In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness

by Peter A. Levine

Using the SIBAM model, the therapist can help the client work through the first four channels of awareness in order to reach new meanings. When cognition is suspended long enough, it is possible to move through and experience flow via these different channels (and subsystems) of Sensation, Image, Behavior and Affect. Then it is probable for fresh new Meanings to emerge out of this unfolding tapestry of body/mind consciousness. As an example, a client may start with specific fixed beliefs such as “my spouse is not behaving properly” or “I am unlovable.” The therapist, rather than trying to talk them out of the belief, may instead encourage the client to examine the physical loci of these thoughts, to notice which areas are tense, which are open and spacious, and to locate any feelings of collapse. More importantly, perhaps, clients are also asked to note a vacancy of feeling. A common example (especially in clients who have had sexual trauma) is the sense that one cannot feel one’s pelvis at all, or that it is disconnected from one’s torso or legs. A client asked to scan his body from head to toe might convey an uncanny absence of pelvic sensations. Of course, such an absence gives the therapist an idea of what the client is avoiding.