Neuro-Somatic Mapping: Grandiosity & Negative Grandiosity

 Neuro-Somatic Mapping: Grandiosity & Negative Grandiosity

💡 Core Issue: Distorted self-perception—either through exaggerated superiority (grandiosity) or exaggerated self-denigration (negative grandiosity).
💡 Goal: Regulate inflated or collapsed self-image, restore embodied authenticity, and shift from defense-based identity to genuine self-worth.

Mapping Enneagram Triads to Bioenergetic Defenses (Including Low-End Titles)

 The Enneagram triads (Gut, Heart, Head) reflect where core emotional processing is centered in a person’s experience—instinctual survival (Gut), relational identity (Heart), or cognitive security (Head). Each bioenergetic character structure corresponds to autonomic patterns and somatic tensions that shape the emotional processing of each triad.

Movement Therapy & Somatic Interventions per Enneagram Triad

Now, let’s look at movement-based interventions for each Enneagram triad, addressing autonomic regulation, body armoring, and emotional processing.

Somatic & Neurobiological Strategies to Shift Stuck Autonomic States

 Each personality structure has a unique autonomic "stuck pattern", where dorsal (shutdown) and sympathetic (fight-flight) interact in different ways. The goal of intervention is to restore fluidity between these states by engaging the missing ventral vagal tone (social engagement, body safety, and relational presence).

Mapping Primitive Reflexes to Emotional Dysregulation & Somatic Interventions

 💡 Why start here?

• Primitive reflexes directly influence autonomic responses, movement coordination, and emotional regulation.
• If a reflex is retained or unintegrated, it can lock a person into a specific emotional pattern (e.g., fear paralysis reflex → chronic freeze response).
• By matching emotions to reflexes, we can use reflex repatterning to unlock stuck emotional states.

The Moro Reflex: The Core Disruptor of Gut–Brain–Body Integration

The Moro Reflex, distinct from the simpler Startle Reflex, is a higher-order primitive reflex that appears at birth and is typically integrated by 4–6 months of age. It is triggered by a sudden loss of support—as if the infant is falling—and results in a full-body extension: the arms and legs shoot outward, hands open wide, then the limbs recoil in a grasping motion, often accompanied by crying. This global reflex is a survival mechanism designed to alert, orient, and prepare the infant for mobilization in response to threat.

Deep Front Line (DFL) and Superficial Front Line- A shared Freeze Response

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the sinew channels (also known as the jingjin or muscle channels) have long been recognized as critical pathways for the flow of Qi and blood through the body. These channels are considered to play a key role in musculoskeletal health, postural stability, and movement patterns. However, in Western approaches to anatomy and physiology—particularly within somatic or myofascial frameworks—these channels often remain underexplored and misunderstood.

In the US, TCM education typically focuses on Zang-Fu organ systems and the five elements in a reductionist, linear fashion, with minimal attention paid to the profound role of sinew channels in the body’s energetic and structural integrity. This gap becomes particularly evident when examining trauma-informed care and the role that somatization—the physical manifestation of psychological trauma—can play in musculoskeletal and emotional health.

While it is necessary to study the anatomical myofascial lines individually to understand their distinct trajectories, they do not work in isolation. We must consider their shared interaction across multiple planes of the body. The sinew channels co-develop and co-regulate, influencing each other in ways that affect postural and emotional regulation, as well as musculoskeletal health.

DFL and Tai Yin:  The Tai Yin (Spleen and Lung) channels in TCM deal with deep stability, internal energy, and grounding, all of which align closely with the Deep Front Line (DFL). The DFL, as you noted, runs from the feet up to the head and involves the core stabilizers (like the psoas, diaphragm, and deep spinal stabilizers). These muscles are involved in deep, internal stability, and Tai Yin channels—especially the Lung—are involved in supporting respiration, which ties to the diaphragm in the DFL. So, in a metaphorical sense, the DFL could be linked to the Tai Yin layer because of the deep internal and stabilizing role they both play.

SFL and Yang Ming:  The Yang Ming channels (Stomach and Large Intestine) are more associated with superficial energy flow, mobilizing and supporting exterior movements. The Superficial Front Line (SFL), which runs from the head to the toes along the front of the body, similarly represents the more external aspects of the body, supporting posture and surface-level movements. Yang Ming, which is about external muscular strength and dynamic action, aligns well with the SFL’s role in transmitting and controlling surface-level forces in the body. The SFL is often linked to larger, more powerful muscle groups, like the rectus abdominis and quadriceps, which are also involved in more external or Yang functions.

The Enteric Nervous System: An Expanded View of the Spleen and Stomach

The Enteric Nervous System (ENS) is the most extensive and intricate part of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), consisting of approximately 400-600 million neurons. Present in two primary networks—the myenteric and submucosal plexuses—the human ENS begins its development during the gestational period and experiences its most active growth state peri-natally through the first year of life. (Waxenbaum JA, [Updated 2023 Jul 24])