Christine Caldwell 1996 Getting Our Bodies Back: Shambala Publications.
This book is about the spiral of addiction, it's affect on the body,
the body as an assessment and treatment intervention, and describes The
Moving Cycle - a model of halting and healing from addiction.
Dr. Caldwell is a somatic therapist in private practice in Boulder Co
(according to the date on this book). She is also the editor of Getting
in Touch. She is the founder of the Somatic Psychology Department at
Naropa Institute, and the director of the Moving Center, also in Boulder Colorado.
I have an interest in body-oriented psychology so I found this book to
be interesting, useful in it's description of the Moving Cycle and use
for clients. I found the writing/wording somewhat circular -wordy
where sometimes I had to read sentences several times to get the
meaning of what she was saying. Though I finished and enjoyed the book,
and it's practical application may spur me to purchase it (I borrowed
it from a colleague.)
Dr. Caldwell describes our flight or grasping of experience as the
beginning of the addictive cycle. If we continue to avoid -try to avoid
pain through all kinds of methods (ignoring, denying, suppressing
emotionally or through substances, food, overwork) we set up a cycle
where the act of avoiding then becomes it's own problem. On the other
hand if we continue to pursue pleasure - another way of denying pain we
set up the same cycle. She describes addictive processes as maturing
and becoming more fixed.
Assessment and intervention with the body involves noticing yourself or
clients' physical "tics", could be a motion with hands, or some other
habituated movement while they are speaking of or feeling something
difficult. She describes to the client what she sees "I notice that you
wave your hands in the air when you talk about your conversation with
your son" and asks the client about the movement, she may have the
client exaggerate the movement in order to get the sense of what it
might be saying. She states habitual bodily movement that is
particularly annoying to others (sniffing or snorting, picking one's
teeth, etc) is often a sign of a compensating addictive process. e.g.
If I am uncomfortable in social situations, I may touch or toss my hair
frequently...(which becomes annoying, especially for my loved ones
who know me). I have a colleague who sniffs the air after every two words or so, drives me crazy!
In this book, Dr. Caldwell discusses our bodily processes as in balance
and if we are not receiving enough of one source of pleasure, we will
compensate through another - which then ends up in addictive process.
An Example here: if we are working so hard, overworking (an addictive
process - either an escape or a pursuit) and are not getting enough
rest, our body will overcompensate with ills (well documented) so that
we will finally get the rest we need. Or I heard this another way
somewhere else - if we are not in balance with the pleasure centers in
the brain - one pleasure center will overcompensate: pleasure centers
including: sleep/rest, eating/drinking, sex/connection, and exercise.
So if I am denying myself rest, I may overcompensate by overeating, or
use of substances. (it made me think of the AA saying: "Don't get too
hungry, angry, lonely or tired" ). I certainly can turn to something
high fat/sugar when I'm stressed or tired.
She describes the Moving Cycle as both a refraining and a healing intervention in an addictive process.
The Moving Cycle as described:
Attention: A commitment to awareness and alertness in the
present moment - paying mindful attention to the impact of stimuli -
and it shows up first in the body - thus attention to bodily sensations
is important - prior to our labeling what it means.
Owning: A commitment to knowing that the sensation we feel is
ours - not someone else's. Taking responsibility for our own sensations
- and not putting them on others, nor taking other's
sensations/feelings on as one's own. (similar I think to disengaging in
codependent language - disengaging from solving other's issues, etc.)
Owning something as ours, taking responsibility and making choices
about how we act - not reacting. She talks here about this behavior as
letting parts of us
"die" that are habituated to reacting, projecting, and controlling.
Acceptance: Being compassionate with whatever arises in your body, with
yourself. Giving it space to emerge, to be without crushing it, solving
it, analyzing it, etc. She speaks of meditation practice here.
Action: Taking action that is "right action" (my own quotes
here, not hers, but from Buddhist language). Taking action that is of
integrity to oneself and your own experience and is not harmful to
others, presumably because you have done the work above. She uses Gay
Hendricks
(another body-oriented therapist and author) - "becoming a producer for
the world, not a consumer" - adding back to the world, rather than
someone who takes from the world by reaction/projection and grasping
-etc.
After writing about this book, I enjoyed learning this Moving Cycle
model - it seems like a different angle for describing the addictive
process and freedom from it - Pema Chodron's book Getting Unstuck also
is a good one for this topic - plainer language, I liked that one a lot!