For sometime now, researchers and practitioners have begun to realize that the traditional talk therapy is no longer the "be-all, end-all" when it comes to treating a person with psycho-somatic trauma. The term psycho-somatic (meaning mind-body) refers to symptoms that correlate between mental and physiological realms. For example, a person may feel emotions like fear or anger along with physical pain in a particular part of their body even though no actual damage exists in the tissue. When there is no physiological reason for the pain, often accompanied by the presence of mental or emotional triggers for that pain, the root cause is generally associated with a psychological origin. Along with the pain, the emotions, and the psychological triggers, is a more general pattern of bodily tension. This pattern of tension helps to shape, regulate, and direct energy in the body in a restricting manner often leading to greater pain and dis-ease.
For many years, talk therapy, in one form or another, has been the dominant method of treatment for all psychological related therapy. Certain outliers like Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen explored breath and bodywork as a means of trauma therapy treatment, but in recent years many researchers have turned their eyes towards a more somatic than psychological approach.
Touch, breath, movement, and somatic awareness (attuning to the sensations within the body) are being recognized as some of the best and most significant tools for the release of psycho-somatic (mind/body) tension and pain. Practices such as Cranio-Sacral, Breathwork, Myofascial Release, Bio-Energetics, and Somatic Experiencing have all transformed what we thought we knew about about trauma.
Before entering into the study of Massage Therapy, I practiced Breathwork for nearly 7 years. It was once my desire to become a psychologist so that I could help people overcome their traumatic experiences and live their lives more fully. I read many great books on trauma, psycho-therapy, and neurobiology before realizing that most of what these books were telling me is that the key to trauma therapy lies in the body. This led me to learn more about Cranio-Sacral therapy, Myofascial Release, and other techniques like Osteopathy, all of which I received dozens of treatments in my own pursuit of healing.
The transformation that occurs when the body is opened up, allowing greater flow of energy, and ease of movement is incomparable. When one can breathe fully again, when one can relax without feeling their body twisted and knotted in a consistent pattern, it deeply changes how one perceives the world. Not to mention how it changes the way they perceive themselves. A chronically dysregulated nervous system and high levels of stress, caused by constant pain and a regular perception of danger programed into the body, can cause a multitude of both mental and physical ailments. Techniques that help to regulate the nervous system, particularly the Vagus nerve, are fundamental to transforming this chronic state of psycho-somatic pain, tension, and emotional dysregulation.
Patterns of tension can keep a person locked into a hunched, defensive stance, or twisted to one side, head tilted, always seeing the world at an odd angle, or even stiff and rigid like a board, unwilling to surrender into the flow of life. All of this has a psychological component, but the primary root lies in the body. For decades the search lied in the mind, and we found many fascinating ways to blame parents for our problems, but the recent exploration of the body has led people to finding many new ways of navigating the pain and struggle that they feel so intimately.
For these reasons I believe that in the next 10-15 years, bodywork will be the standard practice for trauma therapy. Bodywork has the capacity to connect with the individual through touch in a safe and controlled space, which for many people experiencing psycho-somatic symptoms, is a resource that they need. Co-regulation is when a person can regulate their mental and emotional state by being in the presence of another person. With bodywork, touch becomes a medium which can dramatically enhance that connection for co-regulation.
Some people are not capable of receiving any form of touch, and cannot cope with the intensity of breathwork or body based exercises, so for that reason I also believe that these are not the "be-all, end-all" either. However I believe for most, the place of body based therapeutics will play a much greater role as we progress in our understanding.
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