Protective Misdirection - Why We Struggle To Find The Root Cause

Why does chest tightness, stomach tension, and heaviness in our torso come back after a meditation, talk therapy session, or massage? That anxiety we went in with, slowly rises back to the surface. That insecurity we talked out is now simply more accessible in our mind. And the lingering effects of an argument grip us again, when the person in question re-enters the room.
What's going on here? I have come to call this phenomenon protective misdirection.

It is not hyperbolic to say that in every single somatic counselling session I have conducted, the initial call of attention to a particular area of the body, is subsequently followed by a call to another area, once that first curiosity or tension is resolved or simply felt into.
This, I believe, is a principle of the practice.
I can guess at why, but I would prefer to provide a few examples:
One of my clients, LW, was experiencing something she described as armour - a heaviness which covered her chest, shoulders and neck. It did not take much attention, and feeling through it, before the sensation shifted, and this literal protection was hiding a sensation of retreat in her heart. Her heart was trying to back away, hide behind her ribs, and avoid the shame and sense of not being enough that LW was avoiding feeling.
(Just to say, it is almost never a conscious avoidance, it is a defense mechanism and, mostly, automatic.)
Another client, JY, had a similar sense of armour around her head, chest and shoulders. After some heavy exhalation, she felt, as she described, her body being pulled out of quick sand, and her head being re-attached to her body. Behind this sensation, was a fear, an anticipation of being attacked from behind. 
And a third client, EM, began the session by telling me she felt very judgemental of others, and there was this heaviness in her eyebrow. After some deep breathing, a technique similar to the Advashanta method of Lion's Breath, this sensation lifted. She found herself instead feeling judged by others, feeling like she wasn't smart enough to have an opinion, and the tension shifted from her eyebrows to her lower back, where we hold feelings of being supported.

Across each of these examples, the initial tension or curiosity experienced was a mask, a protective overlay which the nervous system senses is a safer and less disruptive place than where the root exists.

Sometimes the discomfort we are sure is a problem, is a masked defender of the root. Through body scanning, active imagination, and somatic releasing, we are able to clear away this protective misdirection, and access the underlying discomfort.

If this resonates with you, answers a question you've had about other methods, you're not alone. Somatic counselling works directly with this protective misdirection. By dissolving the masks, we can gently trace back to the root causes and the real issues.

Ready to experience this for yourself? Book a session with us, and find out what these protective masks have been misdirecting you away from.