Middle of the Session

Here are other principles of individual sessions within a group that can be used at any time but are particularly appropriate in the middle section of the work.

1. Track and meet potency. Potency is the place where the energy is. You can sense it in the client's voice, gesture, posture or movement. As you discover potency, begin to mirror, match and support it. This is something many of us never had as infants. When potency is met, we have a greater sense of self and we can feel our power from within. Being mirrored and met often brings up feelings and leads to the next step in deepening the work. A felt sense in the body may elicit a feeling memory of something that was missed or something yearned for. This may lead to a more regressed state, a more clear and present state or an experience of personal power.
   
   
2. Use somatic referencing. Ask such questions as, "Where do you experience that in your body? What happens when you focus on that sensation?" Work with the sensation, the somatic experience, by patiently focusing on these references and noticing what emerges.
   

   a. Attention to sensation brings awareness into the present moment and acknowledges what is. It takes mental activity out of story and interpretation (that is, the words the client is telling herself about her experience, rather than noticing the actual experience). When we are in story, we are more likely to be referencing the primal belief system, not in the reality of the current moment. Within the context of "telling the story", there is often a time distortion and/or regression: the story, the current emotion, is all there is. "It's always been this way, it will always be this way." This line of thinking generates more disconnected emotion, fear, sadness and/or anger. Awareness of the sensate experience brings us into contact with ourselves, makes contact between self and other easier, slows the process and allows us to come into the senses.  This is a basic principle of Sensory Awareness (See Brooks, 1986), Gestalt Therapy and other Neo-Reichian therapies. Fritz Perls (1976) admonished, "Lose your mind and come to your senses."

   b. Another reason that somatic referencing is so important is that memory and aspects of consciousness are stored in the body and therefore accessed through awareness of the body. It also opens a space for continued awareness and self-focus, recognition of patterns, and an avenue for re-patterning old beliefs and behaviors.

   c. Somatic referencing also begins to calm the nervous system and/or bring up the potency, both of which assist greatly in the therapeutic process. In this process you can also experience where attention is placed, energy follows. In addition, it encourages and allows the natural healing rhythm.

   
   
3. Move slowly and mindfully. Because as a therapist I have had to consciously work at slowing my pace, I coined this motto for myself: "If you want to move quickly, slow down." When I think of a really great intervention, I sit with it for a while and watch the client's cycle. I watch for the potency. I watch for them to show me where to go next.
4. Encourage the client to experience and move from an inner impulse. This principle, again, helps the client focus on their own process, slow the pace and discover internal sensation, resources and patterns. In our fast paced culture, and especially for those whose locus of control is external, many have never had an experience of moving from an inner impulse. This experience alone can create tremendous self awareness and self empowerment.
5. Help the client experience self as part of the group. This principle relates to the client's benefit from group involvement that was mentioned earlier. This process helps them receive support, make contact and hold boundaries. You can bring the experience more into the present moment and into their current life by making contact with group members. This contact allows the self to be met and the truth of their authentic self to be affirmed.
6. Ride the edge of catharsis. As mentioned earlier, expressing feelings for the sake of experiencing catharsis is no longer considered good therapy. Big feelings can often overwhelm the client and sidetrack the work. In a pre-and perinatal group, we help the client to ride the edge of catharsis, sometimes putting on the brake, making sure they can stay resourced and connected. It does little good to have a deep catharsis if the client is not fully present to experience it. In fact, it is counter productive as it likely cycles the client into an unresourced place, overwhelm and dissociation. The part of the client that was left behind then, is being left behind again. The key is connected catharsis. This can be accomplished through touch, eye contact, breath or simply consciously slowing the pace. You might ask the client what she is experiencing, call her attention to a hand that is touching her, or make a differentiation statement, such as, "Yes, it was a very frightening place, then." Peter Levine's (1998) Somatic Experiencing work is ingenious here. Titration and pendulation are primary methods used to facilitate connected catharsis. Titration and pendulation are essentially helping the client move between a resource and the memory that elicits the catharsis. These are special skills that take practice.
7. Discover and work with double binds. The concept of double binds, a "Catch-22" or no win situation, was first coined by Gregory Bateson (1973) and later used by Milton Erickson (See Haley, 1973). The experience of double binds usually begins at an early age and engenders core beliefs and creates life patterns. Double binds emerge from primal, seemingly life and death situations. This is another principle that deserves its own treatment for which there is not space here. However, it is beneficial to notice and mark double binds when you see them. Sometimes just naming them can be very helpful. For example, you might say, "It seems to me that as a little boy you were in a double bind. If you pleased your mother, your needs did not get met. If you did not please your mother, you were in trouble."
8. Engender and empower self-support. As the client moves through various stages of the work, it is important to name what they are doing or have done. For example, babies often don't know they completed the birth process; they don't know they are no longer stuck. You can make such comments as, "you're out now; you made it; you're safe; you're okay." If someone has taken a risk, pushed through to a new place, pulled something in or experienced a new phenomena, it is good to name it. Also, there is a delicate balance in the work of receiving support and engendering self-support. We must often learn to receive support before we can truly become self supportive.
9. Re-pattern core imprints. The techniques of re-patterning core imprints, core beliefs, is a paper within itself. Suffice to say here that our very earliest experiences of conception, discovery, gestation and birth create the template out of which we ultimately live our lives. The template or program consists of a few core beliefs, such as,  "I'm not okay, something must be wrong with me or I don't deserve love." The developing person/personality has no "I", no sense of self, no sense of separation from the parents or the environment. If something is troubling, the little one experiences self blame and begins to believe, "This must be about me. I must have caused of this." Along with this core belief immediately comes a decision about "how I must be, what I must do to survive and have my needs met." At this point the authentic self is occluded, clouded, and the new belief and decision becomes the "truth" out of which we live our lives. The work here is to recognize the life pattern and the core belief, differentiate "that was then, this is now," and help the client re-decide or affirm the truth of their existence. For example, "I always thought there was something wrong with me. Now, I can see I'm okay."
10. Experience, retrieve, and integrate into current life the authentic self that was left behind at the time of the trauma imprint. Having an experience of the authentic self, the self before the trauma, can be a healing experience. Work with the authentic self is subtle and accompanies the process of somatic experience. Your awareness of this and naming it is often all that is needed.

In general, it is because of the early focus that the pre-and perinatal group facilitator must be even more aware and prepared. Because we are inviting and evoking the earliest experiences, core imprints and even cellular memory, group participants are often in a much more vulnerable, if not regressed, state. Therefore, the therapist needs to orient, slow the pace, provide very clear direction and boundaries, and not take anyone beyond their capacity to stay resourced. The ten principles listed above create a toolbox for the individual session within the group process: track and meet potency, use somatic referencing, move slowly and mindfully, encourage the client to experience and move from an inner impulse, help the client experience self as part of the group, ride the edge of catharsis, discover and work with double binds, engender and empower self-support, re-pattern core beliefs, and experience, retrieve and integrate the authentic self into current life. These are, of course, not the only tools for the individual session, but they are a strong foundation from which to build.