The Role of the Body in Trauma
And Somatic Experiencing Therapy
This blog is about how trauma lives in us, that’s: the mind and the body. You will learn how the body remembers the trauma too, how Somatic Experiencing, a mind and body therapy can help you process traumatic memories to help you heal, find calm, and experience joy, how to find a somatic experiencing therapist, and I share a grounding tip.
What does the body have to do with my trauma?
Deep into my healing journey, a senior member of Dr Gabor Maté’s team said that Gabor recommended Somatic Experiencing as a good healing modality to learn because I would make a good therapist given my trauma story. So I thought I would take some sessions to understand what it was about.
As I stood in the spacious therapy room she asked that I connect to my body before deciding where to sit, and I thought what for? What does the body have to do with my trauma?
I thought I was meant to talk about it all. But apparently not.
“The body has been designed to renew itself through continuous self-correction. These same principles also apply to the healing of psyche, spirit, and soul.”
― Peter A. Levine, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma.
A lot is happening in the body but we may have been ignoring it, and all you have to do is pay attention to the sensations in the body and notice what arises.
You may question like I did, what does the body and these sensations like tightness have to do with memories of abuse that leaves someone in a traumatic state, or perhaps how will this heal trauma from events of abuse that the mind is tormented by.
Trauma affects the mind but the body also remembers the trauma event, and that’s why it tenses, the breath restricts, and even becomes still. As Dr Bessel Van der Kolk says in his titled book, “The Body Keeps The Score.”
The brain and the body are connected and we can not treat these as separate parts. The central nervous system connects the brain and the body, and this connection is at the stem of the brain, our oldest and deepest part of the brain, sometimes called the reptilian brain. This is where the basic functions are held such as the need for food, water, sleep, sex, and the fight, flight, freeze responses - like that of a reptilian, which freezes.
The autonomous nervous system is a part of the central nervous system which does not require an instruction to take action, it can do it itself. The body will breathe without your instruction, it will process food and water, and it will fight, flight, or freeze. This part of the brain is where the trauma is held. Trauma is the incomplete fight and flight impulses which the body is trying to resolve, and keeps repeating the attempts but without the right tools, or awareness of the body. The trauma lives on beyond the event itself, and manifests into symptoms like depression, anxiety, addictions, and disease like irritable bowel syndrome, high blood pressure, and worse.
The body is communicating to us through the sensations - the common language between the body and brain stem, whereas thought and words are created in the outer layers of the brain which takes information from the sensations and interprets them.
Therefore when we pay attention to the sensations and hold our awareness there we are directly engaging the trauma through the body. The central nervous system knows what to do to heal the trauma, it has been learning for millions of years, from before therapists and doctors existed, we are talking hunter gathering societies and before.
When we pay attention to the sensations, the pre frontal cortex is engaged and we bring back connection to this part of the brain, which in a traumatised brain is usually weak. We are strengthening the pre frontal cortex to bring awareness to the self, and this part of the brain allows us to seek solutions, and be creative. While the central nervous system brings calm and a safe place into the body.
Knowledge is power - we become aware of the knowledge of the body and experience it with our awareness - the elixir to transformation - to heal trauma and regulate our emotions, connect, and be with community.
What is Somatic Experiencing therapy?
Somatic Experiencing therapy is a mind and body based therapy developed by Dr Peter Levine, he studied stress and trauma for over 50 years, an expert in the field, and he was the stress expert for NASA.
SE works with the central nervous system through the sensations of the body. We talk about an event, but this is broken up into moments of silence as the client focuses on the sensations that arise. This brings the client into the present moment, where the healing happens, whereas the event may have happened a while ago and can not be changed. However, we can change how the body reacts to the event through the sensations that live and manifest in the client’s life in a myriad of ways; and we can change the perception of the event, to resolve the trauma.
Awareness of the bodily sensations allows the central nervous system to access the inner innate wisdom to heal the mind and body. This is self healing, and the therapist provides a safe and compassionate space, with guidance to allow the process of healing trauma.
What does Somatic Experiencing therapy help with?
Somatic Experiencing therapy works with the central nervous system which connects the brain and body, hence SE can help with various issues that may traumatise such as the medical process and procedure, an accident, war, or childhood abuse to name a few.
Any such incident may then live in the mind and body, and these may include ,but not limited to:
Anxiety
Depression
Chronic pain
PTSD
CPTSD
Grief
Trauma like childhood abuse, a medical procedure, accident, or others
Addictions to substances or other things
and many other ailments and behaviours.
What does a typical Somatic Experiencing therapy session look like?
Therapist may hold sessions differently and you will need to check their process. With me there are two stages to this, first is the consultation call.
1. Initial contact
The initial client contact occurs before any therapy session, to allow the client to decide whether I am the right fit for them. We talk about what SE is about, how we will work, and answer any questions. At this stage we do not go into the trauma story much because we do not want to activate the fight and flight responses.
The client can decide on whether I am the right therapist in their own time.
2. An outline of a somatic experiencing therapy session
If the client chooses to go ahead with sessions then a typical session will look like the following which is different to many talking therapies:
Grounding
Every session starts with a short grounding exercise to connect to the body, mark a start point, and to calm us from any session anxiety.
Resource Inquiry
An inquiry about what helps the client find calm, and their centre.
Pendulation
Moving into the body in between the trauma and the calm states, and staying with the sensations without going into overwhelm.
Ending the session
Direct the client back to calmness in the body and integrate them back into their space.
Review of the session
A review of what came up, what I did, and why.
Homework
A weekly homework to integrate what we do in sessions.
There is a lot more to what we do than described above, and the only way to know more is to experience it.
How to find a Somatic Experiencing therapist?
It can feel like a maze to get help and finding a therapist especially when you are troubled with trauma and feel overwhelmed. Here are some directories to help you navigate this:
SEAUK is the Somatic Experiencing Association UK and Ireland for practitioners, and you can find my profile in the directory too.
Somatic Experiencing International (SEI) is Dr Peter Levine’s main foundation, the headquarters, and you can find practitioners in Somatic Experiencing listed from all over the world, myself included.
The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN) is the UK’s largest community of Counsellors and Psychotherapists of Black, African, Asian and Caribbean Heritage. This is the directory to the complementary therapists.
Let’s not forget about me - Below is some information about my background and how to book a free consultation call.
Grounding tip
Notice your body weight on the balls of your feet, if this is difficult to focus on then go on to your tip toes.
If seated, push your feet into the ground and notice the sensation of this.
Focus. Notice what happens next.
Summary
The brain and body are connected through the central nervous system, and the body remembers the trauma too through the overwhelming sensations caused by the incomplete fight and flight impulses from the time of the event.
Somatic experiencing therapy is based on the mind and body connection and works with the nervous system by paying attention to the sensations, with other tools that a therapist like myself uses. Trauma can be resolved through completion of the fight and flight impulses. A somatic experiencing therapist will guide you through your trauma and your resources that help you find calmness to renogotiate the trauma. You can learn how a somatic experiencing sessions typically works to help understand what to expect.
|| The Soma Experience || Tread through the forest - exploring our inter-connected, inter-being, inter-related way - the elixir of life - the magical or medicinal potion that heals or cures.
elixir /ɪˈlɪksɪə,ɪˈlɪksə/ || The Soma Experience ||
A magical or medicinal potion that heals or cures
