Sometimes the hardest thing to do when you’re feeling hurt or unhappy is to pick up the phone and reach out for help. Often times it can feel like talking about what’s wrong is just too difficult, stressful or triggering. Perhaps you’ve spoken to someone before, even a therapist, and it left you feeling somehow incomplete, tense, or “stuck.”
If it feels like talking about your problems leaves you feeling worse, it might be that you’ve experienced trauma. It’s important to know that when we experience trauma, there can be a disconnect between our thoughts and our bodies. This is how we are wired to survive: by mobilizing and/or immobilizing in a way that turns off our rational thinking and puts us into fight, flight, freeze, or feigned death. In these moments, we are adapting quickly, whether to a car accident or physical abuse, or social exclusion in a way that allows us to get through that situation. Unfortunately, the disconnect that occurs can continue to be there for much longer, resulting in behaviors or attitudes that impede or otherwise negatively impact our life.
Finding a way to connect the response of our brain and body by bridging what we can accept mentally and absorb physically is extremely powerful, deep, and lasting. This is why therapies that combine your awareness of traditional psychotherapy and your physical body are often a more deeply rooted, satisfying, and effective way to heal and move forward.
The Value of Body-Centered Trauma Therapy
Traumatic experiences can often leave a person with symptoms that are frequently left unaddressed by more traditional therapies. Most of the time, talk-therapy focuses on the emotional and behavioral aspects of trauma. Those areas are accessed and addressed via your thoughts. Generally, they get the most attention and validation. While this is helpful and comforting, it does not address the areas of the brain that are activated during traumatic events, potentially leaving you with the unresolved confusing imagery, stuck sensations, and a lack of clarity regarding your self-perception.
Body-centered (somatic) therapy links the healing elements of verbal sharing with the power of bodily relief. It allows you to work through not only the thoughts and underlying beliefs that have resulted from the trauma, but accesses the healing capacity of the brain and body to develop a deeper, more felt sense of internal safety. The body, which holds the memories of our pain, sorrow, and fear becomes the means through which we work towards peace, calmness, hope, and happiness. Trauma therapy is rooted in working with the wisdom of the body to work through the past without re-traumatization and future growth.
Body-centered trauma therapy supports bodily awareness.
When unresolved trauma exists, it can show up as symptoms rather than memories. I’ve had a number of clients share their difficulties in day to day life without conscious recollection of their trauma. However, as therapy progresses, we are able to collaboratively recognize the impact of past hurts on a present day life that doesn’t feel satisfactory. Some of these symptoms include, but aren’t limited to:
Numbing
Emotional overwhelm
Feelings of hopelessness, shame, worthlessness
Panic attacks
Depression, anxiety and/or irritability
Loss of a sense of self
Little or no memories
Hypervigilance or mistrust
Symptoms of trauma can also manifest physically. Some physical symptoms can include, but aren’t limited to:
Weakened immune function
Sexual dysfunction
Digestive difficulties
Unexplained physical pain or muscle tension
Hormonal imbalances
Eating Disorders or addiction
Chronic pain and/or headaches
You can see that overcoming trauma is not just a matter of controlling your thoughts. Trauma also creates continuing, internal tensions. Somatic therapy helps you tune into your breath, posture, and more to learn how your trauma is being held in your body and how you are being physically affected by the past.
Body-centered therapy helps you “reset”.
When trauma is experienced, the natural instinct to defend yourself cannot be carried out. The associated internal energy once meant to protect you, can become stuck and turn into maladaptive coping.
To recover, it is necessary to process the survival response inside ourselves. Sometimes, the traumas we experience happen so early in life that our physical sensations or tension seem normal. Sometimes the traumas we experience are the result of repeated and sometimes ongoing offenses and because trauma is stored in the body, it can often be difficult to put it into words and share it verbally. Somatic modalities of therapy recognize the myriad of ways that trauma impacts us in how we think, feel, act, engage with the world around us and how our physical bodies continue such patterned behaviors as a protective measure, even if it is no longer serving us. Body centered counseling allows us to uncover, access, and reset our responses in ways that we may not initially realize are related.
Body-centered therapy provides the skills to move forward
The goal of somatic therapy is not only to cultivate a deep level of healing, but to bring forward your innate wisdom and capacity to better manage stress and maintain a healthy mind-body connection. A commitment to trauma sensitive counseling leads to a renewed commitment to yourself through which you can master methods to self-soothe, feel grounded, and connect with your spiritual self as well. We all have the capacity to heal, cope, and grow. Trauma therapy taps into this capacity to foster resiliency and optimism as we move ahead.
Take the Next Step
The value of body-centered therapy is well worth the time and effort. By addressing shame and self criticism with compassion and curiosity, we can learn how these parts of ourselves are trying to help, and learn new, more effective ways of being. Most importantly, somatic work shows you that can live completely free of your trauma.
If this type of therapy interests you, please read more about trauma therapy to set up a consultation. Let us help you re-set the connection between your mind and body.
Finally, if you would like support, please contact us for a consultation to learn about how we can help you.