Trauma and the Body
Trauma is anything that was energetically too overwhelming for your system to cope with at the time. The overwhelm remains, organising your body, mind and emotions until it heals.
Trauma is an imprint
Trauma is shock or overwhelm that imprints into your body. It is like a repetitive coding, hooked into the nervous system that fragments the body’s energy field.
To the felt sense, trauma is a pocket of force that has been incorporated into the body awaiting the day it can safely dissipate. It’s the body’s best way to protect the good of the whole – it minimises the impact.
When the imprint can open up and release, then your system becomes more whole – you have more health. Through out your lifetime there are many ways your system can be overwhelmed including:
Traumatic events
Developmental trauma
Prenatal and birth trauma
Intergenerational trauma
Traumatic events
Some people have experienced traumatic events that are very painful, for example being in a severe car crash, being abused or attacked. These types of events can lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Generally our society recognises these events as being significant and requiring healing.
It’s less common to realise that may ‘minor’ or ‘normal’ events are also overwhelming for the body. For example, being in a minor car crash or having surgery (or dental work) are traumatic events for your body and require attention. Your system needs to process the force that was applied otherwise it will hold onto to it to protect the health of the whole organism.
“Surgery is organised trauma. There are lots of things it is essential for, but it is still organised trauma.”
Developmental trauma
It is common for people to experience some form of developmental trauma. Generally less understood (outside of therapeutic circles) than traumatic events, developmental trauma is a result of the hurts and wounds you were repeatedly exposed to when you were young. These hurts and wounds were too much for your young self to cope with at the time. This trauma impacts your impressionable, sensitive self. It can result from a lack of attunement, an emotional volatile or sterile environment, and not having all your needs met.
Prenatal and birth trauma
Being born is a significant even and often birthing experiences were in some way overwhelming. This type of trauma can really have deep impacts without any obvious starting point. As a society for example we tend to take C-sections for granted, as we do epidurals. But the impact on the body of the baby can be long lasting if it’s not met with an opportunity to resolve some of that experience.
I’ve found that it is only in studying experientially how prenatal and birthing experience impacts the body could I fathom the impact of these experiences in shaping bodies and minds.
Whether your development in the womb and birth occurred without any obvious challenges, this process shaped you in very profound ways.
Your body’s impulse is to protect you from the impact of overwhelm
To protect yourself from overwhelm trauma you physically contract. Your living tissue field responds automatically to minimise the energetic impact within your whole body. Your organism does this to enable you to survive. It is not a conscious process.
Your protective contractions seal off (make safe) the energetic force that was too much for you to process at the time. This force becomes held within your energetic and physical system which enables you to continue to live and grow in your childhood environments, or to survive an overwhelming event.
Contraction or physical holding happens in your fascia.
Your fascia is like a million tiny spiderwebs, all interconnecting and weaving together every aspect of your body. This living net is intelligent, responsive, and pervasive. Blood, cells, lymphs, and fluid all flow through the fascia delivering nutrients and taking waste away to be eliminated.
To heal from trauma your body needs to deeply relax
If you are unable to deeply relax and be soothed internally, to soften and open up, your contraction remains as body memory and shaping. Contractions limit the flow of energy inside, then your health is no longer optional. This is why when you feel emotional pain today, you might also feel aches and pains in your heart.
Your resilience comes from releasing the internal holding in your body, regaining your energy, and processing psychological impacts that need to be addressed. This releasing can be a gentle and attuned process which happens when you feel safe, in a deep way that is not cognitive. Then your defences can let go and transformation can happen.
