Embodied Self-Awareness (ESA) is a somatic approach to treat trauma and other mental health concerns by helping people connect directly to thoughts, sensations and emotions as they arise within the body. In his latest book Alan Fogel, PhD, explains how to understand and support healing and well-being even more and in a deeper level.

In Alan Fogel’s own words: 

This book contains lots of everyday examples and easy-to-understand reviews of research on Embodied Self-Awareness. More importantly, this book explains a new model of Embodied Self-Awareness that has evolved out of my personal observations and clinical practice. This model contains three states of Embodied Self-Awareness: Dysregulated, Modulated, and Restorative. 

While many embodied practices and approaches aim toward supporting the transition from Dysregulated to Modulated states, relatively few include the possibility of Restoration, a deep and lasting sense of peace, oneness, and relaxation that is fundamentally healing. 

Wellness is more than the ability to modulate one’s inner state by regulating or thinking about emotions and sensations. 

By shifting from dysregulated or modulated states to restorative states — from doing to allowing, from activation to receptivity, and from thinking to felt experience — we can access the expansive power of the restorative state to heal the body, mind and spirit.