Emotional Release & Our Physical Bodies

Gentle disclaimer to all of our readers: All medical information mentioned is purely informational. It is not individualized medical advice. Please follow up with your physician or medical practitioner for individualized care specific to your needs. Thank you.

On our Know & Do Better Podcast, we spoke with Dr. Kimberly Fishbach about the emotional release in our physical bodies.

About Dr. Fishbach:

She is a clinical psychologist and an expert in using integrative psychotherapy methods and hypnotic techniques for addressing chronic pain, anxiety, depression, ADHD, and trauma. She draws from her extensive training in CBT, DBT, mindfulness, hypnosis, and other evidence-based approaches to customize her client’s therapy and promote the most effective therapeutic outcome. She works collaboratively with her clients to set goals, address roadblocks and develop feasible solutions and skills to improve their quality of life. Dr. Fishbach is currently working out of New York health, hypnosis, and integrative therapy.

At Inspira, we utilize different holistic techniques, some of the osteopathic hands-on techniques such as visceral manipulation and craniosacral therapy. These techniques themselves utilize very subtle energy paired with specific hand placements and specific directions of light force through the hands.

What the founders of these methods, Jean Pierre Barral and Dr. John Upledger, discovered is that the limitations that we can feel with our hands and organs, and the limitations in different craniosacral movements are linked to specific emotions. For example, if there’s a limitation in the innate mobility and motility of the kidney, this often is linked to unprocessed deep fear and grief.

It seems as though it is a basic idea, but it’s actually something that’s very hard to identify for a lot of people. Emotions are physiological sensations in the mind that put meaning to depending on whatever situation is happening. They give us important information about our internal and external world and environment, which then help us navigate future situations and help figure out ways to most effectively meet our needs and, evolutionary speaking, help us survive. There could be multiple emotions happening simultaneously, and until the primary emotion is addressed, it’s likely to be lingering feelings or sensations that begin to manifest themselves in different ways or they become stored in the body.

“Why am I so angry?”… Maybe that’s the secondary emotion and the primary emotion might be sadness or feeling hurt. When you can identify what is going on, that’s when the real processing begins. Oftentimes, sitting with the emotion is uncomfortable, but if it is suppressed, it begins to build up, and become harder to address and process.

A lot of physical sensations are easy to acknowledge, but often the origin of why they’re happening or why they come up when they do is unknown. Through an open-minded observation of the sensation, not judging good or bad, it can tell what it means and what message it’s giving us.

“I feel sick to my stomach”

“The weight is on my shoulders.”

That pain is emotionally triggered.

To resolve emotions is to understand and identify where the stress comes from. It can be a relief, literally and figuratively taking the weight off and feeling lighter. It is known to produce a little bit more movement because there’s less tension in their body that they’re holding from all the anxiety and stress. And so physically, patients who resolve these emotions, are more limber.

In one scenario, there was a woman who was treated by Dr. Fishbach who had a patient with a functional movement disorder that was completely debilitated and in a wheelchair. After a year of psychotherapy and physical therapy, she was driving again and spending more time taking care of her son.

Certain mental illnesses that can make it more difficult to process emotions include the autism spectrum as they have difficulty identifying and labeling emotions until they just feel very irritable. There’s also dissociation, which can be brought on by trauma and avoidance. Avoidance so much that they literally separate themselves from their body and mind because the experience is too painful to confront in those cases. In addition, psychosis is a mental illness that’s difficult to work with because we don’t know which reality we’re often working with and if their emotions are in line with what is being created in their mind.

To start the journey towards healing, please see a medical doctor to be sure that there isn’t something medically wrong before seeking help for chronic pain management.

Thank you Dr. Fishbach, for the educational conversation. Listen now on Spotify or YouTube. 

Inspira Physical Therapy & Pilates in Park Slope, Brooklyn specializes in Orthopedic, Pelvic Floor, and Pilates.