In this short dialogue, the speakers introduce the concept from the book "Feelings Buried Alive Never Die," arguing that suppressed emotions do not disappear but persist in the body. They reframe emotions as physiological, biochemical responses that the body must assimilate; failure to do so can manifest as anxiety, depression, chronic pain, or disease (interpreted as "dis‑ease"). The conversation shifts to a therapeutic case where the speaker discusses a chronically unwell client who avoids talking about personal or bodily issues, exploring how such silence may reinforce trauma and somatic symptoms. The exchange blends therapeutic explanation, philosophical reflection, and a call to examine personal beliefs about expressing bodily discomfort.
Chapters
there's a great quote that's also a book called Feelings Buried Alive Never Die.
Oh, nice.
Okay, so what that means is, you know, on my understanding— so I have this right—
feelings— yes, feelings buried alive never die.
Yeah.
Wow, that sounds super creepy, right?
And, uh, not only does it sound super creepy, it also sounds super hippie-dippy and super hokey on some levels, right? But when you look at the biochemistry about how we process and resolve emotions. The first, you know, major challenge of reorienting people's approach to this is that emotions are not psychological, they're physiological, that they're biochemical responses that are then becoming an external expression or an internal expression, right? But it starts with us going through a biochemical response. And our body is trying to either assimilate it or it's not assimilating it. And when it doesn't, it becomes anxiety, depression, body pain, chronic injury, disease, right? That's if you split up the word disease, it's dis-ease, right? You're not at ease. So that conversation is so interesting because it could be a conversation you might even have to have with yourself.
Oh, wow.
And I had a conversation with one of my clients who I adore yesterday and who's been chronically unwell, who's just a powerhouse of a human being and just has constant, you know, has not been well, constant sicknesses. And we started getting into theology and philosophy about it. And again, it's not my agenda. It's what's their beliefs. And, you know, I want to help them navigate their beliefs, if there's anything that they're holding on to that might be, you know, subconsciously or unconsciously initiating or enhancing that trauma. And they said, you know, one of the things they said is like, I know that I take extra special care to not talk about other people. And I said, that's really interesting. What's it like for you to not also talk about the body parts or the parts of you that isn't working? Do you also not do that versus going to ask for help or saying, my stomach hurts today, and putting it in that same category of, I don't want to talk bad about anything?
