Body Poem and Dream Poem: Illuminating Unthought Knowns
Body Poem creates space for you to have a new kind of conversation with your body, where it speaks and you listen deeply. The process often brings insight, revelation and epiphany, as well as moments of deep self-connection, care and tenderness.
The structure of a session unfolds as a guided meditation, where I support you to travel into the waters of sensation. I will then guide you in a somatic inquiry to let these sensations speak. Having harvested your body’s statements, I offer your own words back to you in the form of a poem. Afterwards, I guide you then back out again on to the shore to digest the experience.
As the body poet or dream scribe, my core intention is to model total acceptance and honouring of you and your experience. In contrast to many other therapeutic methods and healing modalities, there is no analysis, interpretation or advice, only your own words reflected back to you with deep presence and profound respect.
What are the benefits of a Body Poem session?
Body Poem is primarily designed to support integration through acceptance. It achieves this through providing a safe way for ALL parts of you to be seen, heard and met with complete acceptance (as opposed to being subjected to analysis, interpretation or subtle judgments). As Carl Rogers famously said,
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change”. From On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy by Carl Rogers.
Parts of you that may have previously been pushed out of your awareness might show up, wanting to be heard and included. Parts of you that have felt misunderstood or ignored may receive attention and understanding for the first time. When this happens, integration occurs, which is viscerally felt in the body – often as a sense of peace and wholeness.
“Kindness is the manifestation of integration.” Daniel Siegel
What are the benefits of a Dream Poem session?
Our dreams are treasure troves of information, letting us know where we are as well as showing us the best way forward. If we learn how to listen to them they can act as a guiding light in our lives. As Marion Woodman said, if we ignore our dreams, we ‘miss the gold.’
Dream Poem provides a unique way of working with dreams, where the primary intention is to help you integrate the energy of the dream’s message somatically, through your felt sense (as opposed to analysing or interpreting the symbolic meaning of the dream). Insights regarding what the dream ‘means’ i.e. a cognitive understanding of the dream’s message, may well come to you spontaneously (this is a very common experience). However, unlike other more traditional approaches, dream poem uses a ‘bottom up’ approach. This means we begin with the felt sense of the dream, letting its energy reverberate through your system, as opposed to analysing or interpreting the symbolic meaning of the elements.
It can take some courage to really pay attention to your dreams, and even more to share your dream with another human being.
A dream is a communication from your subconscious mind, an attempt to bring something to your attention that you had previously been unaware of. If we ignore these messages, the subconscious issue may seek to get our attention in other ways e.g. through creating conflicts in relationships, or even physical symptoms and illnesses. When we have a ‘big dream’ (which could be only one sentence long but carries potent energy), it is extra important to pay attention. Our dreams not only tell us where the real problem is, they also provide the medicine.
There is an inherent vulnerability in exploring a dream, since it means entering the unknown with a willingness to learn something new about yourself. As a dream scribe I am sensitive to this, and treat every element in your dream as though it were a sacred object.
I am as passionate about helping people learn to honour their dreams as I am about teaching people to listen to their bodies. Body Poem and Dream Poem both access the subconscious mind through the felt sense. It is hard to describe how empowering it is to develop this skill of deep self-attunement, it has to be experienced directly . . . then you will understand.
If you are not sure whether to go for Body Poem or Dream Poem feel free to get in touch so we can have a chat about it. rosilalor@gmail.com
Body Poem and Dream Poem can help if :
- You want to learn how to listen to and befriend your body.
- You are in a grieving process.
- You need support digesting a difficult experience.
- You need to resolve an inner or outer conflict.
- You have difficulty knowing how you feel, or knowing what is true for you.
- You want to learn how to access and express your needs and desires.
- You are going through, or recovering from an illness, injury, or operation.
- You are in the process of making a decision or need to gain clarity on a specific issue.
- You have a strong inner critic.
- You want to access, or deepen your creative expression.
- You are longing to be held/witnessed with compassion, without evaluation or analysis.
- You are going through a transition or find yourself at a crossroads.
- You want to come out of your head and back to your senses.
- Body Poem sounds fun/ interesting and you are curious.
The Origins of Body Poem and Dream Poem
Katie Sarra is founder of Body Poem and co founder of the Sea School of Embodiment which facilitates leading-edge professional and personal development trainings in embodiment. Her specialism is affective neuroscience and its application with the Wheel of Consent® You can read more about Katie and Body Poem here: bodypoem.org
‘Body Poem is a revolutionary therapeutic tool illuminating unknown and unspoken parts of the self from spontaneously emerging poetry.” Katie Sarra
Body Poem/Dream Poem is a skilful weaving together of the following elements:
- Body Focusing techniques developed by Eugene Gendlin.
- The use of Clean Language (non-evaluative language) developed by David Grove.
- A Playback Theatre technique called ‘Dream Form’.
The structure of Body Poem/Dream Poem is informed by Jakk Panksepp’s research on The Emotional Command Systems, Daniel Seigal’s work on mindfulness and interpersonal neurobiology, Betty Martin’s work on Wheel of Consent®, and Stephen Porges’ polyvagel theory.
The structure of a Body Poem session
- We begin with a chat where I talk you through the ‘body focusing’ technique. You can ask me any questions you have about the process.
- When you’re ready you can lie down on the plinth (most people choose this option as it supports relaxation, but you can also choose to remain seated, with freedom to move if that suits you better).
- I will guide you through a brief relaxation process to help you connect with your breath and begin focusing your attention onto the sensations arising in your body.
- I lead us in a somatic enquiry, eliciting communication from different parts of your body and writing these statements down.
- I read your body poem back to you. You receive your poem while staying attuned to your ‘felt sense’ i.e. the sensations in your body.
- We return to ‘the beach’, where I ask you what the experience was like. This is an opportunity to digest the experience.
The Structure of a Dream Poem Session
- We begin with a chat where you tell me your dream and I write down each element that appears in it. You can also ask me any questions you have about the process.
- When you’re ready you can ether lie down on the plinth or decide to stay seated.
- I will guide you through a brief relaxation process to help you connect with your breath and begin focusing your attention onto the sensations arising in your body.
- I will lead a somatic enquiry based on the elements (e.g. characters, objects, landscapes, sounds) from your dream, giving each element a voice and writing down what it says.
- I read your ‘dream poem’ back to you and you listen whilst staying attuned to your felt sense.
- We open up the space for you to tell me what the experience was like for you.
Listening to the Unspeakable: Body Poem/ Dream Poem and Trauma
All of us have survived difficult or overwhelming experiences in one form or another . . . but surviving the experience is not the same as having fully processed and digested it. The psyche is always naturally seeking wholeness and integration. The sense of safety and relaxation created during a Body/Dream Poem session may connect you to feelings, sensations or parts of yourself that had previously been outside of your awareness. Parts of yourself that had been left out in the cold can be met with compassionate warmth and allowed to be as they are, without any attempt to change or fix them.
If they feel safe enough to emerge, hidden parts of you that have felt unsafe can be welcomed and accepted. It is delicate work, since if we have previously kept something outside of our awareness, we have done so for a reason. As a body poet/dream scribe. I’m sensitive to this, and always mindful and protective of your safety. I have tools at my disposal to prevent you from becoming overwhelmed.
Despite the fact that Body Poem can uncover profound insights, it is actually a very gentle process. You are always the one in choice as to which sensations you explore (or how deep you want to swim). The entire structure of the session has been designed with your emotional safety in mind
If you know that you have experienced severe trauma, and haven’t yet received any therapeutic support to begin processing it, I would suggest chatting to me on the phone before booking your body poem session, and together we can decide if it would be right for you at this time. Email me at rosilalor@gmail.com or text me on 0834747709 and we can arrange a time to speak
Coming back to our senses as a species: why I think our world needs Body Poem/Dream Poem
There are many hopeful signs of positive change in our culture, with many people looking to reclaim a sense of authority over their own lives and health. However, I think it is fair to say that mainstream culture still shames and devalues the body’s needs and desires, as well as negating the body’s wisdom. We are encouraged to focus on how our bodies (and our lives) look as opposed to how they feel. Media images consistently remind us of how inadequate we are if we don’t measure up, in order to sell us things we don’t really need.
We are taught to view our bodies as machines that can just keep going forever on adrenalin, and to feel guilty about needing rest. Many people find unhealthy ways to self-medicate and self-soothe, not knowing any other way. Many are afraid to feel the more tender emotions that lurk underneath their stress, because they have been taught to suppress them.
My intention as a Body Poet and Dream Scribe is to reconnect my clients with the deep, instinctual wisdom available in their blood and bones. I believe that a visceral, felt sense of inner authority, connection and belonging is at the core of the urgent shift in our collective consciousness that is needed.
This work is important to me because I have experienced its beauty and power. It continues to be an invaluable resource on my own journey from fragmentation to wholeness. I have learnt that my heart and gut know essential things that my rational mind doesn’t, such as what is needed, what really matters, where the joy is, and what’s true.
“The mind has no answers. The heart has no questions.” Jack Kakakaway
Body Poem Testimonial
‘After so many years searching for answers that never satisfied me, I have come to know that the body holds the most ancient wisdom. The trick is to figure out how we can bypass the mind and access the wisdom that is held within our very own temple. The Body Poem work does just that, it guides you gently into a safe space where we can hear the soft whispering of our knowing, our own guidance and our own medicine. It frees you from the idea that anyone outside of yourself could know what is best for you. Rosi is a light keeper, a guiding force, who will illuminate the way back home to the seat of yourself. Wonderful, profound, and deeply touching work.’
– Trisha
Dream Poem Testimonial
‘My dream poem session was charged, fascinating, and a little challenging. Then there was a palpable afterglow were everything took on a subtle mysical/magical intensity,charged with heightened emotional meaning, which I think could be best described as the feeling of experiencing waking reality as if it were a waking dream, in itself a moving experience. From what Rosi explained, I understood this to be the embodiment/integration of the dream’s energy.’
– Aonghus
Body Poem and Dream Poem sessions : 70 minutes, €70
*It is possible to adapt the sessions to include Reiki healing if you would like this.
*Sessions are available in person or online.