Thank you, Linnea. There js so much science behind the science with what you shared. As someone practicing and training others in Havening Techniques, it’s not until there’s an experience that you see the level of connection and consciousness. Not only to rewire the brain but connect with the deepest parts of self in a trusted space. Great share.
Wonderful! It’s amazing to meet so many like-minded folks here and Substack. This was definitely a bit of a risk to publish and I lost a couple of Subscribers, but this is what is closest to my heart and mind. I appreciate you. 💜
I think each of us has to take those risks, Linnea, if we are going to be true to ourselves and honor our personal integrity. I always respect and admire people who do that, knowing they will lose some of their subscribers along the way.
Linnea — reading this felt like breathing into a space where so much of my own lived experience rests — and unfolds.
You speak a language here that I know in my bones. And quite literally so.
When you wrote “the body itself seems to hold conscious awareness” — I found myself nodding deeply. In my own healing journey — shaped by decades of fascia-triggered pain, trauma, and deep somatic work — I have come to understand fascia as one of the great vessels of this consciousness.
It holds not only structure, connection, and flow — it holds imprint. Memory. Silence. And when conditions shift — when safety, presence, and field are tended well — it remembers how to soften, unwind, and re-weave. I have witnessed again and again how healing moves through fascia not as mechanical release, rather as an unfolding — guided by an intelligence we cannot fully name.
And as you write — these moments defy tidy method. I can approach with understanding of the nervous system, polyvagal theory, structural integration — and yet the deepest shifts arise in the pauses. The listening. The relational field. The presence that allows fascia to become permeable to movement once more.
You name this beautifully: integration, not elimination. That is how I experience true healing within this living web of fascia and field. And why I no longer speak of “fixing” trauma. The body, when met with respect, presence, and attuned witnessing, knows a path back toward coherence.
I’m grateful for how you bring both rigor and reverence here. This is not woo — this is the place where body and consciousness meet, in ways we are only beginning to understand.
From my heart — and from this living web I inhabit — thank you. You remind me why we walk this path.
Thank you so much, Jay. You know how much I respect you, or at least I hope you do.
There is so much that we don’t know about consciousness, about bodily wisdom, and likely also about fascia and the unwinding process. At first learned about fascia and unwinding about eight or nine years ago, and there is still so much that I want to learn.
For now, I embrace my own curiosity and hope that my essays evoke curiosity in others as well.
Thank you so much, Linnea. And yes, by now I do know that. I fully agree. And through my own journey, I have arrived at a point where I start to question every so-called "scholarly, scientific fact." In truth, do such facts even exist when it comes to the human psyche? Are they not all hypotheses, models—our best attempts to make sense of a reality so complex, so deeply intertwined with everything the body does on its own? I no longer take their certainties at face value.
I have read book after book on psychology, hoping to better understand the many layers of trauma I carry. And alongside that, I have listened—to myself, to my body, to the swirling of thoughts within my mind. Through that, I’ve seen how trauma can overlap, how it can stack, how at times one trauma can even counteract another in its expression. I have also noticed how a so-called "main trauma" often holds layers beneath it—secondary, even tertiary events—each with its own imprint, each impacting me just as deeply in its own way.
Have I ever found this mapped out clearly in any book? No. I made sense of it through lived experience, through careful attention, through staying close to what my body and mind reveal over time. And this is why I remain deeply curious—like you—and willing to question, always.*
Beautiful Jay and I completely agree. The scientific method is predicated on changing one variable at a time. I think that's where it falls down. There are many variables that are subtle but still have an influence and traditional research does not take any of those into account because they are difficult or impossible to measure.
There are many books on psychology, consciousness, healing, etc. but you're right that none of them truly captures the almost infinite complexity. I tend to favor systems thinking but when the system is so immense it's virtually impossible to wrap one mind around it.
At the end of the day, the greatest wisdom seems to come from becoming quiet and listening to our thoughts, our intuition, our body. We're taught to trust external experts but in truth the greatest expert is often within ourselves.
Linnea, Its you might have guess do I come from systemic thinking and coaching myself, with be now over 200 hours under my belt, apart from reading book after book on it. And I agree it is the discipline that at least acknowledges the existence and tries to implement Resources, Time, Relationships/Interactions/People, whatever those might be.
"What it Takes To Heal" Prentis Hemphill was the book that indeed was the first that I read walking the bridges from history to personal trauma, from epigenetics to cPTSD, from mind to fascia, from healing our environment to healing ourselves. Deeply transformative for me, especially as Prentis themselves is Non-Binary, born female.
Thank you, Linnea. There js so much science behind the science with what you shared. As someone practicing and training others in Havening Techniques, it’s not until there’s an experience that you see the level of connection and consciousness. Not only to rewire the brain but connect with the deepest parts of self in a trusted space. Great share.
Havening is a lovely practice! I agree, until you have experienced an expansive state it is difficult to accept the science behind the science.
I am a retired LMFT. However, I “woke up” before I retired.
The difference in my sessions after waking up were significant.
I am encouraged by the blending of science and spirituality I am seeing.
Thank you for the article. I agree with all of it!
Thank you so much, Greg, that means a lot! I feel like something is shifting and more and more people are waking up. I hope that that’s the case.
I'm on board! I'm learning so much science behind the spiritual from @Teri Leigh 💜 . Thanks for posting this @Linnea Butler, MS, LMFT .
Wonderful! It’s amazing to meet so many like-minded folks here and Substack. This was definitely a bit of a risk to publish and I lost a couple of Subscribers, but this is what is closest to my heart and mind. I appreciate you. 💜
I think each of us has to take those risks, Linnea, if we are going to be true to ourselves and honor our personal integrity. I always respect and admire people who do that, knowing they will lose some of their subscribers along the way.
🙏
Linnea — reading this felt like breathing into a space where so much of my own lived experience rests — and unfolds.
You speak a language here that I know in my bones. And quite literally so.
When you wrote “the body itself seems to hold conscious awareness” — I found myself nodding deeply. In my own healing journey — shaped by decades of fascia-triggered pain, trauma, and deep somatic work — I have come to understand fascia as one of the great vessels of this consciousness.
It holds not only structure, connection, and flow — it holds imprint. Memory. Silence. And when conditions shift — when safety, presence, and field are tended well — it remembers how to soften, unwind, and re-weave. I have witnessed again and again how healing moves through fascia not as mechanical release, rather as an unfolding — guided by an intelligence we cannot fully name.
And as you write — these moments defy tidy method. I can approach with understanding of the nervous system, polyvagal theory, structural integration — and yet the deepest shifts arise in the pauses. The listening. The relational field. The presence that allows fascia to become permeable to movement once more.
You name this beautifully: integration, not elimination. That is how I experience true healing within this living web of fascia and field. And why I no longer speak of “fixing” trauma. The body, when met with respect, presence, and attuned witnessing, knows a path back toward coherence.
I’m grateful for how you bring both rigor and reverence here. This is not woo — this is the place where body and consciousness meet, in ways we are only beginning to understand.
From my heart — and from this living web I inhabit — thank you. You remind me why we walk this path.
Jay
Thank you so much, Jay. You know how much I respect you, or at least I hope you do.
There is so much that we don’t know about consciousness, about bodily wisdom, and likely also about fascia and the unwinding process. At first learned about fascia and unwinding about eight or nine years ago, and there is still so much that I want to learn.
For now, I embrace my own curiosity and hope that my essays evoke curiosity in others as well.
💜🙏💜
Thank you so much, Linnea. And yes, by now I do know that. I fully agree. And through my own journey, I have arrived at a point where I start to question every so-called "scholarly, scientific fact." In truth, do such facts even exist when it comes to the human psyche? Are they not all hypotheses, models—our best attempts to make sense of a reality so complex, so deeply intertwined with everything the body does on its own? I no longer take their certainties at face value.
I have read book after book on psychology, hoping to better understand the many layers of trauma I carry. And alongside that, I have listened—to myself, to my body, to the swirling of thoughts within my mind. Through that, I’ve seen how trauma can overlap, how it can stack, how at times one trauma can even counteract another in its expression. I have also noticed how a so-called "main trauma" often holds layers beneath it—secondary, even tertiary events—each with its own imprint, each impacting me just as deeply in its own way.
Have I ever found this mapped out clearly in any book? No. I made sense of it through lived experience, through careful attention, through staying close to what my body and mind reveal over time. And this is why I remain deeply curious—like you—and willing to question, always.*
Beautiful Jay and I completely agree. The scientific method is predicated on changing one variable at a time. I think that's where it falls down. There are many variables that are subtle but still have an influence and traditional research does not take any of those into account because they are difficult or impossible to measure.
There are many books on psychology, consciousness, healing, etc. but you're right that none of them truly captures the almost infinite complexity. I tend to favor systems thinking but when the system is so immense it's virtually impossible to wrap one mind around it.
At the end of the day, the greatest wisdom seems to come from becoming quiet and listening to our thoughts, our intuition, our body. We're taught to trust external experts but in truth the greatest expert is often within ourselves.
Linnea, Its you might have guess do I come from systemic thinking and coaching myself, with be now over 200 hours under my belt, apart from reading book after book on it. And I agree it is the discipline that at least acknowledges the existence and tries to implement Resources, Time, Relationships/Interactions/People, whatever those might be.
Yes, it is apparent that you think that way. I love that. I am curious - is there any book that comes close that you would recommend to others?
"What it Takes To Heal" Prentis Hemphill was the book that indeed was the first that I read walking the bridges from history to personal trauma, from epigenetics to cPTSD, from mind to fascia, from healing our environment to healing ourselves. Deeply transformative for me, especially as Prentis themselves is Non-Binary, born female.