Adaptive responses
Adaptive responses can become gateways to learning. Sometimes these responses appear extreme and the key may be to simply listen.
The medical community may become more and more aware of new ways to view ‘Obsessive Compulsive Disorder’ (OCD) in light of the work of Stephen Porges. Jan Winhall, following Porges’s work, developed “A Felt Sense Polyvagal Model of Addiction”. An excellent article is at https://somaticpsychotherapytoday.com/addiction-from-the-bottom-up-a-felt-sense-polyvagal-model-of-addiction/. Winhall will be joining Porges in a teaching a programme.
OCD may sometimes be an ADAPTIVE response: a tendency to ‘fight/flight’ or ‘freeze’ in the face of a challenge perceived or real, followed by haphazard and repetitive action in efforts to resolve the challenge. The challenge may be perceived as threatening, even life-threatening. Therefore the SURVIVAL aspect calls for a special understanding of the collaborative student/teacher situation.
The habitual nature of the ‘OCD’ pattern lends itself to compassionate listening during a Feldenkrais lesson or a Sounder Sleep System® class. A historical source for healing the ‘OCD’ pattern could be seen as “the fittest may also be the gentlest because survival often requires mutual help and cooperation’ (Dobzhansky, 1962). (notes/quotes at https://thinkinginmovement.ca/porges-dobzhansky/)
During my Feldenkrais® lessons and Sounder Sleep System® classes I often refer to Jan Winhall’s charts Felt Sense Polyvagal Model of Emotional Regulation: FSPM_Clinician-Model-ER Jan Winhall ©2019 PDF / FSPM_Client Model ER Jan Winhall ©2019 PDF
Paris Kern has been teaching the Sounder Sleep System® for a worldwide teacher training this week. She continues to create skilled variations beautifully modulating, slowing, and softening those hyperactive responses while appropriately engaging the creative spark of sympathetic liveliness. Sounder Sleep System cultivates hypo-metabolic states to foster ease and rest at appropriate intervals – a juxtaposition of ‘fine motor movements’ with ‘gross motor movements’ can restore a balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic states of the nervous system.
Also noting an excellent “Webinar for Feldenkrais Practitioners The Biology of Fight/Flight and Freeze and how we as Feldenkrais® Practitioners can work with that” Prepared by Violet van Hees, Feldenkrais ® Practitioner; TTouch® Equine Practitioner 1; Somatic Practice (Kathy Kain’s program) (www.violetvanhees.com).
Additional resources for Poly Vagal perspectives: https://thinkinginmovement.ca/polyvagal/.
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