September
2001
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COMING EVENTS
Somatic bodyworker
Gary Peterson comes to Twin Cities
SEA GANSCHOW
HAVE YOU EVER suspected that certain life events you've been through not only stressed
you, but probably shocked and traumatized you? Ever noticed a loved one go through
a difficult time and knew they had not had a chance to fully discharge fear or pain
from an accident or emotional hurt? Do you experience anxiety, sleeplessness, chronic
fatigue, pain, or maybe just a simple lack of trust? The field of somatic medicine
may hold the gentle yet powerful tool you've been waiting for.
Gary Peterson, Registered Polarity Practitioner, of Boulder, Colorado, teaches energy
therapies around the United States, bringing with him a wealth of experience and
a toolbox of leading-edge skills in pre- and perinatal birth issues and trauma and
nervous system overload resolution. All this takes place on a palette of polarity
therapy, an energy-based bodywork originated by Dr. Randolph Stone, and craniosacral
therapy, developed by another renowned osteopath, Dr. William Garner Sutherland.
I asked Gary to share some noninvasive techniques that can be used by parents and
spouses as well as bodyworkers or therapists for nervous system healthcare.
You worked on me and made the comment that I was discharging shock. Do I have
to have a friend with me to discharge the shock?
Gary Peterson: No, everyone has natural resources to discharge shock from the
nervous system, but it's very useful to have support and to do things very slowly.
There has been an overload to the nervous system at some point, and it wasn't given
the opportunity to discharge. This could be from birth or any experience the person
had, even in prenatal life, that was overwhelming and activated the fight-or-flight
nervous system. In addition to fight or flight, there is another option, which is
often a very brilliant survival option, the freeze response. Particularly small children
need to freeze and sort of dissociate in overwhelming situations as a coping mechanism
because some situations are so intense they would literally feel like death.
Do you mean rational and/or irrational fears?
The fear and level of overwhelm happens mainly at the primitive brain, or reptilian
brain, and that activates the sympathetic nervous system. When there is a sense of
impending danger within any person, adrenaline and epinephrine will start flowing
to either run or fight. If we're overwhelmed, that summoning of resources/energy
to the muscles will often get frozen and will not get discharged. It will get stuck
in the system like a soda can that is all shook up.
You are trained to assist people with this as an energy-centered bodyworker and
teacher. What would people be able to do on their own, to help themselves discharge
nervous system overload that maybe they've been carrying around for years?
The best resources to bring to the front are body-oriented resources. In other
words, if our body is feeling pressure and acceleration, like things are speeding
up, the best thing to do is to find places in the body where things feel slowed down
and expansive and relaxed and to keep our attention in that relaxed area.
You gave sessions to my family, and you were coaching us on how to do that. It's
a very deep relaxation and release, we noticed. You commented that my seven-month-old
daughter and myself have a lot of "resource."
Yes, I love talking about resource. We can start by calling this an acknowledgement
principle. The idea is that the whole of us–body, mind, and emotions–is intelligent,
more than we perhaps even know. William G. Sutherland, the founder of modern craniosacral
work, said that the body holds an inherent treatment plan.
I noticed that you weren't looking for our imbalances but were continually affirming
where we are functioning well.
Yes, that's true. The old model of healthcare was to focus on what is not working.
My approach is to focus on the health of the system–not to totally ignore what is
not working, but not to over-focus. To find more of what is working before we directly
encounter what is not working. Having met the health of the system, we can then start
to determine how much of the pathology can be addressed at what particular time.
Just how much a person can handle? Can you give us an exercise on developing or
utilizing and recognizing our existing resources?
Resources would be whatever is working for the person, including internal resources
or external; things outside that help the person feel good.
Like hot showers?
Hot showers, sure. Walks in nature, good friends, pets, healthy food. These would
all be external resources. Getting bodywork. Music.
These things give you the feel-good brain neurotransmitters.
These resources will stimulate the neuroendocrine system. They downshift the
neuroendocrine system to evoke a parasympathetic response–rest and repose. Resources
in general are calming. Let's look at a long list of external resources: family,
home environment, art, body-oriented experiences like massage and other bodywork,
baths, essential oils, biofeedback, relaxation techniques.
Meditation...
...yoga, clothing. People often feel better about wearing certain clothing. Jewelry.
Certain gems. Whatever helps inspire people, makes them feel better and settles them,
is a really good resource. A good exercise on resources would be to just sit down
and make up a list of things that make you feel good.
For information about Gary Peterson's upcoming workshops in Minneapolis
and St. Paul, contact Lucy Jackson at 952-472-4692 or Jan Schmidt at 763-757-6977.
Gary Peterson is a Registered Polarity Practitioner who has been teaching and
practicing Polarity Therapy for over 20 years., He served as the Executive Director
of the American Polarity Therapy Association for over six years. In his private practice,
Gary uses craniosacral & polarity therapies to work with the paralyzing effects
of shock, trauma, and nervous system
overload.
Sea Ganschow lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband and three
children, and has practiced Polarity Therapy for 14 years.
This excerpted interview originally appeared in the January 2001 issue of The
New Times, published in Seattle; also available online at www.newtimes.org. Reprinted
with permission.
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