Today I have enrolled onto a Crisis & Trauma Counselling Diploma. As you do!! I’m super excited to learn more and more about the complexities of human emotions. Particularly fascinated by the subject of Trauma. When we think of trauma we tend to think of it as psychological distress. Of which that is true. However, emotional trauma also attaches to our physical body (BodyMind); Our organs, glands, cells and tissues store trauma too. You may have heard the phrase “Issues in our Tissues”. The body is an archive for stress, crisis, trauma, our challenging emotional life “stuff”. It even happens before we’re born.
“A pregnant woman’s thoughts are the precursor for her emotions. … Hundreds of studies have confirmed that chemicals released by the pregnant mother’s body are transported into the womb and affect the unborn baby.” Negative thoughts are often the root cause of a fear-based stress response.”
A large part of my job as a Yoga Teacher over the years has been working privately with students from all walks of life. People with their own unique story,body, mind and often trauma tissues. When we first begin to consciously move, breathe or just be in stillness, a process of unravelling tends to begin. This unravelling can stir up deep rooted emotions. Which can be pretty intense. Hence why its so important to move gently from a safe and held space with an experienced teacher or therapist.
Some of my Continual Professional Development (CPD) training in the past has looked at ways and techniques in which we can safely encourage our organs, tissues and cells to gently release held trauma, helping the healing process. I’m a firm believer that held trauma exhausts the BodyMind on EVERY level; Emotional, mental, physical, spiritual… It’s something I’m passionate about and will continue to study. Let the learning commence! I’ll keep you updated on my progress.
“In response to threat and injury, animals, including humans, execute biologically based, non-conscious action patterns that prepare them to meet the threat and defend themselves. The very structure of trauma, including activation, dissociation and freezing are based on the evolution of survival behaviors. When threatened or injured, all animals draw from a “library” of possible responses. We orient, dodge, duck, stiffen, brace, retract, fight, flee, freeze, collapse, etc. All of these coordinated responses are somatically based- they are things that the body does to protect and defend itself. It is when these orienting and defending responses are overwhelmed that we see trauma.
The bodies of traumatized people portray “snapshots” of their unsuccessful attempts to defend themselves in the face of threat and injury. Trauma is a highly activated incomplete biological response to threat, frozen in time. For example, when we prepare to fight or to flee, muscles throughout our entire body are tensed in specific patterns of high energy readiness. When we are unable to complete the appropriate actions, we fail to discharge the tremendous energy generated by our survival preparations. This energy becomes fixed in specific patterns of neuromuscular readiness. The person then stays in a state of acute and then chronic arousal and dysfunction in the central nervous system. Traumatized people are not suffering from a disease in the normal sense of the word- they have become stuck in an aroused state. It is difficult if not impossible to function normally under these circumstances.”
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