Supporting The Body To Heal The Mind
Trauma + Body-Based Therapy
Fight-Flight-Freeze defense mechanisms are normal and healthy responses to danger and threat. These responses help us survive; however, when the nervous system gets stuck in any of these modes we experience and live with the effects of trauma.
“…trauma is about loss of connection - to ourselves, to our bodies, to our families,… and to the world around us…. Our choices become limited as we avoid certain feelings, people, situations, and places. The result… is the loss of vitality and potential for the fulfillment of our dreams.” - Peter A. Levine
Therapies that focus on the physical/biological impacts of trauma are referred to as somatic or body-based approaches and differ from the psychological/talk or psychiatric/medication approaches which have been the mainstay in the western world for the last 100+ years.
Historical, intergenerational, early childhood and in utero/prenatal trauma are difficult to address because they are imprinted in our body and nervous system before we have conscious thought or are able to form words. These types of trauma often underlay trauma experienced later in life and inform how we respond to the world around us.
Transforming the Experience-Based Brain®
Transforming Touch®
Transforming Touch® is a targeted body-based treatment that addresses trauma by bypassing our conscious brain and communicating directly with our body. It follows a specific routine repeated each session. Repetition creates consistency and predictability which foster a greater sense of safety, the clients’ nervous system knows what to expect.
Attention is focused on key areas of the body that function as access points to the nervous system. These points included the kidney/adrenal area, and the brain stem.
By bringing support to these areas of the body, the nervous system is able to gradually release allowing the body and mind to experience a more restful state.
Some conditions which respond well to Transforming Touch® are anxiety, depression, loneliness, fear, anger, PTSD, stress, excessive sleeping, and self-soothing using alcohol and drugs.
“Trauma is perhaps the most avoided, ignored, belittled, denied, misunderstood, and untreated cause of human suffering.”
— Peter A. Levine Ph.D Founder of Somatic Experiencing®