Somatic Reprocessing

Have you ever been triggered by something, or someone, and had an extreme reaction to what happened, maybe you screamed or yelled, maybe you completely shut down and couldn't talk or continue being functional, or maybe you had flashbacks of the original event or wound and didn't know what was going on? Potentially your actions in your current day life are driven by avoiding what happened when you experienced an event that was shocking and fearful, or even a traumatic event where you felt helpless. So now you go about your day being someone who isn't able to be who you are deep down, out of fear of being in a situation that even closely represents what happened.

When we experience overwhelming and stressful events, either too much, too soon, too often, or when we don't have the physical and emotional support or guidance around us when we feel completely helpless, these emotional events can become lodged in our bodies as a traumatic memory. Some examples of emotional events can be things such as: sexual assault, witnessing violence of any kind, physical violence, ongoing emotional neglect or abuse, stalking, car accident, sudden death of someone close, and the list goes on. There is no limit to what too much is, too soon, too often or not enough, and I want to validate that what might be traumatic and render one person shocked, afraid and helpless, might also not have the same impact on another person.

This traumatic memory becomes an imprint that lives in our body, and governs what we do, to avoid feeling that way again. This is where maladaptive coping strategies come into play, where big walls are put up to protect ourselves, so we don't put ourselves in situations like that again, because it wasn't safe. And this is all an incredibly clever way for our mind and body to keep us out of danger. However, if the event which caused the original imprint is over, these strategies can become detrimental to our ability to connect with others intimately and lead a fulfilling life moving forward. If we are always on the defense and afraid what happened might happen again, that doesn't leave very much room for more expansive emotions like peace, joy and love.

Somatic Reprocessing allows us to create a safe relationship together, between therapist and client, to begin to explore the original event of what happened, allowing for the emotional memories to be processed, and the body to return to a state of rest and digest. Somatic Reprocessing is different for everyone, we recommend having at least 4 ongoing sessions to create trust and ensure full support throughout this process. We use Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy, hypnotherapy, Shadow Work and Timeline Therapy to guide you deeper to connect with this trapped memory.

And sometimes, you might not even remember the original event that happened, you simply recognise yourself in the ways that we intuitively protect ourselves, by creating walls around us with emotional and physical distance. This can also be a way our mind protects us, a way of consciously forgetting, however as Bessel Van der Kolk explains in his book "The Body Keeps the Score", our body holds Somatic memories of all our life events.

Once the Somatic memory and imprint has been released from the body, that will allow energetic room for new ways of living, designed to return a sense of power and autonomy to your life.

If you're someone who feels ready to let go of a past experience or traumatic event, please reach out and book a discovery call so we can see if Somatic Reprocessing is right for you.