From the website of Andrew Cook, a cranio sacral therapist. I love this accessible description. Thanks, Andrew!

EMBODIMENT

This is a big topic, and one that is not so easy to translate into a medicalised model of the human body. It is about the relationship between what we call consciousness - something very difficult to define - and the physical body and our physical senses. Put simply, if the more embodied we become, then the following experiences become more regular features of our waking experience:

• our sense of connection through the body (so that it is experienced as continuous, strong and self-aligned) is increased
• our waking awarenes of the body's presence always occupies a proportion of our awareness - even when we are thinking or fully engaged with the outside world
• our ability to be in the present moment with our body and throughts and emotions is increased
• we have a strong sense of self and a strong sense of our own physical presence - which in turn is an important aspect of self-confidence
• body movement is fluid (as opposed to stiff or disjointed)
• we are aware of the environment we live in and how it affects us, and at the same time have an inner resilience which allows us to not be overwhelmed by this increased awareness
• the senses are brighter and more alert, and at the same time there is a greater sense of peace
• we inhabit the observer part of ourselves, and so are less driven by strong emotopns and thoughts
• we have a more direct and conscious connection to instincts, and are able to choose to use this information as and when appropriate

It takes a long time to arrive at all of this (and it's a lifes work), but even a small step along this route can yield big rewards. There is no chartable path along which any typical person or any individual person will progress in embodyment - there are so many variables, and it depends to some extent on where you started from, where you are now, and what your current goals are.

Saturday 8th March 2014, 10:00-17:00 at The Barbican
Tickets for the full symposium, or for the film screening only available from The Barbican Centre

From Catherine Cox's website:
With its star-studded cast, Emma Thompson’s screenplay about the relationship between Effie Gray and John Ruskin is due to be released in the UK in March 2014.

Starring Julie Walters, Derek Jacobi, David Suchet, Dakota Fanning, Robbie Coltrane, Tom Sturridge, Greg Wise, James Fox, Claudia Cardinale and Emma Thompson herself, the film is a subtle but disturbing portrayal of developmental trauma, the failure of a man to follow the promptings of his anima and the rite of passage of a young woman.

Produced by Donald Rosenfeld, formerly of Merchant Ivory (Howards End, Remains of the Day), and more recently winner of the Palme d’Or for Terrence Malik’s film The Tree of Life (starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain), the film is exquisitely shot.

This unique event will bring together the worlds of psychoanalysis and film. Donald Rosenfeld (and hopefully some of the actors in the film) will be engaging with psychoanalysts on a number of the themes so elegantly portrayed in the film.

The event will include a viewing of the film, lunch at Gin Joint by Searcys and, we hope, an opportunity to meet Donald and  some of the actors.

Event organised by Catherine Cox and Graham Fuller in conjunction with the Barbican Centre, Sovereign Films, the Guild of Analytical Psychologists (G.A.P.) and the Society of Analytical Psychology (SAP)

Another effect of veterans returning with untreated trauma.

Read the article here:

http://bit.ly/1c30dF8

This is the title of a great article by Laura K Kerr, PhD
Pubished on acestoohigh.com on 7th January 2014

A considered and thought provoking article on the legacy of trauma on a wider societal level, written from the viewpoint of an American trauma therapist. 

The writer makes a case for the increase in mental illness being the result of collective denial of the conditions that contribute to traumatic stress, and the lack of treatments to process unresolved trauma.

In my opinion Britain is on the same trajectory, and we can learn a lot from the trauma specialists in the US. Trauma is now everyone's problem, and society has a collective responsibility to alleviate this unspoken of destroyer of lives.

Read it here  http://acestoohigh.com/2014/01/07/want-to-reduce-mental-illness-address-trauma/