Even though we have been so influenced by the left hemisphere's ascendency, we also have an inherent capacity to be rooted in the relational right because we are, after all, first, last, and always beings whose embodied brains hunger for connection with others, literally shaping one another's ongoing experience in every moment.

We may find that the words we are naturally drawn toward when we speak to others or ourselves have a great deal to say about our ability to be present with one another.

It sometimes surprises me that people don't find questions addressed to their bodies silly, especially in therapy, but they rarely do

Only if we are able to widen the lens to take in the bigger picture that includes both the outer challenges and the inner distress do we begin to sense that the protectors are in proportion to what is in need of shelter. It is our system's sense that moving the safeguard aside and allowing the implicit to emerge would be more harmful than whatever the protector is doing in this moment.

I have found that much that happens in supervision/consultation focuses on what needs to happen next. There can be a sense of the person under consideration becoming a static object to be analyzed, and then advice may be offered about how that person could/should be shaped in a certain (presumably healthier) way.

let's ask our systems how they might let us know when we are taking that step into left-hemisphere dominance ...Often, the respectful gesture of simply pausing to pose this curiosity is enough. Our systems will respond as and when they can.

When patients tell me of the mild anxiety that comes with them to each session, I no longer think of it as a problem, but instead as an indication of their aliveness at the brink of the unknown.

as always, relationship is everything, and the capacities of the left are essential for the expression of the right's vision. If we can find ways to support leading with the perspective of the right hemisphere, the left's capacities can then offer essential assistance from its storehouse of prior learning.

More important than the words or silence is my inner stance of making room for what is stirring within him, becoming alertly still enough inside that his inner world senses safety, the precursor to him opening into vulnerability.