Bodywork for Emotional Healing with Michelle Dixon
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Corinne Powell: I have Michelle Dixon Joining me and Michelle is a trauma specialist and a mindfulness coach who got her start in bodywork modalities for emotional release. Through her early work. She learned that there is much healing that can take place spontaneously and wordlessly when we learn to be fully present in our bodies. Michelle teaches that the path to long-term emotional healing must be paved with self-practices and processes for a deeper self-knowing grounded in the body as much as in the mind and spirit.
This is why she created her self-guided online program Feel Better Now. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she's been living in Sydney, Australia for 20 years. She's a mother to three teenagers plus a stepmom to three young stepdaughters. She has clients all over the world and absolutely loves her work and her path.
I'm so happy to be here with you Michelle and to learn more about what you do and it is fascinating to me to find recovery and becoming more in tune with our body. So I am super excited to hear what you know.
Michelle Dixon: Yeah. Thank you Corinne I'm really excited to be here. It's an under it's a much neglected topic I think the body with emotional healing because as a culture where we're so we go so towards the mind modalities, you know?
That's the legacy of psychotherapy and the Jungian, you know Freudian tradition is that we think emotional pain we need to talk about it and I think you know all kinds of therapists are now starting to understand the importance of the body and bringing that in.
So it's really it's really cool to be able to bring that message to more people because it's often the thingiIt's the thing that's most neglected in the healing journey. And it's often the thing that when people discover the power of working with the body tt's the thing that unlocks that longer-term healing.
Corinne Powell: So, where do you begin when you're introducing someone to this new concept if they've been very focused on their mind and how that affects their feelings, how do you begin to introduce the body and how that's playing in?
Michelle Dixon: Yeah, that's a great question because it really depends, you know on the individual or the context I mean often people find me because they've already become aware of the body piece of it and they want to work with it, or people find me because they know that they're carrying a lot of emotional pain and they feel it and their body and no one's been able to really name that and they don't want to talk about it, right?
They're looking for anything that can where they can avoid talking about their trauma past their narrative history. So it kind of depends on how people find me, but you know often I like to at some point begin by just talking about this idea that the body, you know, the body keeps the score. It's that famous book by Besser van der Kolk about Trauma and the trauma body and how you know at all levels of the body.
We have body memory and even if you don't remember something your nervous system is going to remember it and act it out, it's what I call the pain body.
So I usually begin there with a little bit of education but you know, it's important not to overwhelm a person because often - I mean the incredible thing about doing bodywork is that experience speaks louder than information. You know as it's the case, you know with everything in life, right? Like if you can help someone just, you know, ground in their body and start to scan their body and start to notice sensation, memory heaviness, lightness all of that then that lived experience often opens the door to greater self-awareness and the desire to you know to pursue it more.
Corinne Powell: Yeah, I love that and I appreciate the affirmation that you know, our experiences are teachers because I know I came out of culture that, and maybe it's society but for sure the the family of origin the culture I was immersed in, it was very much a focus on what do you know? and how can you articulate what you know, and yeah so much of my journey, through life my personality. It's often, I've experienced this. I might not have words for it yet. I've experienced it and here's what my heart feels and so I just appreciate that affirmation even through what you just shared there about, you know, the body remembering
Michelle Dixon: Yeah, you know, I think we underestimate our experience, you know, and we do you're exactly right. We live in a culture where we're expected to you know understand and articulate you know and some people would say, you know, we're not a very heart-centered culture and that's changing as we begin to recognize the power of emotions and you know like even sometimes my youngest my 13-year-old son will say things about you know like, “You know boys have emotions too mom”.
And “the reason the male suicide rate is so high is because we're not allowed to express our feelings. We have them we just hold them in” and I have these moments when I go okay, the culture is changing and this is really good, you know?
I think the younger people have more of an awareness that their experience and their feelings matter and that's a really good thing. But to date, you know, that wasn't my experience growing up, in my generation and you know, it's difficult because we want, like I said before, we're really influenced by this kind of psychotherapy tradition every time I have talk therapy. We're also really influenced by this newtonian scientific approach where you have to measure it and see it in order for it to be valid.
And that's also changing. We've there been a lot of studies about incorporating somatic awareness into therapy somatic meaning of the body, body felt awareness and also the revolution in psychedelics for emotional healing has shifted the conversation because with psychedelics it's the experience which is transformative and they can't always measure that with science. They can see what parts of the brain light up, but it's really intangible. It's the experience.
So I'm seeing this huge shift in really validating someone's experience and something I've always said to my kids is remember, there are two parts of you. There's the part that analyzes and thinks and has memories and knows. And there's a part of you that has this gut feeling, this instinct and something happened in it and you know that it happened. You might not be able to explain it and they're both 100 valid and don't shut that down because that's going to serve you for life. So for a lot of uh, you know, if they're a therapeutic journey healing journey, depending on the age of my clients, when I get to the 20s and younger it's a little bit easier to introduce this but with the older generations it's a lot more time to kind of go “Okay, what what do you notice in your body? And what do you notice in your nervous system? And how do you experience your breathing and what do you think happened?”
Like forget the analysis, but what do you feel that meant for you? Sso it isn't really, you can probably tell I'm really passionate about it. Because I feel like it's not just about emotional healing. It's about you know evolving us culturally evolving as as humans, you know.
Corinne Powell: Yes. Yeah, and I love your passion. It's great. And that's what we need like passion, passion changes the you know, the culture and i'm all about that and I agree that, I hold value for mind management as much as I hold value for recognizing what's going in my body and how I'm feeling, you know.
I was last night even feeling disappointment over something that might seem so silly, but I had picked up a dinner and then came home and didn't feel hungry and I thought no, I just bought this food I was excited about this food. I spent money on this food and now I'm not even hungry and I'm not gonna force myself to eat it and I literally cried, I felt such disappointment.
I recognized some things that were tied into it you know, I work hard for my money and I had this feeling of oh, no, I just wasted it and spoke to that and but I felt the disappointment.
And then re-shifted the perspective. No, when I have this food whenever it's going to be whether it's tomorrow or whenever, I'm going to enjoy it. I know I'm gonna and I set the intention, you know, it was like this place of not shutting down how I felt, recognizing it, but also not staying stuck in it and letting the emotion surface and so, you know.
I do think there's a place for so much and recognizing what's going on in the body is super important. I think about one of my children who experiences anxiety more than the others. So it might show up as a stomach ache sometimes. And I grew up having stomach aches and said I had a sensitive stomach for years until I was an adult and she recognizes “Oh my stomach's hurting. Oh, I'm feeling nervous. I'm feeling excited and I'm feeling it in my body” and I reflect as I observe my kids and I'm so grateful that they are learning something different because it took me coming to understand that as an adult, but I can show them a different way and let them, you know be in touch with their whole being and be aware and and knowledgeable of what's going on.
Michelle Dixon: Yeah, I mean, I love, I love that. It reminds me of my of my daughter who also experiences anxiety. I mean she, she talks about it on her Instagram. So it's not a secret and it's the same thing of this, um, you know helping the younger generation, you know have that shifting that needle to cultivate, you know greater self-awareness and self-validation and oh my gosh, like imagine if we had access to these tools when we were growing up, but then I guess that's just you know, you get what you get use that hopefully to do with your kids, to impart what you've learned and hope that changes the conversation and it does.
And you're absolutely right what you said about, you know, it's so many things are important. I definitely don't just work with the body. I started out doing bodywork and it's definitely informed my sensibility and my approach but you know you have to it is important to look at how your mind is then interpreting these sensations.
So often we're not conscious about that, we just, we have a physical reaction that we don't notice and then it throws up a story and then we believe the story. So we walk around going the problem is the story. The problem is the thing that happened and we skip that step of like this thing happened and we interpreted it in a certain way, so yeah, like it's all important.
I think that's what holistic coaching, holistic healing is all about is recognizing that these things are really intertwined, you know?
Corinne Powell: The little bit I shared is probably the depth of my understanding as far as what to do with recognizing what's going on in the body? So where would you take that? You know looking to learn I would love to learn.
Michelle Dixon: Yeah, no I mean look what you do is perfect for when you're and I understand that you're coaching people to help them really change their lives, you know, like transform their lives and have a better experience and kind of create the life they want.
And so what you're doing is um, yeah, it's absolutely perfect for that and makes a lot of sense So I when it comes to the body-based stuff I work more in the realm of like really - people who are really deep in suffering and they need to do a process of release before they can get to be able to work with someone like you. So it's just like kind of a stages thing like, you know, I'm really and I love, you know I often refer people out to different practitioners and coaches because I don't believe that you know, I believe in healing and you know a team.
I think you know when we're when we have big stuff. We need a team and it's not about one one piece of the puzzle. The piece that I initially specialized in and that that I always go back to is that like really acute trauma, that acute emotional pain where you can't even really like you say what do you want for your life and they're like, “to not be hurting all the time”, “to be able to sleep through the night”, “to not have night terrors”. You know? That sort of thing.
So at that level working with the body's a little different, it's not even to the stage of, you know, tell me what's going on. And what do you notice in your body really about, really finding ways to release the tension so an easy way to explain that or understand it is, it's based on actually Peter Levine's work “Waking the Tiger”, I always get the title wrong, but Peter Levine, you know he founded Somatic Experiencing and he did a lot of research around how animals discharge trauma and how if an animal is hurt it will instinctively go hide, shake and then it will kind of go back to normal, life goes on.
Whereas humans, you know. We have all these interventions, we use to shut down the natural process of release, you know? We give people drugs, you know to put you to sleep, to shock you, to numb the pain, you know, whatever and these things are you know, they're lifesavers. I mean, thank goodness. We have our modern medicine in these situations.
But there's also an aspect of it that's shutting down that natural instinctive need to shake off the trauma. And then on top of that because we're such complex creatures in terms of our brain structure and you know our prefrontal cortex which is always like analyzing and making, meaning when things happen when emotional things happen our brains naturally go “Well what does this mean and how can I respond the next time it happens?” and then it can create a narrative and it can kind of embed those responses and create stories around them.
That carry on and on and on and it's a very unconscious thing that happens, you know so we have the not being able to have a space to discharge the trauma when it happens and then we have the meaning-making of it. Which kind of starts to get stuck in our nervous system. So our bodies go “Oh when I'm in danger, when I hear this sound or the sensation or there's this vibe or there's this thing that happens I know that I'm in danger”.
And so my body needs to send blood to my extremities so I'm ready to run, increase my heart rate. I need to be extra vigilant. This can mean for example that someone you know in a social situation they suddenly have panic attacks and they don't understand why and it's just the noise of the environment and it's triggered this reaction. So that's kind of what I mean by the body is holding trauma. There are many ways to explain it. So tell me if that doesn't make sense. I think there's so many people who are working at the level of explaining the nervous system and trauma you can find all kinds of resources to help you understand that.
So hopefully that makes sense. Another way of explaining is like so you have this energy that gets trapped in the body. And it's not had a chance to to release so the release part of the body work for emotional healing it's really about finding a context in which you can start to have your body release that, discharge that tension that held energy.
And you know, I started out doing it was called shamanic dearmoring, you know when I, 10 years ago when I started this journey, and that was I did a lot of work with sexual abuse victims through. You know this body work, which is a deep tissue. Body work where the client lies on a table so I'm working on the top of their body which is where all the meridians and a lot of our emotions are stored in these parts. And it very much corresponds to acupressure points.
So if anyone's familiar with, you know, traditional chinese medicine, there's a lot of correlation with different traditions I mean, it's all the same but different, you know? I would work on the front of the body and just press and release in particular ways in order to kind of trigger physical pain, discomfort, which then underneath that there's often emotion. And you know this from like, you know when a child we see it most often in children, if they get hurt they can be having you know - the day is fine and then there's this physical event like they stumble, they fall and then suddenly they're crying about something totally unrelated and you're like “Where did that come from?” like you just scraped your knee and now you're complaining about how your sibling never does this, this and this and whatever.
That is this in action that is that is a great way to understand and to see what's happening every day is sometimes that physical discomfort can release a held emotion that's just been sitting there and it's not had an opportunity to come out. We've not allowed it to come out. We haven't been really present when it when it emerges and so body work is a great way. You know this particular form dearmoring is a great way to just kind of activate a little bit of physical discomfort to see if there's any emotion under that.
And then sometimes there'll be a memory that comes up as well in that spot. And the interesting thing about it from the body point of view is we often we know we hold the same emotions and the same parts of our body universally, regardless of culture, geographic location, religious beliefs and there's an interesting study that was done a few years back where they, they, they looked at people, they interview people all over the world from different backgrounds and said, “Where do you feel love? Where do you feel anger?” and they would prompt them to experience that and then they would do, they did some electromagnetic resonance imaging and showed that in fact, across cultures, there's a very similar, we experience emotion and memory and body parts in a very similar way and I've seen that again and again in my work you know.
Like grief is always in the chest in the sternum it's always in this area and you know, there's a really good reason for that, you know when we experience loss when we experience grief and grief by the way, as you know it's not just about the physical death of someone but it's also the grief of it's any ending in life any ending any life transition, you know? You know, it could be your job is ended. It can be that, you know I mean a lot of people are experiencing grief because of the circumstances of the quarantine for example. But that experience of grief, often our initial response is we kind of hold our breath. It's instinctive. You're like, you take a deep breath in and then you just don't let it out because you're like you're waiting you're waiting for the for the penny to drop, you know, and that that causes constriction, you know in your in your chest in your lungs it's a muscular constriction.
You can just imagine if you hold your breath you can feel you can feel your body tensing in a certain way and if that continues over time and you're always experiencing that tension. Well, that is what it means to hold grief in your chest. You know, you're experiencing this muscular constriction and there's a high correlation actually between asthma and grief.
Adults with asthma who experienced, you know, really profound grief as children. There's a very high correlation and it and it all has to do with how we're holding. How we're holding that tension so the bodywork can help over time start to release it. Until when I feel a body if it's soft and pliant then there's you we've usually released enough, you know and then someone can work, you know work with someone like you to help them then create that life and look at their patterns and all of the other things but just getting to a point where they're breathing freely, bodywork is really good.
Now, there are a lot of modalities that I recommend like to get started with something like that and they're not just like deep tissue ones like teary trauma, release exercises - that's also really good. That's a shaking modality where you kind of, you bring on shaking in your legs and your knees and that sort of resets the nervous system that was invented by this guy who invented it for ptsd for war veterans in the states and was trying to find a way to help them release that you know the trauma from the body.
So there are many different ways and I can refer people to resources later, if it's not bodywork, you know, I mean like the body is amazing and we're such resourceful humans are so resourceful and I'm, really always a big fan of you know, really really trying your best to listen to what you are drawn to like what sparks your interest what impulse you feel because often people will they'll be drawn to a modality or they'll you know it'll be like I keep hearing about this three. I should check it out.
That's a really good indication that maybe that's the right one for you but having said that you know, I know people who've had tremendous healing through something like dancing, you know. They take a dance class or they do like a free movement class like kundalini dance. There are a few of them five rhythms dance, freedom dance where it's just like movement to music. However, you feel you feel it. Qigong, Yoga - hum Yoga, not as much because it tends to be more of a structure to the class.
So with trauma release body-based healing, it's really important to find something where you are kind of free to listen to your body and allow it to do what it needs to do because your body will, it knows. Like it does know when you give it that trust and when you when you trust your body, it's like, you know with an animal. No one needs to say to the animal “All right, you need to go hide in the bushes and shake for an hour and you'll be all right”, you know? Our bodies know and it's only our minds that get in the way and go “This is really weird. Why am I doing this?”
Yeah, you know get up in the morning if you need to and put on some music and just move Your body will know what it needs to do to release.
Corinne Powell: That was great. That's great. I definitely identify with dancing and the release and listening to my body and the movements. It's super, what you said is point on. The other I do have a question. So you said there's certain parts of the body that hold certain Um emotions, I don't know how how exactly you said it, but i'm curious because I often feel hum when I recognize I've been holding stress and tension in my body. I feel a lot of pain around my shoulder blades. So I'm curious, like what's what's that about?
Michelle Dixon: Shoulders are interesting like usually shoulders and neck is about responsibility and feeling like you're carrying a lot of responsibility in your life, you know.
I and I often have seen it. I have seen it more often and men who are kind of like just supporting the whole family uou know like financially, working all the time like not that, you know, not to be gendered - but I often see that like I see that more often than men.
But yeah shoulders and neck is often about um feeling the weight of responsibility.
Corinne Powell: Okay, that makes sense, yeah what you shared is so fascinating that like certain parts hold certain emotions across the board. I mean it's so much about the human experience even like there are so many ways that we actually can be connected as individuals. We are individuals and yet we are so connected. There are so many ways that we can identify with each other, it's I'm all about finding ways to bring everyone together, you know, there's so much division and divisiveness. But we really can understand each other more than we know
Michelle Dixon: Yeah, I mean we're really as you know human creatures. We're really the same, you know, we really experience you know emotions and physical pain and you know struggle and in such similar ways and you know.
Like I always I mean this is one reason I created my program “Feel Better Now” is to introduce people to processes and practices that work. But within that, you know, if I give you a menu then, you know, you can choose from the menu but you also need to think about what do I feel like? What is what do I feel like having today?
Or maybe it's nothing like you and your dinner last night like, okay actually, I'm not hungry right now and you know, maybe that's your body saying I need a rest from digestion because um, I just need to restore, I mean who knows right. But you know, so there's the universalizing element of it where you can kind of go. “Hmm. It's something around responsibility and the burden and feeling like I'm carrying a lot, I'm carrying a lot on my shoulders” metaphorically, but then you can dig deeper and find out like what that looks like for you personally you know and
You know, I mean it's amazing Corinne because a lot of people just don't think that you say how. What are you noticing in your body? And they're like, what do you mean? What do you mean? Like where do you feel that fear? Like do you you know, “What do you mean? I feel it in my head, it's just a feeling”. And it takes a while to connect because we're not in the practice of connect of connecting to our bodies.
We're on devices. We're in our minds. We live in a really mental culture, I don't mean that in a negative way, but like, you know it's our world is very like mind focused and it can take a while to kind of drop in and really go okay, what and I always like to find a metaphor like can you you know?
Like what is the metaphor for you for where you're feeling this like and what is the self-talk like, you know, your ankle is sore and you're thinking “oh, damn it I just I need to get to this shop and I can't it makes me so angry” and then and then what's the metaphor? With that where else in your life? Do you feel like you can't get to the places you want to get to?
And that can often unpack something deeper. And it all can start with that physical sensation, which is you know, which is pretty amazing.
Corinne Powell: Yeah Yeah. Yeah. I'm definitely going to be able to do a little bit of my own work even just knowing where I usually feel the stress and how that makes so much sense But I didn't even realize the correlation the connection to feeling the the weight of things the responsibility the pressure, so yeah. Before we close is there anything else you wanted to share? Of course, I want you to direct people to where they can find you.
Michelle Dixon: Yeah, well, so I have this online program, which is just a you know, it's for that deeper emotional healing. It's sort of to help people get from that stage to really suffering and being miserable and not maybe understanding why but being sick of it and kind of knowing that you that you're ready for more, to being able to kind of then blossom and create the life you want, and you can you can find out about it on my website https://michelle-dixon.com/. I'm sure you'll have links
Corinne Powell: Yes
Michelle Dixon: And just you know, so yeah, like I have a free guide to you know trauma symptoms and you know what they mean and sort of how to get started releasing that, you know I work with a lot of the people I work with have had like childhood abuse. Even adult trauma, breakdown, narcissistic abuse, ptsd so kind of at that part of the spectrum.
But you know, I guess you know my final thing is really you know to just it's so important to take responsibility for your own healing journey and really do what feels right for you and trust your instincts and trust your gut. Even if you feel like well, I'm not ready to do something, but I'm going to listen to these musical soundtracks and just learn to calm my nervous system. Whatever it is for you, your inner knowing is going to really connect you to the perfect next step for you when you sit in that space of understanding you actuality have everything you need to heal, to thrive, to create the life.
It’s all there inside you. We need people or strategies or … to stir that up in us, to kinda of spark that. But you’re really the most important part of that journey. If you have learned anything take onboard what fits for you and what feels right for you and everything else? Don’t worry about it.
Corinne Powell: Yes, I’ll definitely have your information and where they can find you in the show notes, so. Alright, well thank you very much. This has been informative and thanks for the good work you have been doing too.
Michelle Dixon: Thank you, and thank you for your work. I love reading your posts on Instagram and your testimonials - amazing!
[Ending] Here we are. We've made it to the end. What'd you think about what you heard today? Is there something you heard that you know you need to take action on? I'm one of those people who loves to not just sit and hear something, but to sit and hear and then go ahead and start implementing, taking action on what I hear, what was stirred up in me.
And I encourage you to do the same. If you enjoyed today's episode, or perhaps you heard an episode in the past that really stuck with you, would you go ahead and share that with some of your friends and your family? It would mean so much to me. And also, if you want to connect with me, remember, you can always find me throughout the week on Instagram.
I'm @corinne_changeradically. Or you can email me anytime corinne@changeradically.com. I'd love to be in touch.
And if there's any way that I can help you, please seek me out. Until we speak again next week, I hope that you will remember in the moments that are loud and busy, and in the moments that are quiet and still, that who you are is super important. You are valuable.
And I am so glad that you're alive.
Find Michele on Instagram @michelledixonhealing
