The Crystalline Space by Paula Pelligrino, 2013 Pastel on Fabriano Paper 36″ x 24″

My clients reflect parts of me. lethargy. Parts, I do not want to admit. disenfrancisement. For every Bodyscapes session, a client arrives with three words.  The first word lists her/his physical or emotional diagnosis. The second word lists where this illness/ feeling resides in her body.  The third word describes how he/she feels about living with the first two words. In session, working the Bodyscapes Process, I read the definitions to the first word out loud.

I read the definition to the word, lethargy.  I groaned, thinking, “The story of my life.”  My client asked me to read the definition for a new word.  Apathy lead to impassiveness, spiritless, stoic and destitute of emotion. I had to hide my uncomfortability. I read more definitions. I groaned more.  All the words, torrid, slow to respond, and slow to heal, had personal meaning to both my client and me.

My client’s  second word, adrenal glands was a relief.  (The liver is still my organ of choice. ) But, the next word made me curious.  I was not sure I even knew the exact meaning.  My client chose the word,  disenfranchisement, to describe her feelings of  living with lethargy in her adrenal glands.   Disenfrancisment produced a flurry of other words and definitions, tumbling out of the dictionary onto my client’s list.  She  passed into a deeper ability to do this work when her paper filled with words. She could not write down all the definitions fast enough. Everyone had meaning. Disenfrancised  brought deprived of a legal right or privilege. Deprived = to remove, to take something away, to withhold.   Privilege =  a right granted as a particular benefit attached to a specific position. Daughter = a specific belonging to a group greif=deep and poignant distress.