Territory Mapping

What does the map of your life look like? If you were to take an A2 sheet of paper and some coloured crayons, how would you draw a picture which represents how your life feels to you at this time? What are the mountains in your drawing? where is the river? How would you represent the swamp in your life? Do you know what you are hunting, growing and protecting? Where is the camp fire which protects you, and who is sitting around the fire with you?

These ancient symbols evoke deep memory in our share genetic history. Our distant ancestors had to learn to navigate trecherous terrain. And now we carry an internal map of our surroundings to orient us to where is safety, danger, and sustenance.

the Scottish psychiatrist, Frank M. Corrigan talks about the sub-cortical structures of the brain stem which are alerted to trauma before we have time to process our situation consciously. He calls this the 'orienting reflex'. It reveals the map of trauma registered in midbrain structures such as the superior colliculi and the periaqueductal gray. It's a map of survival which therapists can access through DBR (Deep Brain Reorienting).

Yet, we have the capacity to access our mental maps through simply drawing them. Territory Mapping is a deceptively naive technique which reveals powerful insights into how we construct meaning. The use of primitive symbols helps us connect to the essence of what makes us human, and to our ancestral being.

Territory Mapping accreditation coming soon!