Beth W used to live in Columbus, but lives in Montana now. She found me through her network in Columbus and decided to give online sessions a try. I’m so grateful for the time she took to tell me about her experience.
If you are considering working online, I hope Beth’s words provide some insight on what to expect.
Why online work?
I live in Montana and we don’t have many people who do Somatic Experiencing or Craniosacral or Transforming Touch so the fact that it could be virtual and that I can do it from wherever is obviously important. I used to live in Columbus so I thought, “Yeah, why don’t I look in Columbus?”
What problem were you looking to solve?
I just experience overwhelm in the world and my sensitive nervous system does not adapt well to the constant barrage of sights, sounds, smells…everything in the world feels like it’s coming at me very fast.
How long before you noticed a difference?
After 2 or 3 sessions I noticed during the session I got calm pretty fast. After the sessions I would really enjoy the feeling and just sit there and feel it. That feeling of being calm and regulated would show up later in the day and later in the week. It’s like once I could feel it in a session I had more access to it later on.
What is different for you now?
Before this work, small things and big things all felt the same in my body. Now I feel like there’s a little bit of a difference between the small things and the big things and my reaction. Like my body is more able to understand that, “Oh this is a small thing and we’ll deal with it.”
The biggest shift for me is that there are pockets of time where I feel deeply embodied and connected in a calm, collected way. It would only happen for me in the past under curated circumstances…like I’m outside in nature and everything’s calm. There were these very specific ways it could have happened in the past. But now I feel it more generally.
My internal system is not alarmed as fast. It’s like oh this weird thing is happening and I can say, “I’ll deal with that later.”
Panicky feelings have decreased quite a bit. The “Oh my god, this bad thing is happening!” has decreased as well as the urgency around it.
All of a sudden there’s more space, more freedom to move, less feeling frozen and more like “Ok this is uncomfortable” and I’ll have to make a choice or do something but I am totally capable and still here to do that.
I also have a more stamina. I still get tired easily or can’t handle a lot of stimulation for a long time but I have more stamina. Recently I worked with people all day and I didn’t come home completely exhausted. I didn’t lose the rest of my night because of any exhaustion.
Words of encouragement for those thinking of trying this work…
For someone thinking of trying this, I would say it sounds weird because you’re not gonna do anything but it will work. It’s almost counterintuitive.…For something to work, you think you have to try really hard and do a bunch of things and really all I did was lie there and yet after a few session I could feel a difference. I think that’s hard to explain to someone. You don’t have control over it…you can’t just turn this on. It’s super simple but there’s something about it that shifts internally.
I kind of feel like the furniture inside my internal space just kind of moved around. Like there’s more room and it’s better organized. And what’s weird is that I didn’t really do a whole lot.
If you are at all considering… Do it! It will probably help. I wish I would have done it earlier. And honestly as a teacher I wish I would have been able to do it in the classroom because I notice myself thinking so much clearer, being calmer, being less reactive. What if I had had that with the classroom kids.
Part of me is like everybody needs this. And I don’t think we know that we need it.
It’s not a widespread understanding that, “Hey, if you regulate your nervous system it makes everything easier.”
Final words…
It’s given me a taste of what I could feel like in my body, and I want more of that.
For answers to your questions, schedule a phone consult with me.
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