Welcome to soma-psyche.com!
JENNIFER TANTIA, PHD SOMATIC PSYCHOTHERAPY
  • Home
  • What is Somatic Psychotherapy?
    • What Happens in a Typical Session?
    • What is Authentic Movement?
    • Video: Dance/movement Therapy for Treating Anxiety
    • Audio: Dance/movement Therapy for the Socially Uncomfortable
    • SVA Fall 2017 panel discussion
  • About Jennifer
    • Credentials
    • Books and Chapters
    • Recent Speaking Engagements
  • FAQ's
  • Office Location
  • BLOG
  • Product
  • Contact

Look Further

10/18/2021

0 Comments

 
One day I was riding the subway. It was the end of the day, and I was exhausted and starving. I stood, barely hanging onto the pole in the middle of the car, desperate to sit down, and dreaming about what I was going to eat when I got home at the end of my 20 minute car ride. There was an incredibly obese man sitting down, and taking up two seats, and I watched as he devoured several bags of chips. One after another, they continually emerged from his enormous sweatshirt, and flowed into his mouth without a hiccup; the empty bags flowing equally form his mouth back into his sweatshirt pocket. He must have eaten about five bags of chips while my weary (hungry) ass stood watching.

Somehow, I saw his “heart” and my entire experience was different than it could have been. I could have been angry, and judge him for his body size that took up two seats (one of which I could have been sitting in). I could have judged the way that he ate horrific food, and didn’t take care of himself, or that he was violating the “no food and drink” rule on the subway. I could have been jealous that he got to eat while I was still so hungry, since I would have eaten my own arm if I could at that point. Instead, I saw his heart, and began to indulge in what I saw as his enjoyment of eating those chips. I fantasized about how great it would feel to have a great soft body that could simply take in all that salty greasy food, and how enjoyable it would be to eat five bags of chips at that moment.

​Suddenly, he reached down into the bag that was between his legs on the floor, and pulled out a two-liter bottle of soda. I must have been staring at him, because it was then that I realized that he was looking straight at me. He smiled and said, “Those little bottles just aren’t enough for me.” I began to laugh, and he laughed, and we both just laughed together for a few minutes in the middle of a crowded New York City subway. Even as I write this, I can’t help but giggle. As he stood up to leave the subway car, he touched my shoulder and said, “You have a beautiful day, now, alright?”
            I already was.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dr. Tantia is  a clinical psychotherapist who specializes in somatic approaches to therapy. In addition to thoughts and emotions, she helps her patients to identify and understand the somatic, or felt-sense of psychic healing.

    Archives

    October 2021
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

138 West 25th Street, 8th Floor
​New York, NY  10001
Proudly powered by Weebly