There is a book by Peter Levine, Waking The Tiger, was first published in 1997. It was the first book of its kind that normalized trauma. Levine developed a form of therapy called, Somatic Experiencing with a doctor, Join Bessel van der Kolk. Somatic Experiencing is a body oriented approach to healing for trauma, it is assists clients in understanding how to be aware of body sensations and how to process and release those sensations. Somatic teachings are processing trauma through the body sensations associated with trauma.
The five core principals of Somatic; 1) Traumatic experiences become stuck in the body 2) Addresses trauma through the body 3) focus on awareness of internal sensations 4) goal is to release the physiological tress response 5) avoids direct or intense traumatic memories.
How Somatic works is it builds on peoples awareness of their body, that awareness, then through gentle touch helps release the trapped energy. Once the client starts to feel the release they begin to feel safe, that feeling of safety slowly return bringing with them resiliency and willingness to face the future.
Somatic assists with an individuals self awareness and the mind body connection. Somatic reduces pain and improves mental wellbeing. Research is continuing and required to fully understand the effectiveness and mechanisms of somatic approaches and how they work.
If you have experienced trauma let us help you, email us at info@mindhealthconnect.ca
Ref: A somatic experience