When life happens to us it can happen in difficult, unexpected, or even tragic ways. The ensuing overwhelm, known as trauma, is often disorienting and damaging to our sense of self, safety, and belonging.

You may wonder, “how could this happen?”. And stall there, ruminating and racking your brain for answers, tensing your body against the insecurity and confusion.

You might ask, “why me.” And get stuck in a mental loop of hurt, avoidance, and a perpetual state of alert.

The truth? Such distress can linger and traumatic responses can take over. One of the worst experiences of your life can morph from a recoverable event to quickly become an ongoing influence and condition of your thoughts, emotions, and physical reactions. 

Fear and anxiety take up residence in your mind and body, making you feel powerless and obsessively determined not to be powerless at the same time. We call that post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. 

But you don’t have to go it alone. There is liberating, body-centric treatment from the fear inside you. We call that somatic experiencing.

Let’s look a bit closer below at your current suffering and the somatic solution.

PTSD: Your Mind and Body in a State of “Stuck Fear”

Think of your PTSD symptoms :

• intrusive thoughts (unwanted recollection/ reexperiencing); 

• mood swings (recurrent negativity);

• hypervigilance (jumpiness); 

• avoidance (resists triggering). 

Your symptoms are distinctly uncomfortable and disturbing. They get in the way of your ability cognitive, emotional, and physical control. To treat PTSD, you need a method that can reach you where you are and assist healing.

Dr. Peter Levine, expert, and author of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. Dr. Levine developed and SE after noticing that, despite ongoing threats, animals, are not traumatized in a lasting way like people. They see the fight, flight, or freeze cycle through and reset their minds and bodies. We can hold traumatic memory and reaction inside our bodies as built-up “survival energy” that our nervous systems never fully release. 

In other words, animals let trauma go. Humans often hold trauma in...and suffer.

The result? Living with that degree of distress changes the brain and body.

PTSD and Your 3-Part Brain 

Neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean, suggests the brain can be addressed in three areas:

• Reptilian brain): This “ancient” part of the brain, manages our survival instincts and autonomic body processes. This area of your brain takes control directly after trauma and can stall there for the PTSD sufferer. As a result, you remain in an ongoing, reactive state. Only essential body and mind processes are coordinated and employed. Additionally, the sympathetic nervous system elevates your stress hormones. These prepare you for the survival cycle.

• Mammalian/ Limbic brain: This part of your brain processes emotions and relays sensory information. However, during trauma, stress hormones rush in and compromise your memories, making it difficult to recognize that events are past, not present. Additionally, PTSD sufferers find that portions of their brains are easily triggered by memories and sensory information. You may read confuse normal situations for trauma-related, dangerous, or untrustworthy. Threats seem to be everywhere.

• Neomammalian Brain: The most evolved and human part of the brain. This area manages meaning, problem-solving, decision-making, learning, verbal and willpower. Concerning trauma, healing is achieved when the emotionally charged memories and responses in the limbic brain are shifted into the neomammalian brain for later reflection. Unprocessed, though, fear can't shift to this brain region, thus reason, willing yourself to “get over” trauma is ineffective.

With all of this happening in the brain it is easy to see why you struggle to reach a restorative state. Trauma survivors with post-traumatic stress disorder are operating with their reptilian brain. Fight, flight or freeze never ends. So, you go on, reliving the trauma in the survival and emotionally reactive realms,.

Unhealed and unable to figure out a way forward, you suffer. Unless you reach out for help.

So, how exactly does SE help you find relief?

Finishing the Fear: Why Somatic Experiencing is a Worthwhile Approach for PTSD 

This unique, body-centered approach is focused on helping you to restore a sense of safety and feeling grounded. As work with your therapist, the idea is to be able to mentally deal with your traumatic past without being overcome by the associated fear and sensations.

The ultimate goal? To take back the mind-body connection that heals and moves on.

Again, PTSD is about your response to traumatic memory. You are no longer in danger. SE intentionally uses techniques centered on accessing pent-up energy in an effort to help you process the trauma to completion.

Most important? This approach is not consumed with retelling and revisiting the past event. Over time, you work through your perceived bodily sensations and move on from there. 

You usher trauma responses through your nervous system and regulate them. No more stifling, hiding, or burying fear in the primitive parts of your mind. Processed trauma is then available to the evolved parts of your brain where you can file it in places meant for learning and meaning. Your body then realizes that you have indeed survived and freed your brain, muscles, gut and more from its tense survival stance.

Your Mind and Body Want to Heal...Give Them the Chance to Collaborate

Ultimately, you can move beyond traumatic shock. Your nervous system. Rest and relief can come if you commit to therapy.

Are you ready to deal with trauma and put fear and anxiety in their place? Let’s work together to loosen the grip PTSD has on you. With body-centered techniques, you can enjoy balance and reclaim peace again. Please read more about Somatic Experiencing and contact me soon for a consultation.