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Summary

The body remembers — even when the mind tries to move on.

Listener Note:

This episode explores embodiment, trauma, and pleasure. If anything here stirs emotion, sensation, or memory, you’re invited to take your time returning to your day. Pause, breathe, move gently, or step outside if that feels supportive. There’s no rush — and nothing you need to fix. Listening itself is enough.

In this episode of The Intimate Philosopher, we slow things down and turn toward the body as a living archive of memory, sensation, and truth. We explore why so many thoughtful, capable people feel disconnected from their bodies — and why being told to “just drop in” doesn’t always feel grounding or safe.

Drawing from trauma research, nervous system science, and my own work as a therapist, this conversation widens the frame around healing. We talk about how trauma lives not only in memory, but in posture, breath, digestion, desire, and tone — and why healing cannot stop at survival alone.

This episode isn’t about forcing sensation or fixing yourself. It’s an invitation to listen differently. Gently. On your own terms.

By the end, my hope is that you’ll relate to your body less as a problem to solve and more as a partner with information — one that has been communicating with you all along.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why the body remembers what the mind tries to forget
  
• How trauma lives in the body, not just in memory
  
• Why somatic work doesn’t feel safe for everyone — and why that matters
  
• The difference between surviving and feeling fully alive
  
• Pleasure as biological information, not indulgence
  
• How to begin listening to the body without forcing or performing

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Chapters

00:00 — Opening: Dropping Into the Body
01:30 — Welcome to The Intimate Philosopher
03:30 — The Body Knows What the Mind Forgets
05:00 — When “Being in Your Body” Doesn’t Feel Safe
09:30 — Trauma as a Bodily Pattern
15:30 — Why Survival Isn’t the Same as Healing
20:30 — Pleasure as Information
24:00 — Listening Without Forcing
28:30 — Closing Reflection: The Body Remembers

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A Note From Me

Healing the mind–body divide isn’t about doing more or feeling everything all at once. It’s about creating enough safety to listen — and trusting that your body already knows the pace.

If you find yourself wanting to linger with this conversation, you’re not alone. And if curiosity is beginning to stir, we’ll continue this thread in the next episode.

Next time, we’ll talk about what happens when the body begins to want again.

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The Receipts

The ideas explored in this episode are grounded in peer-reviewed research from trauma psychology, neuroscience, and affective science. These sources inform the clinical and theoretical framework behind today’s conversation.

Craig, A. How do you feel? Interoception: the sense of the physiological condition of the body. Nat Rev Neurosci 3, 655–666 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn894

Herman, J. L. (2022). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence—from domestic abuse to political terror. Basic Books. 

Kolacz, J., Porges, S. W., & Hales, C. M. (2022). Trauma-related autonomic nervous system dysregulation and gastrointestinal symptoms in adulthood. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 14(5), 869–879. https://integratedlistening.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/kolacz-kovacic-and-porges-2019-traumatic-stress-and-the-autonomic-brain-gut-connection-in-development.pdf

Koncz, A., Egri, D., Yildirim, M., Lobko, A., Máté, E., McVige, J. W., & Schwartz, K. (2024). Postural Responses in Trauma-Experienced Individuals. Biomedicines, 12(12), 2766. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12122766

Mehling, W. E., Acree, M., Stewart, A., Silas, J., & Jones, A. (2018). The Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA-2). PLOS ONE, 13(12), e0208034. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0208034

Payne, J. D., & Kensinger, E. A. (2018). Stress, sleep, and the selective consolidation of emotional memories. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 19, 36-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2017.09.006

Price, C. J., & Hooven, C. (2018). Interoceptive awareness skills for emotion regulation. Mindfulness, 9, 27–35. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00798/full

Siciliano, R. E., Anderson, A. S., & Compas, B. E. (2022). Autonomic nervous system correlates of posttraumatic stress symptoms in youth: Meta-analysis and qualitative review. Clinical psychology review, 92, 102125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2022.102125

Uvnäs-Moberg, K., Handlin, L., & Petersson, M. (2020). Neuroendocrine mechanisms involved in positive social interaction and emotions. Hormones and Behavior, 124, 104773.