How do we as Radix practitioners achieve these goals?
The primary or overarching concept in Radix theory and practice is Pulsation. Pulsation or the rhythm of the life force or radix.
It is this pulsation that creates and maintains consciousness and aliveness. And when working from a Radix perspective, the main focus is how this pulsation of the radix becomes interrupted or sustained.
What do we mean by pulsation?
Basically we mean the capacity to let the life force flow from inner to outer. From the core to the periphery of our bodies, from our inner contact with ourselves to engaging with others. From our heads to our legs and feet.
Some people can be present or in contact with themselves but only if they diminish their aliveness and energy. They can also attend to you but only if they have a deadpan response to things. Others can be very alive and interactive with other people but at the cost of having little or no contact with themselves. When you are around someone like this you have a sense that you can't quite connect with them or that there is a quality of phoniness or acting to their behaviour.
In contrast, some other individuals can have a very energetic lower body as long as they keep their upper body tense and restrained. And some people keep the charge of their pulsation so low that this prevents them from establishing a sense of connection with themselves and others.
You probably have an intuitive feel for this. Watching performers, whether they be dancers, singers or even someone giving a public lecture you can feel whether the person is comfortable with their pulsation and connected. If they are, there is a sense of engagement and aliveness in the performance.
Most of us have learned to live by restricting the pulsation of the life force in some way or another. Doing so has had its rewards. Usually when people present for therapy or growth work they are saying that this no longer works so well. It is time for a change. Thinking of and working with people in terms of what they do with this pulsation is a very objective and non- judgmental way to work.
Radix practitioners are taught to observe and work with these pulsations or rhythms of the body. And the observations made and gleaned from interaction with clients informs strongly any interventions that are used in a session.
The Radix therapist doesn’t put you through a series of exercises to achieve this. Rather activities emerge from both the client’s and the therapists growing awareness of what is needed and what is emerging and developing in the interpersonal relationship. Initially this is based on an assessment of contact or connectedness of both therapist and client and moves on to other concepts underpinning the work. For example, the clients capacity to feel in contact with reality, their capacity to centre into a strong experience of themselves, their ability to establish and maintain appropriate emotional, cognitive, physical and spiritual boundaries and their capacity to contain emotions, thoughts and actions when needed.
Specifically, to achieve these goals, in addition to verbal work, Radix practitioners will work with the clients breathing patterns, eye work, exploratory movements, sound, hands on physical manipulations, and the use of their own and their clients physical bodies.