SUSAN WARSHOW, LCSW, LMFT
Susan Warren Warshow, LCSW, LMFT, is the founder of the Dynamic Emotion Focused Therapy (DEFT) Institute, which offers a training program for psychotherapists, an ongoing webinar series, and resource materials. She authored A Therapist’s Handbook to Dissolve Shame and Defense: Master the Moment, and her second book, The Practice of Dynamic Emotion Focused Therapy: A Shame Sensitive Workbook, will be released by Routledge. She is a Certified IEDTA Teacher/Supervisor. She has published several articles in professional journals, and her PESI UK blog posts include Therapist Shame: How to Recognize and Reduce It; 10 Ways to Orient Clients Towards Unconscious Feelings; and Hidden Motivation for Change.
She presents at conferences nationally and internationally (International Experiential Dynamic Therapy Association, California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the Brief Therapy Conference, the L.A. County Psychological Association, and the National Association of Social Workers). In addition, she has a private practice treating individuals and couples and offers clinical supervision.
Formerly, she was a supervisor and Coordinator of Continuing Education at the Department of Psychiatry at Northridge Hospital. She produced over 100 public presentations on child abuse and neglect in L.A. County and was media director for L.A.'s first child abuse hotline.
Simmering
(Photograph, 36" High x 24" Wide)
Subterranean Rising
Visiting Yellowstone National Park recently with some of my high school friends, I learned that we were entering one of the world's most threatening hot spots for volcanic activity with an unimaginably destructive reach. This news jarred the tranquility of the pastoral landscapes with grazing bison. As I looked at the oozing, boiling pools of liquid at the earth's surface, emanating vapors with rainbow colors, how could I reconcile such breathtaking beauty with its mortal threat?
When I began working in a manner that invited emotions to break through their underground prisons, my clients and I experienced trepidation. We could sense forces from deep within the psyche begin to tremble. What if an emotional volcano erupted, leaving devastation in its wake? My female client, who had worked for years as an ER doctor, dealing with unimaginable horrors, described how the tender touch of her husband's hand on her shoulder and neck set off seismic shudders. Still, she could enjoy sex from a state of disengagement. In therapy, she began to observe her terrors of emotional closeness, which she could not understand with her mind. If we played with the possibility of feeling her emotions, she saw images of her "scaffolding crumbling," like bricks and mortar turning to ash after an explosion. Everything that held her up and allowed her to function through a grueling, relentless, and inhumane residency and a childhood that allowed no needs would finally collapse. Nothing would be left of her to move forward.
Our instincts tell us to recoil from frightening emotions, yet these unconscious currents must "let off steam" to resolve themselves. Emotions need to rise to the surface of awareness where they can find the freedom to be named and explored, allowing transformation and healing. I don't work in a way that the client pounds pillows. However, I encourage the freedom to feel deeply into the emotions, sensing their dynamic movement flowing through the body and forming impulses that move to the extremities naturally. Imagery and fantasy deepen the sensations significantly.
Just as we see a landscape awash with merging colors, our rising emotions also vary in intensity with no distinct lines of separation. If we surrender to what is, daring to stay present, we move deeper into the vast complexity of co-mingled rage, grief, guilt, love, and other emotions. Transformation often occurs, bringing forth relief and gratitude. As we step back, we feel awe.
As I found ways to gird my clients' courage, these individuals could wrestle with their inevitable conflicts and face the truths and meanings that lay deep within their core.
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