Hey everyone, Kelly Mahler, occupational therapist, and I want to take the time to talk about 10 lessons that I have learned as a result of using The Interoception Curriculum with clients. The Interoception Curriculum is a resource that I wrote and published six years ago, but we’ve been using the strategies from the curriculum for over a decade. We continue to update the process outlined in the curriculum through feedback from my own clients as well as people like you, and let me tell you, we have learned so much!!! Here are 10 of the top lessons that I have learned.
Lesson #1: There is a Deep Honor in Guiding an Interoception Journey
Lesson #1 is discovering the profound privilege that comes from being invited into someone else’s inner world and to share in the discoveries that they make about their body. The framework provided in The Interoception Curriculum has allowed me the chance to witness clients discovering their authentic interoceptive experiences. I did not realize how much of an honor this would be. It’s a highly personal process. I’ll never forget the client that realized that the sign for hunger in her body was zappy feeling skin, and this was a huge revelation for her. Up until that point, she didn’t think that her body was sending her clues about hunger because she was waiting for the “rumbling” or “growling” feeling in her stomach that everyone told her she “should” experience. So it’s really a privilege to be a part of this meaningful journey with my clients.
Lesson #2: Small Steps, Big Interoception Impact
Lesson #2 is learning to be slow and steady with The Interoception Curriculum. Many people ask how quickly they should move through each part of the curriculum. My best advice? The slower the better. Small steps make big gains, and when I support clients, I have this urge to go fast sometimes. I really want them to reach meaningful outcomes quickly–to acheive the goals they have for themselves as fast as possible. And when it comes to interoception work, I’ve learned that slowing down and really taking the time to explore the (re)connection with the body is essential. Many times, there can be a lot of unlearning about the body before learning. So to take things slow and set up a pace where there’s not a lot of pressure can be really, really helpful.
Lesson #3: Learning By Experiencing Body Signals, Not Guessing
Lesson #3 is discovering how important it is to learn about body signals while actually experiencing body signals—not by guessing or hypothesizing about the way the body “might” feel, or even worse “should” feel in a situation. We’ve learned that many times these guesses can be wrong. Through the use of The Interoception Curriculum, it has become evident that many people benefit from learning about the sensations in their body while they’re experiencing them. And no, we’re not waiting for a stressful moment or a meltdown to practice noticing how the body feels. The Interoception Curriculum is filled with hands on, playful experiments, called Focus Area Experiments, that can be used to evoke stronger sensations within the body to give practice noticing how the body feels. And these experiments should only be used when a person is regulated and feeling safe in their body. So, for example, instead of hypothetically talking about the way our hands might feel on a cold day, we will go outside on a cold day and notice how our hands feel. Or maybe we’ll hold ice packs or put our hands in cold water or hold ice cubes or put our hands in a freezer and notice the way our hands feel while we are experiencing the sensations.
Lesson #4: Curiosity Without Expectations: The Key to Improving Interoception
Lesson #4 is learning to be curious without strings attached. And this lesson was a tough one for me learn. Honestly, being curious, asking questions, wondering out loud, without expecting a response was a shift in thinking. In the past, I would stop offering curiosity if I was not getting something I perceived as a response from a client. But now, I’m presuming competence, assuming that my clients might be noticing body sensations, and are even possibly responding to my curiosity in a way that I might not be skilled to understand. I use a lot of “I wonder” statements during activities in The Interoception Curriculum. For example, during a Focus Area Experiment, I might say, “I wonder how your hands are feeling right now“. And I don’t always get a response. So I don’t always know if my client is paying attention to their body, being curious about their body. I’m putting that curiosity out into the world without expecting a response. It is just such a powerful reminder that curiosity plant seeds, even if we don’t see them sprout right away. So presume competence and be curious about your client’s experience without expectation of response.
Lesson #5: Honoring Inner Hesitations Builds Trust
Lesson #5 is learning that honoring hesitation or refusals builds trust. I’ve used a lot of activities from The Interoception Curriculum over the years with many different clients. Some clients are enthusiastic participants, others meet this work with some hesitation, and sometimes clients will outright refuse. Honoring this hesitation, honoring this refusal is very, very important to interoception learning. When someone is hesitant or refuses participation, that is a sign of them listening to their body. There’s something about the presented activity that is creating an uncomfortable response in their body, and they’re expressing that in their act of hesitation or refusal. Isn’t that part of the goal?! Honoring this response, and keeping that right to hesitate or refuse wide open is essential to the interoception learning process. When done authentically and consistently it helps to establish a relationship that is build upon inner validation and respect.
Lesson #6: Surprising Interoception Insights
Lesson #6 is learning how surprising the insights gained from The Interoception Curriculum can be. Once we drop the one-size-fits-all emotion approaches and embrace the fact that we all have unique inner experiences, it creates a need for curiosity and a quest to help each person understand their own interoception identity. Often times, the curriculum can reveal surprising insights. This often includes clever and unique methods of describing inner feels. It’s fun to hear my clients share about the body signals they notice. Like who knew that chewing a piece of mint gum would feel like “my mouth is wearing a cool breeze jacket”? Or that rubbing Velcro can feel like “my fingers are walking on a tiny staircase”? Or popping bubble wrap with fists can feel like “a tickle in my chest”. I’ve learned to look forward to these insights.
Lesson #7: The Power of Inner Validation
Lesson #7 is learning about the power of inner validation and how it is an essential aspect of the interoception journey. In fact, it is an important part of being human—don’t we all need someone to see us, to try to understand us, to believe us, to support our inner experience? When this doesn’t happen, we know it can derail interoception, so it makes perfect sense that this validation is key to getting interoception learning online. Throughout The Interoception Curriculum, we have a rule that any response shared should be honored and validated, even when the response is not something we might expect. It has become very clear that this inner validation is key to the process. Helping each client to not only explore their own interoceptive experiences, but also giving them confidence in what they’re noticing, and providing them a safe space where they are believed when they share their feels, is essential.
Lesson #8: Inner Feels Are Highly Unique
Lesson #8 is discovering the uniqueness of the inner experience. Honestly, I didn’t realize how diverse our bodies can feel until having the chance to use The Interoception Curriculum with many, many clients. I can confidently say that we all have different inner feels, and guess what?! We are all correct and valid in our unique experience.
Lesson #9: Interoception Group Work Organically Grows Empathy
Lesson #9 is all about empathy and learning how it can naturally grow in all of us throughout the process of The Interoception Curriculum, especially when we do this work in groups. As mentioned previously, we all have different inner feels, so when we do this work in a group or a family or a class-wide structure, we are given the privilege of learning about our group mates, and how their bodies uniquely respond to the activities. It becomes a concrete demonstration of different interoception experiences. This can organically breed empathy, helping us understand each other on a deeper level, helping us understand how we’re each different and helping us understand that we each need different things in this world to feel comfortable in our bodies and thrive.
Lesson #10: Discovering My Own Inner World
Lesson #10 is the least thing I expected when I wrote The Interoception Curriculum, and that is learning that I needed my own personal interoception journey. I have learned so much about my interoceptive experience through doing the activities in the curriculum with my clients. I never expected that. I never realized how much I needed to learn about my body. I’m so glad I did. I am still work in progress, but looking forward to see where this interoception journey takes me.
Until next time.
