written by Maryam Dada, M.A., RCC
mildly edited by Linda Lin, RCC, CCC, RCAT

I started watching the hit show Severance on the recommendation of one of my besties who works in the corporate world. The show, which is currently receiving a lot of attention for its sci-fi portrayal of ‘work-life balance,’ depicts the lives of corporate workers at Lumon, a Biotech company. These employees have undergone a surgical procedure, known as severance, that allows them to mentally separate their work life from their personal life. An implanted device causes employees to lose all their memories of the outside world, which then creates a split personality— the “innie” who works at Lumon, and the “outie” who gets to live their personal life.

We’re going to be exploring the importance of mind-body connection, explain the role of our nervous systems (specifically the ANS), and what it looks like to live an ‘embodied’ life.

What Is Severance Really Saying About Work-Life Balance?

As I was watching, I couldn't help but think of all the different mental health implications of a severance procedure while also recognizing the appeal of getting some separation from work and the very coveted ‘work life balance’… especially under late-stage capitalism. 

Severance is set in the near future where getting this medical procedure is certainly controversial but also advertised, encouraged, and appealing for many. 

The main character, Mark, was a history professor at the local university whose wife died in a car accident. We learn that Mark chose to work for Lumon because it was easier than grieving his dead wife; which of course, is not the healthiest solution for grief and loss, but it does humanize our main character and sets the premise for some pretty important mental health questions. Namely, can work-life balance be achieved by splitting our personalities?

If our work personas only exist at work, it sure would make it a lot easier to not bring work home, to not think about work after hours, or to work overtime. And for our main character, Mark, having the option of forgetting about his partner’s death, seems like a surefire way to not deal with it™. 

Although, I wonder how true that actually is. 

While a very interesting premise and story-line, with many different undertones about our society and the emphasis we place on work, and how human beings respond to and deal with trauma, or even the ethical implications about having what is essentially a clone…

I think one of the biggest considerations for me was thinking about what happens to our bodies. 

The Mind-Body Connection: Why Compartmentalization Doesn't Work

From a therapeutic perspective, we might be able to mentally compartmentalize parts of our lives and that kind of organization can certainly be helpful, however we cannot escape from our bodily sensations. 

The mind-body connection operates on the belief that our mental and physical health are linked (Pally, 1998). When we feel dysregulated or even discomfort, we are likely experiencing a mental and physical symptom. 

For example, when you are feeling anxious you might start to have racing thoughts, while also noticing your muscles tensing or your palms becoming sweaty, you could have butterflies in your tummy, or even be feeling nauseous.

Strengthening the mind-body connection is a gentle reminder that we are made up of not only our mental states but also our physical states. It’s acknowledging that our bodies are not simply vehicles for our minds, but that two work in tandem to keep us healthy.

Understanding the Autonomic Nervous System and Stress

When we work to strengthen that mind-body connection we are engaging in a form of emotional regulation and directly working with our nervous systems. 



The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

•  is our body’s command centre that influences everything from our breathing to our heart rate and how we navigate and understand stress (Gibbons, 2019). 

• The ANS can be thought of in two parts: the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. 

Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS): Our bodies’ fight or flight response that activates when we perceive a threat. It prepares our body by increasing our heart-rate, blood pressure, and by releasing adrenaline. 

Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS): Our bodies’ at rest and digest. After a stressful situation, this system allows our body to slow and restore balance. 

ANS and the Severance Department: Our Bodies’ Aren’t Separate

Our ANS plays a big role in our bodies response to stress and furthers the importance of strengthening the mind-body connection. In Severance, characters who’ve undergone the medical procedure are only mentally compartmentalizing their lives. This means that if either the innie or the outie experiences a significant amount of stress or trauma —it will show up in the body for both of them. 

If the fight or flight response gets triggered for the innie at work, their outie will feel the effects of that in their body too. One could even argue that being severed doubles the stress, exacerbated by the fact that neither personality can remember what happens to the other. 

When we start to factor in mind-body connection, including how our autonomic nervous system plays a role, the curtain gets pulled back a bit more, and we see that ‘work-life balance’ for the characters in Severance is merely a mirage. 

Practical Ways to Cultivate an Embodied Life

Our bodies are central to our mental health, when we are living in ways that are embodied or simply, being in tune with the way our body feels throughout the day, we are more likely to engage in the kind of emotional regulation that activates the parasympathetic nervous system — when we are recalibrating and at rest. 

This is easier said than done and it takes practice. It’s a normal thing to want to compartmentalize, run away, or hide from our problems/feelings and a large part of that is societal conditioning to value productivity. 

One of the ways we can practice becoming more embodied is to give ourselves permission to exist, be, and/or live slower but with more intention. This is where somatic interventions like box breathing, grounding exercises, physical activity, or meditations can help by bringing us back into the present moment and creating an awareness of our body to develop a more holistic approach to our healing.

Further Reading on Trauma, Stress, and Embodiment
Invitations for further study

Bodies you can mirror when being in your own is just too much via Instagram @eroticsofliberation https://www.instagram.com/p/DGLGS6WssSC/?igsh=MWVmODAyM2oyYXBoNg==
Book: The Pain We Carry: Healing from Complex PTSD for People of Color by Natalie Y. Gutiérrez

Podcast: The Meaning of Embodiment, with Prentis Hempill https://www.ted.com/talks/how_to_be_a_better_human_the_meaning_of_embodiment_w_prentis_hemphill

References: 

Pally, R. (1998). Emotional Processing; The mind-body connection. The International journal of psycho-analysis, 79(2), 349.

Gibbons, C. H. (2019). Basics of autonomic nervous system function. Handbook of clinical neurology, 160, 407-418.

About the Author: 

Maryam is a Registered Clinical Counsellor at Decipher. She is currently taking new clients! If you like to explore themes in tv, media, or literature and how it relates to your life or the different things you may be going though, she may be a good fit. 

Interested in exploring work-life balance and embodiment through therapy? Book a session with Maryam today—available online and in person in so-called Vancouver, BC.

Since reading ‘Rest is Resistence’ by Tricia Hersey in the wintertime, this era has been an opening for new portals for Rest.

 I've been feeling the Abundance!

I’ve been unlearning that treading on the hamster wheel is not how I can continue keeping up, but a response I feel from internalized individualist, capitalist and patriarchal messages I’ve been taught all my life.

And when I compulsively convince myself that I can’t ask for help, that I have to fend for myself to soothe the anxiety around my mental health or business side of things… a big chunk of this burden comes from individualism and historical experiences of scarcity from my family lineage that I have often heard about and witnessed growing up…

When your body has been activated in this state for this long, you may begin to mistaken this as the norm. 

Abundance is pretty new for me, and it's the opposite of capitalism's agenda, so it is supposed to feel ‘different’ and ‘not like myself’.

Being able to recognize that ‘not being able to rest’ has its roots in internalized messages of cultural legacy burdens from racism, capitalism, ableism, materialism, individualism and other -isms has been so helpful.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

One July night when I felt Abundance, I had to capture the moment. Here is what Abundance felt like that night:

”When Abundance is felt in my body, it’s the most satisfying, fulfilling sensation ever. Like the best nap I’ve ever taken. Or watching the prettiest sunset beaming through a landscape.

I feel myself put value and pride in the work I do, even when the workload seems invisible.

Abundance is noticing the space, expansion and openness to receive, being myself, not taking myself so seriously. 

Tempering my body to live a bit more courageously and authentically everyday.

I’m writing down these words immediately because I am still welcoming in Abundance from a culture struggling with scarcity.

I want to learn to embody Abundance.

I want to be Abundance.”

Here is the story of Ubuntu (credits to Abby who introduced this in our monthly peer group).

That’s what culture/community in Abundance can be like. 

And it exists already!

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

I appreciate each and every one of you who resonates with some of these experiences: having complex feelings around slowing down, trying hard to unlearn and smashing the encoded messages around scarcity, capitalism and all the other -isms.

Investing in Relational Justice for our sacred bodies and minds. 
Collective Abundance and Rest is what will sustain us and help us survive this climate.

I have been reflecting how from the outside…

social justice-work,

work by creatives or

those who want to make change in the world,

…have become romanticized.

It's the work that drives us to go around what's been already mapped out.

It can be deeply healing and rewarding, and can also be gritty, hard work.

So, what does social justice-oriented care look like? It means that we are committed to providing care that is anti-oppressive and rooted in social justice principles. This means that we work to identify and challenge systems of oppression. We aim to practice being in accountability and collective care with one another. We know that social change is a slow and difficult process, but we are committed to the long haul.

Here are some justice-oriented practices we, as a group therapy practice and as therapists, are committed in doing:

1. We are committed to the unlearning, decolonizing and working with values rooted in the principles of anti-oppression/anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, racial justice, gender justice, disability justice, and HAES alongside you. We are also committed to examining our relationships to whiteness, white supremacy, colonialism, patriarchy and cis-heteronormativity as we talk to folks who come across our practice.
   

2. We aim to organize and redistribute wealth as much as we can. We reflect and actively work through a scarcity and charity mindset to one that is in solidarity and in community. After all, this work is survival work.
   
   

3. We aim to uphold anti-carceral care towards nuanced experiences and mental health cases we work with. Aka fighting for a world free from policing. Consent is highly prioritized in our work with folks. We are continuously reflecting on what the therapy field does that may perpetuate harm and power dynamics in and out of the therapy room. 
   

4. The effort to flatten hierarchies in systems. We work from a horizontal decision making structure in our team where we have as many people and members make decisions as possible.
   

   
   Note: We get that many of the folks we work with are struggling with or don’t work in settings where they can advocate/speak up for their values, are acknowledged, and are feeling stuck. In therapy, we may be brainstorming ways to support you in these oppressive spaces and find ways to name out what is going on more clearly.
   

5. We aim to support people in most dire conditions and center in marginalized folks and voices that are most impacted first, always.
   

6. Generative conflict and communication. Dean Spade’s book Mutual Aid discusses how conflict can be reworked into something positive and generative rather than something to be avoided and left to fester. This can look like clear decision making everyone is trained in.
   

7. We are committed in our own healing. Because some of us have been through similar stuff like the folks we work with and part of their journey speaks to parts of us from different points in our life that we are still working on. This is probably a big reason why we want to do this work alongside you.

We want to work together with you to end oppression in all of its forms. When we say "with you", we mean it. Everyone has a role to play in social justice, whether it is big or small. Because social justice in therapy can support folks to be heard and felt.

I often think about the similarities of interweaving in different activism work I am part of.

Below are some thoughts that I've been reflecting on in the world and lens of social justice, environmental justice, animal rights justice, that I adopt and aim to pursue collective liberation for us all:

Disclaimer: below are current self-reflections, learnings from activists and colleagues away from an institution (some days I wish I had to chance to learn from a program in undergrad and other times I’m honoured to learn at my own pace) to work towards transformative justice. FYI, there is no guarantee I will stay with these same ideas in the future: I may shift or grow out of these thoughts and ideas, which is all part of the process! I also don't expect you as the reader to agree with all that I write below. However if you resonate with any of these thoughts, that's awesome! :-)

Punishment and censorship from activism work is totally a thing.

“People get pleasure, validation, and even build community out of punishment.” - Mariame Kaba

I am practicing acknowledging that punishment can be ‘rewarded’ and at times even ‘pleasurable’ in our humanity. And as justice-practicing folks, we are not exempt from this humanness. When someone or something hurts us, we may also want to hurt them back. We are not perfect beings.

Perfectionism and activism don't work well together.

I have been unlearning the harmful effects of perfectionism the long and hard way through first dipping into 'white veganism' when I turned vegan half a decade ago. I was experiencing constant shame and guilt from this space: like judgements if you aren't vegan for the ‘right reasons’ etc. (don't even get me started!).

'Cancel culture’ in the social justice space is something I witness often too. Spending our precious efforts and time judging and hating on others can be exhausting and unsettling.

This work is a WIP. People are all in different stages and come from very different spaces. It usually takes group improvisation and nurturing, not isolating and cornering. If you are hoping to steer away from ‘cancel culture’, check out what transformative justice is all about.

Transformative justice gives us opportunity to “transform” through learning, growing, which can help us even in healing through discussions. I aim to sprinkle in transformative justice praxis in different spaces I enter. Join me if you're up for this challenge too!

Failures helps us grow! Failures provide movement!

It’s not always your role to educate those who aren't in the collective.

You don’t have to care about opinions from voices that are not in the collective. I experience exhaustion and insecurity around spaces dominated by white fragility, folks who shame and punish others for making mistakes and the like. Give yourself the permission to distance and disengage so you can spend your energy in spaces that make you feel empowered and sustained.

Deepa Iyer’s work on The Social Change Ecosystem Map helped me find that I don’t have to do and be everything; that I can take on roles for social change that sustains my energy while doing important, charged work.

Where does your passion lie?

My activism work is currently leaning towards healing justice work, connecting with folks who are hearing about these ideas for the first time (in their ‘awakening’ stage or contemplating on pursuing this kind of practice). I imagine adopting play, creativity, art into spaces I enter. I hope to create digestible content for those who are thinking of coming closer and maybe joining this community!

"Hope is a discipline” - Mariame Kaba

Hope in this context is not an emotion or something we hold onto. Hope is something we do. Hope sustains us in this work. Your role no matter how ‘small’ it seems is valuable. Instead of narrowing in on the dread of the current system and the state of the world, I am practicing on choosing to commit to something else that is possible.

Accountability in community.

There is deep yearning for a space that gets me and these values I care about. That provides me with a vision of where we can go. I have been reading and reaching to books, articles, podcasts by transformative justice advocates and learning from the roots, from BIPOC folks, from stories, from family, searching for communal care that have been passed down and ideas on liberation.

I am currently helping out on a really exciting project with a fellow therapist friend. ROJ will be an offering for justice-oriented practitioners (students, therapists, coaches, social workers, HR or DEI workers, SJ activists etc.) or those who are curious in adopting justice into their practice. If you are in need of an accountability community when pursuing collective liberation and would like to unlearn together, ROJ may be the community for you!

PS. I will be posting on @reflectingonjustice on IG, you are welcome to follow us if you are interested!

I don't know about you, but I've been searching and dreaming for a space like this for quite awhile now. I can’t wait to share the launch with you folks in the near future!

Healing and activism work is and will always be interwoven.

The symbiotic relationship of stories, emotions, feels that oscillate in and out of the humans we get the chance to witness and connect with. Collective healing and mutual aid can shift difficult and unbearable moments.