12/19/2023
This was one of our top posts from the month of June, and one of my favorites!! Another area of shift for me is ensuring that I have fair self-regulation expectations!!! Bringing back this post to remind us how interoception provides that bridge between self-regulation and co-regulation, so if someone has an unclear inner experience, then expecting self-regulation is neurobiologically unfair.
We always need to consider if a person has the underlying interoceptive awareness that is needed for self-regulation success.
We are all born needing co-regulation; where we depend on caregivers to identify and manage our bodily needs. Co-regulation is not coddling! As we grow and interact with our caregivers and the world around us, we might begin to learn about our interoceptive experiences–what our inner sensations mean for us and how we can change the way our body feels.
In other words, we develop Interoceptive Awareness—which is the bridge between co-regulation and self-regulation.
Therefore IA becomes a crucial consideration that needs to come before any expectations of self-regulation. Build IA and build the bridge needed to move between co-regulation and self-regulation.
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Image Description: An outdoor scene depicting two boulders on either side of a river with a bridge in between. There is grass around the boulders and a blue sky with clouds above them. At the top of the graphic, over the sky, there is a title that reads: Build the IA Bridge from Co-Regulation to self-regulation. On the left boulder, the definition of coregulation is written. On the right boulder, the definition of self-regulation is written. There is a purple bridge between the boulders and over the river representing interoceptive awareness. The definition of interoceptive awareness is written on the bridge.
