Healing trauma through embodiment

Every single human being on earth has trauma. That’s me, and that’s you.

Trauma is life.

But that doesn’t mean that it needs to have control over your life.

In my quest to normalise trauma I have come to see trauma as a gateway to healing, for the opposite of trauma is robust resilience. The trauma that we go through can offer us many gifts as we walk the path of gently healing it.

So what is trauma?

Trauma is not necessarily the event or what happened to you, rather trauma is your nervous system’s response to that experience.

This means that what’s traumatic for one person is not for another. The way our nervous system will respond is different for each of us, determined by a unique and complex combination of factors. There is no right nor wrong way to react.

Trauma may stem from the acute stress of a perceived life-threat or, equally from the cumulation of chronic stress over time. That is, trauma can be Big T trauma, the things that we often think of as traumatic, or Little t trauma – the everyday incidents and pressures that we may think nothing of.

 It is important not to focus on whether you have trauma or not, but rather whether you feel dysregulated or impacted by trauma or not.

What affect does trauma have on us?

Trauma can lead to dysregulation, which means when things are outside their optimum range of functioning. Dysregulation can happen to our emotions, our thoughts, our behaviours, and even different biomarkers.

Feelings of low self-worth, shame, stuck in comparison or thought loops, these are all forms of dysregulation.

It’s important to note that dysregulation is pretty normal - it’s not BAD that you are dysregulated or avoiding, rather about resourcing yourself to become regulated.

Dysregulation: Symptoms of trauma

Emotional & psychological symptoms:

·     Shock, denial, or disbelief

·     Confusion, difficulty concentrating

·     Anger, irritability, mood swings

·     Anxiety and fear

·     Guilt, shame, self-blame

·     Withdrawing from others

·     Feeling sad or hopeless

·     Feeling disconnected or numb

·     Feeling flat

·     Limited capacity for pleasure

Physical symptoms:

·     Insomnia, nightmares, difficulty sleeping

·     Fatigue and exhaustion

·     Being startled easily

·     Difficulty concentrating

·     Racing heartbeat

·     Edginess and agitation

·     Aches and pains

·     Muscle tension

·     Lethargy

·     Disorientation

·     Dissociation

·     Digestive issues

Behavioural Symptoms

·     Playing the good girl

·     Being overly nice

·     Over functioning

·     Procrastinating

·     Perfectionism

·     Unhealthy, or no boundaries

·     Conflict avoidance

·     Zoning Out

·     Numbing Out

·     Hostility and rage

These symptoms will flare up after trauma and when the original trauma is triggered - which can throw us off because anything can be triggering, and more often than not our triggers don’t make immediate sense to our logical brains, which is why can erroneously attribute our reaction to another’s behaviour and end up placing blame where it’s not deserved.

To resolve trauma is to take responsibility for how you feel.

To resolve trauma is to come back into regulation, or flow.

To resolve trauma is to recover your lost power.

Why do we experience these symptoms long after the initial trauma? 

Ale Duarte refers to trauma as an ‘open loop’. If our bodies are able to respond like they normally or naturally would then innate physiological responses would initiate and complete the release of the trauma energy, enabling our autonomic nervous system to re-establish equilibrium.

However, if we are not able to complete the survival response the energy remains active in our bodies, and we carry unresolved trauma in our bodies. This means that we do not return to the point of homeostasis or equilibrium, and we can stay stuck in automatic survival responses for years.

The very nature of life as we know it interrupts the completion of trauma responses. Seen in the societal expectation to jut get on with it; real pressing need to address whatever it is at hand (like get onto insurance, or collect details, leave, etc) giving us no time nor space to process what’s gone on in the moment; in our conditioning that leads us to believe that intense emotional reactions are weird and better to be suppressed and hidden; and simply having lost the skill of being sensitive and allowing of what we feel in our bodies.

All animals, including humans have an innate self-healing response to trauma – but our busy lives and our conditioning has gotten in the way of it - which is where embodiment comes in.

Healing Trauma

While there is no one universal approach to healing trauma, there is a large body of evidence which supports the importance of centring the body and supporting it to complete the trauma response and unwind old patterns - either as a stand alone therapy, or in addition to talk therapy.

The beauty of allowing the body to lead is that we don’t have to go into the closet and rehash everything that has ever happened to us, nor do we need to dwell and analyse the past in order to heal. Rather, our bodies, as the innate self-healers that they are will retrieve things that will continue to trigger us so that we can have another opportunity at completing the trauma response that is still running in the background of our nervous system.

How can Feminine Embodiment sessions help you with your unresolved trauma?

• Feminine Embodiment Coaching first of all acknowledges that what is going on in your body and life at any given time makes perfect sense, and that you do not need to be ‘fixed’.

• As a client you are guided to enter the inner world of your sensations, as you identify unreleased stress and tension and complete them slowly and gently, developing your capacity to experience uncomfortable sensations in a very supportive way.

• In Feminine Embodiment coaching the traumatic event isn’t what caused the trauma, it is the overwhelmed response to the perceived threat that creates an unbalanced nervous system. The aim is to support you to a somatic release and creation of flow within the body. So we don’t discuss the event(s) if you prefer not to.

• In resolving one, there is often the resolution of many traumas, as the energy that was stuck is released often having a domino effect, and life returns to flow.

• It is a short-term modality that empowers you as the client to re-learn the skills of embodiment and in doing so allowing your bodies natural completion responses to occur.

• It allows you to garner and gather the gifts that you’ve been given through your lived experience and to share them with the world.

• There is no risk of projection by the practitioner onto the client, as the client’s body leads the way.

• It is simple and universal, meaning that it works for people of all belief systems, backgrounds, and ancestral connections.

When we activate our gut feelings and listen to our heart, and allow it to break…  following the sensations deep, deep within our bodies, then things begin to change.

Feminine Embodiment Coaching is for anyone who wants to release the hold that unresolved trauma has over them – whether they know what it is, or not – and to rewire old patterns and habits, set healthier embodied boundaries, strengthen their intuition, connect more deeply with ourselves and your loved ones, and be a full, expressive YES to life.

If you’d like to know more about Feminine Embodiment Coaching then click here.

Hi, my names is Jess and I am a certified Feminine Embodiment coach and (recovering) Psychologist, who has worked with womxn around the world supporting them to come home to their own unique, personal power, despite what life has thrown at them.

If you’d like to get in touch for personal enquiries then please contact me here.

As always, if you know someone that would benefit from reading this then please do share.

xox

Jess