Tool
Integral reflection model with a somatic axis
The Integral Reflection Model is my own collection of directions from which a topic can be explored. It combines proven maps such as developmental models, the nervous system, inner parts, attachment, and shadow with a continuous somatic axis: the body as a mirror. The goal is not analysis, but awareness and embodiment.
Introduction
When understanding alone isn’t enough
You understood some things long ago, and still nothing changes. A pattern repeats, a knot remains. Often the missing information isn’t in the head. A sentence like “Everything’s fine” can be accompanied by shallow breathing, raised shoulders, or an averted gaze, and that is often exactly where the real thing lies.
The Integral Reflection Model invites you to explore a topic from several directions without forgetting the body.
In depth
What is the Integral Reflection Model?
The model is not a published body of teaching, but a personal collection of approaches I work with. Each direction comes from its own tradition: from developmental psychology, attachment research, body psychology, or systemic work. What is new is the combination. The directions stand side by side, none has the last word, and the body runs through all of them as an axis.
“Integral” here means allowing several perspectives on the same topic without making any one of them the only truth. The somatic axis responds to a weakness that critics of integral theory also name: many integral approaches stay in the head.
Nine directions
- Development How the way of perceiving changes over the course of a life, based on Terri O’Fallon’s Stages.
- Values and culture Which values shape a behavior or a system, based on Spiral Dynamics.
- Nervous system Connected, in alarm, or withdrawn? Based on Stephen Porges’s polyvagal theory, as a helpful model, not as established fact.
- Inner parts Which part is speaking right now, and what does it need? Based on Richard Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems.
- Character structures Early imprints that show in posture and tension, from Hakomi and bioenergetics.
- Attachment What do I really long for in attachment, and what do I fear?
- Shadow What do I most want to avoid, and what does that say about me?
- Systemic resonance What is the unspoken issue here, and what do I stand for in the system?
- Somatic axis The body as a mirror, the heart of the model.
Behind this are a few basic assumptions: people aren’t mature or immature as a whole, but further along in some areas than in others. Many reactions are protection, not weakness. And behavior often makes sense within the system, even if it puzzles the individual.
The navigation wheel
The model’s central tool is a wheel. At its center is a concrete moment, a situation, a knot you can feel: not a problem space, but a point of resonance. From there, fourteen equally weighted directions of inquiry radiate out.
The choice of question changes the space, not just the answer.
- State: In what inner state is this happening right now?
- Body: What is concretely happening in the body right now?
- Feeling: Which feeling is dominant right now, or which one isn’t allowed?
- Lines and profile: Which capacity is active here, and which one isn’t available right now?
- Experiencing without classifying: How exactly does this show itself if we don’t explain or judge it?
- Perspective: From which perspective is this being seen right now, and which ones are missing?
- System: In which system or field does this behavior make sense?
- Protection: What might this pattern be protecting against right now?
- Transition: What is in transition here right now, or not yet integrated?
- Time and dynamics: Is this an acute moment, a recurring pattern, or a long process?
- Biography: Which earlier experience might be resonating here?
- Values and intention: What matters here right now?
- Possibilities: What options emerge when nothing has to be solved right away?
- Development: Which way of taking perspectives is possible here, and which one isn’t stable yet?
Development deliberately comes last. Developmental models can provide orientation, but they never explain the moment. The wheel is not a testing instrument but a navigation wheel: often a single, well-chosen question is enough.
The somatic axis
The somatic axis rests on three observations: the body carries stored history. It shows what is, beyond what we think about it. And it reacts more finely than language. Four movements make up the axis:
- Sensing Where in the body does the topic show up? Pressure in the belly, tightness in the throat, warmth in the chest. Just naming it often changes something.
- Moving Is there a gesture, an impulse, a rigidity? The body often has an answer before the head puts it into words.
- Holding Staying present with what shows up, without intervening. Often the most effective and at the same time the most difficult part.
- Using Consciously using breath, voice, movement, and posture as a mirror. What changes when you sit up straighter or breathe out more deeply?
An example
You think about a conversation with your boss. Instead of immediately planning what you’re going to say, you first notice that your jaw tightens and your breathing moves up high. You let the tension be there for a moment. Perhaps the impulse to make yourself smaller comes up. Just noticing this gives you a choice you didn’t have before.
The axis connects the other directions: the nervous system shows itself in the body, inner parts often have a physical form, attachment patterns are felt as an impulse toward closeness or toward flight, and shadows show themselves in overreactions that arrive in the body first.
Recognizing, feeling, sensing
One principle applies to every reflection process: keep at least three levels in mind. What do I recognize? What do I feel? What do I sense in my body? An insight that is only thought often has no consequences. A feeling without understanding can overwhelm. A body signal without context remains a puzzle. Only together does something arise that carries.
In addition, there are open sentence starters along the four quadrants, such as “I feel most connected in my body when …,” and the Completion Process, a guided inner exercise that belongs in a protected, accompanied setting.
Common misunderstandings
- “The model tells me where I stand.” It is a compass for questions, not a way of classifying people.
- “The more directions, the better.” The conscious choice counts for more than completeness.
- “Bodywork means doing exercises.” Here it is above all about perceiving and being with what shows up.
- “Protective patterns have to be gotten rid of.” They are first understood and honored. What is seen can change on its own.
- “It’s a finished method with fixed steps.” It is an open collection that orients itself to the person and the moment.
The model is not a test and not an assessment of your development. Its building blocks have their own founders and their own limits. Body and memory work can touch deep places and needs a safe setting; acute crises and illnesses belong in the hands of doctors or psychologists.
Key points
- The body often knows sooner and more precisely. It reacts before thoughts find an explanation.
- The choice of question changes the space, not just the answer. What matters is consciously choosing the direction of inquiry.
- Maps provide orientation, but the moment stays at the center. Developmental models deliberately come last.