Understand why Somatic Experiencing Therapy is so powerful for healing trauma and PTSD.
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It's helpful to understand a bit of how our brains work when things are going well.
When we experience threats or abuse, there's a part of our brain which records everything about that threatening situation and event. It's like a photograph only it includes not just images, but also a record of smells, sounds, feelings and all other perceptions.
If things go well, you triumph over the threat and you get to tell your story to caring friends, your nervous system automatically calms down and sorts out what about that situation was truly threatening and what was harmless. You learn this way to avoid the true threat and ignore the harmless aspects.
But if the whole situation became harmful and overwhelming, if you were injured physically or emotionally and had little support, then this part of your brain may get stuck on alert. The "all clear" signal is never sounded and your brain is alerting for everything things that remind it of that situation, including the harmless things.
I once had a client who was very nervous around all men with facial hair because of a traumatic incident with one man in her past who had facial hair. These things are called "triggers" because they trigger a "fight-flight" fear response in our bodies.
Most people fear and avoid triggers because of this uncomfortable physical reaction which makes you feel like you're in danger, even though it's really just a body memory of this past time. But this may mean that a person avoids a great many good and harmless things in their life.
This video points to the possibility of healing from trauma through body awareness. The approach in Somatic Experiencing Therapy is for the therapist to first help a client to become well-resourced, calm, and present to their own physical sensations. This takes some time and practice, as well as trust-building, and it does happen fairly quickly. From there, a small reminder of the trigger and the body reaction, is followed by an easy return to the resource and calm. After a few alternations between these two, the trigger loses much or all of its power to disturb or cause fear.
Though it typically requires the help of a caring and skilled Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in the beginning, the dedicated client or student can soon learn to do this on their own. It is, in fact, a natural process which animals and children do instinctively. So it is actually not about learning a new technique but instead more of a "remembering" a natural way of returning balance to the body.
Be sure to watch part 3 of Somatic Therapy for Healing Trauma & PTSD - Resourcing
Link to this video:
http://youtu.be/DPBQ2gmV70Q
Link to Part 3:
http://youtu.be/-ltRv3CrJ5w
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