Trauma therapy
conversations with a somatic approach
“The essence of trauma is disconnection…so the real question is: How did we get separated and how do we connect?”
Dr. Gabor Maté
Growing through trauma
why trauma therapy?
In considering trauma therapy we usually have come to a point where there is either a nagging feeling that something in our lives is off and we can't place our finger on it. Or we have come to the point where changes are required to overcome emotional pain and to begin to live in our relationships from a more healthy and nourishing state.
We tend to survive instead of live when we have unresolved trauma patterns determining and directing us. It can be quite hurtful to realise we have been surviving and we can feel overwhelmed and helpless not knowing what to do about it.
When we are considering trauma therapy we have often felt difficult issues coming up in our relationships with near ones and dear ones. Or we have come to experience that we simply do not feel at place inside ourselves. Or we may feel insecure on an existential level without really knowing why.
In those periods of challenges in our lives trauma therapy can provide that support we need.
We most often can't manage to resolve deep trauma patterns on our own. Sometimes we need somebody to hold space for us when we go to the places we haven't dared to go before.
A compassionate way
Trauma is an overwhelming life threatening incident that has happened to us that has not been sufficiently processed. It is said that the event has not 'landed' in the body.
It is common to experience a wide range of symptoms, known as trauma effects, such as insomnia, difficulties concentrating, pain, extraordinary alertness, memory problems, avoidance behaviour, anxiety attacks, hypersensitivity, etc. the list goes on.
When we are traumatised, our body is in a constant state of stress (chronic stress and not acute or periodic stress), which it cannot tolerate over a long period of time without us being thrown out of balance or worse, getting sick from chronical disorders.
Trauma therapy is about relieving the system by becoming aware of where it is locked up and the extensive impact it has had on our lives and our relationships. Through the sessions we gain an understanding of ourselves and new perspectives that support the maybe long-waited healing.
Compassion along the way is needed, because it was compassion that once were missing when we in the first endured the painful incident.
about the sessions
Trauma therapy focuses on the whole person, recognising that the body, mind and emotions have been under a great deal of stress, often for over a period of a long time. Light physical exercises performed with awareness are therefore a big part of the therapy to stabilise the body and to help us to meet and eventually accommodate the many strong sensations and high level of internal energy that our system has been continuously burdened with.
Learning how to feel and establish flexible boundaries, to center and ground and to contain ourselves is essential for healing when our system has been severely affected by one or more very difficult incidents or life threatening events.
In a way you can say that through the sessions we learn the skills we either felt like having lost or never had the chance to develop sufficiently. But it's never to late to start cultivating these skills and to access the psychological content inherent in our system. The skills were actually never lost, just dormant. They can be trained like a muscle for us to begin to use again in our lives. It takes a great deal of inner work though.
Trauma therapy does not remove trauma, but we can grow through them and find a new and more sustainable ways of being in the world with more resources to the benefit of ourselves and our relationships.
