Cinesomatic Therapy

A Trauma Survivor Thriver’s Podcast

This is a LIVE replay of A Trauma Survivor Thriver's Podcast which aired Wednesday, April 12th, 2023 at 1130am ET on Fireside Chat.

Today's guest is Andrew Daniel, Author of "Awaken to Your True Self" and Director of the Center for Cinesomatic Development.

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Lorilee Binstock 00:00:50
Welcome. I'm Lorilee Binstock, and this is a trauma survivor Thrivers Podcast.
Thank you so much for joining me live on Fireside Chat, where you can be a part of conversation as my virtual audience. I am your host, Lorilee Binstock.
Everyone has an opportunity to ask me or our guest questions by requesting hop on stage or sending a message in the chat box, I will try to get to you, but I do ask that everyone be respectful.
Today's guest is Andrew Daniel, author of the bestselling book, awaken to your true self,
the founder of Cinesomatics and director at the center for Cinesomatic Development.
Daniel, thank you so much for joining me today.
Andrew Daniel 00:01:48
Thank you for having me.
Lorilee Binstock 00:01:50
Well, you know, I was really intrigued. I you know, I've heard of, you know, somatic experiencing, which actually I really just discovered that in twenty twenty when I went into residential
treatment.
But when I heard about you, I heard I I I learned this new thing, at least in my mind, synosomatic therapy. Could you actually tell me a little bit about that?
Andrew Daniel 00:02:12
Yeah. It it is it is very cutting edge stuff.
Basically, cinematics
let's just start with the word. So
it comes from two words,
cinema
and somatics.
So cinema somatics. So the first part is Sinesh. So in this therapy, in this it's pretty much an entire transformational
approach.
We use video.
And so we use video and movement,
and then the somatic part, the body. So we use video and movement
to watch the way people show up in their body.
And then we play that video back of them moving in their body.
And then
myself or other people in the group will give feedback about all of the unconscious,
the subconscious
patterns,
mythologies,
archetypes
that are symbolically
coming through the body. And
not only is it a feedback from the participants or myself,
but they get to see it for themselves in their own body on the video replay.
So it's a very potent feedback loop that helps people see all of the
hidden
traumas or stories or blocks
and even shadow material that's holding them back in their life.
Lorilee Binstock 00:03:36
That's really fascinating because, you know, we
do these things. We we fiddle our hands when we we get nervous. We, you know, we even sweat.
Andrew Daniel 00:03:43
Yes.
Lorilee Binstock 00:03:46
We do so many different things
based on
the things we learn growing up that kind of make us feel safer, I guess, these coping mechanisms.
And I I and I that that is that is really fascinating to me because I'm assuming most people don't know what, like, their trick ticks or whatever are.
How did you actually discover this as a type of therapy?
Andrew Daniel 00:04:15
So it's about twofold. One, I mean, on my journey of my own traumas and growing up and everything
led me
to actually a lot of
alternative
and holistic healing methods.
We didn't have
a lot of big medical insurance. We weren't into any of the pharmaceuticals,
or my parents took me to, I think, a psychologist once
But very gratefully,
I ended up
through my own self help, self
improvement journey,
came across all of these different methods. There was neuro linguistic programming. There was tapping EFT. There was acupuncture. There was hypnosis.
There was
all of these things that were actually pretty helpful for me.
And I actually got certified in different immunotherapies
and and different stuff.
And for a while, it it worked very well, and it and exposed me to whole new
world of
well, a whole new world, really.
Because because not only was it just therapy, everything in my life was changing, it was like, oh my gosh. It's not because I don't know the technique. It's because I got all this junk and stuff inside. I mean, that's getting in the way.
Lorilee Binstock 00:05:32
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:05:32
And so that set me on a healing journey for for the past fifteen years.
And, eventually, I reached a a Plato. I I was homeless twice, even after being published. My software company did very well, and then it just stopped.
And I was wondering how and why that after
all these successes
and learning all of these spiritual
and even practical
truths and wisdoms,
I was still stuck.
There were still
many things in my life that weren't working.
And so I came across work by a a late mentor of mine who was pioneering
some of this
video and movement work. And so I learned a lot through him,
and that really exposed me to this world of
symbolic
somatic,
all this
un
not not invisible, but invisible
to many of us,
Lorilee Binstock 00:06:35
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:06:36
information about ourselves in our body. And then so I studied under him for a few years until he passed. And then I took everything that I learned and then started
expanding upon it. So I took that
movement and video process, and I added in the cinema aspects
We use very high end cinema equipment to get a lot of data.
And then through that practice,
in my own practice, one of the things I discovered
to solidify
Sonosomatics
as my own modality
we're we're the discovery of archetypes in the body. And what I mean by this is when I would watch
clients move, and I would say something like
Alright. Okay. So you're struggling with making money
in your life. Okay.
Lorilee Binstock 00:07:24
I wanna know more.
Andrew Daniel 00:07:25
Right? Is yeah. Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:07:27
This is me.
Andrew Daniel 00:07:27
So
Yeah. So you're struggling with money in your life. Okay. Well, show me through the body
your relationship with money. What is making money look look like to you? Not don't tell me about it. Show me show me in the body. Alright. What is spending money look like?
Oh, what does having money look like? Oh, okay.
And then what I started to find is that
what people said
or thought or had an image of in their mind
didn't
always match
the way that their body felt. So it's all about the feeling, what the body feels like as it's moving.
It's not a mental,
logical analysis. We're dealing with symbolism. We're dealing with the realm of the unconscious. It's not logical and linear.
It is symbolic, metaphorical, allegorical.
And so I started to see, oh, this person, I say, show me making money.
And it takes them two minutes to start moving.
When you're standing in front of somebody on camera for two minutes,
That that for many people is like an eternity.
Lorilee Binstock 00:08:39
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:08:39
And, also, in our own life,
If you scale that out, well, what does that mean about somebody? What does it mean about someone's relationship with making money?
If it takes them two minutes
to even start moving, where most people who are functional in it move immediately.
They'll move it in in about one or two seconds.
And so I started to notice that there were these correlations.
And then I would watch some of these people,
and I would say, alright, show me something like giving.
And then they would do something where they they would take their hands and pull it into themselves.
The the direction would be towards them, and I'm like, wait a minute.
Giving
giving objectively
should go outwards.
And so then I would say, alright. Well, what's your relationship with receiving and giving in your life? And they're like, oh, I struggle with this. And so I I started to
very, very quickly notice the correlations
between
the way that somebody represented these archetypes in their body and the actual practical practical results they were getting in their life. And then as we would begin to explore it, we would start uncovering all of this trauma. We would start uncovering all of these limitations and and
suppressed emotions. And then as we would move through those
emotions and those stories,
their movements would begin to shift, and then they would start embodying more functional archetypes
And then, you know, weeks later, they would get a raise or they they would have a gift or things in their real life actually shifted from the stuff we were doing in their body. So this was,
Lorilee Binstock 00:10:12
No.
Andrew Daniel 00:10:21
you know, many years of discovery and learning, and not only
working with other clients, but my own journey. I had to go through all of this process myself first before I could even see it in other people. And so that's a long story
to a short answer,
semi short as it could be.
Lorilee Binstock 00:10:42
I I love it. I I think that's that's fascinating.
You you develop this through your own observation
and
built upon that. How long does it take
to to do this type of therapy, to observe someone, to analyze,
their archetypes
and
and and really discover all of this.
Andrew Daniel 00:11:05
I can sit with somebody and in seconds know more about them than closest people to them in their life.
Yeah. It's it's incredibly fast.
But the reason it's fast a is because this is this is my job. I I've I've been I've been doing this.
Lorilee Binstock 00:11:22
No.
Andrew Daniel 00:11:23
But b, is that it is that it bypasses
the the mind. It bypasses the heady
analysis.
And so I skip. I skip all the body language I skip all of the
conscious
words that people are using, and I go below that. I go to the feeling underneath stuff.
So you can imagine
I'm sure you and everyone has has had this experience
where they meet somebody
And everything they're saying, it seems nice and friendly and okay,
but you just get this feeling like you don't trust them.
Lorilee Binstock 00:12:00
Mhmm.
Right.
Andrew Daniel 00:12:03
Well, in this work, I've actually figured out what those specific things are,
why
we get that hunch, why we get that gut feeling. And through the video and the movement, I can actually point it out and tell you why and show it to you on video.
Lorilee Binstock 00:12:19
Wow. Yeah. I mean, as someone and and you did mention you've experienced trauma in your life,
most people who have experienced trauma
Andrew Daniel 00:12:28
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:12:28
our empaths and can and and can read people
pretty well because they're used to reading the room to figure out if they're they're safe.
But this is I mean, this is in incredible
stuff.
Andrew Daniel 00:12:42
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:12:44
And how long have have you been doing this cinematic. How long has this been you said it's been
kind of in the works for about the last fifteen years.
Andrew Daniel 00:12:54
So fifteen years of of my journey of
Lorilee Binstock 00:12:56
Oh, your attorney. Yeah.
Andrew Daniel 00:12:57
yeah. Of my journey.
And so there's there's an aspect of that. Now my mentor,
he kind of pioneered just as the the the technology has only been around for a couple
decades I mean, like, two decades really
to to even be able to record this stuff. So he initially pioneered
it on, like, tapes
Ashley, like, real tapes
back in the day. And then so when I worked with him and he passed, I kind of picked up those reins
And it took me
to get from that point of that foundation
to to me turning it into actual cinematics
and the places I've taken it. It's been about
five to seven years.
Lorilee Binstock 00:13:46
That's great.
I mean, I feel like,
you know, the difference
in what I'm learning because, you know, I I didn't even know about any about somatic experiencing.
Which obviously we we we now
know, and and most people who've dealt with trauma is that you know,
we hold it in our body,
Andrew Daniel 00:14:07
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:14:07
and like you were saying, you know, somatic means the body. And
I feel like we need more modalities
that really
focus on healing
what's underneath
the things that you you can recognize
because, you know, what we've been doing for so long has been masking
all of the trauma, all of the symptoms. You know? And and and
Andrew Daniel 00:14:32
Yeah. The symptoms. Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:14:35
we now know it. That's not working.
Andrew Daniel 00:14:37
Right.
Lorilee Binstock 00:14:38
That's that's not working at all.
So I think this this synerosomatic therapy is incredible
work. So how do you have to be where are you located? Do people have to go to you? Is this something that can be done over
video? Like, Zoom. I don't know if Zoom's you probably would have higher tech stuff than that if that were the case. But
how are people able to experience this therapy?
Andrew Daniel 00:15:07
Yeah. It's both. So we basically have two two grades of the therapy. The professional grade is stuff where we can do it online virtually, so we literally do use Zoom.
And so I'll work with a client or we have a group workshop. We actually have a group workshop this weekend,
and people will come in on the Zoom call. And then I will be facilitating,
and then we'll have everybody move. They have privacy and space to move.
And on my end, I use my technology to record everybody moving or the client,
and then also as well certain technology to play it back over Zoom, and then give them feedback. And then the whole thing is being recorded as a replay, which has another layer of feedback to it. So that's that's what I do most often because it's so much easier for people to to hop on a Zoom call than it is to fly out. But I do have people I do have people fly out. There's things where we can only
Lorilee Binstock 00:16:00
Right.
Andrew Daniel 00:16:04
do in person.
And so the second grade is the cinema grade where we actually have the
tens and tens of thousands of dollars of Hollywood
cinema grade equipment
where we're able to capture in very high resolution at very high speeds
a very particular
system that we have,
and that allows us to go into super high rates and super slow motions
to see all of the stuff that we normally would miss
just watching in real time. You can slow it down, play it back, because what happens in real time is that sometimes
these things were were manipulating other people. We're we're hoodwinking. We're we're seducing.
We're lying to ourselves and other people and sometimes not even knowing it. And so it's very off it's very easy to get pulled into someone's story. Right? Get pulled sucked into someone's manipulation,
Lorilee Binstock 00:16:51
Right.
Andrew Daniel 00:16:58
and no one know it. Well, with the video and the replay,
you can distance yourself from that and say, oh my gosh. Look at that. Oh, you're doing this. Oh, oh, this was happening. And so
Both of though that particular thing is helpful
in person and online.
But
having the in person stuff we have a specific diagnostic
that's called
a a slack line. So we actually have people walk on a slack line.
And we have various hands on techniques and stuff, as you know, with with trauma and a lot of people just don't get
haven't had touch. And there's there's a lot of stuff in the body
where
appropriate,
safe,
touch,
can, you know
you know, activate
stuff. I was just reading I was just watching a video of
Lorilee Binstock 00:17:50
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:17:50
somebody talking about
just babies sleeping in certain ways,
the pressure their body parts have on the bed
turns on certain circuits, you know, some nervous system stuff in the development of the baby. So there's so much stuff
that
the body does and holds,
and
the in person stuff allows us to do those things that we can't do virtually. But I have clients that I work with.
I've been working with for two years, and it's
ninety percent virtual.
Oftentimes, they'll come in for a few days. They'll fly in, and we'll do that stuff, which is like a supercharged
in a few day session. And then over the course of the next few weeks and months,
we help integrate and and go further with that stuff. So it it works both virtually and in person at very high levels.
Lorilee Binstock 00:18:44
That's great. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I
I I think there's a lot.
I mean, I know I I I do I I do internal family systems therapy, and I do this weekly with my therapist, and I do it over Zoom.
But there are things that, you know,
are really benefit doing it in person like you were saying, like, the bodywork. When when I was in trauma
therapy for residential treatment,
it was
you were you were given
body work each day, whether it be a massage,
Andrew Daniel 00:19:19
Oh, excellent.
Lorilee Binstock 00:19:19
And, yeah, it it they they I what is it when they move the
Andrew Daniel 00:19:24
Lemphatic,
Lorilee Binstock 00:19:25
yes. What is
Andrew Daniel 00:19:26
or fat, myofascial,
Lorilee Binstock 00:19:28
Yeah. They were so there was just a list of of their body work that they really wanted you to do
Andrew Daniel 00:19:31
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:19:36
along with the programming that they already had because it was just
Andrew Daniel 00:19:39
Oh, wow. You're
you're very lucky. That's very blessed. I mean, a lot of places don't know that.
Lorilee Binstock 00:19:43
I I was I I am
Yes. I am I'm very, very blessed because I feel that, you know you know, I
this this place is Sears Tucson in Arizona. I I could talk about them forever because they they worked on some really cutting edge stuff there, like, revisioning, which I I I still don't hear people talking about. But there are also, I think, one of the only clinics back in twenty twenty that was doing
ketamine treatments for
Andrew Daniel 00:20:09
Oh, okay.
Lorilee Binstock 00:20:10
so and I did know
neural feedback.
Andrew Daniel 00:20:14
Yep.
Lorilee Binstock 00:20:15
And, obviously, I feel like, sino sino
sino somatic therapy would be extremely helpful.
In in that in that kind of environment in a in a residential treatment center where there are a lot of people who are there and who are staying there and who has who can do this. So that's something definitely I think you to think about. But,
you know,
in talking about this, you know, I I Like I mentioned, I did inter I do internal family system therapy. And I I've mentioned briefly or I think you you've heard
my work with psychedelics. I I I've done
Andrew Daniel 00:20:48
Yes.
Lorilee Binstock 00:20:50
I mean, I've I really, really credit psychedelics.
To a lot of my transformation.
And you mentioned briefly
Andrew Daniel 00:20:58
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:21:01
about usage shamanism
and embodiment therapy
that your organization's actually pioneering, and I'm intrigued. I was like, I need to know more about this. Like, you you're really on on the frontier of all this cutting edge stuff, so I need to learn more.
Andrew Daniel 00:21:07
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. So it's it this is so Cinematics
is a very specific
you know, let's just call it the the the method, the technique.
It's using the video and the movement.
Now there's other things I do with it as well, and so
One of the things is doing dream work. Another another thing is doing symbolism work, and we use ancient
imagery. Basically, use picture
symbols
as these archetypes.
And
so I basically have this three
three door approach.
We have the dream work, right, this unconscious symbolic realm. We have picture symbols, symbolic realm, and then we have the body,
symbolic realm, unconscious.
And so
dealing with all three of these,
what we're doing is not
a heady mental academic analysis.
What we're doing all of it is actually going into a
it's almost like a meditative
state.
And in this
sort of very still,
quiet,
connected place,
we go into
these symbols,
and we're not just doing it
Willie Nilly
or we're not just doing it on the surface,
we're really doing what's called chateau work.
And maybe some people have heard this term,
but it's really been,
I don't wanna say, appropriated, but it's been very watered down. You
know, real shadow work is going into the places
of our
psyche
that we have spent decades of our life not ever wanting to go. It's going into the places
of ourselves that we hate, that we despise, that we feel guilty about, that we judge, that we shun, that we literally wanna take pills or take a knife and cut it off and get it off of us and and completely change it or
Lorilee Binstock 00:23:21
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:23:25
just, you know, disown it.
And part of this work is looking at those things, and not only looking at them, but reintegrating
Lorilee Binstock 00:23:31
Yeah.
Andrew Daniel 00:23:34
them, letting go of the judgments, letting go of the suppression
stopping the suppression.
And then this, of course, encounters all of the trauma. And it it encounters
the stories in our life that say,
Okay. This thing is bad about me. We can't look at that or deal with that. And then saying, well,
Maybe we've got that wrong all along. Maybe
that was just something we did to protect ourselves
and cope with something that was horrendous in the moment that we didn't know anything else to do about.
Lorilee Binstock 00:24:06
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:24:08
And now as adults in a safe place, we can allow ourselves to go there and to heal that.
And so
we do this
with the movement. We do it with the dreams. We do it with the symbolism work.
And it
is very akin to
the the the psychedelic journey.
Lorilee Binstock 00:24:31
Mhmm. Yeah.
Andrew Daniel 00:24:32
But conscious.
So one of the things with the entheogens and the psychedelics
is is a twofold
benefit, but also a limit.
And that's the fact that it kinda shows you everything. It kind of forces you. Right? It takes you where it's gonna take you.
Lorilee Binstock 00:24:47
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:24:50
And you can surrender
or you can fight it.
And
and so for a lot of people, it's really beneficial because most people
Lorilee Binstock 00:24:57
Right.
Andrew Daniel 00:24:59
aren't willing to go to these places themselves.
Lorilee Binstock 00:25:03
That's very true.
Andrew Daniel 00:25:05
Yeah. Yes. So it's it's incredibly beneficial because of that. Now
the
the limitation of that
is are two things. One,
is that you're you're at choice by going in,
but
the choices throughout of it
you know, like we said, it it more of takes you there. So it's less of a conscious will. Now you our response because you're the one that decided to do it and you're letting go and allowing it to do it. So you're you're still at choice,
but it's a different kind of choice than showing up in your conscious awareness
making those individual choices.
The second thing is the integration.
Is that on a lot of these experiences, you're in this
very altered state. You're in and out of consciousness, maybe sometimes.
Things are really symbolic.
And depending on your guide, depending on the container, depending on the post integration,
you can really benefit from it, or you could kind of go a little crazy
you know, people have had, you know, psychedelic experiences where they can't ground it back into reality. You know, they're they're their ego is blown and, you know, all of this stuff.
Lorilee Binstock 00:26:23
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:26:24
And so
I I still you know, I think it's an amazing thing. However,
in my work,
we're doing that same level of
exploring
these symbolic, unconscious
things that you would in psychedelics,
but we're doing it loosely. We're doing it consciously.
So now there's parks and downsides to this. The parks are
you're integrating everything as you go, and you're getting the wisdom.
The wisdom is not only in your subconscious, but now it's in your conscious.
Right? You're consciously
aware in real time of what everything is teaching you, what all of these symbols are teaching you. So the integration is very rapid in real time. It doesn't necessarily take, you know, weeks or months, you know, to journal and talk and figure it out. It's happening in real time.
The second benefit with that is that you're at choice the entire way. And so you're the one that's empowered the entire time, and you're the one
that's choosing to go there or not. Now this is also the downside.
The downside
is that it requires your choice,
and a lot of people
don't necessarily wanna look at this stuff. And so their ego defenses come up. And all of these strategies to hide out and run away,
get engaged.
And the second kind of downside ish, but just you know,
I guess we could call it a downside, is that it's very confronting.
Lorilee Binstock 00:28:00
Yes.
Andrew Daniel 00:28:00
It's extremely
confronting. So the specific way that I use cinematics in this lucid Shamanism work
is advanced. It is it is not a
beginner,
a process. It's not for someone that just walks off off the street.
You do have to have a very solid foundation
in in many areas of your life.
Because what happens is when we start doing this work, and I say, alright. Show me these archetypes. Start moving in your body. And I'm giving you feedback.
What I'm doing is reflecting back to you. So this is the shaman part of it. Where a shaman, you could say, one definition of a shaman,
is someone who
walks the line walks between the two worlds
of the symbolic
and unconscious
with
the literal
waking state. Right? The waking and sleep realms. The shaman is navigating through.
And so what I'm doing in this work is the same thing,
just not with any substances.
So we're literally
helping people integrate these these subconscious,
symbolic
stories, and data, and archetypes,
and making them conscious.
And so in that process, what I'm doing as the facilitator
is not giving advice. I'm not analyzing it. I'm not
saying it's right or wrong or good or bad or what they should do or shouldn't do or anything.
All I'm doing
is being a still pawn.
A clean mirror and reflecting
back the truth of what I see.
And the video does that even better than me. Now this is this is incredibly healing, and it's an incredibly powerful process that changes people's lives.
The thing with it, though, is that I'm just reflecting back what with what I see. And so there's an AA phrase that that's basically the truth will set you free. But first, it'll piss you off.
Lorilee Binstock 00:30:03
Yep.
Andrew Daniel 00:30:04
And this is often what we encounter, not with everybody, but when I'm when you're when you go to a
a session,
and they're saying
your This behavior you're doing here is narcissistic.
You're manipulating.
You're seducing.
You're
completely out of relationship with your masculine or feminine.
Oh,
you are actually monitoring yourself
for the past forty years when you thought you were just being nice.
And it's not my opinion. They see the proof
in the video of themselves doing it.
And so it can be a very, very confronting process. And it's only for people that are ready for it. But the people that are ready to see that,
their entire lives change. Everything changes. Their nervous system gets rewired.
The the relationship
shift.
They add I have clients that add zeros to their income.
All of these things happen because you you finally get to know the truth, and you can't get to where you wanna go if you don't know where you're at. And so this work helps with both.
Lorilee Binstock 00:31:14
That is incredible because, you know, you know, I'm
I'm
absolutely it's like
advocate for psychedelics, but I I do understand that psychedelics is not for everyone.
It I mean,
being okay with traveling to the darkest parts of your soul is
it's
it's heavy. It's heavy.
Andrew Daniel 00:31:34
Yeah. This. Yeah. Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:31:35
And
and I and like you were saying, you know,
in the case of
psychedelics,
you don't really have a choice of coming out of it until it's over.
Andrew Daniel 00:31:47
Right.
Lorilee Binstock 00:31:48
And and
what you're what you're, you know,
sharing with loosen loosen Shamanism. I feel that
in this this body of therapy,
is that there there is this option for those people who are, like, I am not touching psychedelics because that is just I I I want more control control than that, then there's this this option,
Andrew Daniel 00:32:08
Right. Right.
Lorilee Binstock 00:32:11
which I think is phenomenal.
I I you know,
do you ever have anyone who's like, I don't even wanna watch what I was doing. I have I have trouble just looking at myself
in videos and and and actually trying to analyze. Is is there anyone who ever is just, like,
they do it, and then they're just, like, I can't do this anymore.
Andrew Daniel 00:32:32
Well,
a lot of people don't like looking at their cells. And you wanna know the reason why.
What I realized
well, do you wanna know?
Lorilee Binstock 00:32:43
I do wanna know. Yes.
Andrew Daniel 00:32:44
Yes. Okay.
So,
you know, we we maybe ourselves. We've done this ourselves. I certainly didn't like seeing myself in photos or videos or
anything.
And I I know plenty of people that don't. Well,
Lorilee Binstock 00:32:57
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:33:00
One of the biggest reasons why is because at some level, we are seeing our shadow.
We look at ourselves. Well, what what we start doing judging? Well, that's a shadow aspect. You know, we're seeing all of these things we don't like about ourselves. That's why we don't wanna look at it. But then there's also a deeper level. Then there's also this understanding that we don't like ourselves. And then we're judging ourselves, and we don't wanna feel like we're judging ourselves. And so there's this whole stack of stuff that happens
for most people instantaneously.
And so they're just like, I I don't even I don't even wanna look.
Lorilee Binstock 00:33:38
Yes.
Andrew Daniel 00:33:38
Now
the thing is
those people
are it's gonna be twofold. They're gonna have a really hard time with this work, but it'd also be the best thing they've ever done. Which is usually the case. Right? It's like the thing you're terrified of doing the most,
Lorilee Binstock 00:33:50
Mhmm.
Andrew Daniel 00:33:54
knowing that it's the safe, you know, not a reckless thing. But the thing you're avoiding the most
as I say in my book, is probably the thing that's gonna move you forward the quickest.
Lorilee Binstock 00:34:04
Yep.
Andrew Daniel 00:34:05
And so in this work, yeah, People come in. They'll have a session. They're like, oh, yeah. I like embodiment. Oh, shadow work. This is fun. You know? And then I basically
tell them their deepest darkest secrets that nobody else knows,
and,
you know, they they're like, you know, buy.
So it does happen,
but then I also have clients who
do one session, and then they work with me for two years. You know, they keep renewing, not because it doesn't work, but because every single aspect of their life works better and better and better and better. And so after the there's an an initial period of kind of the shock and, like, confirm confrontation
and, like, oh my god.
And then what happens is you you realize that all we're doing is seeing
ourselves in the world more accurately.
It's not good and bad, right or wrong, should or shouldn't judgment of this or judgment of that.
What we're doing
is not telling better stories. It's not spinning things positive.
It's just reporting things as is as they are.
Not inflating it. But also not deflating it. And so what happens is that people that go through this process,
they
They fall in love with themselves.
They can see themselves.
They can see the shadow, but they can also see the light. And they're not at the effect of it anymore. They say, you know what? Yeah, that is a shadow effect aspect of me. I do have this narcissistic thing. I do have the selfishness when I do that.
And that's okay. I'm I'm at peace with it because I know I'm at choice, and I'm not doing that anymore.
I don't do like, I don't do those things anymore.
But I still recognize that part of myself.
And so going into these archetypes, we realized that
it's not about being one perfect thing. It's about
having full access to the entire range
of
humanity of all of this stuff.
And we see this in the movements. People will move, and
How they move in their bodies is how they move through their life. The foundational principle of this is how you do one thing is how you do everything.
The way you move in your body, the way you show up on the call, the way you look at yourself on video
is how you're doing that in your life. It's how you see yourself in in in your day to day life. It's how you move through the world. It's how you see everyone else in the world around you. It's your relationship
to life.
And
through this process,
we transformed those relationships.
We we help people feel safe in their bodies again. We help people,
you know, stop judging themselves and everything.
We get people to remove the shackles
and the walls and the barriers
and open up to love.
And become vulnerable, and that vulnerability leads to intimacy,
let people in again, and let ourselves out into the world to be fully expressed.
Without these plateaus, without these stories of limitations of I should or shouldn't I can't be or I'm not this or I'm not enough or I'm not lovable or there's something wrong with me. You know, we're not fixing.
We're stopping.
And that's one of the biggest difference too in this work is that it's not It's not
personal development, which I also called persona
development.
We're not helping people build a better image.
We're helping people stop
everything. We're helping people subtract all of the stuff that isn't really who they are.
And through that process, we get closer and closer
to their true self. Whereas if you start fixing and adding,
all of that layers on top and actually takes you further from your true self.
Lorilee Binstock 00:38:06
Yeah.
It you know, it's funny when you were talking about why
we don't like to watch videos of ourselves. It's
I actually had therapy yesterday. And, you know, I have I have an eight year old daughter. She's beautiful. She's smart. She's
she's amazing.
But, you know, we've been
going at it a lot recently,
and
And you know, I realized in my therapy session because there was a part of me
that I disliked about myself
Andrew Daniel 00:38:38
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:38:38
and how I handle things, and she is was my reflection
Andrew Daniel 00:38:39
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:38:44
of that.
And so, you know, in
in working through that, I had to get a better understanding of what did that part of me need
when I was behaving the way that she was behaving when I was younger.
And and that was
and I think that
in thinking about that,
today,
it's it's I just wanted to be heard, and that's all she wants to be. She just wants to be heard. And so, yes, I'm you know, it's it's it's
Andrew Daniel 00:39:11
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:39:12
not
changing
who you are. It's kinda I feel like it's it's having a better understanding of why
and then just going kinda going from there.
So and and and when you were talking about transformation, it's like
people who are scared of those bad trips,
those those those people who actually just dive headfirst into those really bad experiences,
those bad trips, those darkest part the darkest parts of, you know, their souls. That I feel like that is when this the transformation
really takes place. Because that those are the things that have been holding them back.
Andrew Daniel 00:39:44
Yes.
Joseph Campbell's Joseph Campbell's Yeah. He's a great quote.
Lorilee Binstock 00:39:50
Is there
go.
Andrew Daniel 00:39:54
He's Joseph Campbell says, the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
And that's
Lorilee Binstock 00:40:02
That couldn't be more true.
Andrew Daniel 00:40:02
and yeah. And that's that's what we're talking about. Yep.
Lorilee Binstock 00:40:06
Yeah. And and it's so hard because I know that, you know, there are people out there who
Andrew Daniel 00:40:10
It is.
Lorilee Binstock 00:40:11
because that that that are careful. And sometimes there are people who don't even know that they're like, I don't believe that there's any treasure there. You know, there's no personal develop you know, there's no growth there. You know? Because even five years ago, I'm like, this is who I am. This is, you know, this is this is this is it. There's no there's no such thing as post traumatic growth or anything like that. I just
Andrew Daniel 00:40:18
Right. Yeah.
Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:40:35
didn't believe it. And, you know,
five years later, I'm like, I don't even know who that was.
So there is there is a way, and
to transform.
Andrew Daniel 00:40:45
There's always a way. Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:40:46
Yes. Absolutely.
Andrea, is there anything that you would like to add?
Andrew Daniel 00:40:53
Oh, yeah. I got all sorts of stuff. What do you wanna know?
Lorilee Binstock 00:40:56
Oh, tell me. What so what are you doing what are you working on now? What is what?
What is it the
big thing that you would like this audience to know? These are people who, you know, are trauma survivors.
These are people who who feel that they have trauma that's lurking that they don't wanna face, what is it that you think they would need to know?
Andrew Daniel 00:41:19
Oh, jeez.
Well, it's a lot. I
Oh,
yeah. That's that's there's a a a lot in there.
I think I think the biggest thing is
And I talked about this in my book,
making
truth the most important thing.
And how that actually practically looks is
do you value
comfort or do you value the truth?
Do you value
playing safe and hiding out,
or do you value the truth?
Do you
value
suppressing
and avoiding,
or do you value knowing the truth?
And so if you can make the truth the most important
thing in your life and use that as your North Star, not happiness
because there's a lot of things
for our growth
that that makes our life incredible
that really aren't themselves
happy.
They lead to it, but the initial thing isn't.
Lorilee Binstock 00:42:29
Right.
Andrew Daniel 00:42:34
And so if you're orienting your life to comfort
and
false safety. Now safety is very important,
true safety,
but many of us have a full sense of safety.
You know, hiding out in our rooms and not going out into the world, isn't necessarily
real safety. Because, guess what happens? Well, you don't have a community.
You lose access to making money, and so you might not have a how you know, so there's all of these repercussions and consequences
for things that are ego,
would label and identify as
good positive stuff.
So if you can make the truth the most important thing,
beyond these, beyond your stories,
beyond any
victim mentality stories,
even if you were
a actual victim to something horrific,
it doesn't mean that you you have to keep telling the story
for the next forty years of your life and be a prisoner to it. And so if you can
align yourself to the truth,
and make that more important than any of these things.
You're going to have a
value.
You're going to stand for something greater than the trauma.
You're gonna stand for something greater than the abuse.
You're gonna stand for something greater than you're suffering.
And if you can begin
to live and make choices
from that place,
everything will begin to change. It may not necessarily be easy. In fact, it may be the hardest thing you've ever done. But I can promise
it will be the most rewarding.
Lorilee Binstock 00:44:22
Yes. It's it's being your authentic self. It's just
chipping away at all the stories that we've told ourselves, like you were saying, all these ideas that we were told
we needed to
be successful, I guess.
Andrew Daniel 00:44:38
Yeah. Be enough. Yeah.
Lorilee Binstock 00:44:39
Yeah. Oh, well, you know, I I I absolutely
loved having you on today,
and I know that there's so much more that your organization is doing, and for anyone who would like
to learn more right there is the scrolling fortune cookie to
cinematic
dot org, and you can learn more about
Andrew and
absent and you can also check out his his book, awaken to your true self. There's so much there. So, Daniel, thank you so much for joining me today.
Andrew Daniel 00:45:14
Yeah. Thank you so much. I I do recommend if people are interested to check out
my book, awaken to your true self.
You have you do have to be willing to be confronted and stick with it, but tens of thousands of people have have benefited from it, and If any of this sounds interesting, that's a great,
great first step.
Lorilee Binstock 00:45:35
Amazing.
That was Andrew Daniel, author of the bestselling book, awakening to your true self and the founder of cinematics
and director at the center for cinematic development. For more information on Daniel and the center for cinematic development, like I said, you can just click on that scrolling fortune cookie. It will also be found in the show notes.
April's issue of authentic insiders out, authentic insighter to be found at traumasurviberthriver
dot com. That's traumasurviberthriver
dot com. If you haven't already, please subscribe to my email list to get authentic insighter
magazine in your inbox monthly.
Again, thank you so much for joining me today. Join me live next week, April twenty nine or April nineteenth, excuse me. When I speak with Mandy Harvey,
she will be discussing the connection between
trauma and chronic illness and how to solve it for good.
And you've been listening to a trauma survivor thriver's podcast on Fireside.
I'm Lorilee Binstock. Again, thank you for being a part of the conversation.
Take care.