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"If we do not work on three levels - body, feeling, mind - the symptoms of our distress will keep returning, as the body goes on repeating the story stored in its cells until it is finally understood" - Alice Miller
When working with abuse survivors it is important that the body is included as part of the treatment. Prolonged and chronic stress states, as experienced in ongoing and cumulative abuse and maltreatment, economic poverty and the associated stressors, have both short and long-term consequences. After a trauma, if there was no calming person to help the person regulate their physiological stress response and abuse experience, the body will stay in the trauma experience. Instead of moving forward, the person becomes frozen in time and is at risk of viewing all future experiences from the lens of the trauma and a body that is wired for fight/flight/freeze. A body froze in time cannot learn from new experiences. In a hyper-aroused state wired for attack or flight, or a hypo-aroused state of collapse makes it difficult to learn new information. Learning new and rational ways of thinking and behaving is the privilege of a non-traumatized body, a body that is out of real or perceived danger. Mind-body therapies help to re-set and repair the hyper-aroused and/or hypo-aroused physiological states.
The expression of feelings is a critical component in the healing process. In fact, repression of feelings can cause distress, anxiety, and depression. Survivors of abuse need a therapeutic channel to express strong feelings and have them acknowledged, understood, and respected. Some survivors fear disastrous outcomes for expressing themselves, and when they attempt to assert their needs, feelings, or wishes, they are confronted with the original traumatic experience in which their efforts at self-assertion were dangerous and/or futile. It is important to support the client in their attempts to be visible and remind them that some of their beliefs, feelings, and behaviors which were a means of coping; as an adult, the strategies that once helped are no longer adaptive. Traumatic experiences that are hidden and unexpressed continue to perpetuate the undercurrents of abuse, and the old ways of thinking and behaving are re-creating childhood dynamics of powerlessness and lack of protection.
Many of my clients experienced an enormous amount of emotional upheaval in their lives through cumulative traumas of abuse, neglect, violence, and losses. To interrupt the cycle of
childhood re-enactments, the past must be explored, articulated, and regulated. When the client feels safe enough in the therapeutic process, the therapist and client can explore how the trauma
has impacted their life, self-perceptions, and behaviors and choices; as well as explore the dysfunctional dynamics that keep the client hostage to the past.
Trauma and Recovery
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