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Human beings do not simply react to what is. They act towards predicting  what could be based on past experiences. This is conducted through endogenous networks of electrochemical signal exchange compelling the nervous system to run primitive reflex expressions. In every experiential moment the brain generates an internal model of what it has learned to anticipate from what has already  happened both environmentally (outside of the body) and within the body itself (interoception). This default modeling is known as predictive programming. Sensations from the environment, signals from organs and tissues, emotional tone, posture, breathing, and memory are all run through the filter of that predictive model in an effort to achieve a sense of safety and aptitude. This fosters resilience and fortitude but it can also impede growth, recovery, and well being. Most of our stress and confusion arises when the organism becomes locked in suspended response to historical residue derived by predictions no longer relevant to the present experience ( freeze). The body continues sending signals that something needs to change, but the internal model remains rigid in its protection pattern resulting in a dissociative framing of current experience. Over time this can show up as persistent tension, stress, narrowed perception, looping thoughts, or a sense of being stuck in old patterns. It elevates stress hormones and compromises rest and reset functions ( digestion, sleep, etc). This results in limited range of movement, resistance to present experience (brain fog, employable attention), and a perceived inability to mitigate stress. The work offered here focuses on helping the system regain function within the conditions under which it can reorganize itself.  Research in neuroscience increasingly understands these embodied experiences through a framework known as active inference. In simple terms, these ideas propose that the nervous system continually seeks to reduce uncertainty by updating its internal model of the world based on past experiences of compromised well being. When the right kind of sensory and relational input is introduced, such as attention, curiosity, new perspective, or shifts in bodily awareness, the system becomes capable of revising its predictions. This process is known as state-dependent plasticity. The conversations, interactions, and stimuli in session are designed to create precisely that kind of input. Through observation, dialogue, and attention to bodily signals, previously unnoticed information begins to enter awareness. Clients often notice changes in breathing, posture, or internal sensation as new perspectives emerge. These are examples of interoception, which is the brain’s perception of signals coming from within the body. As these signals are acknowledged and integrated, the nervous system can recalibrate. What was once experienced as conflict,discomfort, or limitation begins to reorganize into a more coherent pattern reflecting what is actually present instead of preparing to defend against what might occur. Potential takes the place of problem. Many people experience this as a sense of clarity, release of tension, or a widening of perspective. From a scientific standpoint, this process can be understood as an adjustment in how the brain interprets incoming sensory information from both body and environment. From a lived standpoint, it often feels like relief. Defense stands down and receptivity occurs. The receiving of not only the practitioner’s work, but also a sense of receiving yourself self as the whole being you are. This aspect of the work does not seek to diagnose or treat pathology. Instead, it operates on the understanding that human perception and physiology are deeply intertwined. When new information is allowed into awareness through conversation, attention, and embodied sensing, the whole person naturally moves toward greater coherence. In that sense, the role of the session is not to impose change but to introduce the conditions in which reorganization becomes possible. The nervous system already contains the capacity for plasticity. When the system encounters the right signals, it begins updating itself. What emerges is often a clearer relationship between thought, sensation, and action, a renewed sense of orientation within one’s own experience.

We as people often understand the body and being through a pathology model. In short we think of ourselves in pieces, a problem to be solved or a condition to be resolved ( narrowed awareness), rather than as an elegant complexity of systems alchemizing into multifaceted realities ( “yes, and…” awareness). While this pathology modeling has its relevance and applicability, it also hinders a sense of holism. Not to say that injury, disease, or entropy are not important to be aware of and remediate or support, but it is equally important to bring focus to the dynamism of our being as the tempering agent to any particular concerns or conditions we may have. When we are experiencing any aspect of our embodied being as less than ideal we often presume that something is wrong and that it needs to be fixed so we subconsciously default into protective states, a classic stand off between that which helps is also that which hinders. In short, how can we support what is while also not letting particularities or aspects of unresolved conditions to define the entire scope of our embodied experience? 

We are not ever in a fixed state, be it an ideal state or a less than ideal state. Rather we are a perpetual expression of expansion/contraction, exploration/protection existing between both the ideal and not so ideal. Our nervous system functionality is rooted in the epigenetic code of navigating threat and pursuing new horizons as much as it is rooted in the seeking of safety and nourishment. The nervous system is constantly reorganizing itself in response to our experiences in relationship to those goals. Those experiences are information signals derived from internal stimuli, external stimuli, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and personal histories.

 Over time, people often adapt to a mismatch between signaling and personal history by tightening their interpretations of events, their posture, their breathing, even narrowing the way they can perceive themselves. This function becomes efficient from a survival standpoint, but it also compromises the ability to release vigilance. The work offered here is oriented toward restoring the conditions under which the system can reorganize itself. Essentially a stimuli based state shift that reorganizes bodily response from  the sympathetic frame (vigilance, fight/flight etc) to the parasympathetic frame (rest, digest, safety), or in a distilled explanation: a shift from enduring and preparation towards one of allowing and experiencing. This is how the soma reorganizes when entering into right relationship with present moment physiological and attentional states. Attunement to and integration of present state information shifts interoceptive experience away from the default mode of predictive processing in favor of a return to present moment being. 

The manual aspect of  “limbic release” focuses on introducing the kinds of stimuli that results in a re-coherence of sensory awareness. The function of the work is to create conditions that allow for vitalistic reorganization, but before that natural state can occur, the limbic response of the soma itslef has to be addressed.  Imagine anytime in your life that you have been cold, angry, scared, or resentful… can you feel where you clench during those times?  They are very specific locations and are the same across the board of the human experience. Simply put, they are a hardening of the superficial layers soft tissue and a loading of compressed energy in the muscles involved in running away, fighting, or voicing. It is precisely those spots throughout the body that when suspended in preparation without discharge begin to manifest pain and limitation. Manual limbic release is not a modality, but it is an understanding of function and form and a hands on manual approach designed to disengage the compressed energy being held in those tissues which allow for the harmony of the whole to be restored.