When Kundalini Awakening Feels Like Trauma
What happens when a spiritual awakening feels more like a psychological breakdown?
In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Peter Legård Nielsen to explore spontaneous Kundalini awakenings through the lens of IFS. Peter shares his own harrowing experience of a sudden awakening at age 18 that led to insomnia, terror, and years of destabilization, and how IFS ultimately helped him transform that trauma into integration, healing, and meaning.
We explore how to discern Kundalini energy from trauma responses or unattached burdens, how therapists can safely approach this territory, and why relationship — not suppression — may be the key to working with overwhelming spiritual energy.
3 Key Takeaways
When awakening feels like trauma.
What if the key to integration isn’t shutting the energy down… but building a relationship with it?
How to distinguish between benevolent spiritual energy and destructive forces — and why intention matters.
Our Guest
Peter Legård Nielsen is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, a certified IFS therapist and organizer of the official IFS trainings in the Nordic countries, as well as a certified advanced Rolfer.
📘 Book:
Spontaneous Kundalini Awakenings: Healing the Damage Through IFS
https://www.amazon.com/Spontaneous-Kundalini-Awakenings-Healing-Through/dp/8785223042
🌐 Author Website:
www.peterlegaardnielsen.dk
📧 Email:
peter@alle-dele-er-velkomne.dk
📘 Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/peter.nielsen.3950178
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063352442892
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Transcript
Peter Legård Nielsen: [00:00:00] The Kundalini doesn't, does not have a bad intention for us, but one of the questions we ask an unattached burden is it, what is your intention for us? And, uh, very often, or almost it's, it's negative, uh, and the Kundalini would never answer, uh, something like that.
John Clarke: Going Inside is a podcast on a mission to help people heal from trauma and reconnect with their authentic self. Join me trauma therapist John Clarke for guest interviews, real life therapy sessions, and soothing guided meditations. Whether you're navigating your own trauma, helping others heal from trauma, or simply yearning for a deeper understanding of yourself, going inside is your companion on the path to healing and self-discovery.
Download free guided meditations and apply to work with me one-on-one at johnclarketherapy.com. Thanks for being here. Let's dive in.
Excited to introduce my guest for today, Peter Legard Nielsen is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, a certified IFS therapist and organizer of the [00:01:00] official IFS trainings in the Nordic countries, as well as a certified advanced Rolfer. Uh, Peter, thank you so much for being here. What else should people know about who you are and, um, how you got here with your work?
Peter Legård Nielsen: First of all, thank you for having me here. Um, I'm really glad to, to be able to, to be here and speak. Um, yeah, I come, I come to therapy. I come to IFS, uh, from, from a long way. Uh, I started actually as a, as a fiction writer. And, uh, I have been working with that for many years. I still write fiction and also nonfiction.
I've written two books about IFS. Uh. I have been the, the president of the Fiction Writers Union here in Denmark for 80 years. And while I was doing that, I sort of realized that I wouldn't spend my whole life, uh, meeting with the politicians and doing organizational work. So I stepped into body work first.
It was Rolfing, [00:02:00] uh, where I started to work as a role in 2007. And, um, it was great, but I also sometimes felt that I was missing something. Um, and then by chance, I've, I read a paragraph in Kos book. Uh, the Body Keeps the Score About IFS. It was just a short paragraph and, and somehow it hit me strongly. Uh, and before I knew it, I was in the middle of the first level one training I could find, which was in Sheffield, England.
And, uh. From there. I mean, my, my life has been taking over greatly by IFS in many ways.
John Clarke: Yeah.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Uh, but it's been a nice takeover. Um, but I do a lot of, of IIFS work in, in many ways, and I, I work a lot with IFS in my clinic and I also do the trainings and, and work with supervision and, uh, certification of people and all that.
Um, so for me, [00:03:00] um, somehow IFS was like coming home in many ways. Great. And yeah, and I think also one of the things I really like about IFS is this sense that for me at least, IT groups were difficult to be in when I was younger and also when I. Actually became older. And I think for the first time when I stepped into the loved ones training, I, I suddenly felt, oh, here's a group where I can actually feel welcome and safe and, and somehow belonging to.
And I think for me also, IFS has been a great way to heal a lot of wounds. Connected with groups.
John Clarke: Mm-hmm.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Um, always being outside of groups in, in that sense. Um, so for me on a personal level, life has also meant a lot.
John Clarke: Mm-hmm. It's, it's interesting. Um, yeah. In, in part because of just the essence of the model and the [00:04:00] welcoming and honoring of, um, all parts, uh, the, yeah.
The community can be. Perhaps more welcoming or less divisive, uh, than, than other models. Not to say that office isn't without its own, uh, drama and disagreements, but Yeah,
Peter Legård Nielsen: absolutely. Yeah. You, you, you get to the drama and the disagreements also. But I still think that the umbrella somehow is, is very strong in, or the container is very strong in that sense.
Yeah.
John Clarke: Yeah, yeah. Tell me more about your, um. Your unique, uh, kind of work with IFS? 'cause I know, you know, a lot of people come on this show and they have a kind of like IFS and blank, um, kind of area of IFS that they work in or studied in. So yeah. Where have you taken the model?
Peter Legård Nielsen: I think for me it was very important to be able to integrate the body to a big degree in my [00:05:00] work.
Uh, and, and I think I still do that after now six or seven years with IFS. I still also do body work. Uh, I, I sort of do both and it's, it's nice to be able to change from one modality to the other, but I think that when I work with IFSI, I use my skills of sort of sensing into what's happening in the body of the client.
And also to work from there. And, uh, that's, that's one way of working. And then, uh, I have actually written a book about how to work with Kundalini energy. Uh, and, uh, I had a, I had a bad, uh, Kundalini experience when I was 18. And, uh, for many years I didn't want to touch that at all. And, um, suddenly it started to surface again.
Uh, and there was a, a time when suddenly I could see it was coming into my I [00:06:00] sessions because it, it was opening the field so much. And one day there was a client that I knew well and where there was a mutual trust, she asked me if I would be able to help her with her, uh, Kundalini problems. And after considering it for quite some time, I said yes.
Uh, because I didn't want to sort of start a process in her that could lend me of what happened to me when I was young.
John Clarke: Mm-hmm.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Um, and, and that's, that's how I then started to, to work with this energy. And, um, I started to talk with it and, uh, it was really interesting.
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Peter Legård Nielsen: and, um. I think one of the things I found out is how eager it is to really speak with us and help us, and it won so much to enlighten us.
Um, but that's also the problem because it's too eager in many ways and we can't always stand this strong energy and then it becomes, uh, destructive instead. Uh, but actually by using some of the techniques from IFS, like saying. Could you maybe turn [00:08:00] the top, uh, intensity a little bit down, uh, then we could sort of start to really be with it and, and allow it.
And also say to it, if you, if you will cooperate with us, then we could maybe, maybe help you to get up into the head to what is, what you actually like to do. And we know there are some blocks on the way up, so we had to talk with all the protectors and, and we talked with this client's protective system and, and finally got the allowance to.
So that it could go up into the head of her and, and, mm-hmm. She was perfectly fine with that. She was also afraid that she could come back, uh, and that she would be stuck forever in some kind of what looked like spiritual bliss. What might in the end turned out to the, to be the opposite, if she stayed there too long and, uh, I had struggled so much with this energy and I didn't, I did really not want anyone else to experience the same.
Um, so what [00:09:00] happened in this session really surprised me because I think after having spoken with, uh, Kundalini energy for about 20 minutes. Suddenly said to me, oh, I'm very tired now. Can I go back into the sacrum where it came from? Uh, and, and seeing that and seeing how it just sort of fell down and remembering how much I had struggled to get it down, uh, it was really impressive to see that.
And, uh, from then on, actually, uh, this woman didn't have any problems with working with the Kundalini energy. Uh, so it was like it was allowed to do what it wanted to do, and then it could sort of soften back and, and, uh, yeah, became a, a very creative energy in her. I think we could say
John Clarke: Uhhuh. Yeah.
What's particularly fascinating about this is.
Something I love about IFS is it invites us to make things relational. Whether it's I'm relating to my body [00:10:00] or I'm relating to this inner critic that keeps reminding me that I'm not good enough. And what if we actually turned toward that part or that energy, uh, and started a relationship, took a posture of listening, took a posture of collaboration.
Um, that idea is. So simple, but also so profound. So in this case, you, you were able to bring it to this work with, with Kundalini. Um, maybe backing up a bit, um, can you help us understand like what is Kundalini in the first place?
Peter Legård Nielsen: It is a good question. Uh, I have been wondering a lot about that. And I have also tried to ask the con snakes that I have met after this first session about who they are.
Um, and there's always this, there's this, this classical, uh, perception that it might be life, energy, sexual energy, and maybe that's the same. Um, but in some ways I [00:11:00] also feel that it's different because. I mean, life energy does not just want to go up in the head and then go down. It's something that we want to have all the time, and maybe we could argue that sexual energy wants to have this what is in Hindu text, I think called the cosmic wedding in, in with the crown chakra or something like that.
But still, it's, it's, it feels like something different for me, it, it feels like it has its own life.
John Clarke: Okay.
Peter Legård Nielsen: And, and that's also what I feel when I speak with it, that it's sort of very close to life energy and also very close to sexual energy, but that it also has its own properties and it feels like, like it's sort of connected to, uh, what we could almost call, call it a kind of, um, unconscious collective, like you speaking about, uh, with this energy.
When I started to speak with the Kundalinis, there came a lot of sadness up from that and pain and hurt [00:12:00] and some of these Kundalini snakes really just wanted to heal there. We could also call it an archetype that needed to heal. Um, and really a lot of the kundalinis I have spoken to have felt misused.
Uh, they, they feel that we are sort of greedy for there. Uh, what they can do to us and, and this enlightenment. And some of them feel that they have been sort of poked and whipped and forced to, to sort of rise or, or whatever, uh, has happened to them, uh, which was also a total surprise to me. So when you go into this relationship that you talk about, which is so important, um, suddenly they, they sort of showed me that.
It's something biological, it's something that is inherent in us and it also something that we can meet in a gentle way and actually be with, and then it's very willing to, could we say, give us its gifts or something like that. But that's very sort of different [00:13:00] from the traditional way of perceiving how to work with kini, at least in many traditions in that sense.
So that was for me, really exciting to go into that field and see what. How is, how does the world look? If you look at, through the eyes of the kole,
John Clarke: you mentioned you had a negative experience when you were younger. Could you say more about that?
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah, I, I can do that. Um, I was, I was doing a, a yoga training.
Uh, it was sort of very basic. And then, uh, the year or the summer after I graduated from high school. Um, I was very lonely and, and sort of lived in a very remote area of Denmark. And then my yoga teacher invited me to come and, uh, help 14 days. She had a training during the summer. I could just, I didn't have to pay, I could just help her.
And, uh. I learned some [00:14:00] meditation techniques and then when, when I came home from that training, one day I was sitting, meditating and suddenly it was like a small veil fell down. It could, it could also have been sort of the wind coming in through the window or something. It was nothing. But when I went to bed that night, I couldn't sleep, uh, because there was.
When I went, tried to went down into sleep, I, I came to a level of meditation that I couldn't surpass, and uh, I thought, okay, I'll sleep the next night. I'd never tried not to sleep the whole night, but the next night the same happened. I couldn't get down into sleep. I could just get to the meditation later, and then it started to become scary.
Uh, and I think on the third day, I, I became really anxious and the meditations started to become very violent. Uh, a lot of torture scenes and, and all that. And, and, uh, I was 18. I had no knowledge of kini or [00:15:00] anything, and no one did at the time in Denmark. So, so it was really scary to be there. I thought, I'm going mad what is happening to me?
And it just continued for seven days where I didn't sleep. I spoke with a yoga teacher, uh, but she had some not very efficient techniques that I, I could maybe try to use, but it didn't work. And then if I should use the IFS language, I would say that on the seventh day there was a, a firefighter saying, now it's enough.
It's enough pain, it's enough terror. Uh, you better kill yourself. And then when I tried to do that, there were some managers that took over and said, no. We have to save you. And then I, I sort of went into where my parents were sleeping. It was early morning and they, I said, you have to drive me to the doctor.
And that was the interesting part for me. That's, uh, when I came to the doctor, he didn't believe me because he said, you know, meditation, it, it'll not bring you there. Something else must have happened. [00:16:00] And I knew that moment. I just had to get out of his clinic. Because what would happen there would, would never hear me or do anything,
John Clarke: something terrifying about that.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah.
John Clarke: Being this, being in this incredibly vulnerable state.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah.
John Clarke: Reaching out for help, going to a doctor who, you know, doctors have so much power and authority in our world.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah.
John Clarke: And then hearing, uh, no, it's not that.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. And, you know, there was so much shame around it, just having to show this to my parents, but also, yeah.
Uh, what, what would the village think? Because everyone knew everyone and Oh, sure. Now this, this, this strange guy, he's totally freaking out. So, but he gave me a shot, uh, so that I slept for 24 hours. And I remember waking up and then thinking, okay, I'm finally back to where I was a week ago. And then I stood up and my body started to shake.
And all this that had [00:17:00] happened came back and I realized, no, hell is just starting now because this is going to continue. Um, so after that, I could, if I, if I was lucky, I could sleep one or two or three hours a night, and I learned to take a lamp and sort of place it directly into my face because then I couldn't see the meditations.
Uh, because they were still very terrifying. So it was like I could just see some shadows and then the light was in my head, and then I tried to sleep, and some days I had so much energy that I didn't need to sleep. And other days I just woke up after these short hours of sleep with a, a head that felt like lead and I was totally depressed and I, I never knew how I would be the next day.
Um, and what was also really strange for me was that. I could not read. Uh, I have always been reading a lot of books, but sentences were so full of energy that it was dangerous for me to read them because I felt a great pressure up [00:18:00] into my head. Uh, and a lot of these things happened, uh, suddenly afterwards, and I, I was starting a new study.
Uh, at the university and, and I couldn't, uh, really prepare myself, uh, for this study. So I, I just had to pretend and be there, and it was so important for me to get out around other young people. So I, I went there every day and I, I, I must have been very strange to be around.
John Clarke: Mm-hmm.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Um, but I think I could thank my very strong, uh, managers that I managed to do so.
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So when was it that you, uh, uh, eventually came to this frame of understanding it through Kundalini,
Peter Legård Nielsen: uh. I definitely started to look up, uh, to see what, what, what would, what was it that happened to me? And I think also my yoga teacher started to talk about it. And then I slowly sort of started to realize that, okay, this was what hap what was happening.
And when I finally. Sort of became able to, to read again. I started to read about it, but it was also very dangerous for me to read because when I [00:20:00] did, it started the process again. Just the word kundalini could actually start the process. Um, and then I slowly gained an understanding of it. Um, but my, my projectors really sh shut everything down.
Um, I, I found one way to relieve the energy. Or release the energy. And that was to writing down what was in my head. And, and uh, if I did that, I could sort of empty my head for a couple of hours and then I had to do it again. And that was one of the sort of strange gifts I got because that made me a writer.
John Clarke: Mm-hmm.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Um, which I had never planned to be. Um, but certainly I started to write poems and they were just sort of springing outta my head and, and were there. Um, so it was really like being hit by a car and then you have to go in a totally different direction that you had never planned for your life [00:21:00] in, in many ways.
And it continued in a strong way for three years. Uh, and then it sort of gradually sort of faded over the next 10 years, uh, and, and is now sort of very much integrated into me. Uh, I can definitely say that we have become friends. When did that shift occur?
I think that about 10 years ago I had a friend who had a, an, an experience that was not traumatic for her. And I thought, if she can do it, I can also do it. So I sat down and thought, okay, I'm gonna connect with the snake again. And when I did that, it was like, okay, this is like dying. Uh, but now I, I do it.
I jump into it and I did, and then it turned out that somehow it was already fully integrated. It was there and I had been working with it. Energy for a long time [00:22:00] without knowing it. So it was just like, okay, oh, you're there, I'm here. Uh, good to see you. Uh, kind of sense. And, and, and all the, the danger was, was gone.
And, and of course that was a big relief. Um, and, and then we sort of could, could start to have again, a good relationship.
John Clarke: Mm-hmm. So it sounds like your experience was kind of. Almost involuntary.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Absolutely. I had no idea of this. It was really spontaneous and, and when you start to read the text, you realize that this is supposed to happen over maybe 20 years of work in that direction and with a guru and or a master that can guide you, someone who has already.
Gone where you want to go and, and, uh, I didn't wanna go there. I just wanted to be young and have fun and live and, um, yeah, do what you do when you're 20 [00:23:00] or 18.
John Clarke: Mm-hmm. So in that case, uh, there are people, or, or do you help in this process now where people are, are wanting to do this work intentionally and gradually?
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah, I, I try to do, so I also have a very full clinic, so it's a bit difficult, but I try to make space for these people, uh, very often with them, with cancellations or something like that. Mm-hmm. But I, I feel that I have an obligation if I can, to try to help these people because I know how horrible it has been.
And for some people it's actually just about one session, maybe, where we can talk with a part. And for other people it's a longer process. Um, and there are. Again, in the IFS language, a lot of parts involved in this, there are some strong protectors, uh mm-hmm. Who might interfere and makes the process longer.
And there are also some polarizations because some parts want the conal [00:24:00] energy to go away. Yeah. And other parts, uh, want to keep it because it's, it's also like, it gives a lot of meaning and importance to the person who has this going on. Uh, so even though it can feel traumatic, it's, it's still a battle.
Should I let go or should I actually try to keep it?
John Clarke: So where does the energy go or what is the eventual, um, relationship that you hope one settles into?
Peter Legård Nielsen: I think that what I hope for, for my clients is that they can. Gets to this point where they can integrate the energy and work with it when needed, but without being overwhelmed.
And that the, the Kundalini is also aware that it has sort of free reign when it wants it, but that it also has to go down again and that it needs to relax in the sacrum, [00:25:00] uh, when it's not super active, uh, and under every circumstance that it should not overwhelm the client and make these. Problems. And it seems also that the Kundalini sort of understands that and sometimes it becomes very eager, but also I, I teach the client how to speak with it and say, but you could just come down and just be with it.
Mm-hmm. And, and, uh, then it, it sort of knows if I do that I'm allowed to do what I want to do.
John Clarke: Yeah.
Peter Legård Nielsen: And, and that's a big, uh, sort of, uh, reward for it. Yeah.
John Clarke: How do you help people discern whether. Th they are interacting with Kundalini or something else?
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah, it's a good question, and I have been asked that many times, and my first answer would be that it's probably easier when you sit there and, and, and sit in front of the client and work with it.
But there are a lot of different things that can happen, um, [00:26:00] if you don't have the pressure up into your head. If you don't have this explosion of energy, it's probably not the alini, sorry. Yeah. Uh, then I then I don't think it's the end alini energy that is, is working there. Some clients come with other energies that could be filling that body and also fill them with trauma, but it's more like.
Filling a balloon, for instance. It, it doesn't feel like the Kundalini. And then there are some people who come with what we in IFS call unattached burdens, uh, which can be kundalini connected sometimes, but it's not per se, kundalini and mm-hmm. I often have to separate that and work with that with two different kinds of
John Clarke: mm-hmm.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Ways of working. Um, yeah. Can, can you tease that apart a little bit more? Yeah. For instance, the, the Kundalini doesn't, does not have a bad intention for us. Yeah. But one of the questions we ask an [00:27:00] unattached burden is it, what is your intention for us? And, uh, very often, or almost it's, it's negative. Uh, it hates us, us, it, it does not like us, or something like that.
Uh, and the alini would never answer, uh, something like that. Um, and then also the Kundalini has this wish to enlighten us, uh, which a lot of other energies does not have, uh, in that sense. So I think there are some clear signs when it's a kundalini. Often people also have these images of snakes, for instance, going up and down the spine.
Um, so, so that's, that's some of the marks that I look for. When I work with this mm-hmm. And then I'm open to, to whatever happens. And sometimes we can also say, should we treat it as a kini and see how it goes? And then if it turns out that that's probably not the right direction, we can shift direction.
I think that's one of the good things with IFS also, that you can always make [00:28:00] mistakes.
John Clarke: Yes, you can. And it's a very flexible model in a way.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Um, yeah.
John Clarke: Te tell us a little bit more about your book.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. Um, I, I'm presenting my own story there and what I did to, to come back and then I have a little chapter about what IFS actually is because a lot of people don't know it.
And also the background for kini, how it is perceived. And also, I mean, for instance, Jung wrote about it and how it is perceived in the West. And then I go into more detailed, how do I actually work, uh, in a clinical setting with Anini. Uh, what am I looking for? Um, what to expect. And then at the end I have a transcript of a session where I work with Kini, uh, and, and, uh, where a client is sort of getting to a good place working with it.
John Clarke: So, wow, [00:29:00] I would love to read that transcript.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. Yeah, that sounds fascinating. Yeah, it is. Absolutely. And, and, uh, I mean, it's also very easy to get the book. You can buy it on Amazon or in Yeah, the online bookstores. Yeah. Um, but, but I, I guess I can send you the, the transcript of the book or the, or the, this conversation.
Yeah.
John Clarke: Yeah. I'd, I'd be very interested in that. Um. Y you know, and, and you mentioned, uh, general conception of, of Kundal from the west or in, in the west. And my assumption is that especially for a lot of therapists, psychologists, um, in the US the immediate association with Kundalini is, uh, is sexual. Energy.
Hmm. Yeah. And so then therapists go, okay, well then we're kind of doing sex therapy. Do I do sex therapy? Do I not? And perhaps the whole thing shuts down. [00:30:00]
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah.
John Clarke: Depending on what kind of work you do, but yeah.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. I think it's very important to be specific here also, because Yeah. I think a lot of people can do.
Let's say Kundalini yoga, uh, and, and have these feelings of energy moving that can be very sexual. But what I'm working with and, and, and writing about and talking about is when everything goes wrong. This spontaneous, strong thing happens, which absolutely does not feel sexual at all. I think actually it drops of, of sexuality.
So for me, there is a big difference there. I'm not talking about the everyday, uh, work with kini in that sense, the Kundalini energy, this is a, a strong certain awakening that that is happening. Uh, and, and, and it's very important to, to be specific about that.
John Clarke: Yeah.
Peter Legård Nielsen: So, yeah. Yeah.
John Clarke: I appreciate that distinction.
That that is, that is really helpful.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. It, it's, it's, it's, it's like the declaration of it [00:31:00] also.
John Clarke: Yeah.
Uh, you mentioned, um, and uh, yeah, we've got a few minutes left here, but you mentioned something that was really important to your process was. Just starting to write, which is really simple, but again, can be really profound for kind of metabolizing one's own thoughts, feelings, experiences.
Um, what else would you recommend a person do who's, who's going through something like this?
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. Um, I guess the writing, and that's a bigger question for five minutes. I could answer very easily, but it's individual. But
John Clarke: yeah,
Peter Legård Nielsen: maybe writing is not helping everyone, but it could be a way to, to try to work with it.
And then what helped me also was really walking. Uh, I, I walked and walked and walked in nature and being with nature. And then I think what is really important, what I didn't know at the time is that. If you can get [00:32:00] to a point where you're not afraid of it and not afraid what is happening inside of you, it sort of also loses its power.
And maybe you will need someone to help you with that. Uh, and, and I would definitely think it would be a good idea to find a therapist to, to help you with that. Um,
John Clarke: mm-hmm.
Peter Legård Nielsen: And, and, uh, I think that was ways for me to, to do so. I also decided to sort of start. Sort of to get connected to the earth. Um, and, and that somehow also worked.
Uh, I tried grounding exercises, but they didn't work for me. But, but living more pritt in a sense, it made it much more accessible for me. And I, I couldn't come down. The energy was, was too strong for, for that. And then I also think it's important to think about, uh, that IFS is a constraint release model.
And, uh, what are the constraints? What is actually, [00:33:00] uh, what, what is making it so that you can't come down? Can you work with those constraints and, and see what happens there? Um, so that's some of the things I'm, I'm working with.
John Clarke: It's fascinating. It's really a IFS is really a perfect fit in this case. Um,
Peter Legård Nielsen: yeah, it is.
John Clarke: Yeah. If only you had it in your back pocket when you went through this, or if that doctor had it available.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah, I have thought that many times if I had known someone who knew this, I could maybe have fixed it in one day or something like that instead of
John Clarke: That's right.
Peter Legård Nielsen: All that,
John Clarke: but then you wouldn't have gotten the book out of it.
Peter Legård Nielsen: So no, I wouldn't, no trauma, no book. Right.
John Clarke: Well, some, some parallels, you know, again, um, and we've had Bob Falconer on here a bunch of times. He's like a fan favorite of this show. Um,
Peter Legård Nielsen: yeah.
John Clarke: And we've talked about his book, his process for working with ubs. And, um, yeah. One piece that's really important is that we have [00:34:00] courage and feel, um, some sense of, yeah, courage to go toward.
These, uh, these energies and these experiences, whether that's you personally going through it and or the practitioner you're working with is having that, that, that courage. Um, and I would pair it with curiosity of course, but so, so I, I heard that part as well, uh, for your, your advice, which makes sense.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. I mean, it's paramount to be able to meet this with a calm, uh, quality of self. Absolutely.
John Clarke: Yep.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Uh, and, and, and be there with it. And, and I mean, Bob has been teaching in really good ways around this, and he actually also wrote the forward from my book, so, yeah.
John Clarke: Very nice. That's great.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah.
John Clarke: Um, well, Peter, this is, this has been a really great, um.
Kind of introduction to your work and these ideas, I'd be very curious to, um, well, something I can do is some [00:35:00] homework around get, getting my hands on your book and then maybe having you back on for a deeper dive. 'cause um, yeah, I would love to go deeper with this stuff. And I know in our, our limited time here, there's, uh, we're just scratching the surface.
So for, for an experience as profound as this, you know, I, I don't wanna. Pretend like we can do it justice with a short conversation, but hopefully this has cracked the door open for people to get curious or more curious about, about this, so Yeah.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. I, I would love to come back.
John Clarke: Yeah. So that'd be great.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah.
John Clarke: Um, anything else people should know for now in terms of your current, uh, well first of all, like you, like you mentioned, where to get the book, things like that, and then maybe learn, uh, more about your work and follow along.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Yeah. Um. I have this one book in American or in English, um, that you can buy from all on online stores.
It's called mm-hmm. Spontaneous Awakenings, healing the Damage to IFS. [00:36:00] Um, I have also written a book about IFS in Danish, but the, it's another thing, um, I, I don't publish so much about my, my work in pae. I, I mainly work here in, in Denmark. I do have online clients sometimes, but I also have to say that I have a very full clinic, so I probably won't be able to take new clients in.
John Clarke: Yeah.
Peter Legård Nielsen: And that's, that's always the problem.
John Clarke: Yeah. Yeah.
Peter Legård Nielsen: So yeah.
John Clarke: Great. This is a good start. Um, we'll be sure to add links to everything in the show notes and description here as always. Um, and then, yeah, I'd love Peter, I'd love to have you back. Um. Uh, after a little more of my own research. So, uh, yeah. Thank you again so much for being here and your contributions and, um, yeah, look forward to, to speaking with you again soon.
Peter Legård Nielsen: Thank you very much. It would be great.
John Clarke: Alright. Bye-bye.
Thanks for listening to another episode of Going Inside. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe wherever you're listening or [00:37:00] watching, and share your favorite episode with a friend. You can follow me on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok at johnclarke therapy and apply to work with me one-on-one at johnclarketherapy.com.
See you next time.