Summary
In this episode, Kimberly and Livia discuss Livia’s latest book “The Somatic Therapy Workbook” and how it came to be during a difficult marital separation. Livia shares how writing her book was an anchor in the midst of relationship chaos, all while mothering and how to co-regulate with children at developmentally appropriate ages. Livia walks us through her ultimate decision to separate from her ex-partner as healthy self-preservation, as well as the difficulties of doing so within a family unit.
Bio
Livia Shapiro is a mother, long time yoga practitioner and teacher, somatic psychotherapist and author. Livia writes on the intersection of yoga, somatics, and psychology. She is the author of “The Somatic Therapy Workbook: stress-relieving exercises for strengthening the mind-body connection and sparking emotional and physical healing.” Her article “Yoga-Based Body Psychotherapy” is published in the International Journal of Body Psychotherapy and is a tool for weaving yoga and psychotherapy into a seamless psychotherapeutic model. As a Somatic Psychotherapist Livia works holistically, helping women reorient and repair their nervous systems to live more vibrantly and powerfully.
What They Share
— Betrayal and infidelity in a marriage while mothering
— How to co-regulate with children verbally and physically during crises
— Separating and single parenting/co-parenting
— Living with actual reality vs. desired reality
— Preserving Oneself as ultimate act of Mothering
What You’ll Hear
— Livia shares writing “The Somatic Therapy Workbook” during a life crisis
— Dealing with difficult pregnancy physically and emotionally
— Experiencing miscarriage as grace
— Livia’s “Fully incarnate” soul into body as a woman, therapist, mother, human
— Blighted ovum miscarriage
— Break-up of relationship with ex-partner and daughter’s father
— Family secrets and developmentally appropriate honesty with children
— Boundaries, privacy, and protection with children
— Betrayal and shock during marital crisis and mothering
— Repairing after marital arguments in front of children
— Spousal separation while parenting
— Giving children language during difficult times
— Single parenting
— Co-regulation as acknowledging difficult emotions for children
— Confirming realities instead of hiding for children
— Lack of confirmation leading to cultism, narcissism, binary thinking
— Growing up without honest conversations between parents and children
— Teaching verbal and bodily ways to shake out a tense situation
— Sharing space both individually and together with children
— Needing individual and emotional space from children
— Healing, repairing, and recalibrating from infidelity
— Infidelity as a power struggle
— Self-preservation within a family dynamic
— Discovery trauma occurs when told of betrayal
— Grieving future sibling loss with same parents as a result of separation
— Difficulty accepting potentially new parents in child’s life after separation
— Family in-tact doesn’t necessitate individual being in-tact
— Kimberly’s desire for marriage and leaving relationship with child’s father and Brazil
— Being first person in lineage to divorce
— Evaluating relationship difficulty vs. needing to leave traumatic situation
— Leaving unhealthy environments as necessity and self-preservation
— Accepting what is true and not what wished was true
— Claiming self as mother, wife (ex-wife), author
— Need for Applied Psychology for all body-workers and somatic professionals
— Yoga teachers as somatic practitioners
— “The Somatic Therapy Workbook” for all practitioners (yoga, birth, therapists)
— “The Somatic Therapy Workbook” complimenting and pairing with “Call of the Wild”
Resources
Website: http://ecstaticunfoldment.com/
IG: @liviashapiro
Email: lgsyoga@gmail.com
