Working with Complexity from the Radical Aliveness Philosophy

Radical Aliveness is a body-based process that leads to healing, awareness and action.

For me this means that when we meet and work with people and groups we include the body and all the rich information it holds as a crucial part of the “healing” process. This might include supporting expression, movement, or inquiry about these various aspects of being to find out more about someone or support more knowing for the people we are working with.

In the West there are many somatic “body-based” processes and therapies at this time. These include, Core Energetics, TRE, Trauma Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Process work, Drama Therapy, Gestalt (just to name a few).

What makes Radical Aliveness unique is the awareness of complexity in the work we do. This means that we do not have a set way of working that applies to every person we meet. Understanding socialization is key to how we work with bodies.

Let us start by saying that the assumption that there is a mind/body split is a Western concept. In many cultures there is no such split.

Let us also acknowledge that many cultures have and have had for centuries myriad ways of working with the body as part of a healing process. These are as diverse as there are cultures and subcultures. To name a few: yoga, meditation, dance rituals, exorcism, ecstatic religious services, vision quests, etc. 

In Radical Aliveness we use our awareness of the way socialization influences a person in their relationship with their body. How people express, move, hold themselves, and what feelings mean are influenced by cultural differences. Knowing that different value priorities exist for “I” and “We” cultures is crucial.

What is different here is that from an expert model we would be using techniques based on assumptions that might miss information, or actually have nothing to do with what a person actually needs.  The expert model begins with assumptions about healing and working with the body that are used UNIVERSALLY. Many of these techniques and concepts are useful for us to know as something to hold in our toolbox, but not to be used as THE WAY (the map is not the territory).

With this awareness how we approach bodies in our work needs to be creative and flexible. As we approach working with people, we are always asking the question, who are you? What does ‘healing’ mean to YOU? We want to find out what your movement, your expression, your posture actually MEANS. This requires us knowing more about the people we work with. Where do they come from? What is their experience? What is their background? What are they are looking for? What are the consequences and impact that expanding might bring?

This then influences the ways we might use bodywork with different people. It invites us to creativity, to working with the person or people based on their singular complexity. It asks us to meet people in their uniqueness and hold that as a sacred guide to how we use bodywork.

There are infinite examples of this. Here are some things I have changed as I grew in awareness:

• Demanding that people look you in the eyes came from an assumption that this would help people be present. However I didn’t know at the time that in many cultures asking people to do this went against a cultural taboo.

• “Killing your parents” (something I was taught we all needed to do, using a process that invites people to bring their rage against their parents during a session) doesn’t fit the cultural value of respecting your parents, no matter how they have behaved.

• Yelling and speaking up were my values that missed other value priorities, like caring for the group by holding space or not telling people how you feel out of respect.

• Grounding meant hanging over and vibrating, now I know that grounding might be smelling an essential oil, listening to meaningful music, or standing next to a tree.

In all these examples the problem was that I was asking people to do things based on my own assumptions and teaching. In order for people to get the “medicine” from me they had to override or disconnect from their own deep knowing. Now I might suggest certain interventions, but how I language it leaves room for people to let me know what is true for them. Whether they tell me or not, I have made a space for their own knowing not to be disappeared or invalidated.

What is exciting about this is that we are not dependent on tools (the cube or roller, etc.) and we are not dependent on a set of techniques. We can learn these techniques and we might use them, but infinite possibilities open for us when we understand that the way to work with a body has as many doorways as there are differences in the human experience.

Our work is creative, always asking us to be present with what is, to know ourselves, and to meet the other in ways that ask us to really not know. And in that not-knowing so many exciting possibilities start to reveal themselves. It is a practice and an art.