What to Expect During a Session (It might not be what you think!)

A Powerful Session

I recently read an account by neuropsychologist and Buddhist teacher, Rick Hanson, about a powerful bodywork session he had years ago. He talked about how the session focused on his abdominal area and what he was expecting:

“I was anticipating (= dreading) the release of buried sadness. Instead, there was a dam burst of love, which poured out of me during the session and afterward. I realized it was love, not sadness, that I had bottled up in childhood – and what I now needed to give and express.”

Beautiful, right?

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts,
there can be no more hurt, only more love.
— Mother Teresa

What To Expect

Clients often ask me what to expect during their session. So many of us expect to get in touch with buried pain or sadness, but the idea that inside us rests this bottled up, unexpressed well of love can be a liberating thought.

Try This

Take a moment to think about how you might best tap into this unexpressed well of love. What can you do “to give and express” it?

Instead of worrying about repressing anger or sadness, what would it be like if we begin to pay attention to ways we hold back our love or our contributions to the world and release that instead?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?
–Marianne Williamson