I used to love going into the deepest depth of
trauma in sessions, but realized over the years, that trauma symptoms didn’t disappear that way and so I was on the
lookout for a different approach. My supervisor pointed me into the direction
of Peter Levine, who had developed a
therapy model approaching trauma very differently and I started reading a book
he wrote for therapists. Every page in this book resonated with me and I just
knew I had to do this training, no matter what. I felt very lucky when this
training was offered for the very first time in Australia a few years later.
Through my Somatic Experiencing training
I have learnt how to carefully renegotiate the challenging past without
re-traumatizing a client. As a therapist I now go gently back to the edge of
traumatic events with the intention of changing it. Visualizing the
support we would have needed back then in an embodied way
means shifting the past for good: Receiving the support of
unconditionally loving people or beings around us, being caught tenderly by the
softness of a mattress to catch our fall, being held soothingly by warm water,
carried and embraced, a body hugging and hand wiping away our tears, a
"lion" protecting us and an assertive person setting a clear boundary
for us. It is important to let our body complete
movements it held back for survivals sake – in the traumatic situation it
might have been too dangerous or inappropriate for a person to follow these body
impulses. But when these movements
are not completed the massive energy that prepared for fight or flight will stay trapped,
hence the body will perceive it is still under threat, even years later if the
charge isn’t released. Sometimes it
takes the form of running away, shaking, biting, spitting out words, hands
pushing or punching the imagined person away. All this happens in a slow, carefully titrated way and is
very different from the emotional catharsis therapy work I used
to do.
This of course doesn't change what happened to us
in our past, but it does change how it is stored in the body! Instead of
the body re-remembering over and over again what happened to it years ago it
can now let go, arrive in the present
time and become finally unstuck from
the past. It is a great relief for the nervous system to no
longer be in constant fight/flight/freeze when
not required. Instead the whole system can now return to
equilibrium and engage with the outside world in a relaxed way.
We can store this new imprint in our body
on a cellular level so we know how to truly nurture ourselves
and how to self regulate. Neuroplasticity means our brain can
build new and better neural connections when receiving a new,
good and corrective embodied experience. Clients then
can make new and better choices, step into the world in a more
embodied, empowered and assertive way. As a client recently said coming out of
a deep corrective experience when gently working on her childhood sexual
abuse: “I feel proud, enlightened and empowered”. She left the
office feeling at peace with herself and the world, experiencing a new
joy which is lasting to this day.
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So far I covered “What is trauma?” ,“Freeze state that follows fight flight
survival mechanis”, Reptilian, mammal and rational brain “speak” different
languages” and “How the self
soothing Parasympathetic Nerve develops and how patterns of worrying and
over-thinking can be set up in childhood”
Next week I will write about: “When sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve
go into chaos and trauma symptoms take over”
Have a great day,
Barbara
Counselling Somatic
Barbara Schmidt Mental Health Social Worker,
EMDR & Somatic Experiencing Practitioner
Barbara Schmidt
Mental Health
Social Worker
EMDR, Somatic
Experiencing Practitioner
144 Stirling
Terrace, Albany &
3/55 Strickland
Street, Denmark
e:
barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au
m: 0458 234 410
