What is Emotional Release Bodywork?
Emotional Release Bodywork is a hands-on, participatory practice that works with specific points throughout the body, conscious breath, and guided attention to create space for held emotion to be felt, expressed, and released.
Although you receive the work on a massage table, this is not a passive form of bodywork. You are an active participant in the process. Rather than simply lying back while something is done to you, you'll be invited to stay connected to your breath, notice what is happening in your body, communicate what you're experiencing, and follow what naturally arises.
That may include sensation, emotion, sound, movement, words, memories, or simply quiet attention. There is nothing you need to perform or make happen. Being still and deeply present with yourself can be just as much a part of the work.
The work is also deeply connected to inner child work. Rather than only talking about what happened or trying to understand why a pattern exists, we listen to what the body is holding and make space for what wants to move.
This work comes from Emotional Release Therapy (ERT), developed by Pat Jackman, who has practiced and taught the modality since 1995. In my practice, I call this work Emotional Release Bodywork to distinguish the hands-on bodywork I offer from psychotherapy.
How Emotional Release Bodywork Is Different
Emotional Release Bodywork shares pieces with several practices you may already be familiar with—but it isn't quite the same as any of them. Sometimes the easiest way to understand the work is to see them side by side.
| Practice | Primary Focus | How Emotional Release Bodywork Is Different |
|---|---|---|
| Massage Therapy | Muscles, tension, relaxation, and physical function | ERB isn't primarily focused on relaxing muscles or changing physical structure. Touch is used as a way of listening to and engaging with what is happening emotionally and physically in the body. |
| Talk Therapy | Thoughts, emotions, relationships, patterns, meaning, and insight | ERB doesn't begin with trying to understand or explain an experience. We work directly with the body, allowing sensation, emotion, expression, and meaning—if there is meaning—to emerge through the experience itself. |
| Breathwork | Using the breath as the primary pathway into an embodied experience | Breath is an important part of ERB, but it isn't the primary intervention. Breath accompanies hands-on work with specific points throughout the body. |
| Somatic Therapy | Bringing the body and nervous system into the therapeutic process | Both value what the body communicates. ERB is primarily a hands-on bodywork practice and does not require the experience to be processed through psychotherapy or conversation. |
| Deep Tissue / Structural Bodywork | Muscles, fascia, mobility, tension, and physical structure | Some of the pressure used in ERB may feel similar, but the intention is different. We aren't trying to correct or restructure the body; we're listening for what emerges through contact with it. |
| EFT / Tapping | Tapping specific points while focusing on emotions, beliefs, or experiences | Despite the similar initials, EFT and ERT/ERB are different modalities. ERB is practitioner-led, hands-on bodywork using sustained contact and pressure rather than self-administered tapping. |
What Happens in a Session:
1. We begin by talking.
We’ll spend some time checking in, going over the breath, reviewing logistics, and discussing anything you’d like me to know before we begin. You don’t need to arrive with something you want to work on. Instead, we’ll take time to be with what’s here and allow the session to unfold from there.
2. We move to the table.
When you’re ready, we transition into the hands-on portion of the session. You will remain draped, and your privacy will be respected throughout the work.
3. You are an active part of the work.
Although you are receiving hands-on bodywork, this isn't a passive experience. I'll invite you to stay connected to your breath and notice what is happening in your body as we work. You may be invited to name sensations, follow an impulse to move or make sound, speak what is coming up, or simply stay present with what you're feeling.
You don't have to perform, produce an emotion, or make anything happen. Active participation can also look like being still, quiet, and deeply present with yourself.
4. We begin at the heart.
Every session begins here. We slow down, connect with the breath, and listen for what is present. Sometimes we move on from the heart. Sometimes we don’t. There is no sequence we need to complete and nowhere we need to get to.
5. We follow what emerges.
As the session unfolds, I may work with specific areas of the body we call doorways, using sustained pressure, breath, and attention.
Rather than trying to make something happen, we listen to what your body is communicating and allow the work to move at its own pace.
6. We make room for whatever comes.
Emotion may arise as we work—grief, anger, fear, tenderness, laughter, memories, images, sounds, movement, or something entirely different. Sometimes the experience is big. Sometimes it is incredibly subtle.
There is no right way to release, and nothing needs to be forced.
7. We may meet younger parts of you.
Inner child work is woven throughout Emotional Release Bodywork. When a younger part of you emerges, we slow down and make space for what they may have needed but couldn’t receive at the time—attention, compassion, expression, reassurance, or simply someone willing to stay present.
8. We come back together.
We leave time at the end of the session to slow down, reconnect with the room and your body, and allow what has moved to begin settling before you leave.
What will a session actually feel like?
It can be hard to understand Emotional Release Bodywork until you’ve experienced it. While every body and every session is different, it can help to know what you might encounter.
The physical experience can range from deeply tender to physically intense. At times, the work can feel soft, nurturing, grounding, or deeply held. At other times, pressure at certain doorways can feel achy, uncomfortable, painful, or intense. Both can exist within the same session. We stay in communication throughout the work, and you can always ask for less pressure, a different kind of contact, or for me to stop.
Physical sensation and emotion can become intertwined. Something may begin as a physical sensation and open into emotion—or emotion may simply arise on its own. Sometimes the connection is clear. Other times there may be sensation or feeling without a story attached to it.
Emotion can show up in all kinds of ways. Tears, anger, grief, fear, laughter, shaking, sound, movement, memories, images, or words may emerge. You may recognize exactly what you’re feeling, or have no idea where it came from.
It can be loud. And it can be very quiet. Some people cry, yell, swear, shake, move, or make sounds they didn’t expect. Other times the work looks like a long exhale, stillness, softening, or simply being held. Neither is more meaningful than the other.
It can also feel really good. People sometimes describe deep relaxation, openness, connection, relief, pleasure, or even euphoria during or after the work. Emotional release doesn’t have to mean suffering. Joy, laughter, warmth, and aliveness have a place here too.
You may feel different afterward. You might feel lighter, tired, hungry, tender, quiet, energized, emotional, euphoric—or simply like yourself. The work can continue to settle in the hours and days that follow.
Being witnessed can be part of the work. There can be something powerful about allowing yourself to feel what is there while another person remains present with you—without rushing you, fixing you, or asking you to make it smaller.
There is no particular experience we are trying to create. Healing isn’t measured by intensity. We follow your body, your capacity, and what is present that day.
There are parts of us that learned very early how to get through the world. Parts that learned to be good, stay quiet, take care of everyone else, hold it together, disappear, fight back, or become whatever was needed in order to belong and be loved.
We grow up, but those younger parts don't simply disappear. They can still show up in the ways we protect ourselves, the things that feel especially tender, the emotions that seem bigger than the moment, and the places where we long to be seen, chosen, comforted, or understood.
Sometimes those younger parts emerge during Emotional Release Bodywork. You might remember a younger version of yourself, feel connected to a particular age or experience, or simply notice a feeling that seems to come from somewhere deeper. You don't have to know where it comes from or make sense of it.
When that happens, we don't rush past it or try to fix it. We stay. We listen. We make room for what wasn't able to be felt, said, asked for, or received then—and offer that younger part of you something different now.
Inner child work isn't about living in the past. It's about meeting the parts of you that are still asking for your attention in the present.
The Inner Child in Emotional Release Bodywork
Who is Emotional Release Bodywork For?
Anyone ready to connect deeply with their body and emotions.
Those carrying emotional or physical pain from trauma, chronic stress, or unresolved wounds.
Individuals who have tried talk therapy but feel like something is still stuck beneath the surface.
Anyone seeking a somatic, body-centered approach to healing.
Veterans or trauma survivors looking for gentle but powerful ways to release held tension and reconnect with themselves.
People willing to face uncomfortable feelings in a safe, supportive space.
Is Now the Right Time?
Emotional Release Bodywork can bring us into contact with feelings, sensations, memories, and parts of ourselves that we may not encounter in everyday life. Because of that, wanting to do this work and being in a place to do this work aren't always the same thing.
You don't need to have everything figured out, feel perfectly grounded, or be free from struggle before coming in. But it is important to have enough support and stability in your life to make space for what may arise during and after a session.
There may be times when Emotional Release Bodywork isn't the right support, or simply isn't the right support right now. This may be true if you are:
In an acute mental health crisis or experiencing thoughts of harming yourself or someone else
Experiencing significant instability that makes it difficult to feel oriented to the present or care for yourself after a session
Looking for psychotherapy, diagnosis, mental health treatment, or medical treatment
In a physical condition where sustained pressure or hands-on bodywork may not be appropriate
Feeling pressured to participate by someone else rather than choosing the work for yourself
If you're unsure, we can talk about what is happening in your life, what you're hoping for from the work, and whether Emotional Release Bodywork feels appropriate at this time.
Sometimes the most supportive choice is to begin. Sometimes it's to wait. And sometimes another kind of care is a better fit.
Check out @openingshift or @jackman.pat on instagram for a sense of what the work may look like.
Get in Touch
If you’re curious, uncertain, or ready to dive in, I’d love to connect.
Schedule a free 15-minute connection call. A space to ask questions and see if Emotional Release Bodywork feels right for you.
denise@earthspiritsomatics.com
Call or text: 503.477.0775
