The body wants to heal! We help clients to metabolize the trauma in their body with the use of EMDR therapy and other body-centered techniques. “The Body Keeps the Score”, says renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk. He shares that, “Trauma literally rearranges the brains rewiring, specifically areas of pleasure, engagement control and trust”. Trauma is experienced somatically in the body and early trauma in childhood is associated with somatic disorders later in life including, chronic pain symptoms, chronic fatigue, conversion seizures and other somatic disorders.
We use somatic, body-centered techniques to help prepare clients for EMDR therapy. Some clients benefit by somatic resourcing techniques to strengthen their tolerance for processing the traumatic material and tracking their body sensations using mindfulness. We also work with clients to help them learn and experience boundary setting with their bodies. Additional techniques include: assisting clients in identifying areas in their body that feel pleasant, relaxed or neutral and oscillate back and forth between those areas of their body and areas that feel tense, tight or painful. This method helps clients to be aware and stay with body sensations for strengthening their tolerance for trauma processing.
When we work with clients with trauma we are always aware of the effects on not just the mind but the body too. In fact, part of the EMDR therapy process asks clients to identify where in their body they feel distress related to the traumatic memory. During trauma processing we might ask a client to “notice that sensation in their body” and at the end of a EMDR session we ask them to scan their body to see if they are noticing any disturbances in their body. As EMDR therapists this is our way of checking to make sure the body and the mind have released and metabolized the trauma.
Adults with severe and persistent trauma histories often began life just trying to survive day to day while experiencing unthinkable abuse with no way to escape. At the same time they were surviving the abuse they also had to attach to the perpetrator or caregivers to get their basic needs met. This meant having to hold the pain back to focus on surviving while at the same time maintaining attachments to perpetrators. This dual process can cause a client to feel detached from themselves and others, feel numb, experience loss of time, have drastic shifts in behavior, feel like two different people, be able to ignore pain, have difficulty getting close to others and just functioning in life can be hard. There is a continuum of dissociation and symptoms in clients with trauma.