Exploring the Satisfaction Cycle from Somatic Therapy
The satisfaction cycle consists of five foundational actions: yield, push, reach, grasp, and pull. These actions form the basis of movement patterns that support how we navigate, sense, and connect with ourselves, others, and the world. The role of movement is often vital to healing trauma. Movement taps into our bodies' intelligence, bridging the physical, psychological, energetic, and intuitive senses for greater self-awareness. Therefore, working with the understanding that everything in this universe is, at its core, a pattern and is essentially energy.
Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen first introduced these ideas. Donna Farhi, Susan Aposhyan, Arielle Schwartz, and others expanded upon the profound influence of the somatic understanding of the relationship between movement and emotional health. This cycle integrates core developmental movement patterns that reflect the intuitive stages we move through in the first few years of life. These movements mimic the actions that begin in infancy, such as pushing into the arms and legs or reaching with the eyes and hands. Over time, these patterns evolve into increasingly complex cross-lateral movements, enabling crawling, standing, and walking. The satisfaction cycle is about the psychological and emotional experiences embedded in these movements and returning to these movements consciously and intentionally to reconnect us to our bodies. The return to these movements allows for a curious exploration of the feelings, sensations, and other internal states that open a doorway to deeper self-awareness and healing.
Let's explore these patterns' psychology more deeply to uncover how they shape our relationships, boundaries, and capacity to experience empowerment and healing.
What Is Psychological Flexibility?
The concept of having psychological flexibility involves adapting to situations with openness, awareness, and intentional action. In somatic therapy, psychological flexibility is intrinsic and is part of the science of embodiment, which is the conscious connection to the body's sensations, breath, and movements. When we integrate somatic principles, psychological flexibility becomes a lived experience supported by a harmonious relationship with our true Self in a way that brings healing to the body, mind, and spirit.
Reconnecting with the Body: The Role of Embodiment
Embodiment reminds us that our bodies remember what happened to us and that we can connect to the imprint of what also wanted to happen but couldn't. Embodiment is, therefore, a transformative concept in somatic psychology: the body carries the unmet thwarted (incomplete) impulses, instincts, and suppressed emotional expressions from distressing and challenging experiences. For instance, a threatened child might have wanted to kick, scream, or run but couldn't. What Peter Levine refers to as 'thwarted instinctual movements' remain "frozen" in the body, affecting how we interact with the world.
Body awareness practices and somatic therapy tools can release these physical and emotional blockages. Bringing awareness to and tuning into movement and breath in the present moment can access the body's innate healing ability and wisdom to reclaim the satisfaction cycle as a pathway to healing.
The Satisfaction Cycle: A Developmental Blueprint for Wholeness
The satisfaction cycle consists of five fundamental actions: yield, push, reach, grasp, and pull. These actions reflect intuitive stages of human development, and each builds upon the previous one, creating an engagement, accomplishment, and rest cycle. When this cycle is disrupted, whether by trauma, neglect, or rushed developmental milestones, it can manifest as challenges in learning, communication, emotional regulation, and relationships.
Here's a closer look at each stage of the satisfaction cycle and its psychological significance:
Yield: Yielding is about surrendering to gravity, allowing the body to rest and receive support. In childhood, this may look like relaxing in the arms of a caregiver; however, in adulthood, it may look more like relaxed alertness with a sense of being safe enough to let go of tension and trust our environment.
Challenges: When early attachment experiences are disrupted, yielding may feel unsafe, leading to patterns of hypervigilance, collapse, or disconnection.
Healing Practice: Creating a safe space to consciously relax, attend to body sensations, and reconnect with a sense of trust.
Healing pose: Crocodile Pose (Makarasana)
Lie face down on your belly with your legs extended behind you, feet slightly apart.
Rest your forehead on your hands, stacked one on the other.
Allow your elbows to flare naturally, creating a stable base for your upper body.
Let your whole body relax, sinking into the floor while maintaining steady, soft breaths.
Push: Once we yield, we find strength in the push. Pushing allows us to separate from caregivers and explore independence. It defines our boundaries and informs our confidence in saying "no."
Challenges: When independence or boundaries are not supported, individuals may struggle to assert themselves or overcompensate with rigid defenses.
Healing Practice: Practice grounded pushing movements by pressing into the floor, wall, chair, or any other stable surface to re-establish a sense of empowerment and clarity about boundaries.
Healing pose: Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)
Lie face down on your belly, legs extended behind you, with the tops of your feet resting on a mat. Place your palms under your shoulders; fingers spread wide.
Press the tops of your feet and thighs gently into the mat. Engage your lower abdominal muscles to support the lower back.
As you inhale, press through your palms and slowly lift your chest off the ground. Keep your elbows slightly bent and close to your sides.
Draw your shoulder blades back and down, lifting through the sternum and the heart center. Gaze slightly forward or upward to keep the neck long, avoiding compression.
Hold a few breaths, then exhale as you slowly lower back down.
Reach: Reaching movement reflects curiosity and the desire to connect with the environment around us and bridges a connection to our inner needs and external relationships.
Challenges: An unsupported reach can lead to feelings of overextension or apathy, leaving us disconnected from our goals and relationships.
Healing Practice: Reconnecting with the reach involves mindful exploration of the space around you, cultivating curiosity and connection.
Healing pose: Side Angle Pose. Utthita Parsvakonasana
Step one foot forward, bend the front knee to 90 degrees and align the back leg straight.
Place the front arm's elbow on the thigh or hand on the floor/outside the foot.
Now, reach and extend the top arm overhead, creating a straight line from fingertips to back heel. You may reach in different directions, or even circle the top arm around consciously to embody achieving more reaching sensations. Additionally, you may feel a spreading apart from the planted foot and the extended arm for a greater sense of reach. Open the chest, gaze upward or forward, and do this for several breaths before switching sides.
Grasp: Grasping brings the external world closer, fulfilling the desire initiated by reaching. It is the physical and emotional act of holding onto what we need, and also being able to let it go.
Challenges: Frantic or misaligned grasping can leave us unsatisfied or overwhelmed, like taking on more than we can manage.
Healing Practice: Consciously grasping and pausing to appreciate what you have secured deepens your ability to receive and find fulfillment. And then also consciously letting it open, relax and release helps to not over identify.
Healing pose: Hand Clenching Exercise.
Sit or stand comfortably with arms relaxed.
Slowly close your hands into fists, feeling the muscles engage.
Slowly open your hands wide, releasing and stretching your fingers fully.
Alternate clenching and releasing for 10–15 repetitions, focusing consciously and with breath awareness on the sensation of grasping and letting go.
Pull: Pulling exercises help to complete the cycle and any thwarted expressions held in the body by drawing the desired object closer and integrating the experience. This action reflects satisfaction and closure, setting the stage for the next engagement cycle.
Challenges: Disruptions in pulling can manifest as an inability to fully "digest" experiences and emotions, leaving us longing and stuck in a state of incompletion.
Healing Practice: Practice mindful pulling movements while attending to the sensations of satisfaction and completeness.
Healing Pose: Heart Awareness Exercise
Stand or sit comfortably.
Consciously extend your arms out wide to the sides, openign your chest and extending your heart upward. Feel your heart center expand as you stretch your arms outward and upward.
Now, slowly draw your arms back in, as if gathering the energy around you. Bring the palms of you hands onto your heart center, allowing the back of you heart to soften and expand.
Pause you hands on your heart, using your breath to guide the exercise: inhale as you extend and open, exhale as you gather and return to your heart center.
Stay mindful of your body and heart, feeling the energy flow with each repetition.
Home Practice: Somatic Embodiment & the Satisfaction Cycle
Therapists and clients can explore the satisfaction cycle through simple, intuitive movement practices. These exercises provide a gentle, embodied way to reconnect with the body and its innate wisdom.
Intuitive Somatic Movement Sequence
Yield: Begin by lying on the floor in a comfortable position. Feel the points of contact between your body and the ground. Allow yourself to relax fully under the support of gravity.
Push: Press gently into the floor with your hands or feet. Notice the feeling of strength and stability this action creates.
Reach: Identify an object in your space that sparks curiosity. Reach for it slowly, noticing how this movement feels in your body.
Grasp and Pull: Grasp the object and bring it closer to you. Pause to savor the moment of "receiving."
Repeat: Return to yielding, noticing any emotions or sensations that arise. Allow space for these experiences as part of the healing process.
Integrating Somatic Therapy into Your Practice
Somatic therapy tools, such as those discussed in this article, build psychological flexibility and offer therapists a somatic framework to help clients embody present-moment experiences. Therapists can gently guide clients toward greater self-awareness, emotional resilience, and connection by exploring the satisfaction cycle and its developmental roots.
At Aglow Counseling, we're passionate about empowering therapists to integrate somatic practices into their work. Embodiment is not just a tool for healing—it's a transformative journey toward wholeness.
With love and warmth,
Stacy Ruse, LPC, EMDR & IFS-Institute Consultant
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Aglow is a global hub for therapists and healers. Led by trauma expert Stacy Ruse, LPC, offering trainings, workshops, clinical consultation, and resources with specialties in EMDR, IFS, and Somatic therapies with a transpersonal twist.
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