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Counselling Connections Across Australia

During the 1960’s and 1970’s I was body interventions, both the power and gained a whole new perspective.
providing a counselling practice in intensity of this work. While the course
Sydney’s housing commission area in the was lacking in the promotion of the basic In 1998 I completed the 180 hour training
Western Suburbs. counselling skills and I don’t think had course in Structure, Alignment and
fully integrated issues of dissociation 1 Metaphor with Kathy Kain. This course
In those years I was introduced to many and trauma practice, for the time it was refined my awareness of the very specific
clients suffering the trauma of severe a great basis for me to bring body focus areas, even tiny spots on the body,
sexual abuse both as children and into counselling practice. My body focus in which trauma is held and how the
adults. One thing became obvious to me practice further developed with the finest touch can release past traumatic
at the time was the inadequacy of the input of techniques such as “Safe Touch tensions. The other value was the
talk therapy models available to offer any Protocols” in1993 and the important learning that the trauma of past medical
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more than comfort with little prospect of work of James Oschman, and Nora interventions remain locked in tissue
real change. Oschman (1995) on accessing soft despite the process being completed
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tissue memory. The late 80’s and 90’s under anaesthetic. I think it was around
This lead to my searching for alternate saw a plethora of literature becoming this time that the important concept of
models. available on the whole area of the need dual awareness became significant in
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for bodily access to release complex my practice.
Abuse, particularly sexual abuse, robs a trauma (Conger J. 1994, Levine P. 1997,
person of the right to possession of their Keleman S.1985, Boadella D. 1987 , ) By now I was working more and more
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own body. Locked tissue is no longer with early sexual abuse clients, as well
available to the person but is left to This provided the foundation for a set as the results of both early violence
remain property of the abuser. It seemed of practices that seemed incredibly and medical failure. With sexual abuse
to me that the therapeutic task was to helpful for clients but would have been the key areas of the body that tended to
assist clients in the repossession of their considered very questionable by the hold the trauma were in the lower pelvic
own bodies. But how? accepted models of therapeutic practice area, the diaphragm and often around
of the time. the neck. There appeared to be a high
In 1973 I undertook a weekly six month number of clients who were held forcibly
Friday morning training course in Gestalt For a beginning counsellor who had around the neck while being abused or
therapy and soon was feeling much grown up in a loving but conservative had implements such as a knife held
more comfortable with the expressive Baptist environment with a focus on at the neck. The violence and medical
emotional ways of working that seemed the Word, a commitment to mind, and a traumas tended to be in whatever part
to offer better potential for outcomes. secret terror of sexuality I found myself of the body that had been attacked,
This was a much more dramatic way of on shaky ground. Fortunately around this although for a number of female clients
working and soon forced me to realise time a range of Theological works were genital and reproductive interventions
that two phenomena were resulting. also addressing the issue of embodiment focused on the lower abdominal area.
Firstly clients were experiencing in the Christian world . My understanding
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significant bodily changes and often the of Creation, Incarnation and Resurrection While research over the past 20 years
process seemed to be inducing positive has offered new models of intervention
trance states. providing greater containment in the
1 Fisher J (2001) Dissociative Phenomena in the 90’s and early 2000 the techniques of
Many experienced physical symptoms Everyday Lives of Trauma Survivors, Paper specific touch, holding and release
including periods pf flu like symptoms, presented at the Boston University Medical School within the framework of permission
vomiting and diarrhoea, and a range of Psychological Trauma Conference, May 2001 giving therapeutic language was the
other aches and pains most of which 2 Ford Clyde (1993 & 1999) Compassionate Touch: model I most used. This meant that
were transitory. Afterwards the clients The Role of Human Touch in Healing and Recovery, the counsellor became a co-explorer
Simon & Schuster, New York
felt enlivened and often evidenced with the client accessing the responsive
changes in skin texture or hair sheen 3 Oschman J., and Nora H. Oschman N., (1995) traumatised tissue and, with dual
with a lessening of muscular tension. Somatic Recall Part 1 Soft tissue memory and Part 2 awareness, beginning a process of
– Soft tissue holography, Massage Therapy Journal,
The trance experiences were, I think, my Summer 1995, VOL. 34, No. 3. release and re-ownership of that part of
first introduction to dissociation and the 4 Conger John (1994) The Body In Recovery: Somatic the body.
power of the unconscious to give release Psychotherapy and The Self, Frog Ltd., Berkeley.
once the locked in bodily held trauma Levine P., and Frederick A., (1997) Waking The Tiger In 2002 I joined with Lisa Frese a
was acknowledged. Healing Trauma North Atlantic Books, Boadella D. biodynamic psychotherapist who had
(1987) Lifestreams, An Introduction to Biosynthesis, trained in Germany and the United
Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, Keleman S.
In those early days I began to gain a (1985) Emotional Anatomy, Center Press, Berkeley. Kingdom and has great skill in touch
sense of the way areas of tissue in the models of therapy. This has lead to a
body rigidify to contain the overwhelm 5 Ashley B. (1985) Theologies of The Body: Humanist delightful working relationship. We
and Christian, The Pope John Center, Braintree.
of trauma. It was yet to be some years NELSON J. (1992) Body Theology, Westminster/ were able to combine and differentiate
before Body Focused Psychotherapy John Knox Press. Prokes M. T. (1996) Toward a ways of both physical touch, words
became a name for an emerging Theology of the Body, T & T. Clarke, Edinburgh. and energetic attention as effective
acceptable therapeutic method. In the BROWN P. (1988) The Body and Society, Men, components of adding a body focus to
Women and Sexual renunciation in early Christianity,
early 90’s I undertook a Diploma in Columbia University Press, New York. Robinson counselling practice. The concept of
Somatic Psychotherapy through the J. (1955) The Body: A Study In Pauline Theology,
then College of Experiential Therapies. SCM Press, London. Jewett R. (1971) Paul’s
This eleven weekend and thirty evening Antropological Terms: A Study of their use in
course brought me into close contact conflict settings, Brill. WOLFF Hans Walter (1974) 6 Rothschild B. (2000) The Body Remembers: The
Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment,
Anthropology of the Old Testament, SCM Press,
with hands on psycho-therapeutic London. W. W. Norton, New York

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Edition 12 November 2020