Walking Somatic Empathy with Joseph Culp: The Mind-Body Process of Walking-In-Your-Shoes

The Brilliant Body Podcast with Ali Mezey

CONTENT HEADS UP: This episode may inspire you to give the practice of “Walking-In-Your-Shoes” a go on your own. We waive all responsibility for any ensuing mishaps of cramped spaces, being near stairs or inspired bouts of wild and/or naked abandon. On a more serious note, we do discuss heavy subjects like trauma, armoring, drowning, rape and PTSD. But predominantly, we delve into the healing power and intelligence of the body invited into highly conscious motion and given free-reign and guidance to express all that it knows.

Also, Walking-In-Your-Shoes can be done just as effectively from a wheelchair or with the capacities of any perambulatory disability. You just have to be a body with the desire to follow how it’s guiding you to feel, see and know.

This episode presents a departure from our previous episodes. As in some of our upcoming episodes, we focus here on a specific practice and its transformative techniques aimed at unlocking conscious awareness of the body’s intelligence. While past episodes delved into the philosophical underpinnings of embodiment, this installment offers practical guidance on tangible methods to access your inner knowledge as an opportunity for revelation and growth.

SYNOPSIS:

Ali discusses a movement-based mindfulness practice called “The Walking-In-Your-Shoes” (WIYS) mind-body process with one of its co-founders, actor and director, Joseph Culp. WIYS is a process that allows the practitioner, in partnership with a facilitator, to address questions or needs through an intuitive questioning of the body-mind through movement. The applications of the questioning process are quite broad and can be applied to everything from healing trauma and managing addiction, to business development or a more organic method of acting. This is another means of “knowing” through your body. Ali and Joseph discuss the overlap between WIYS and Family Constellation Work and how both practices allow others to help take on and process trauma or healing on the behalf of another person.

EXPLORATION POINTS:

- Joseph & Ali discuss the intersections between the Walking-In-Your-Shoes (WIYS) body-mind process and Family Constellation Work. The episode explores how both practices facilitate the process of addressing questions or needs through intuitive questioning of and attention to the body-mind through movement.

- The episode highlights Joseph Culp's personal growth as an actor through his involvement in WIYS. Culp discusses how this movement-based mindfulness practice has contributed to his development as an artist, providing insights into the transformative power of the practice.

- Joseph Culp and Ali discuss the concept of "Walking for Others". The exploration involves understanding how facilitators can embody and navigate the experiences of others through movement, emphasizing the empathetic and therapeutic aspects of Walking in someone else's shoes.

- Joseph and Ali explore the therapeutic potential of WIYS for individuals grappling with severe trauma or PTSD. Discussing how the intuitive questioning of the body-mind through movement, coupled with the empathetic support of a facilitator and sometimes a group, offers a unique avenue for addressing and healing deep-seated traumas.

- Joseph offers insights into how Wilhelm Reich's ideas have shaped WIYS, contributing to its foundation, while also exploring how Alexander Lowen's contributions informed the practice of following the body towards liberation. This exploration provides a comprehensive understanding of the historical and theoretical roots that form the intellectual, and practical, lineage of WIYS.

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FOR MORE ALI MEZEY:

Ali - Website:

Personal Geometry® and the Magic of Mat Work Course information:

Transgenerational Healing Films:

FOR MORE JOSEPH CULP:

BIO: Joseph Culp is an actor, director and filmmaker, working in theater, film and television for over 40 years. He is known to many audiences for playing Don Draper’s father in the hit series Mad Men, and as the first Doctor Doom in Marvel’s The Fantastic Four. In addition to producing several independent films, he notably wrote, directed, and co-starred in Welcome to the Men’s Group, a comedy/drama about a men’s support group, available on Amazon Prime.

In addition to his work as a performing artist, Joseph has been involved for many years in the world of self-psychology and personal development. Joseph co-founded the Walking-In-Your-Shoes® body/mind process with psychologist John F. Cogswell, Ph.D during the late 1980s. The method known as “Walking” combines somatic empathy with movement, mindfulness, and the facilitated inquiry processing of the bodymind. Joseph formed the Los Angeles-based Walking Theatre Group in 1992 to explore the use of the WIYS method in dramatic arts. Together with Dr. Cogswell, he continued to develop WIYS for use in psychotherapy, coaching, trauma recovery, creative and performing arts, business and community for the next 20 years. Joseph has introduced hundreds of people to WIYS, in both performing and the healing arts, and trained many therapists and facilitators who have made Walking-In-Your-Shoes® part of their practice and life work. He founded the WIYS Institute of America and regularly gives workshops, seminars, and trainings in both the U.S. and Europe.

WIYS COMMUNITY MONTHLY MEETING (Free community sessions with Joseph Culp)

WIYS ONLINE CERTIFICATION TRAINING

WIYS MESSAGE FROM JOSEPH CULP

WIYS SOMATIC EMPATHY PROCESS

IMDB Actor’s CV

MEDIA:

Joseph’s film, “We...