Both the Somatic Experiencing Method and the Feldenkrais Method are Body-Centered Mindfulness Methods. But both of these methods are focused on something in particular.
Somatic Experiencing is focused on the completion of stuck survival responses (fight, flight, or freeze) and on re-regulating one’s dysregulated autonomic nervous system (the stress-control mechanism in our bodies). The Feldenkrais Method is focused on re-organizing one’s nervous system on a sensory-motor level. This is of enormous value – value which extends far beyond what most people realize, even those that have participated in Feldenkrais Classes for many years.
Dr. Parker also brings a body-centered approach to Dr. Heller’s understanding of the survival styles -- those “ways of being” in a relationship, that developed many, many years ago, without our awareness, and have become unconscious.
What she focuses on in this course, reflects what she has discovered EXPERIENTIALLY, in her own healing journey. What she focuses on in this course, also reflects what she has learned EXPERIENTIALLY in 20+ years of working with a large cross-section of individuals -- one on one -- day in and day out.
Dr. Parker has very purposefully narrowed her focus to bringing conscious awareness to what is unconscious in ourselves -- the Sensations, Thoughts, Beliefs, Images, Feelings & Emotions, that are driving our habitual, unhealthy behaviors -- behaviors that no longer serve us or our loved ones. She has very purposefully narrowed her focus to bringing awareness to the unconscious aspects of our experiences because THIS lack of awareness, she believes, lies at the heart of most, if not all, of our personal, and interpersonal unnecessary distress and suffering.
Dr. Parker has also very purposefully narrowed her focus to bringing Mindfulness to a particular realm -- the realm of interpersonal relationships. Why? That is a big question which could not possibly be answered here. For now, just know that Dr. Parker has found over the years that the stress in interpersonal relationships, is one of THE primary sources of stress, and one of THE primary sources of unnecessary suffering. And that is particularly true of those experiencing various symptoms (mental, emotional and/or physical) from unresolved shock trauma.
In her work with individuals, she is always asking herself the question: "What is fueling the fire of this person’s dysregulation?" And whether that person has extreme shock trauma to resolve or not, and whether this unresolved shock trauma may well be, in part, what is fueling the fire of the person’s dysregulation, the daily life stressors of interpersonal relationships, seemed to be, consistently, what the person wanted to work with.
It was guidance in how to become more mindful, in this particular realm, in the realm of interpersonal relationships, that individuals seemed most in need of. But Dr. Parker does not come from a typical psycho-therapeutic perspective because she is not a formally trained psychologist.
What she DOES "bring to the table" is both personal and professional EXPERIENTIAL knowledge. What she DOES bring to the table is the multi-dimensional background mentioned earlier. It is THIS combination that makes the course unique.
Dr. Parker brings this multi-dimensional background to our mindfulness endeavor in such a way, that as Aristotle phrased it, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." It is not only her own healing journey. It is not only her original training in mindfulness. It is not only her knowledge of, and her experience with, the Somatic Experiencing Method or the Feldenkrais Method. It is not only her years of training with Dr. Heller and the countless "case consultations" she did with him personally over the years. It is the whole of it, pulled together in a unique way, that ultimately contributes to the true value of this Sampler Course In Embodied Mindfulness. No magic pills. No Silver Bullets. No Panaceas. Just Embodied Mindfulness . . .