Listening to the Story the Body Has Been Trying to Tell

The following reflection includes a composite clinical vignette, created from common themes in trauma therapy. It does not represent one specific client.

Quietly, I watch the person sitting across from me slowly begin to fold inward. It is a slow movement, and the client may not fully realize it is happening. Their shoulders begin to curve inward, their chin dips slightly, their eyes move downward, and their breath becomes shallow.

This is one of the reasons I believe we need to move beyond only asking, “Where do you feel that in your body?”

The body is not only feeling something, but it is also doing something.

Protecting. Collapsing. Reaching. Bracing. Orienting.

Trying to complete a story that was never fully witnessed.

So I wait.

Silently observing, I hold my attention and intention fully with the client. I notice my breath and move the stone in my hand, helping me stay connected to the present moment. I know this attuned space is needed to support the collapse I am watching unfold in front of me.

This is the story the body has been trying to tell for decades.

Instead of being witnessed with care and compassion, this story has often been translated into words and beliefs including:

I am lazy. I am unmotivated. I am bad. I am useless.

It has also been told through endless scrolling, Netflix binges, and withdrawn relationships.

But in this moment, in this space, the story has a compassionate witness. It has the chance to explore what it may be ready to complete, because today it can.

This is why we go beyond only asking about sensation in the body. We begin to track, conceptualize, and witness what the body is telling us.

In EMDR and somatic therapy practices, we learn to track the body and observe each micro-moment and movement as an important part of the clinical picture.

Tracking involves observing and attuning to the small shifts happening in the client, in ourselves, and in the relational field between us.

Did the client’s eyes slowly blink and begin to stare into space just as you noticed a tiredness coming over you? This might be a sign of dissociation.

Did the client’s rate of speech begin to move faster, with less prosody, while using words of anger and their eyes darting from side to side? This might be mobilization with fear.

These moments matter.

And when we understand the early home nest, womb nest, and ancestral nest of a client’s life, we can begin to make sense of what we are witnessing and tracking in the present moment.

The Nest Metaphor uses neurobiology to support both clinician and client understanding that the patterns showing up right now may echo old patterns that were never able to move all the way through.

The defense cascade comes alive in the room through implicit and explicit memory networks. And sometimes, with enough safety, attunement, and support, the body begins to discover that what could not be completed then may be able to be completed now.

I return to the client whose posture is still moving. I invite them to gently wonder what the body wants to do next.

I attune with intentional thoughts of support and care. My voice becomes slow and quiet, letting them know they are not alone.

The body continues to fold. They notice spontaneous images of early life challenge. They say it feels okay to stay with this, even though it is hard. It feels important.

So we wait.

And then, in the next moment, they remember the neighbor who stepped in. The person who offered a glimpse of goodness. The person who gave them some small faith that humanity was not all bad.

As they say this, their voice becomes clearer.

Their chin lifts slightly.

Their eyes begin to naturally orient to the space around them.

Slowly, their body moves more upright. There is a small sway through the back body until they are sitting taller.

Then a big breath arrives.

Collapse was not the problem.

Collapse was the solution to chronic abuse and neglect. It was the body’s best way to survive the poorly built nest they were born into.

And that collapse had woven itself into the modern nest of today, mostly outside conscious awareness. The body had not yet recognized that more choice was available now. That safety existed in the here and now. That the adult Self had agency, bodily autonomy, and more control over their own life choices.

The problem was not the collapse.

The problem was that no one had been listening to the complex story being told in so many different ways.

The body is not getting in the way of the work. it is showing us the work.

With Peace and Care,

Alison

Interested in learning more about tracking? Click here to receive the Body Tracking Worksheet as a helpful guide for what to stay curious about in the therapy room.