Somatic Experiencing:- Experiencing your self through the body.

Many years ago, I had a wonderful friend who was full of fun...and he had this saying, "Crazy in the mind, happy in the body, happy in the mind, crazy in the body". It stuck and as I explore this craze of Somatic Experiencing, which is a modality created by Peter Levine, I find the simplicity in it.

Trauma-informed is a new thing, yep...ya wouldn't believe it, but it was only really exposed in recent years. And boy has it exploded!

Bessel Van der Kolk wrote, "The Body Keeps The Score," and we have become as therapists alot more connected to therapising in a bottom-up way. But human beings are so caught up in the mind. Bottom-up therapy means we start with the body.

What I have found is that this then means we spiritually bypass the thoughts and think we can shake it out without connecting to our soul, the part of us that is not connected to our body or our mind. And ultimately due to our soul not having a body, it cannot have feelings.

I'll let that sink in for a bit!

I was talking with my supervisor and was asking her, in the language of, 'Somatic Experiencing' as she is a practitioner. What do I do when someone has actually managed to get out of a dissociative state? For those not clear on this, disassociating is a survival mechanism that means we literally leave our body. We disassociate our self from our body.

Connect back to what I said above. Our soul is in a body. At this point in time...for this life time. And because of trauma and the response that our family or loved ones had to us as we experienced that trauma. The trauma stuck. Our self decided, in it's capacity to survive that it would be best to leave the body and continue to masquerade living life without the body. Because to be in it and experiencing and feeling all of these things would be way too hard.

This is who complex trauma happens, or might happen, because once we have decided to shut off our survival systems, more things keep happening to this body. And it becomes familiar for us, so we seek out these patterns.

Anyways, back to being in our body. Today, I was talking with a client. She finally shared to me after not wanting to connect for a long time and do therapy that she is feeling depressed and that she is having a hard time. Firstly, I acknowledged how hard that was for her to share that. And asked why she had not told me that earlier. She said that she felt she could handle it. It was not a new feeling.

I acknowledged that this was normal for most of my clients.

It is usually something that starts the breakthrough in a therapeutic relationship. And is very normal in clients who have severe trauma. The bigger the trauma, the more complex and layered it is, the longer it takes for them to trust a counsellor. I talked to her about her supports, her friends and she said that they tell her when she feels bad to ask for help and when she does, that they are not able to be there for her, so she stopped asking for help.

You have to realise that I am not talking about someone who is making these decisions in their 20s, or 30s, or even 40s. They have experienced this for a long time. A number of my clients are in their 50s. My age. And this is the first time they have reached out for help for childhood trauma.

In their 50s!

So the patterns and behaviours are pretty ingrained. If the trauma happened as a child, and they are just reaching out for help now from a therapist. This has reached exponential levels. They simply can't keep going the way they are. So now, they reach out.

Back to feeling things in your body....

They are so disconnected.

Here's a leap - some people are teaching Somatic Dance or Yoga, or holding ecstatic dance spaces. There is absolutely no way that these people who need what you are holding are capable of connecting to this!

But I am not saying don't stop holding these spaces.

And I am saying, realise that to be trauma-informed, you have to know that there are steps for these people to get there.

They have to start loving and enjoying being in their bodies again.

And a part of that is that, as therapists, we are going to support them to connect to their body, one session at a time, in a safe place.

And as they connect with this, then they might be able to take it home and do these practices of being in their body there too.

They may start to be able to do it every day.

They may start to be able to do it twice a day.

And so on and so on

Until they live a life that enables them to feel safe in their body.

And then, they might be able to come to a group thing.

A place that holds space for dancing and being in your body. Just for an hour, just enough... where you are conscious. Where people aren't getting drunk or drugged to be able to dance. That they are safe too.

And just quietly...these people are going to turn up in these spaces.

The conscious spaces.

And dance.

As if no one is watching.

And that is Somatic Experiencing.... being able to experience your self in your body and the movement that you make. The movement that supports a feeling and emotion that holds you and supports you.

How you make meaning... that the way your hold yourself makes meaning in your life. That you have purpose. You feel aligned to your values and your soul's incarnation.

So, am guessing you are asking the question.

What is the formula?

What I realised, is connect in with your body right now. How could you change it's position that would be more comfortable. Or what could you do that you really enjoy. Today it was simply receiving the warmth of a heater.... or considering connecting to being in bed with an electric blanket making you warm. Because of course it is cold right now. Or standing in the sun and feeling the warmth. What is the sensation that you feel in your body when you do this? Where do you feel it. What senses are alive in you?

What can you see?

What can you hear?

What can you smell?

What can you touch?

What can you taste?

Get it? - The 5 Senses....

And we are focused on things being good...this is hard, if your life is full of things being difficult, you are trying to avoid this imagery.

But as humans, we do have the capacity to imagine good things, things that work, and we can imagine them with all our senses.

We can go to that place in our mind.

Theatre of the Mind!

Go there now, just see... and imagine. That place that is special for you....

Then allow that feeling to expand throughout your body.

If you are willing.

Even for a moment.

You do have the capacity, to feel good and just and amazing things.

To feel the infinite capacity to feel love.

So here we are, coming to the end of this blog, because we have to at some point...because you have to do the doing. You have to actually try this experience.

Your body experiencing..... Somatic Experiencing.

With love and gratitude, so proud of you for reading to the end....

Rachelle xx