A recent podcast episode in which I discuss the collective opportunity we have now and how it relates to feral somatics:

Here's a taste of what's possible in a first session:

"Our session together was so special because I was really able to go so deeply into my emotional landscape around climate change with someone there not judging, not trying to make it better, just creating a safe space for me to experience and really encounter the emotions; getting outside permission and support to acknowledge and be with those emotions is something I have rarely come across. I appreciated having that space held in such a careful container.

​I now feel such a sense of correctness when I connect with those emotions. It's so important we have these spaces and create the conditions for people to feel like they can explore emotions around climate change without getting overwhelmed and spiraling into depression as a result."

What's the point?

Over the years, many clients have asked me why they should explore their feelings in response to current and historical events in the world at large. “Why bother?” they often say. “There’s nothing I can do about any of it.”

But this question betrays a fundamental misunderstanding about the importance of listening to our bodies and our emotions. The broader healing subculture, for all its progressive language, has failed to convince us that our bodies are any more intelligent than a confused animal that needs to be trained or corrected.

This explains why people can spend decades doing various kinds of healing work, and yet experience so little change in their lives. And it explains why, as James Hillman and Michael Ventura expressed so succinctly in their book title, “We’ve had a hundred years of therapy and the world’s getting worse.”

But in the space of feral somatics, the arrogance of empire is finally dethroned. Rather than believing the lies it whispers in our minds, we discover millions of years of natural intelligence. It is this intelligence that shows us the way towards true sanity.

One way to enter this space – and begin to experience this sane, correct and powerful relationship with ourselves – is by noticing and listening to our physical and emotional responses to the insanity we are seeing played out on the world stage. It is precisely because we can’t fix the issue, and therefore can’t control our emotional state, that we have an opportunity to connect with this innate intelligence and make it our teacher.

This is a deep rabbit hole, and it can get psychedelic. It requires patience to do this without frying ourselves. That said, if you’re wondering what the benefits of working like this might be, here are a few (among so many):

• We build the capacity to stay present and grounded in the midst of violence and upheaval.

• We can offer consistent emotional stability and clarity to our communities, organizations, and networks, even when everyone else is losing their heads.

• The addressing of deep ancestral patterns can lead to a radical shift in our sensory perceptions and the ways we relate. We decolonise in an embodied way, rather than on a superficial, intellectual level. A magical, sentient world is revealed, that both encourages and resources us.

• We feel a deep sense of connection, meaning, purpose, and powerful aliveness that extends far beyond the limits of our own skin.

• We can see through propaganda effortlessly, and are free to choose where our attention goes and how to direct our energy at all times.

• We access genuine power that is far bigger and more communal than the power we believe we have as isolated individuals.

• We experience ourselves as an integral part of a transgenerational project, feeling not just the encouragement of our wiser ancestors, but also that of future generations, in a way that inspires and guides our actions.

• We develop the endurance to keep showing up fully as the world continues to experience profound changes, reducing the chances of burning out, becoming ill, or abandoning our personal relationships.

• We transform the natural emotions we're experiencing into power, creativity, clarity, and an energized aliveness.

• We are increasingly able to see the beauty inherent in all of existence and regularly access a knee-shaking gratitude for being here at all.

• We start to see that grounded pleasure and true relaxation are our birthright, and a human society that is not constantly at odds with this is too.

Most importantly, we uproot the foundational delusion upon which the nightmare of empire rests: that we cannot trust our bodies. And in doing that, we remember that our bodies are a portal into the world we’ve all longed for.