Embodiment & the Scaffolded Mind - Ep. 16 - The Evidence Based Therapist Podcast

Melissa, Caleb, and Bridger continue their series on embodiment with “The Scaffolded Mind” by L. Williams, J. Huang, and J. Bargh.

Embodiment

Every person’s individual experience is going to influence how they’re making sense of the world.
Our body and mind function simultaneously.
Humans have an efficient way of organizing experience and processing information.
Importantly, this organization doesn’t rely on language alone.
Instead, what is held in the body is referenced.
This allows us to move into deep complexity and think much faster.

Embodiment and Scaffolding

Check out page 2 of the article for a thorough explanation of scaffolding.

When an abstract concept is scaffolded onto a foundational concept these concepts become associated (page 2).
Then, complex ideas are created as new stimuli and concepts are added.
You’re able to mentally represent, or have an embodied sense, of these ideas.
Intercontemplation and environmental exploration add to the accuracy and complexity of these mental representations.
Babies constantly put things in their mouths as a form of environmental exploration.
These little experiments improve their ability to correctly interact with their world.
Importantly, scaffolding the brain and learning from physical to abstractions is an emergent process.
In other words, when two physical sensations come together in my brain, they make complex meaning
Eventually, this becomes “feels like a weight on my shoulders” or “spicy experience.”

Learning Through Our Bodies

Melissa’s example of Nora licking the trampoline netting (9:19).
As a child, you learn to make sense of the world through physical interactions with it.
Genetic coding gives you some preset templates of how you experience stimuli.
Through these genetic templates and physical interactions, you create mental structures to organize your lived experience.
If we can learn to intentionally work with the body, it becomes a place of meaning-making and lesson learning.
This is why somatic therapies work.
To state it clearly, we can get more done therapeutically when we work directly with the body.

Embodiment and Abstractions

Our brains make meaning of similar stimuli.
This is true even when they don’t look similar on the outside.
When exposed to new stimuli, we run through our existing templates to make sense of it.
This means we don’t need to experience it personally to know what to expect from it.
Sensorimotor experiences become the foundation for every abstract thought we have.
Humans across cultures have unity around abstract concepts.
This is because all humans have similar bodies to inhabit the world in and we understand the world through our bodies.

Scaffolding and Embodiment in Therapy

Caleb and detached language (26:10).
Remember, your mind is built upon your body and your physical experience.
Therefore, there is a wealth of information in the clients embodied experience of a situation
Melissa’s example of the wallflower (27:38).
Remember, every function of the body is templated on previous experience.
Even your mind, ideas, and thoughts are themselves so intimately and dependently connected to your physical experience.
That link is so profound and strong it also works in the inverse.
Melissa’s example of the feedback loop of information (30:38).
Bridger’s example of Bear and his newborn daughter (35:24).

Williams, L. E., Huang, J. Y., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The Scaffolded Mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in early experience of the physical world. European journal of social psychology, 39(7), 1257–1267. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.665