Somatic Tao

Directions Website

Somatic Tao Home of BEN — Babyhood Emotional Neglect. Exploring how babyhood shapes our lifelong capacity for emotion, health and aliveness.

SOMATIC TAO is the home of BEN – Babyhood Emotional Neglect – and a developing therapeutic framework for understanding how insufficient emotional attunement and co-regulation during babyhood can shape the developing nervous system and affect emotional, psychological and physical health throughout life.
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At the centre of Somatic Tao is the proposition that emotional neglect is not simply the absence of good parenting. During babyhood, when the nervous system depends upon caregiver co-regulation, insufficient emotional attunement can result in internally mobilising emotion becoming organised as threat within the developing nervous system.
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Somatic Tao explores how this early adaptation may influence our later capacity to remain embodied with emotion, regulate autonomic state, experience aliveness, maintain relationships and respond flexibly to the demands of life.
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Central to the framework are:

• BEN – Babyhood Emotional Neglect: the developmental problem
• Emotology: understanding emotion as embodied energy and information
• Emoturity: the nervous system's capacity to remain embodied with emotion while maintaining coherence, flexibility and flow
• BEA – Babyhood Emotional Attunement: the relational conditions through which emotional capacity can develop
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Somatic Tao integrates contemporary understanding of developmental trauma, attachment, affective neuroscience and nervous-system regulation with the embodied understanding of emotion and health found within classical Taoist medicine.
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The framework is informed by, amongst others, the work of John Bowlby, Peter Levine and Stephen Porges, alongside emerging research into early development, emotional neglect, trauma and nervous-system organisation.
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This page exists primarily to EDUCATE, EXPLORE and DEVELOP understanding of BEN and its potential lifelong consequences, and to provide information about the developing Somatic Tao framework for adults seeking to understand the impact of their earliest emotional environment.
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Somatic Tao content is provided for educational and informational purposes. It is not intended to provide individual medical, psychological or therapeutic advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor should it replace appropriate professional healthcare. PLEASE NOTE: Somatic Tao does NOT use Messenger. Please contact: [email protected]

01/11/2026

SOOTHING SUNDAY – Shhh! Don’t Disturb …

Shhh!
Don’t disturb
The elves
Or
The fairies.










31/10/2026

HALLOWEEN FREEZE

See the opossum?

The opossum is a master of thanatosis – commonly known as playing dead. This remarkable survival response is one of several forms of defensive immobility found across species – insects, fish, reptiles, birds, mammals… and yes, humans too.

When faced with overwhelming or inescapable threat, the nervous system can organise defensive responses involving freezing, immobilisation or shutdown. In profound shutdown, heart rate and breathing may slow, bodily sensation diminish, and energy output reduce. We can feel frozen, detached, numb, or unable to move or speak.

Polyvagal Theory associates profound shutdown with dorsal vagal pathways, although the physiology is more complex than any single pathway.

But what if the threat isn't external – what if it's internal?

In early life, the raw intensity of internally mobilising emotion can itself become overwhelming. Without sufficient caregiver attunement and co-regulation, the developing nervous system may organise protective responses to emotion it cannot yet tolerate or process. This is central to Somatic Tao's understanding of BEN – Babyhood Emotional Neglect.

When danger is experienced as arising inside us, fight or flight may offer no resolution. Immobilisation, disconnection and shutdown can become protective adaptations.

While these responses help us survive, they may also contribute to feeling lifeless or “dead” inside – patterns of exhaustion, disconnection or what is sometimes called functional freeze. We may function normally on the surface, yet feel profoundly disconnected from our own aliveness.

From a Somatic Tao perspective, when these adaptations become organised around emotion as a source of internal threat, they can shape how alive – or disconnected – we feel later in life.

As today is Halloween 🎃👻 (and Samhain 🕯️), why not honour the Baby self in your nervous system who froze to help you survive? Why not acknowledge how they strived to enable you to have a life?

Video credit: Chris And Jasmine

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 BEN’s FEAR OF ALIVENESS
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BSt6kBwp8/

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BR3rEVGsE/

📌 BEN CHANGES WIRING OF THE BRAIN:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1A2TFYgTt6/

📌 BEN’S PROPENSITY FOR SYNDROMES
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19fbXzymQs/

📌 RESTORING BEN's SENSE OF ALIVENESS
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CL38fta88/

📌 BEN’s ROAD TO RECOVERY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1GkpiT3MUZ/

📌 EMOTURITY – NERVOUS SYSTEM EMOTIONAL MATURITY:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17xwXG7Fip/

📌 THE ISSUE IS NOT EMOTION ITSELF
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DC6LBRo7F/

📌 EMOTURITY – BUILDING OUR NERVOUS SYSTEM’S CAPACITY FOR EMOTION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1U8Ybm2bbj/

📌 EMOTURITY IS NOT ABOUT CONTROLLING EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TMsNEFS5C/

📌 EMOTURITY AFFECTS LIFE & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1McyMfCAL9/

📌 EMOTURITY UNDERPINS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
https://www.facebook.com/share /p/18nRQiS8SL/

RESEARCH

[1] The Polyvagal Institute. What is the Polyvagal Theory? [2026 10 16] https://www.polyvagalinstitute.org/whatispolyvagaltheory






















SHAME – HOW INHIBITION SELF-PERPETUATESWhy might shame-related inhibition persist long after the circumstances that orig...
28/10/2026

SHAME – HOW INHIBITION SELF-PERPETUATES

Why might shame-related inhibition persist long after the circumstances that originally gave rise to it have changed? Why might we continue to experience shame, even when we consciously understand that we have done nothing wrong?
Somatic Tao proposes that the answer may lie in a self-perpetuating relationship between inhibition and emoturity.

When the mobilisation of emotion energy exceeds emoturity, the nervous system may organise through containment, immobilisation or disconnection. This inhibition is initially protective. But what happens when inhibition becomes the nervous system's habitual response to its own internally mobilising emotion energy?

As explored in the previous post, this protective organisation may reflect Yang phobia – where the internal mobilisation of emotion energy has become predicted as threatening. Inhibition may protect against the intensity of that mobilisation, but it may also restrict emotology – the embodied flow, processing and expression of emotion energy.

This creates a potential self-perpetuating cycle:

Reduced emoturity increases vulnerability to inhibition.
↓
Persistent inhibition restricts emotology – particularly the embodied flow, processing and expression of internally mobilising emotion energy.
↓
Restricted emotology reduces opportunities to develop emoturity.
↓
Continued reliance on inhibition – the cycle repeats ↺

Importantly, inhibition does not necessarily stop the mobilisation of emotion energy. Emotion may still arise internally, even when its outward expression is suppressed or its embodied experience becomes difficult to tolerate. Repeated inhibition may also reinforce the nervous system's prediction that internally mobilising emotion energy is threatening, sustaining Yang phobia. What began as a protective adaptation may therefore become a persistent physiological organisation, long after the original circumstances have changed. This may explain why changing conscious beliefs about ourselves is not always sufficient to resolve persistent shame. We may understand that we are safe, worthy or accepted, yet our nervous system may continue to organise around the need for protection.

From a Somatic Tao perspective, recovery involves more than changing what we think about ourselves. The nervous system may need repeated experiences of safely remaining embodied with the very emotions it has organised to inhibit. The aim is not to force expression or overwhelm protective responses, but to build emoturity. And with greater emoturity, fluidity of emotology becomes increasingly possible.

It is not the emotion that is the problem. It is the nervous system's capacity to remain embodied with its mobilisation.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 SOMATIC TAO’S FORMULATION OF SHAME
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C8MXv3p6E/

📌 SHAME - PROTECTING AGAINST WHAT?
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cf1vvBabo/

📌 SHAME & EMOTURITY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DpsobpbCy/

📌 SHAME IS WIDELY MISUNDERSTOOD
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AzKaUpf4A/

📌 THE TAO OF SHAME: INHIBITION OF SELF
https://facebook.com/share/p/1LwiDFr7M6/

📌 EMOTION COMES BEFORE FEELING
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Eb6tHyBZm/

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 EMOTOLOGY RELIES ON INTEROCEPTION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CnetSUCjo/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 EMOTION SHAPES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM BEFORE COGNITION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EgmQbyarn/

📌 EMOTURITY: THE CAPACITY TO REMAIN EMBODIED WITH EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14qHm5xQenr/

📌 EMOTURITY AFFECTS LIFE & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1McyMfCAL9/

📌 THE ISSUE IS NOT EMOTION ITSELF
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DC6LBRo7F/

📌 EMOTURITY IS NOT ABOUT CONTROLLING EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TMsNEFS5C/












SHAME & EMOTURITYWhy might one person experience shame briefly and recover, while another remains trapped in shame for y...
26/10/2026

SHAME & EMOTURITY

Why might one person experience shame briefly and recover, while another remains trapped in shame for years? Somatic Tao proposes that an important difference lies in emoturity.

Emoturity is a developmental property of the nervous system: its capacity to remain embodied, coherent and flexible with internally mobilising emotion energy. It is not simply understanding what we feel, but having the nervous system capacity to remain with the embodied experience of emotion. Where emoturity is sufficient, mobilising emotion energy may be experienced without persistent inhibition. Where emoturity is reduced, inhibition may become increasingly necessary as protective response.

But how does emoturity develop?

From the beginning of life, babies depend upon caregivers to help regulate states they cannot yet manage independently. Through BEA, Babyhood Emotional Attunement, repeated co-regulation supports the developing nervous system's capacity to remain embodied with emotion energy and restore coherence when mobilisation becomes intense. When sufficient BEA is absent, BEN, Babyhood Emotional Neglect, may expose the developing nervous system to mobilisation of emotion energy beyond its capacity to process.

Emotion is energy in motion and, from a Taoist perspective, movement is Yang. Every emotion therefore has a Yang aspect. Where mobilisation of emotion energy repeatedly exceeds emoturity, the nervous system may increasingly organise around that mobilisation as an internal threat. Protective inhibition may become persistent, containing emotion energy the nervous system cannot safely accommodate. Somatic Tao refers to this inhibition as nervous system Yang phobia – a phobia of mobilisation itself, not of particular emotions. This inhibition may subsequently manifest as shame and associated behaviours.

The important distinction is not simply how much emotion energy is mobilised, but how much the nervous system can remain embodied with. Two people may encounter similar experiences yet respond differently. For one, shame may be temporary, with nervous system coherence and flexibility restored. For another, protective inhibition may persist, restricting emotional expression, connection and aliveness.

From a Somatic Tao perspective, recovery may involve more than challenging shame-related beliefs or conscious efforts to overcome shame. It may involve developing emoturity: the nervous system's capacity to remain embodied, coherent and flexible with the very emotion against which inhibition has become protective.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 SOMATIC TAO’S FORMULATION OF SHAME
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C8MXv3p6E/

📌 SHAME - PROTECTING AGAINST WHAT?
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cf1vvBabo/

📌 SHAME IS WIDELY MISUNDERSTOOD
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AzKaUpf4A/

📌 THE TAO OF SHAME: INHIBITION OF SELF
https://facebook.com/share/p/1LwiDFr7M6/

📌 EMOTION COMES BEFORE FEELING
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Eb6tHyBZm/

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 EMOTOLOGY RELIES ON INTEROCEPTION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CnetSUCjo/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 EMOTION SHAPES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM BEFORE COGNITION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EgmQbyarn/

📌 EMOTURITY: THE CAPACITY TO REMAIN EMBODIED WITH EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14qHm5xQenr/

📌 EMOTURITY AFFECTS LIFE & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1McyMfCAL9/

📌 EMOTURITY UNDERPINS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
https://www.facebook.com/share /p/18nRQiS8SL/

📌 THE ISSUE IS NOT EMOTION ITSELF
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DC6LBRo7F/

📌 EMOTURITY IS NOT ABOUT CONTROLLING EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TMsNEFS5C/














25/10/2026

SOOTHING SUNDAY – Notice autumn’s…

A moment to settle the nervous system, and return to yourself.

Notice autumn’s
Painting
The colours
The patterns
The detail
And the beauty.










SHAME – A BODY-BASED PHENOMENON“Every shame-based identification is held in the body as tension and collapse, contributi...
23/10/2026

SHAME – A BODY-BASED PHENOMENON

“Every shame-based identification is held in the body as tension and collapse, contributing to both emotional and autonomic dysregulation.”

– Laurence Heller & Stephen Niederwieser, Healing Shame and Guilt, p. 11.

Shame is not simply something we think or believe about ourselves. It can become deeply embodied, influencing our posture, breathing, nervous system regulation and relationship with ourselves.

Heller and Niederwieser describe chronic shame as a survival strategy rather than an emotion. Their work highlights how shame-based identifications can become associated with bodily tension, collapse and autonomic dysregulation.

But what is the nervous system protecting against?

Somatic Tao proposes that the answer may lie in our relationship with internally mobilising emotion energy.

Criticism, rejection or disconnection can mobilise anger, fear or grief. When this mobilisation exceeds emoturity – our nervous system's capacity to remain embodied, coherent and flexible in the presence of internally mobilising emotion energy – protective inhibition may arise. The nervous system may organise through containment, immobilisation or disconnection. Initially protective, these responses may become persistent and contribute to chronic shame.

In Taoist terms, Somatic Tao refers to such patterns of inhibition as Yang phobia – a protective relationship to Yang, or mobilisation itself. And, since emotion is energy in motion, Yang phobia describes protection against the internal mobilisation of all emotions. This may explain why the movement and intensity of even Taoist contracting emotions such as sadness/grief and fear/terror can still be predicted as internal threat and thus contribute to chronic shame.

The external event may trigger the response, but the internally mobilising emotion energy may become what the nervous system is protecting against.

Perhaps the question is not simply why we feel ashamed, but what our nervous system is protecting us against.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 SOMATIC TAO’S FORMULATION OF SHAME
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C8MXv3p6E/

📌 SHAME - PROTECTING AGAINST WHAT?
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cf1vvBabo/

📌 SHAME IS WIDELY MISUNDERSTOOD
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AzKaUpf4A/

📌 THE TAO OF SHAME: INHIBITION OF SELF
https://facebook.com/share/p/1LwiDFr7M6/

📌 EMOTION COMES BEFORE FEELING
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Eb6tHyBZm/

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 EMOTOLOGY RELIES ON INTEROCEPTION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CnetSUCjo/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 EMOTION SHAPES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM BEFORE COGNITION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EgmQbyarn/

📌 EMOTURITY: THE CAPACITY TO REMAIN EMBODIED WITH EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14qHm5xQenr/

📌 EMOTURITY AFFECTS LIFE & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1McyMfCAL9/

📌 EMOTURITY UNDERPINS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
https://www.facebook.com/share /p/18nRQiS8SL/

📌 THE ISSUE IS NOT EMOTION ITSELF
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DC6LBRo7F/

📌 EMOTURITY IS NOT ABOUT CONTROLLING EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TMsNEFS5C/







SHAME - PROTECTING AGAINST WHAT?Shame is commonly associated with judgement, humiliation, rejection and the fear of bein...
21/10/2026

SHAME - PROTECTING AGAINST WHAT?

Shame is commonly associated with judgement, humiliation, rejection and the fear of being seen negatively by others. But what if the threat isn't necessarily another person or what they think of us? What if the nervous system is protecting us against the intensity of our own internally mobilising emotion?

Consider what happens when we experience criticism, rejection or disconnection. Such experiences can mobilise powerful emotions within – anger, fear, grief, or even disgust. But what happens when the intensity of that internally mobilising emotion energy exceeds the nervous system's emoturity – its capacity to remain embodied, coherent and flexible in the presence of emotion?

Somatic Tao proposes that shame-related inhibition may serve to protect the nervous system from mobilisation of emotion energy that exceeds its capacity. The resulting inhibition may then affect our expression, movement, assertiveness, spontaneity or willingness to engage with others.

From this perspective, the nervous system may not simply be protecting against what we perceive another person to think about us or say or do to us. It may also be protecting against the internally mobilising emotion associated with that experience. The external situation may trigger mobilisation of emotion energy, but that internal mobilisation may itself become a source of threat. This does not mean that rejection, humiliation or judgement are unimportant. Rather, Somatic Tao draws attention to the possibility that the nervous system’s protective response may also organise around the internal threat posed by the emotion energy mobilised by these experiences.

Whilst other therapeutic approaches recognise related forms of internal threat and protective adaptation, Somatic Tao makes protection against internally mobilising emotion energy central to its proposed physiological explanation of shame.

The question, then, is not simply what are we ashamed of? It is also what might our nervous system be protecting us from experiencing within ourselves?

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 SOMATIC TAO’S FORMULATION OF SHAME
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C8MXv3p6E/

📌 SHAME IS WIDELY MISUNDERSTOOD
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AzKaUpf4A/

📌 THE TAO OF SHAME: INHIBITION OF SELF
https://facebook.com/share/p/1LwiDFr7M6/

📌 EMOTION COMES BEFORE FEELING
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Eb6tHyBZm/

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 EMOTOLOGY RELIES ON INTEROCEPTION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CnetSUCjo/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 EMOTION SHAPES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM BEFORE COGNITION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EgmQbyarn/

📌 EMOTURITY: THE CAPACITY TO REMAIN EMBODIED WITH EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14qHm5xQenr/

📌 EMOTURITY AFFECTS LIFE & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1McyMfCAL9/

📌 EMOTURITY UNDERPINS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
https://www.facebook.com/share /p/18nRQiS8SL/

📌 THE ISSUE IS NOT EMOTION ITSELF
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DC6LBRo7F/

📌 EMOTURITY IS NOT ABOUT CONTROLLING EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TMsNEFS5C/

📌 EMOTURITY BEGINS WITH AN OTHER
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B1zfh2kyJ/












SOMATIC TAO'S FORMULATION OF SHAMEShame can profoundly affect our bodies, behaviour, relationships, health and wellbeing...
19/10/2026

SOMATIC TAO'S FORMULATION OF SHAME

Shame can profoundly affect our bodies, behaviour, relationships, health and wellbeing. Across psychological and somatic therapeutic approaches, shame is recognised as having important dimensions that are:

• Bodily [1–5]
• Developmental [1, 3–4, 6–7]
• Protective [2–3, 6–9]
• Inhibitory [1, 3, 5–8]
• Concealed by other behaviours [7, 9]

Somatic Tao's formulation is consistent with much of this existing understanding. However, it proposes an additional physiological explanation of shame, centred on the nervous system's relationship with internally mobilising emotion energy.

What if shame-related inhibition is not fundamentally protecting us against other people's judgement, humiliation or rejection, but against the emotion these experiences mobilise within us – emotion that the nervous system has insufficient capacity to remain embodied with?

Somatic Tao proposes four interconnected ideas:

1. WHAT IS THE NERVOUS SYSTEM PROTECTING AGAINST?

Shame-related inhibition may protect against internally mobilising emotion that the nervous system cannot sufficiently remain embodied with.

2. EMOTURITY: THE CAPACITY TO REMAIN EMBODIED WITH EMOTION

The nervous system's developmental capacity to remain embodied, coherent and flexible with emotion may influence how shame-related inhibition is experienced and expressed.

3. HOW INHIBITION MAY BECOME SELF-PERPETUATING

Persistent inhibition may restrict emotology – the embodied processes of emoting – limiting opportunities to develop or restore emoturity and potentially reinforcing the need for inhibition.

4. BEN: THE EARLIEST FOUNDATIONS OF SHAME-RELATED INHIBITION

Insufficient co-regulation during babyhood may contribute to the nervous system organising around internally mobilising emotion as a source of threat, potentially establishing foundations for later inhibition.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

Persistent shame may involve more than negative beliefs about ourselves or fear of other people's judgement. It may also reflect a nervous system organised to inhibit its own emotional mobilisation. It is not necessarily the emotion that is the problem. It may be the nervous system's capacity to remain embodied with that emotion.

This is a Somatic Tao hypothesis, not an established physiological classification of shame.

The next four posts will examine these proposed mechanisms, followed by explorations of healthy shame, toxic shame and shamelessness.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 SHAME IS WIDELY MISUNDERSTOOD
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AzKaUpf4A/

📌 THE TAO OF SHAME: INHIBITION OF SELF
https://facebook.com/share/p/1LwiDFr7M6/

📌 EMOTION COMES BEFORE FEELING
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Eb6tHyBZm/

📌 THE EMERGENCE OF EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EXA9WHfDU/

📌 EMOTOLOGY RELIES ON INTEROCEPTION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CnetSUCjo/

📌 BEHAVIOUR IS EMOTOLOGY
https://www.facebook.com/share/1P39SDPgjp/

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 EMOTION SHAPES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM BEFORE COGNITION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EgmQbyarn/

📌 EMOTURITY: THE CAPACITY TO REMAIN EMBODIED WITH EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14qHm5xQenr/

📌 EMOTURITY AFFECTS LIFE & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1McyMfCAL9/

📌 EMOTURITY UNDERPINS EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
https://www.facebook.com/share /p/18nRQiS8SL/

📌 THE ISSUE IS NOT EMOTION ITSELF
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DC6LBRo7F/

📌 EMOTURITY IS NOT ABOUT CONTROLLING EMOTION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1TMsNEFS5C/

📌 EMOTURITY BEGINS WITH AN OTHER
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B1zfh2kyJ/

RESEARCH:

[1] Shapes of Experience, Bodynamic International October 22 2017 https://www.bodynamic.com/blog/shapes-of-experience [2026 10 17]

[2] Levine, Peter A. In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness. 2010. North Atlantic Books. ISBN-13: 978-1556439438, ISBN-10: 1556439431.

[3] Ogden, P., Minton, K., Pain, C. Trauma and the Body: A Sensorimotor Approach to Psychotherapy. 2006. United Kingdom: W. W. Norton. ISBN: 9780393075854, 0393075850

[4] Hadar, B. The Body of Shame in the Circle of the Group. 2008. Group Analysis, 41(2), 163-179. https://doi.org/10.1177/0533316408089881

[5] Selvam, Raja. The Practice of Embodying Emotions: A Guide for Improving Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Outcomes. 2022. North Atlantic Books. ISBN-10: 1623174775, ISBN-13: 978-1623174774

[6] Heller, L., & Niederwieser, S. K. Healing shame and guilt: The developmental roots of chronic shame and guilt and how the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) can help you heal and reconnect. 2026. North Atlantic Books.

[7] Fisher, J. Healing the fragmented selves of trauma survivors: Overcoming internal self-alienation. 2017. Routledge. ISBN-10: 9780415708234 ISBN-13: 978-0415708234

[8] Lyon, B., & Rubin, S. Embracing shame: How to stop resisting shame and turn it into a powerful ally. 2023. Sounds True. ISBN-10: 1649630468 ISBN-13: 978-1649630469

[9] Etherson, Lisa. "Shame Containment Theory – A New Approach to Shame.” Attachment: New Directions in Psychotherapy and Relational Psychoanalysis, vol. 17, no. 2, Nov. 2023, pp. 114–130.https://firingthemind.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Article-Open-Access.pdf












18/10/2026

SOOTHING SUNDAY – Woodland Medicine ...

A moment to settle the nervous system, and return to yourself.

Wonderful Woodland Medicine
Razorstrop
Turkey Tails
Chicken of the Woods
Devil’s S***f Box
And Witch’s Butter










INFRASTRUCTURE IS LOVE AT SCALEIn her keynote presentation at the 2026 Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, Dr Nadine Burk...
17/10/2026

INFRASTRUCTURE IS LOVE AT SCALE

In her keynote presentation at the 2026 Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, Dr Nadine Burke Harris, paediatrician and former Surgeon General of California, delivered a powerful message:

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are not destiny.

Early adversity can alter the developing nervous system and increase vulnerability to later mental and physical health difficulties. But these outcomes are not inevitable. It’s what happens next that really matters.

Burke Harris emphasised the importance of early detection, effective intervention and rapid connection to supportive community networks. Her message extends beyond individual treatment. Resilience is not simply an individual trait. It is built through repeated experiences of safety and connection, supported by families, communities and systems that provide stability, predictability and care.

From a Somatic Tao perspective, this process begins in babyhood. BEA, Babyhood Emotional Attunement, provides the co-regulation through which the developing nervous system can build emoturity – the capacity to remain embodied, coherent and flexible in the presence of internally mobilising emotion. When sufficient BEA is absent, BEN, Babyhood Emotional Neglect, can compromise this development.

Supporting babies therefore means supporting their caregivers. And supporting caregivers requires communities and systems that enable them to provide consistent, attuned care. And that support needs to begin early. Prevention cannot begin only when difficulties become visible.

As Burke Harris reminds us, infrastructure is love at scale.

Source: Dr Nadine Burke Harris, keynote presentation, Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, 20 March 2026.

MORE INFORMATION:

📌 MEET BEN – BABYHOOD EMOTIONAL NEGLECT
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1UoSjqTnxJ/

📌 THE THREAT IN BEN
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BR3rEVGsE/

📌 EMOTION WIRES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BbHRZub7o/

📌 EMOTION SHAPES THE NERVOUS SYSTEM BEFORE COGNITION
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EgmQbyarn/

📌 HOW ABEs BECOME BEN
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BCc6C8gLT/

📌 BEN’S EFFECT ON BIOLOGY, BEHAVIOUR & HEALTH
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14VfivnG9Yz/

📌 EMOTURITY – NERVOUS SYSTEM EMOTIONAL MATURITY
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17xwXG7Fip/

📌 EMOTURITY BEGINS WITH AN OTHER
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B1zfh2kyJ/

📌 CO-REGULATION – IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT SOOTHING:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1GdDxodxJh/

📌 BEN's NEUROINFLAMMATION:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Foy23rEjq/

📌 BEN's RISK OF ADHD
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EAaz3vLjR/

📌 BEN's RISK OF AUTISM
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1C1dU9veUm/

📌 BEN's PROPENSITY FOR SYNDROMES
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19fbXzymQs/

📌 BEN’s RELATIONSHIP WITH THE DARK TRIAD:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AQqmsutyw/











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