Want help, but don’t want to retell your whole trauma story? Somatic trauma therapy or yoga is for you.
You heard of fight flight freeze trauma responses, but fawn response is my specialty. Fawn trauma response can look like:
What exactly is trauma? Trauma is any experience that makes you feel helpless or powerless. It goes beyond stress to overwhelm your coping and makes you deeply question things: Is the world good? Are people good? Am I good?
Parts Work Therapy for Trauma
The ripple of trauma creates splits or parts in us. For example, the part who is angry the trauma occurred. You might fantasize about revenge, transcendence, or being rescued. The part who is scared or your inner child. The part who is ready to grieve what was lost, but you fear if you let grief speak, it might not stop.
With love and compassion, we’ll gently meet these disconnected parts and gently guide them back home to acceptance. You’ll find giving them a voice and asking what they need makes them no longer scream, act out for attention, or control you.
Why Somatic Therapy for Trauma?
Somatic therapy or yoga is excellent for trauma since memories live in the body. Maybe you’ve heard the phrases “if it’s hysterical it’s historical” or “the issues are in the tissues.” These express that intense emotional reactions to triggers and even illness can arise from unresolved past trauma. We’ll work with your body directly to come out of stuck trauma responses that can’t be released by talking alone.
The Trauma Healing Process
Trauma healing or integration takes place in stages outlined by Judith Herman: 1) safety, 2) mourning, and 3) reconnection. Since trauma breaks our connection to self, others, body, memory, or Spirit, it can feel like trauma is still happening in the present. Integration helps us understand the trauma as past and relate to it differently in the present, rather than stay disconnected.
