Through somatic therapy, Emile DeWeaver learned to reframe the habits and defenses he’d developed in prison. Rather than demonizing the parts of himself that he wanted to change — the hypervigilance, the emotional armor, the composure that hides trauma — his therapist invited him to see their intelligence: “Do you think you could have survived that if your body didn’t develop these mechanisms?”
The body finds what works and applies it everywhere. The goal of healing isn’t to destroy these mechanisms but to gain choice over them — using them when needed, setting them down when not.
“It’s not about demonizing these parts of you that you want to get rid of… they’ve actually saved your life.”
This mirrors the Art of Accomplishment approach to the inner critic and other protective parts: don’t fight them, honor them, then negotiate. Emile describes literally talking to his body, his heart, his fears — saying “I love you, can you trust me to take care of this?” — and finding that this creates far more space to move through difficult emotions than force ever did.
Related Concepts
- Resisting parts creates more of them
- Numbness as survival gift
- Welcome the inner critic
- Self-loathing can accidentally open a doorway to courage