The Sober Body: Addiction, Longing & Embodied Recovery

SYNOPSIS:What if addiction is not only something to overcome, but an attempt to meet needs we have lost touch with?In this rich and deeply embodied conversation, Ali speaks with somatic healing practitioner, integrative counselor and author Nina Pick about the life force beneath addiction, and what becomes possible when recovery includes not only the mind, but the body.Nina expands the conversation about trauma and addiction beyond obvious traumatic events to include early attachment wounds, ancestral and intergenerational trauma, prenatal experience, and the subtle ways our earliest environments shape our sense of safety, belonging and connection.Together, Ali and Nina explore addiction as an adaptation: an attempt to make the unbearable bearable, create connection, protect sensitivity, or meet needs for safety, soothing and belonging. Rather than shaming the wanting beneath addiction, they ask what our cravings may be trying to tell us about our deeper longings.Their conversation moves into the particular sensitivity often found beneath addiction, the difference between craving and genuine desire, and the challenge of learning to want without shame.And then, sober sex.Nina and Ali explore why sexuality can become one of the most vulnerable territories of recovery, particularly when substances have previously made it possible to bypass sensation, boundaries, communication or fear. What might sex become when we begin again from “square one,” learning to listen to the body’s yes, no and maybe, develop interoception, communicate what we want, and discover pleasure without having to leave ourselves to experience it?They also explore the difference between craving and pleasure, the heart-sexuality split, the relationship between presence and safety, and the possibility that recovery is not about becoming less alive, but becoming capable of inhabiting more of our aliveness.Nina Pick is a somatic healing practitioner and integrative counselor and the author of Sober Secure: An Attachment-Based Guide to Dating, Sex, and Love in Recovery.In this episode:• Addiction as adaptation rather than simply pathology• The life force and integrity beneath addictive behavior• Attachment wounds, ancestral trauma and intergenerational patterns• Why sensitivity can be both a vulnerability and a gift• What addictive substances may reveal about unmet needs• The difference between craving, longing, wanting and pleasure• Reclaiming desire without shame• Why sober sex can feel like starting from square one• Sexuality as a meeting place for attachment wounds• Listening to the body’s yes, no and maybe• Interoception, proprioception and embodied sexuality• Safety, presence, pleasure and the capacity for aliveness• Finding life-giving ways to meet the needs addiction once tried to meetTHE BRILLIANT BODY PODCAST:To subscribe now, click hereTo be an angel to the podcast, click here To read more about the podcast, click here MORE ALI MEZEY:Website: https://www.alimezey.comPersonal Geometry® and the Magic of Mat Work Course information:FREE Guided Body Mapping Taster: Heart/Sexuality SplitFive-films series (made by Ali Mezey) on renowned Family Constellation Facilitator, Stephan Hausner’s work with transgenerational influences on illnessPersonal Geometry®Ali Mezey’s body-first method for accessing and externalizing the unconscious body maps through which we experience relationships, patterns, addictions and other aspects of our lives. Using spatial relationships such as distance, direction and orientation, Personal Geometry makes these internal relational maps visible and available for exploration. Learn about Personal Geometry®FOR MORE NINA PICK:ninapick.comAuthor, The Mind-Body Guide to the Twelve StepsNew book coming soon! Sober Secure now available for purchaseSober SecureSober Secure: An Attachment-Based Guide to Dating, Sex, and Love in Recovery by Nina Pick explores recovery through the lens of attachment, relationships, embodiment, sexuality, nervous-system regulation and pleasure. Nina describes the book as intended for people in recovery, their partners and clinicians working in addiction treatment. Facilitator's Guide to Sober Secure Meetings free downloadLandscape of Trauma AssessmentDEFINITIONS, RESOURCES & INSPIRATION:EpigeneticsThe study of processes that affect how genes are switched on and off without changing the underlying DNA sequence. Environmental exposures and experiences can influence epigenetic processes, and some epigenetic changes can be inherited, although claims about the transgenerational inheritance of specific human traumatic experiences require care. InteroceptionThe processes through which we sense, interpret and integrate signals arising from within ourselves, such as heartbeat, breathing, hunger, temperature and visceral sensation. It contributes to our felt sense of our internal physiological state. NeuroceptionA term developed by Stephen Porges within Polyvagal Theory to describe the proposed nervous-system process through which cues of safety, danger and life threat are detected without requiring conscious awareness. I would preserve the word “proposed” here because neuroception is a theoretical construct, rather than presenting it as an established discrete sensory system.ProprioceptionOur sense of the position and movement of our bodies in space. Sensory information from muscles, joints and related systems contributes to our awareness of where our body parts are and how they are moving, as well as posture and balance. Family Constellation WorkA systemic, experiential approach associated with Bert Hellinger that explores relationships and patterns within family systems, often through spatial representations of family members or other elements. Personal Geometry has roots in Constellation Work while developing its own distinct body-first, spatial approach. Family Constellatio...