Somatic Experience Trauma Therapy

Embodied Processing is the bottom-up approach to working with trauma, low self esteem, anxiety, addiction, depression, PTSD and a myriad of other stress related issues. Its also an approach to healing dysregulated nervous system.

As we go through life, we go through many difficult life situations & due to circumstances, we have these open trauma loops that open up. The trauma can be what most people think of as trauma such as sexual abuse, physical abuse or war veteran. But, it can also be developmental trauma, challenging situations of abuse or neglect over a period of time. Its any situation where our nervous system becomes very active, i.e dysregulated nervous system. We have highly intense emotional situations of fear, of sadness, of hurt, of guilt, & shame where we are unable to close those loops. This is what we call a traumatic imprint. These loops, stay open playing up through out life until the trauma is processed and healed, bringing closure to the loops and a sigh of relief (homeostasis) within the nervous system .

What Embodied Processing is doing is, we are welcoming in these old parts of ourselves so we can start to close these loops from a resource of safety. In the first few sessions, we focus on building these islands of safety resource within the body from which we can then work on the trauma loops. We can start to stop negative patterns from repeating in our life & start to live in the present & embodied place.

Trauma is stored in the body. It does NOT exist in the realm of thinking, even though it shows up as repetitive loop patterns & triggers in the mind. But, the Root system of trauma is in the body. If in any situation we contract against life & that contraction doesn’t come back to completion & homeostasis (ahhhhh), then that contraction becomes a trauma. Later in life, the person will re-contract in the same situations that trigger the original trauma imprint over & over again. It’s a somatic contraction. So, what we really do in EP is to explore these sensations in the body. When we have enough of those contractions or these traumas or undigested life experiences over a long period of time, we start to see symptoms like anxiety, depression, PTSD, addictions and even physical issues.

What we’re really doing with EP is starting to understand there the Roots lie underneath these symptoms showing up on the surface. We’re finding these roots & closing as many of the loops as possible so we can reduce the symptoms & be more present within ourself & body. We are getting out of the cognitive analysing mind & going into the body – into that real direct sensation of what does it feel like to be me. Our body is intelligent and stores memory of everything thats ever happened to us.

Each session will be different – we can work on something from your past or it could be from something thats currently happening whether its in your current relationship or work, or money or family. We start to explore these sensations in the body and where the roots of these issues really lie.

Before we start to delve into the issues, we cultivate a resource of safety first. This is very important step because whenever we’re revisiting really distressing emotions & these nervous systems states are within our body, we want to revisit them from a really solid place of safety. A difficult life experience becomes a trauma because there was a lack of safety & resource in the body to come back to and be able to process and close that trauma loop. This causes us to remain in an unbalanced state from that day forward. In EP, we can start to find felt sense of safety & what it feels like so we can cultivate that in your life going forward. We anchor these safety resources into certain body areas such as holding wrist or placing hands on heart etc. It’s a process that grows over time. From that place of safety resource we can start to invite in that part of us that we’re looking at to work on in the session. ¹

²In EP we also work with alot of limiting beliefs that we have about self & the world. These can be voices in our head that may say “I am not good enough” or I am not worthy of love or I don’t trust men etc.

EP is a gentler way to healing more severe trauma than RCT but I will be able to advise you which method will suit you best