In other words, how are they positioned on the table that causes the least ocular stress for me?  I can envision them on their backs, on their stomachs, on either side, standing or sitting.  Whatever feels smoothest in energy flow to my perception is the right place to work.  There are occasions where I get no clear indication and then I have to wait until the client arrives where I might take more time to get a sense of where to begin.

            I only ever know where to start and even that can change at the last moment.  Once I begin working, I wait on cues from the body.  The body has a clear appetite for change, one course after the other.  The way I "see" appetite is that I sense an area wanting to change and then I get clear indications of where it wants to go by envisioning the change.  The dense body approach is pre-confirmed with the energetic self which is easy to change.  I begin my work and am open to changing course at every moment.  Sometimes I am pulled into an area just to get the energy in the area moving.  Sometimes all that is needed is energetic presence in the space.  Other times it is necessary to agitate the area through various methods to bring enough momentum for change.  Once there is sufficient blood and chi the change can occur with the correct contact. 

            As described above, the process is like a yawn.  I am waiting for the surge of energy that allows for a change at any level from the most etheric to the most concrete.  Cellular reality seems to ripple outward energetically.  Any part of the ripple can be interrupted by strain, stress or toxicity and it is the focus of my work to allow the river to flow as freely outward as it can. 

            This means that I can be working on the aura 5 feet off the body in one instant and then making a deep bony contact in the next.  There are no sudden movements however.  All processes build to a satisfactory completion in an organic manner that is intuitively coordinated with the client's breath.  I am essentially diving into their tide and helping to shape the rock according to their fluid specifications. 

            What we are attempting to do in each cycle is move from broader areas to more and more focused areas.  I would tell my students that you hover in the helicopter trying to sense the right area and then move into that area on the ground finding first the street, then the house, then the room in the house and then the closet where that one shoe has its laces all knotted up.  Unwinding those knots is our real focus.  Strangely enough, when that "shoelace" is unwound the whole town is better for it.  Such is the case in our bodies.

            The effects of each intervention cause a sort of benevolent tsunami to ripple outward in all directions.  When working on a client's neck for example, I often find myself called to resolve any wrist strain by squeezing the bones.  Sometimes there are some satisfying cracks back into place and other times it is acting more like a pump.  By squeezing the wrist I seem to be sending blood up to the neck and head which facilitates changes at that level.  As the changes move through the body, certain levels of change are needed.  A tsunami simply keeps moving until it hits something that challenges its structure, namely something less watery.  In our bodies, we want the tsunami to change whatever it needs to.  The hands on work is the effect of the tide crashing into our less aqueous selves.  Through contact and motion, we restore a greater viscidity to those areas, improving blood flow and lymph drainage. 
 

                  The primary difference in Emergent Bodywork is the primary advantage of experiencing it.  All systems designed to address the body, whether they are exercise programs, yoga, t'ai chi or bodywork methods, have a manner in which they approach the body.  Some are more flexible than others but none of them are completely centered on responding to your intracellular directives through meditative listening.  I have no idea what I am going to do in a session because I have no plan.  I only know what I am doing in that moment and that could always change.  If a talk therapist only had as many responses for you as your local gym has options for your body (including cardio, weights, yoga, pilates, massage etc.) you would be sorely disappointed.  We do not desire to fit the tools laying before us, rather we desire a dialogue where our input is considered the primary impetus for change.  This is understood in conventional therapy but totally under-appreciated when it comes to our relationships with our physical selves.  Emergent Bodywork closes this gap by allowing your body to do the talking and responding meaningfully to exactly what it's saying.