Ian Macnaughton - Body, Breath, and Consciousness: A Somatics Anthology

Copyright 2004 by Ian Macnaughton. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Body, Breath, and Consciousness: A Somatics Anthology is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

This is issue #65 in the Io series.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, call 800-733-3000 or visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Body, breath, and consciousness : a somatics anthology / edited by Ian Macnaughton.

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-1-58394-593-3

1. Mind and body therapies. 2. Mind and body. 3. Psychotherapy. I. Macnaughton, Ian, 1938

RC489.M53C665 2004

616.8914dc22

2004007818

v3.1

The following articles are reprinted with the permission of Bodynamic International: The Body Self in Psychotherapy; Ethical Consideration in Somatic Therapies; Individuation, Mutual Connection and the Bodys Resources; The Art of Following StructureExploring the Roots of the Bodynamic System; Waking the Body Ego, Parts 1 and 2; The BodyKnot Model; Caring For Yourself While Caring For Others; The Therapeutic Power of Peak Experiences; Character Structure and Shock.

Multigenerational Family Therapy is reprinted by permission of the author, David Freeman.

Sensory Functioning in Psychotherapy is reprinted by permission of the author, Erving Polster.

Panic, Biology, and Reason: Giving the Body Its Due is reprinted by permission of the author, Peter Levine.

It Wont Hurt Forever Guiding Your Child Through Trauma is reprinted with permission of the authors, Peter Levine and Maggie Kline.

Using the Bodynamic Shock Trauma Model in the Everyday Practice of Physiotherapy is reprinted by permission of the author, Barbara Picton.

This collection would not have been made without the efforts of a number of people. I am grateful to all the contributors who allowed their work to be re-published here, and to the many colleagues, clients, and friends who have assisted in vital ways, both recently and earlier, to find concepts and methods for understanding and treating the entire person in the full contexts of living. A special appreciation goes to Garry Friesen of designTHIS.net for guiding the development of this book. Richard Grossinger and Brooke Warner of North Atlantic Books have been incredibly helpful in reformatting and with timely advice on how to proceed with the publishing process. Dr. Stuart Miller has been an invaluable author coach, and Sylvia Sandquists many hours of word-processing were important. My mother, and my wife, Barbara, have been unfailing sources of encouragement and support. Together with our children, they will find me eternally grateful to rest in such a loving and passionate family.

This book is about Body, Breath, and Consciousness. It presents various pathways to enhance the ease and depth of connection between us all. Within that capacity lays the forging of a sense of personal authenticity, an individuation we recognize as our self. The capacity of such presence allows us to be closely interrelated with others in intimate ways as well as appropriately connected with groups and the world community. To be confident in our ability to maintain a solid sense of self in all those domains of human experience requires a healthy sense of autonomy, a secure self that neither distances nor unduly reacts to the challenges of the range of interpersonal contact.

Our sense of self rests in our history, understanding the legacies, the strengths and losses faced down through our family generations. Here, rather than stories of family dysfunction, are the seeds, the markers, the images that can help recover and honor the losses inherent in every familys stories, and the overt and sometimes subtle heroism of surviving nonetheless. It rests in our personal developmental history, how we individually coped within the family, school, society. From that we developed our character patternsour defenses; our best friend in times of great challenge; our ways to cope when all else fails us. Learning how to appreciate these limitations as the best we could do in the circumstancesand with a compassionate heart embrace and learn other optionsis central to the theme of the various clinicians whose work is presented here. They offer their work as an aid to those travelers who are interested in pursuing a holistic and multi-integrated approach. Each author presents a solid theoretical base for individual exploration; they all address the central unity of the person, whether from a multi-generational systemic perspective or more specifically focusing on the relationship of mind and body in biological, psychological, and spiritual reality.