A theoretical presentation by Els Van Compernolle, director of the 19th NLS Congress: 'The Bodily Effects of Language', for an NLS Knotting Seminar organised by the London Society on 6 March 2021. Her paper "Beyond the Family Romance: The Canker that is Language and the Sensitivity it Implies" provided a rigorous orientation for our work towards the Congress and provided a useful framework for our discussion of the clinical presentations by Marina Frangiadaki and Colin Wright.