One of my favorite tools as a therapist is the use of therapeutic maps (blame it on my Virgo rising!). Because the exploration of the unknown is rich and vast, there is something to be said for having a sense of where you are and where you wish to go. Those of us who rely on GPS to get around know how essential maps can be. In a society that offers many confusing (and frankly, harmful) messages about what it is to be human, having a map that helps us navigate our internal landscape is a vital resource.

The Sensitivity Cycle comes from Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy and was created by founder Ron Kurtz.* It was designed to deepen awareness around how we move through various experiences, from the mundane to the life-altering. Bringing this awareness allows us to experience more flow moving through life. Just like our GPS gives us the best route to a destination, the sensitivity cycle provides the path of least resistance. It enables us to know and respond to our longings, and enjoy ourselves along the way.

I’ll start with a simple example…

You wake up and you are thirsty. The moment you notice your thirst, this is INSIGHT. Your next move is to pour yourself a glass of water and drink it… this is RESPONSE. Ideally, you enjoy the quenching of your thirst. The water tastes so fresh and delicious, you feel your dry cells hydrating. At this point you are in SATISFACTION. After all of this, you hang out in the empty (yet, benign and restful) space of INTEGRATION until the next insight arises…

Clear enough? The map gets more intriguing when we begin to see the various ways our familial and cultural conditioning create barriers in various phases of the cycle.

Let’s return to the above example and add in a barrier…

You wake up and you are thirsty, but you think to yourself “It doesn’t matter, I need to respond to these emails.” An hour later, you still are thirsty, but dissociated from the need as you are more invested in responding to the needs of others via these emails. Perhaps this connects to an early childhood experience of your needs being invalid or less important than others. Since then you have masterfully learned to ignore your body’s signals and power through the work day. Because the cycle is being interrupted in the response phase, it is considered a response barrier.

OR…

You get the glass of water, but it lacks enjoyment. You would rather be drinking coffee or orange juice. Maybe this is a familiar experience, where nothing is ever quite right or enough. Maybe you learned as a little one that you will only get your needs met partially, or some of the time, but never fully or in a way you can rely upon. Now as an adult, you guard against disappointment by never fully receiving pleasure. This would be a nourishment barrier.

Yes, I realize we are only talking about drinking a glass of water. However, if we apply this micro-example to more significant situations we will find similar blockages that have greater impact on the flow of our lives and experiences.

If you have an insight barrier, it can be hard to hear yourself think; you live in a world of noisy confusion and hyper-intellectualization. If you have a response barrier, though you may have great ideas, you just can’t seem to execute them, leaving you caught in despair and low self-esteem. If you have a nourishment barrier, you might be good at getting things done, but the meaning is lost because you don’t experience satisfaction. This can lead to depression and despondency. If you have an integration barrier, you may find yourself exhausted and consistently running around attending to the next task without breaks. You might struggle with boundaries and your insight will feel forced as it does not have space to arise naturally.

We all have habituated barriers and they can change depending on the circumstance. Certain barriers will tend to be more prominent than others, yet no matter where we get stuck, the whole cycle gets hijacked. On the other hand, in the areas of life where we feel supported and competent, we move through the cycle with fluidity and grace. It’s also important to pay attention to this, and celebrate the places of ease.

As you are reading this, did any of the barriers stand out as places you get stuck? What part of the map do you need to pay more attention to? What ways do you block yourself from having insight or from responding to your needs? What keeps you from feeling nourished or letting yourself rest?

Also, notice when and where you are able to move through this cycle with relative ease. What are the circumstances that allow for this? How might you bring this ease to challenging areas of your life?

If you are interested in exploring this map in a way that is experiential and playful, please join me and my colleague Jenna Abernathy for our group this spring. We will use the sensitivity cycle in the upcoming workshop Being & Becoming: A Six-Week Series for Owning Your Sensitivity & Decolonizing Your Rhythms as our guide to deepen our ability to listen to ourselves and live more full and nourishing lives.

Read more and register for Being & Becoming here.

* It is important for me to note that though Hakomi was founded and created by Kurtz (a white, cis-male) in the 1970s, much of the framework (including the Sensitivity Cycle) is strikingly similar to various ancient and earth-based wisdoms. The Sensitivity Cycle itself cannot be traced back to anything specific that I know of, though there are many pre-colonial examples of circles broken up into quadrants where each piece relates to a different energy or wisdom (obvious examples include the four directions and the four seasons). I like to think that we are all channeling from our ancestral wisdom and I hold a wish that instead of only crediting ourselves we credit the many who came before us even if they cannot be named.