My Inspiration

Somatic Experience

If animals are in danger they have a choice between fight, flight or freeze. When people feel threatened, they have the same choices, but the tension of the danger often becomes fixed in the body. We tell ourselves that we should not be so dramatic, or that nothing bad is happening. Often this downplayed tension settles in our bodies, leading to insomnia, unrest, stress, irritability and anger. Somatic Experienceis the method to deal with these complaints in a biological and body-oriented way. Peter Levine is the founder of this treatment method.

Maggi Kline, with me in the picture on the right, was a student of Peter Levine and focuses on working with children. She does so in a very fresh, free and loving manner. Her way of working also inspires me when I work with adults. Or, as she says herself, ‘Even when working with adults, we are still really working with children, aren’t we?’we work with adults,  we all work with the children, don’t we?"

In our lives we operate in many systems. We come from the family systems with our fathers and mothers and the connections between these systems. Then we grow up and develop ourselves in systems with our teachers, our school class, a team, an association and later we work in systems, such as in organizations. Each of these systems has its own dynamic force field, a soul stream that moves us on a deep and often subconscious level. What is happening in such a system, and the place you take in it, determines (often subconsciously) what you do and why.

Systemic work is a way to gain insight into your own place in a system, any system, and your relationship with the others in this system. It teaches you where barriers are and why you keep lapsing into certain behaviour that hinders your development and growth. Systemic work can lead to acceptance, but it can also provide the key to solutions.

".....you don't have a body, you are your body...."

That's the guiding principle for Alexander Lowen in observing people and working with people. Lowen, together with John Pierakos, developed a psychotherapy that establishes a link between the body and the mind called bio-energetics. Over the years this movement has evolved. The approach of Lowen and the many books he has written is a source of inspiration for me in my way of working.   

Deep Democracy is a way of taking decisions, in which the wisdom of the minority is taken into account in the majority decision. Myrna Lewis is one of the founders of this method. In the video on the right she shows how she works with conflicts.

What Deep Democracy offers to my way of working is a fresh outlook on decision-making and group dynamics, in which each and every team member is heard. I think it is a great framework to clearly discuss substance, questions and sometimes thorny issues in a team and to eventually reach understanding, decisions and agreement.

Deep Democracy appeals to the wisdom of the group and in particular to the wisdom of the minority.

‘All real life is meeting’ (Martin Buber)

I leave you with a wonderful excerpt from the artist Marina Abramovic:

‘Everything in this life is meeting. Everything in my work is ultimately not about the shapes, currents and psychological perspectives, but about the encounters we have from human to human.’