The body’s role in healing from trauma

As I’ve had the privilege and honor of sitting in my therapy office across from individuals who have suffered trauma, I’ve had many opportunities to learn from my clients as they share their stories with me and allow me to accompany them on their journey of healing. Among the things I’ve learned during my time spent with these resilient and amazing individuals in my office are two of the profound effects of trauma in the lives of survivors: a sense of disconnection and a sense of a lack of safety. This can show up in many areas of a person’s life: disconnection from other people, for example. My clients who have experienced trauma often talk about feeling isolated from those around them, and they speak of a longing for physical and emotional closeness with trusted loved ones. But often, they find that there is another part of them that feels simultaneously terrified at the thought of being close to or deeply known by other people, as it is precisely this closeness that feels the most vulnerable and dangerous.

Another way that these feelings of disconnection and a perceived lack of safety can appear in the lives of trauma survivors is the way that a person interacts with their physical surroundings. This might look like an inability to concentrate on what is going on in the moment around them, or perhaps a feeling of detachment from the current situation. A person might notice that they’ve developed an exaggerated startle response or hypervigilance, which is a constant state of being extremely vigilant or on the lookout for potential danger everywhere.

But when it comes to trauma, my clients have taught me that one of the key areas affected by these problems of disconnection and lack of safety has to do with a person’s relationship with their own body. This is because the body stores our physical memories. It “remembers” our experiences, good and bad, in very important ways. As humans, we are wonderfully complex beings…our minds, bodies, and souls are intertwined. If we experience trauma, though, this complex interconnectedness is fractured. A wall goes up, and suddenly we become disconnected from our body. What that means is that for a person who has experienced trauma and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, the idea of fully inhabiting the body no longer feels safe. Our brains have merciful and unbelievably intuitive survival instincts when trauma happens…we call these instincts “trauma responses.” Essentially, our brain says, “okay, this incredibly bad thing happened, and it was so bad that I don’t have the resources to cope with it and I’m overloaded. The experience happened physically, so I’m going to pull the plug on that physical connection, this way we don’t have to feel the pain anymore.”  It makes a tremendous amount of sense: if trauma is a physical occurrence or experience, and our body has stored a memory of that physical experience, then it stands to reason that allowing ourselves to go to a place of inhabiting our physical body, and becoming aware of physical responses our body has to experiences and the world around us, would feel unsafe. In this way, these trauma responses have a numbing effect.

A word that is often used to describe this phenomenon is “dissociation.” Dissociation is a term that’s frequently thrown around, but at its core, the definition is a detachment from a person’s physical sensory experiences, thoughts, memories, actions, or sense of identity. Essentially, it’s a word that describes what happens when a person becomes detached from their body and their very sense of self. Many of us experience milder (and very common) forms of this…ever been on the road driving home, and suddenly realize you’re in the driveway, without any memory of the drive or how you arrived? That’s sometimes known as “highway hypnosis” and it’s a common experience. But when it comes to trauma, dissociation is often more severe, and affects a person’s ability to function, relate with others, and feel safe in their own body. It leads to a fracture or disconnection between a person, their sensory experiences, and their emotions.

What this means is that the very first step in healing from trauma needs to involve the body. After all, if we don’t feel safe or “at home” in our body, how can we expect to feel safe in our physical surroundings, or safe in relationships with other people? If our body experienced trauma, our body must be invited to participate in the healing process. This is actually good news, because it means that for those of us who have experienced trauma and who feel disconnected and unsafe in our bodies, there is hope. In fact, there are things you can do today to help your body facilitate the healing process. These are going to be things that involve getting you back into your body and its physical experience, slowly and safely, at a pace that feels manageable to you. Allowing yourself to inhabit your body again is often a vital component to other emotional work, such as the work done with a psychotherapist.

Some examples of things that can make space for our minds and souls to slowly begin to regain the connection to our body:

·Yoga

·Massage therapy

·Chiropractic treatment from a trauma-informed chiropractor

·Physical activity you enjoy, such as swimming, dancing, skateboarding, or a simple walk around the neighborhood.

·Mindfulness and grounding strategies, such as deep slow breathing, as well as using the five senses to help your body focus on the experience of your surroundings. A simple activity that can facilitate this is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, during which you can focus on your surroundings to find find five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear around you, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

These are all strategies that are extremely helpful in addition to psychotherapy. If you live in the Burlington, Vermont area, and have experienced trauma and are interested in or curious about psychotherapy with a focus on your body’s role in the healing process, I would be honored to hear from you. Contact me today, and we can talk more about your questions and goals for therapy.