As a child I used to wish I didn’t have a body. It was inconvenient as that is where I felt things, and feelings were hard. Growing up I stopped noticing it. I could notice everyone else. Their moods, their needs, whether they were comfortable, uncomfortable, irritated, tired. I could read what mood my mother was in before she uttered a word. As I grew up that turned into being able to read a room within seconds. Useful skill in community work, terrible skill if it comes at the expense of...

So many clients can tell the story beautifully. They can explain what had happened, why it had affected them, how it connected to earlier experiences. They understand the patterns. They have insight coming out of their ears, frankly. If healing were based entirely on being articulate, many people would have been finished years earlier. Meanwhile, their bodies are still clenching every time I ask about certain topics. There is a particular exhaustion that comes from understanding yourself...

Is this you or something like you? The phone is in your hand before your eyes have properly opened. There is a tightness across your chest that you barely register because it has been there so long it feels like weather — just the climate you live in. You move fast from the moment you get up. Coffee, kids, inbox, commute, meetings, lunch at the desk, more meetings, dinner, couch, screen, bed. By the time you stop, you are so wired and so depleted at the same time that sleep does not do what...