Brian Tierney┃Rewilding the Nervous System: Stilless, Embodiment & the Return of Your Animal Soul

What if healing isn't always about calming the nervous system, but sometimes requires bringing frozen parts of ourselves back to life?

In this conversation, Fleet sits down with Brian Tierney, PhD, somatic psychologist, educator, and host of The Boundless Body podcast, to explore the connection between trauma, the nervous system, and embodied healing. From anxiety and emotional repression to deeply ingrained patterns of tension and shutdown, they examine how unresolved experiences can shape our relationship with our bodies and limit our capacity to feel fully alive.

Challenging the idea that nervous system healing is always about slowing down and creating safety, this conversation explores the importance of emotional expression, healthy aggression, movement, and reconnecting with our natural instincts. Through the concept of “rewilding the nervous system,” we discover a different perspective on trauma recovery, one that recognizes the importance of both regulation and expression, and the possibility of reclaiming vitality, boundaries, and personal sovereignty.

Ultimately, healing may not be about eliminating discomfort or maintaining a constant state of calm, but about developing the capacity to experience life more fully, reconnect with our body's innate intelligence, and move beyond the patterns that have kept us stuck.


Memorable Quotes

• “We can't just assume that embodiment is going to be safe for everybody.” — Brian Tierney, PhD
• “Too much safety is unsafe.” — Brian Tierney, PhD
• “We are animals. We are domesticated animals.” — Brian Tierney, PhD
• “We just hold the animal intensities in there.” — Brian Tierney, PhD
• “The warrior draws lines.” — Brian Tierney, PhD

Resources Mentioned

• Visionary Somatics — Brian Tierney, PhD
• The Boundless Body podcast
• The Somatic Doctor
• California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)
• Wilhelm Reich
• Robert Moore's King, Warrior, Magician, Lover
• Dan Siegel's interpersonal neurobiology work
• Peter Levine and Somatic Experiencing
• EMDR
• Drama therapy
• Structural Integration / Rolfing
• Craniosacral therapy / Stillness Touch
• Mankind Project
• Women Within

Brian Tierney, PhD, is a somatic psychologist, adjunct professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and international trainer of somatic clinicians. Since 1999, his work has included diverse populations ranging from cancer patients and participants in drama therapy groups to men and boys engaged in rites-of-passage work.His training spans somatic and therapeutic modalities including structural integration, EMDR, biodynamic craniosacral therapy, advanced breathing facilitation, yoga, clinical hypnosis, transformational dance, and drama therapy. He also hosts The Boundless Body podcast and is the author of the forthcoming Visionary Somatics, an exploration of trauma neuroscience with a particular focus on the cerebellum.


Connect with Brian Tierney
Instagram: The Somatic Doctor
Podcast: The Boundless Body
Upcoming Book: Visionary Somatics
Email: somaticdoctor@gmail.com


Connect with Us
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heartmindinstitute
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heartmindinstitute
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hmisummitcommunity