De-Armouring the Self
7 Tuesday evenings
6.30-10 pm Zurich,
620 CHF
max. 6 participants
Host: Michèle
Throughout the different phases of our childhood we reacted differently to a hostile environment, any unmet needs, unattunement of our primary caretakers and trauma. Those reactions did form a character structure, body posture and belief system that is still installed until today and makes up the basic understanding of how we experience our life, be in contact with our surrounding and live our relationships.
Next Journey: Nov/Dec ’24
5. Nov, 12. Nov, 19. Nov, 26. Nov, 3. Dec, 10. Dec, 17. Dec
Registrationform English – Anmeldeformular Deutsch
This 7 evenings serie aims to meet the 5 different body armours (a system developed by Wilhelm Reich) that we all put on throughout our childhood. Some of those 5 are individually more present in us than others. But we all have some aspects of any of those body armours installed in our system. We get more aware of the different structures, how those may appear in us personally and how they still influence our relationships and encounter styles until today.
We sense into the unmet needs that might be underneath those armours. In a group setting we create safety and invite aliveness to those embodied armour structures, inviting them to maybe slowly open up.
De-armouring is a process of meeting and feeling through some layers of unfelt emotions in a setting of lovingly being present with each other.
Through this INTO THE DARK journey you might:
… reclaim a deeper sense of embodied self
… embody some boundaries and desires, you haven’t felt or owned before
… be more palpable and reachable for your environment, friends and loved ones
… get better access to your life force, joy and intuition
… get a better understanding of other peoples character structures
… enjoy life and pleasure on a deeper level.
will be your host!
1st Evening – Overview
– Overview of types
– The basics of body de-armouring
– Reclaiming your Needs & your Healing
2nd Evening – ‘Absent’
armouring period: conception, birth and first six months
From No Grounding … the feeling of not being wanted or not being welcomed and included into our family, community and into this world or existence… disconnection from our body and living in our minds or somewhere ‘away’ …
To Being / Existing … feeling welcome and part of the world … feeling safe and here… strengthen our boundaries … healing the rejection we have towards existing … living safely.
3rd Evening – ‘Needy’
armouring period: from birth till the age of about 2.5
From No Basic Autonomy … the feeling that our basic emotional and physical needs* will not be met … constant inner search for closeness, contact and the desire of merging … abandoned and greedy … (*food, touch, clothing, presence, love, mother-attunement)
To Being Nurtured / Fulfilled … feeling enough and loved … owning and verbalising our needs … healing our co-dependancy and addiction … standing on our own feed.
4th Evening – ‘Endurer’
armouring period: around the age of about 1.5 to 3 years
From No Unique Identity … the feeling of having given up to actually expressing our unique character and fighting for our freedom of expression … constant inner feeling or fear of being intruded, controlled, squashed or humiliated … rejecting our own nature and humanity … having lost self determination and self direction while putting on thick walls and a falsely happy, good, compliant, docile and pleasing image towards the outside world … self-depreciating, self-defeating, self torturing or self humiliating … lack of energy, helpless immobility and passive-aggressive relationship to the outside via inaction, being late, forgetting, not answering … non-trust … resisting change … receiving negative pleasure from our own stuckness …
To Feeling & Expressing The Self … freely living the expression of our unique character … taking a lot of space, time and self permission to safely express all our feelings … owning the need and boundaries for a safe, non judgemental and non intrusive environment … healing our experiences of humiliation and constantly losing our fight … being free, being me … standing as equals.
5th Evening – ‘Aggressor’
armouring period: around 2.5 to 4 years
From No Safe Support / Encouragement … the feeling or fear of being judged, belittled or too much … a constantly felt inner or outer expectation to live up to an idealised, grandiose or perfect version in all aspects and dimensions of life … we learned how to ‘puff up’ ourselves with the values that were demanded in childhood, by being beautiful, sexy, attractive, or sportive, handcrafted, intelligent, intellectual … false self … chaotic internal distress from lack of self acceptance and no safe relating towards a stable primary caretaker who brought in the idealised expectations from a place of low self esteem, self doubt … we learned about the power of becoming manipulative, controlling and liberal with lying and the truth … primarily working to empower ourselves against others to feel safe … performing … fluid, chameleon personality that moves with environment and events to create own safety through advantage … constant shift between inner sense of power and grandiosity to inferiority and worthlessness … giving up own values and authenticity to survive … becomes selfish and entitled … trusting no one … killing own painful feelings to cope with underlying lack of self esteem …
To Trusting Others … surrendering to a no-contest relationship to others … owning our boundary towards others of: ‘I will not become the idealised perfect version of what you can not accomplish within yourself’ … healing the felt wounding of betrayal … embracing and celebrating the perfection of being an imperfect human … living leadership and shared power.
6th Evening – ‘Rigid’
armouring period: around 3.5 to 5 years
From Rejection of Authentic Sexuality and Heart … the feeling that our natural, instinctual and innocent impulses of gravitating towards others will be dismissed, used, punished, manipulated, shamed or treated with break of contact … we learned to control the unsafe open heart sexuality feelings and impulses, disown them and disclose them into our unconscious … compensating by pleasing our primary caretakers who rejected our authentic approach … pleasing through total self-control and obsessional perfection, to achieving whatever will win us praise, love and positive attention … or compensating attention through overdramatisation and hysterical expression of feelings in order to prevent us from feeling the true underlying feelings … presenting harmony, order, perfection, grace, athleticism, attractiveness, symmetry, appropriate actions … pride and deep non revealed identity of being superior to others … inner stuggle with ourselves and non revealed constant competition towards others … creating competitions between our lovers and loved ones and our inner relationship to our childhood primary caretakers …
To Living Our Love & Sexuality Freely … feeling our innocent desires and impulses of coming from our open hearts connected to our sexuality … feeling the difference of our love and sexuality towards somebody else’s love and sexuality … owning our boundary towards others shaming and misuse of the tender expression of love and sexual impulses … healing the wounding of sexual denial and refusal of heart connection … learning that living our authentic self and authentic feelings in imperfectly perfect … living real aliveness.
7th Evening – ‘The Deep Self’
Integrating the whole embodied research journey into everyday life …
How do I get to know myself? Get more aware of myself, my patterns, my underlying impulses?
How do I take care of creatively living my healing? What do I actually need, instead of what my unconscious impulses are trying to achieve form complying with any past wounding.
How do I experience my life? When I feel …
… Safe, Fulfilled, Expressed, Supported and Alive …
