In recent years books like ‘The body keeps the score’ by Bessel van der Kolk have encouraged interest and research into body work therapies more than ever before. People are becoming more aware of the traumas their bodies store and that they need to release them. The growth of social media and the spread of knowledge on such a large scale has opened the door to many people finding remarkably healing body work therapies.
SHEN ® Therapy and pain
SHEN ® therapy is a body work therapy working directly with emotions. Its roots are in ancient healing techniques and follows the laws of physics. Through SHEN ® Therapy techniques we aim to release trapped emotions within the body to allow the body to return to its natural state of balance. When the body experiences something painful, whether it is physical pain or emotional pain, it contracts around the pain site. The body can’t distinguish between physical pain or emotional pain, it only experiences it as pain. This is why painful emotions or unpleasant emotions can linger for many years, whereas the more pleasant emotions such as joy and happiness are fleeting. They aren’t painful so the body doesn’t contract around it.
The contraction around a painful emotion that the body uses to protect itself is actually preventing the pain from leaving essentially trapping the emotional pain at the site where it is emerging from. This causes the emotional episode or distress to continue until it is released. Unfortunately this contraction also adversely affects all organs and tissues caught within its circle until it is released. This causes all kinds of distress for an individual, both emotionally and often physically as various ailments will often accompany the emotional distress. These include issues such as IBS symptoms, migraines, haemorrhoids, lower back pain etc.
In SHEN ® we call this contraction ACPR – Auto-contractile pain response.
Emotional centres
SHEN ® therapists know that specific emotions emerge from and are stored at specific emotional centres down the torso. These are located down the centre of the body at the Root – located just below the pubic bone, the Sacral (called Kath by SHEN ® therapists) – located between the belly button and pubic bone, the Solar Plexus – located between the sternum and the belly button and the Heart – located between the breasts at the chest area.
The Throat isn’t an emotional centre but does play a significant role in emotional distress. There are many muscles around the Throat that contract when an emotion is experienced and not expressed or released properly. Tightness around the throat, as well as experiencing chronic tiredness can be related to trapped emotions within the body. SHEN ® Therapists know where to work on a client’s body as they know what emotions are stored where and how to release them.
The effect of emotions on the Biofield
The human body has a Biofield (energy system) with a flow pattern. Painful emotions obstruct and block the flow patterns of qi (energy) in the Biofield. Once the painful emotions are released the body’s qi can flow freely without obstruction. This allows the organs and tissues surrounding the emotional centres to function optimally. SHEN ® therapists are trained to use the qi from their hands to relax contractions at the emotional centres. This brings the body’s Biofield back into balance and restores emotional wellbeing.
If you find yourself suffering from physical ailments such as IBS, migraines, menstrual difficulties, lower back pain or haemorrhoid’s, a SHEN ® therapist may be able to help alleviate your symptoms, especially if there is no biological cause.
The emotions are in the body, not the mind
Body work therapies are gaining popularity across the world because they are helping people release trapped emotions that had previously prevented emotional health and wellbeing. An unpleasant or painful emotion left trapped inside can cause an immense amount of chaos in an individuals life.
Mental health is a massive pandemic across the world right now. Our mental health will naturally improve if we tackle our emotional health first. Releasing trapped emotions in the body first, will result in mental health being naturally restored. The emotions emerge from the biofield (energy system) are stored in the body, not the mind. Contrary to popular believe, you can’t actually think an emotion into existence. What you can do is think about an event/situation/experience that you had an emotive response to and provoke an emotion through the thought of that particular experience. It is next to impossible to think yourself happy, or angry or sad simply by thinking about the emotion you want to evoke. It’s a large part of the reason why positive thinking doesn’t work. Once the emotions are calmer and our body’s qi is flowing freely, mental peace and emotional wellbeing will be restored.
