The tools we learn for healing—breathwork, somatic presencing, self-regulation—can become sophisticated avoidance mechanisms. In the coaching session, a therapist used her breath to “self-regulate really quickly before I have to feel.” The very technique designed to bring presence was being used to escape it.
“I use my breath to self-regulate really quickly before I have to feel.”
This is a particularly tricky pattern because it looks like doing the work. The person appears embodied, aware, and skillful. But the skill is being deployed in service of the same old survival strategy—just with better packaging.
The deeper pattern: she avoided anger with sadness, and avoided sadness with somatic presencing. Three layers of avoidance, each more refined than the last. Mastery of healing techniques can become mastery of avoidance.
Related Concepts
- Knowing your patterns doesn’t free you from them
- Self-improvement is self-annihilation
- Somatic practices can domesticate rather than liberate