Olivier Rouiller

Becoming Safely Embodied

Deirdre Fay

How to translate 'Embodied'? Incarnate could pass but I'm not satisfied. Here we refer to a whole movement of personal development internationally, dominated by English, the concept of Embodiment, which I would simply translate as... Embodiment.

Embodiment is the art and practice of reconnecting to one's body, to one's sensations, instincts, etc. This happens through movement practices like yoga, dance, different forms of conscious movement. This also happens through trauma work, because to survive in our society, and under the influence of a traumatic childhood for example, we learn to dissociate, we become 'numb', because we avoid emotions, unpleasant sensations.

The price to pay for this dissociation is misery, and a disconnection from our environment, an insensitivity to oneself and to others.

Or on the contrary our experience is far too sensitive and our emotions are overwhelming, there is no 'self' to contain them.

So the Embodiment movement, and this work, one among many that describes practices that allow us to turn our attention toward the body, in safety, and to reconstruct a fragmented sense of self. To regulate what emerges, and to rebuild the neural networks from our guts to our conscious attention.

These practices are for me linked to trauma therapy and necessary aids on the path of integration of our psycho-corporeal apparatus.