WHAT IS TRAUMA?

A holistic approach to trauma defines trauma not as an event, but rather as a disruption and overwhelm to our body-mind’s capacity to adapt, thrive, and flourish.  

Trauma can occur when:

• There is too much too soon

• There is too much for too long

• There is not enough for too long

• Power and agency have been taken away from the person or collective

• The stressors outweigh the resources available to navigate them

• When our primal protective instincts, intuitions, and responses are thwarted

• There is not enough time, space, or permission to heal 

It is essential that we consider social, developmental, and cultural factors when reflecting on a client’s trauma history. By not acknowledging these contextual factors we do the individual a disservice.

The symptoms of trauma may occur immediately or emerge over time from the compounding stress and challenges of processing and adapting to the experiences of life. Symptoms of trauma emerge as the body and mind attempt to cope with and resolve the stressors. 

The effects of trauma may include: 

• Physical symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, tightness in the body, muscle tension, digestion challenges, and constrictions around the breath. 

• Emotional symptoms such as flatness / inability to feel, fear, anxiety, panic, overwhelm, loss of choice, difficulty feeling comforted, anger, and shame.

• Psychological symptoms such as dissociation, mental rumination, low self worth,  negative self talk, self blame, memory challenges, depression, and loss of interest in activities. 

• Relational / Social symptoms such as isolation, loneliness, relational and attachment reenactments. 

Trauma can lead to feelings of powerlessness, helplessness, and groundlessness. It interferes with our ability to feel real in body and mind, it disrupts our very sense of existence, and takes us away from the present moment. However, as Dr. Peter Levine, creator of Somatic Experiencing says “Trauma is a fact of life. It does not have to be a life sentence.”  

Symptoms are the gateway to healing trauma. Our job as practitioners and educators is to listen and hear the messages and wisdom encoded in the body.

SOMATICS HELP HEAL

‘Soma’ is a Greek word for ‘the living body known from within’, or known to the Self. This ‘knowing’ signifies wholeness. Somatic therapy is an experiential approach towards mindbody integration. The pain, overwhelm, and coping responses manifested by trauma take us away from feeling at home in our body, and as a result there is often a split within ourselves.

Somatic Therapy helps:

• Restore the body as a place of safety while helping to expand the capacity to process body (preverbal and nonverbal) memory

• Metabolize unprocessed emotions

• Complete thwarted (incomplete) stress responses

• Restore our optimal relationship to our self and the world around us

Somatic trauma therapy offers techniques for clients to sense and regulate their own physiology and states of being. This includes building more internal and external resources, building trusting and co-regulatory relationships, learning to turn inward with compassion, being invited deeper in the body, and given time and space to process the trauma. These somatic techniques unwind trauma and restore well being.