Why Feeling is the Portal: Nervous System, Characterology, and Liberation
We were formed not only by what happened but also by what did not:
the attunement we didn't get
the safety we didn't feel
the freedom we didn't have to be our whole selves.
And our bodies remember.
The Body as Storyteller: Survival Strategies + the Nervous System
In life's very first pages, when words were not yet available for our use, our nervous systems started creating survival strategies for negotiating our world. They developed into what we now recognize as character structures — our habitual ways of relating to ourselves, others, and life.
Following is a quick map of five universal survival responses and their correlation with nervous system states (through Polyvagal Theory):
Schizoid – "It's not safe to exist."
Dorsal vagal collapse, disconnection, dissociation.
The system retreats from the body and the world.Oral – "It's not safe to need."
Ventral vagal longing with sympathetic urgency.
There’s a reaching for connection mixed with anxiety about receiving it.Masochist – "It's not safe to express."
Vagal freeze overlaid on sympathetic tension.
Suppressed expression, inward pressure, and containment.Psychopathic – "It's not safe to trust."
Sympathetic dominance with armoring.
The body defends through control, collapse masked by force.Rigid – "It's not safe to feel."
Ventral vagal perfectionism with dorsal shutdown.
Emotions are concealed under performance and control.
These are not pathologies, but brilliant adaptations to worlds that didn't welcome the entirety of our humanness. They arise early in life, informing our physiology, our beliefs, and how we engage in relationships.
Why Thinking Won't Do — and Feeling is the Way Through
Cognitive approaches can be helpful, but you can’t think your way out of a survival response.
That’s because trauma isn’t held in the mind….
it’s held in the body,
in the nervous system,
in the tissues and charge patterns that shaped us before language.
Bottom-up healing starts with sensation, breath, movement, and presence that allows the body to complete old protective cycles. It gives us access to the areas we were forced to shut off, and the aliveness that we locked up.
Somatic and Energetic Tools: Ending the Old Patterns
Modalities like Somatic Experiencing, Continuum Movement, Hakomi, and Energy Medicine (like Brennan Healing Science) all use the language of the body. They work with the nervous system from the bottom up, allowing for the discharge of survival energy, permitting the system to unfurl.
As these energies complete, the old stories do as well.
Our beliefs change not so much because we exchanged them, but because they no longer vibrate in our tissues.
Freedom Arrives When We Can Safely Feel
Healing does not mean eradicating the past. It's a matter of bringing back the pieces of ourselves that went underground for survival. As we develop capacity to feel-safely, gently, with compassion- we recover our aliveness.
The nervous system becomes a conduit, instead of a cage.
Feeling would then be a doorway to integration, to truth, to freedom.
USABP-Affiliated Somatic Modalities
Movement-Based and Energy-Oriented Modalities
Continuum Movement®: Developed by Emilie Conrad, this practice utilizes breath, sound, and fluid movement to explore the body’s innate wisdom and promote healing.
Barbara Brennan School of Healing (BBSH): Founded by Dr. Barbara Brennan, BBSH offers training in energy healing techniques, focusing on the human energy field and personal transformation.
Body-Mind Centering®: Created by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, this approach explores the embodiment of anatomical, physiological, and developmental principles.
Authentic Movement: A practice where individuals move freely with eyes closed, often witnessed by a facilitator, to access unconscious material and foster self-awareness.
Psychotherapeutic Modalities
Hakomi Method: Developed by Ron Kurtz, this mindfulness-centered somatic psychotherapy integrates body awareness with experiential techniques.
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Founded by Pat Ogden, this modality combines somatic therapy and attachment theory to treat trauma and developmental issues.
Somatic Experiencing®: Created by Peter Levine, it focuses on resolving trauma by releasing physiological stress stored in the body.
Bioenergetic Analysis: Developed by Alexander Lowen, this combines psychotherapy with physical exercises to release tension and promote emotional expression.
Core Energetics: Founded by John Pierrakos, it integrates bodywork, psychotherapy, and spiritual development.
Biosynthesis: Created by David Boadella, this approach integrates somatic, psychodynamic, and developmental principles.
Biodynamic Psychotherapy: Developed by Gerda Boyesen, it emphasizes the role of the autonomic nervous system in emotional processing.
