Echoes From The Therapy Room : Politics In The Room: addressing vs amplifying

Unsurprisingly, politics can have a visceral impact on our ability to remain grounded. I feel staying informed in the news cycle is necessary as a means of relating to my clients and supporting them with staying associated to themselves AND THEN the world around them.

How can we focus on our response to what’s going on in the world, without it commandeering the therapy session? (e.g. can we sit with ourselves long enough to empathetically unpick what is yours and what is not yours)

An invitation to my clients is: Can we offer a somatic check in before and after we consume the news (outside session) / before and after we talk about the news (in session).

• How am I thinking – what is the quality and content of your thoughts?

•   How am I feeling – what level of access do you have to sensation in the body?

•   How am I breathing – how at ease or not do you feel as you inhale and

  exhale?

If your response to the news cycle is leaving you feeling incredibly insignificant, can we bring our attention down to a seemingly insignificant degree. Can we put attention and intention towards micro acts of agency. This little check in above is intended to do just that. Checking in with our body, breath and brain gives us the opportunity to lean into what we find – if it is in line with the quality of experience we want to have, OR shift our reality / perspective if our baseline and our desired experience are in conflict or contrast to each other.

In my therapy work, we try to create enough room to do the work of not just addressing the very real global stressors, but also what those stressors bring up. This often leads to conversations around values, autonomy, fears etc. and allows us to focus on the impact of the information one is consuming as opposed to getting lost in the content specifically. Working in a somatic way like this not only allows my clients to bring into the fore their own opinions, but helps to highlight what is within their control and what is not.

We try to do this in a tangible manner. As the therapist, I am never trying to referee the reality of my clients and the material they bring. However, when (as is very easily done!) politics tries to hijack the session I like to have a grounded and adaptable approach to my framework where my client can explore their responses rather than feel suffocated by them.

Your nervous system is designed to respond to stress, but these stresses and stress responses can be mitigated. In therapy we are not trying to erase the emotion, but we are trying to downshift the activation enough to make the session useful. A here-and-now (what is this situation triggering for YOU specifically + what is the quality and content of your thoughts), and somatic (how are you feeling in the body + what is the quality of your breath) approach is how that mitigation has looked in my sessions over the last week.

Can you take time out to offer this little check in for yourself?