Walking In Your Shoes® (WIYS)

WIYS is Transformative Because of its Experiential Process

Moving from an intellectual discussion of an issue to how it feels in the body can have a profound effect on one's perception of it

It is facilitated by a WIYS facilitator, with the Walker (you or a representative) tuning into the body and expressing insights verbally and physically, to help break out of limiting beliefs and empower greater potential.


The WIYS Framework includes four essential elements for the process:

1. Framing the Walk involves gaining a clear understanding of your concern, issue, or challenge and creating an intention statement.

2. The “Walk” itself is the essence of the WIYS process.

3. The Walker—you or a representative—repeats the intention statement and then is invited to explore the unfolding experience without evaluation, interpretation, or judgment. The Walker takes the first step and begins to walk intuitively. Throughout the process, the WIYS facilitator mindfully observes and supports the emerging Walk, encouraging the Walker to focus on physical sensations, emotions, thoughts and impressions. The Walker shares the experience verbally and through body language, such as gestures, postures, facial expressions, and physical movements, which are all noted by the facilitator. The Walk usually takes between 10 to 20 minutes.

4. Processing the Walk - After the Walk is complete, processing the Walk involves discussing any insights gained and identifying what was significant.

Identifying next steps involves exploring any obstacles or challenges encountered and mapping out a plan for further exploration, healing and expansion of possibilities.

WIYS is a somatic resonance method used to access hidden information, transform obstacles, and gain clarity, resilience, and personal empowerment. It was developed by psychologist John Cogswell and actor/director Joseph Culp.

Empathic Resonance is a healing approach that involves exploring the experiences and perspectives of others and oneself in order to gain insight into emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

The body's intelligence is a resource to access essential information regarding any given subject. These can be unconscious feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and self-sabotaging and defeating behaviors.

Movement is used to redirect one's attention from the mind to the body's 'felt sense', while moving the body with awareness. This supports increasing one's ability to detect sensations, emotions, and thoughts that arise in the moment. By engaging in physical movement, you can move beyond identification to a much larger field of knowledge.

The body is a wise living system, capable of self-organization, self-correction, and self-maintenance. As such, it possesses an internal knowledge of what resources are necessary to overcome obstacles, find solutions, heal and transform.

Most people intellectualize their problems, challenges, beliefs, and emotional responses, even when this produces a negative experience. Rather than staying in a limiting pattern, WIYS moves individuals away from old narratives to focus on what they are feeling in their bodies. WIYS helps individuals access underlying issues, unconscious conflicts, unresolved trauma, repressed emotions, and poor problem-solving skills, which might otherwise be difficult to identify and explore through the reasoning mind. WIYS helps people explore their awareness of and connection to the issue without judgment or avoidance.

WIYS® is typically done in a group setting, but is equally effective through individual facilitation, and combines empathy, movement, mindfulness, and somatic inquiry processing. The focus is on areas such as health and well-being, family systems, relationships, trauma recovery, and personal growth. The aim is to develop self-love, discover life purpose, process grief and loss, build emotional-body intelligence, increase creativity.

Types of walks:

• Single (solo) walks, where you or a representative explore an intention, question or challenge.

• Decision walks, where different courses of action (decision A and B) are explored and compared.

• Blind walks, where someone in the group agrees to walk for you without knowing the issue.

• Relationship walks, which examine the interplay between two inner parts, individuals or groups.

• Projects walks for business or research. Walk for planning or alignment of business or creative ideas. Health and diet programs. Walk writing, concepts, and new ventures

• Walk archetypal figures, energies or states of being to access one’s blocked or hidden energy, and to experience a spontaneous shift in awareness.

• Health, illness and recovery walks .Walk any symptom or condition to reveal underlying psychological issues. Walk the message of the illness and what is needed for recovery.

• Past and future walks. Future-walk in a time after an event has occurred or project has been completed to experience the energetic process of creating it. Past-walk yourself or others at an earlier age to access blocked information or forgotten experience, and move toward integration.

CORE ASPECTS OF WIYS:

• Mirror-like Wisdom

• Listening to the Body

• Accessing the Knowing Field

•  Empathic Movement 

•  Manifesting Life-Themes

• Integration of Dissociations

• Overcoming Blocks by Embodying the Solution 

Life-Themes and Issues you can explore with WIYS:

• Loved ones and Friends

• Ancestors

• Family members

• Health, Illness and Recovery

• Money and Career

• Business

• Life goals and decisions

• Creative projects

• Trauma

• Spirituality

• Relationships

• Dreams

• Addiction

• Archetypes

• Success

• Creative projects

• Animals/Pets

• Challenges

The Benefits of WIYS:

• Connectedness and Inter-Being

• Compassion for oneself and others

• Clearly seeing the next step

• Calmness

• Playfullness

• Perspective

• Confidence

• Increased Intuition and Empathy

• Expanded Creativity

• Observation

• Balance

• Presencing the future

• Healthy Autonomy, Reduced Anxiety

• Expanded sense of Self and Oneness

• Embodying Spiritual Values

• Somatic Resourcing Through Felt Sense