Workshop: Exploring our embodied selves - Dr. Elaine McDougall

Wednesday, March 7, 2018 - 16:00 to 18:00
SE009, School of Education, North Campus, Maynooth University

Workshop: Exploring our embodied selves

Dr Elaine McDougall
 

I have been a chiropractor for almost 40 years and a gestalt psychotherapist for the past 18 years. My two professions exemplify the mind-body dichotomy so entrenched in Western thought:- the body is dealt with by physicians and the mind by psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists. The separation of body and mind and reason from emotion has been a pervasive theme in Western thought dating as far back as Aristotle and exemplified in Descartes famous dictum ‘cogito ergo sum’.

By making the body self an “it” and relegating the “I” or identified self to the mind, we split ourselves into an “I” which thinks and is verbal and an “it” which feels and is non-verbal. The body becomes the disowned self, and consequently whatever we experience as emanating from the body is alienated and irrational, whereas much of our thinking and verbal expression is rational and acceptable to our self image. Some aspects of our body self we may disown may include our sexual self, the moving self and the painful self.

I believe that our existence is an embodied one. We live not only through our thinking and imaginings but also through the movement of our bodies using our senses and being aware of our sensations and emotions. Our existence involves our physical being and its interactions in the world.

The “lived body” is the body of life, the “disregarded body” the body deadened.

I agree with Edward Smith, a Gestalt psychotherapist, that one who lives in his or her body is organismically oriented, experiencing the self holistically rather than the self as a mental entity which “has” a body. Such a person feels the whole range of emotions and uses body sensations as input for cognitive and perceptual processes. Integration of thoughts, feelings and actions may result in a person experiencing a sense of wholeness, which is their birth right.
 
This experiential workshop is aimed at exploring our embodied selves. Can our daily lives be enriched by becoming more aware of our entire being? If so, how can we work towards achieving this?

Has the media and it’s portrayal of body image in our culture influenced the integrating our body selves into our entire selves?

Do we reject our body self if it doesn’t measure up to cultural norms, and if so, what impact does this have on our sense of self and our experience of life?