What is "trauma"?

Trauma is best imagined as falling on a continuum, from small "t" trauma at one end to capital "T" trauma at the other end, and everywhere inbetween. "T" trauma refers to the unthinkable sadistic, ritual sexual abuse of children; "t" trauma is the one time fall off a swing with a bruised elbow and a scraped knee.  In addition, there are those who fall high on a similar continuum of sensitivity whose otherwise low level small "t" trauma actually scores high on the continuum of trauma.

Trauma can have significant effects, sometimes life-long, and is not something the victim can just "get over", however much friends and family members may wish. Symptoms may include:

• inability to tolerate intense feelings of any kind (sadness, fear, anger, joy);
• flashbacks of the original trauma at inopportune or inappropriate times;
• somatisation (getting sick, having aches and pains caused by the trauma rather than anything else);
• a tendency to recreate the trauma unconsciously (even when it doesn't make sense to do so, causing more pain and discomfort);
• numbing out feelings by using alcohol or other drugs;
• avoiding anything to do with the trauma;
• dissociating (the body is present but the soul of who someone is absent);
• loss of flexibility in responding to life situations, being rigid, having to stick to plans and schedules without room for manoeuver;
• being frozen and stuck, immobility;
• changing one's view of the world as a result of the trauma (for example, believing all men are bad, or the world is an unsafe place);
• being self-destructive;
• a deep sense of shame and vulnerability;
• difficulty in feeling "safe" in situations someone not traumatised would feel comfortable and not threatened;
• desire to withdraw from situations calling for vulnerability and/or intimacy;
• hard to trust others, even when no evidence of untrustworthiness exists;
• deep holding of the musculature of the body, in an effort to keep perceived danger at bay, with the resultant chronic tension wreaking havoc with the body’s ability to be present and powerful.

Facing the world with these internal drivers provides the perfect set up for self-medication with alcohol and other drugs. Once the alcohol and other drugs have been withdrawn, in order to stay sober over the long-term, clients in recovery must pay attention to the original trauma and its long-term effects on the body and psyche. One of the most effective methods to resolve trauma is somatic bodywork. This is because:

• trauma is stored at cellular level, and can only be released at cellular level;
• trauma creates horizontal bands of armouring (or holding of tension) along the length of the torso, and releasing that banding opens up the possibilities for the body to be in different (and more effective) action;
• the structure of a depressed body is different than the structure of a confident body – the body must be shifted at structural level, not just through the psyche.

This is where the technology of somatic bodywork and somatic coaching truly opens the door to a powerful future.  believe that without the capacity to be present, authentic, congruent, honest, compassionate and so on, there is extremely limited capacity to have a satisfying, enriching, rewarding life. These capacities live in the body, not the mind. If all we had to do was decide to be slender, successful and happy – we’d all be all those things! Rather, these capacities exist in the body at structural level.