Somatic-Informed Trauma Healing
Somatic-Informed Trauma Healing
This work is about returning to the vibrant, engaged experience of life. Difficult events in our life might get stuck in our nervous system and deplete energy in our daily lives (sometimes called energy leaks, blocks or trauma). When these events get stuck in our system, they can make it difficult to connect with others, take in the world around us or do regular daily work.
I offer an opportunity for us to gently listen and explore trauma that is impacting your daily life, giving it time and space, love and support to unwind. Our nervous systems are actually designed to heal when something is blocked or stuck. So the healing process is a natural one where we support and stabilize the system so it can release the stuck material/ trauma.
We can also incorporate management strategies to help mitigate symptoms while the trauma is emerging. This might include daily self-care routines, daily exercises, setting up support networks, accountability, empathy partners, anger management strategies or educational materials.
Only as much as your system is ready to do: we will honor your nervous system and not push it or rush into doing any work that your system is not ready and willing to do. The most important point of trauma work (from my experience and from every training I have attended) is to slow down and honor and support the system so it does not become re-traumatized. Trauma happens too quickly for our nervous system to process it, so the healing process is all about creating a slow and safe space to process and release it.
Brief Definition: If a stressful experience happens to us (a car accident, our parents getting divorced years ago), the alert and sense of threat from this event can remain stuck in our nervous system. This might be subtle or quite apparent (i.e. anxiety, numbness, procrastination). Trauma-Informed Somatic Healing creates a slow, safe space to help that stuck energy, also called trauma, begin to release and naturally discharge. "Somatic" means “body.” We are including the body in the conversation because the survival parts of our brain, where that trauma energy gets stuck, is in the subconscious and cannot use words to communicate. But it does communicate with sensation, movement and impulses in the body (i.e. our hands raising up to protect our face as we remember a car accident). As we include any impulses or sensations in the body, the subconscious (survival mechanisms) will begin to participate more fully and support the release and integration of that trauma.
Sessions: See the Contact page for more details.