Why Healing needs to be a Sensorimotor Experience?
Trauma doesn’t have a language which can be clearly defined, written, spoken one sentence following the other with proper intonations and pauses. Purely because when trauma happens and one goes through an impact of such severity, the part of the brain that is responsible for rationalizing, processing, understanding and language shuts down. This immediate shutting down leads to a break in the way one processes information outside and inside their bodies. Neocortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for cognition, analysis, decoding, dissection (of facts and perceptions), breaking down information into bits and pieces so that proper understanding may happen. Prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that is responsible for interpreting our experiences. Similarly there are a set of structures in the brain called amygdala and hippocampus which are responsible for memory and emotions. When a person goes through a difficult experience which is either sudden or chronic, like an accident or periodic abuse: frontal parts of the brain (including neocortex, prefrontal cortex, centres responsible for language and speech) disconnect and collapse. Also, the development of hippocampus and amygdala become affected. Infact, people’s memories are affected and they cannot remember things ‘as a whole.’ A sense of integration and wholeness is lost. There’s heightened emotional response because of the affected amygdala and now more and more stress hormones are released in the body: as a result the body begins to wear out, and therefore people who are survivors of heavy trauma age faster than people who may not be carriers of the same. Over a period of time, because of the emotional storm that keeps on happening in the form of rapid over-influx of stress hormones in the body, people can become addicted to stress and may find it very difficult to relax even in a calm, peaceful environment.
What does one do while working with such people in therapy? The answer is simple, though the process may not be so: We work with their re-connection. As integrated therapists, we understand that the primary after-effect of trauma is disconnection. Each of these individual has disconnected from their bodies and minds. There is not only a physical + mental disconnection that has happened at the body and brain level, but also at the spiritual level. A part of their consciousness is certainly lost and now what remains are fragments, parts, impulses, sudden obsessive or destructive behaviours, or panic attacks and anxiety in the form of Past Traumatic Stress (PTSD). This is what we also call the language by which trauma speaks. Because the experience was so overwhelming, painful and impossible to process, the waves of that experience now lives in the form of invisible triggers: almost like a ghost that shows up in the form of shifting pain in our bodies, sudden rush of anger, crippling fear in the midst of an absolutely normal day, or sudden speech loss or numbness.
The good thing about talk therapy is it helps us rationalize and vocalize what we couldn’t during the time of the trauma. It also helps us with giving a structure and a meaning to the whole experience and answers our ‘whys.’ But that is not enough! The trauma and its fragments reside in our physical bodies. And therefore, now we need the same way to let it end and go. Even though rationally we understand that the trauma is over and we are free from it. Yet, the changes that have happened in our system are real and physical. The brain has changed physiologically as a result of the trauma. The body and its rush of stress hormones are a biological reality. Hence, we will need something that brings in physiological effect in therapy. The experience of going through a therapeutic process has to be sensorimotor. People will have to feel, process, breathe, move, connect at a body level. In its truest form, therapy needs to be ‘integration focused.’ Thankfully there are many ways of achieving it. I have been combining yoga and body oriented approaches to let unprocessed and difficult experiences come to the surface, and let the body help in their movement from the core to the periphery and finally to outside the system. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Sujok and Acupressure are excellent ways that go beyond the need for rationalization of trauma and help in releasing toxins from the body as well bring in bursts of endorphins (happy hormones). When done regularly with the right instructions from a trained professional, it can also help the body get rid of its stress addiction and allow it to relax as it now truly learns that the trauma is over. It has left me.
In my practice as a trauma resolution expert, I help people connect to their lost parts by a combination of methods: Expressive Art + Breathwork + Creative Visualization. A process of finding ‘an ending to the trauma’ as well as re-establishing a safe-space is followed. This process is beyond the need for intellect. Or even trying to place it mentally in a known frame of reference. We dive deep into the body — process through our limbs and hearts and guts (and all the body parts wherever the impressions of trauma are stored), bring out adequate catharsis, cause release at an energetic and vibrational level, and finally restore the lost connection. Re-open, Re-build, Re-connect to the body, mind and spirit. In my decade old experience of moving from being a hardcore allopathic medicine practitioner to an integrated trauma therapist, I have only learned that we live way beyond our minds, and so does our anguish and pain. To find connection once again, we will have to take the route of returning to our bodies first. Then to the mind. To the Spirit. To consciousness.
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