What I have learnt by offering Somatic Therapy – moments of grace

Most of you know that I am not a conventional therapist. As well as being trained in many interesting trauma treatment modalities I enrolled in a three year training in Somatic Experiencing  four years ago.

After finishing this training and quickly becoming booked out I did realize towards the end of last year that I needed to take a serious break and look after myself. I couldn’t really afford to take that step, but I deeply felt I had to follow my inner voice and respect my own nervous systems needs. It is of tremendous importance to me to role model what I teach my clients. It didn’t come easy saying “No” to clients, but I knew that I just had to do this.  I didn’t work for two months and then only continued with very few clients until recently when I felt I was ready to take on new clients once again.

It has been an important time caring for myself, letting three years of intense Somatic Experiencing training integrate naturally and giving myself this precious time to re-evaluate carefully how I work with clients. I became more and more aware of my own body sensations when working with clients and it often surprised me immensely what my body was able to pick up when working with another human being.  At times it felt a lot bigger than just myself,  kind of sacred, and I felt very humbled and honoured witnessing these moments of grace. I learnt to trust when something in myself didn’t feel quite right despite a client in front of me insisting they were okay and things looking truly fine on the outside. It has been such an interesting journey learning to completely trust my intuition – there were plenty of moments when I doubted it as it went so much against my mind’s judgment. But over and over again I found out that in the end it had been my intuition, my own body’s finetuned feedback system, that had been right!

Seeing a lot less clients gave me the space to notice reoccurring patterns: It is incredible how many clients don’t have either flight or fight available to them. They live being stuck in one survival mechanism or trapped in the freeze state and it makes their life so much more difficult. Often clients don’t have any healthy anger available to set boundaries and hence become door mats to others or turn all their rage against themselves, hence sabotaging their own healing and progress.

Trauma causes our boundary skin to break – and without boundaries we feel too much, are constantly overwhelmed and easily hurt, can’t set clear boundaries and lack assertiveness. As parents we then energetically merge with our children instead of helping them become their own empowered selves, which in return hinders our personal growth and ability to stay present. Everyone is so unique and what they need to heal their boundary skin is just as splendidly unique.

Sometimes it is like a detective story, following the bodies’ sensations and secret messages and hence finding out what needs repairing in the present caused by trauma of the past. It is amazing  discovering what the body wants to complete now (it couldn’t do so when in a stressful  and overwhelming situation). Working with the hurts of the ”inner child” and supplying it in the here and now with what was needed back then is another reoccurring topic in my sessions. Finding what resources and supports now has a tremendous healing effect and brings the cells in our body into a mindful present time state. Instead of being stuck in the past we can then truly move forward, making  more room for joy, kindness,  appreciation and gratefulness.

I love exploring with a client their own nervous system’s functioning. Every person’s nervous system is so different and it is a dance working out what nourishes each individual. Clients can sometimes learn for the very first time what really supports them (and what doesn’t!) and are empowered to regulate their affect. They are then no longer at the mercy of their emotions and overwhelming thoughts, instead they can pendulate to a more relaxed way of being.  For me it’s like going on a very exciting treasure hunt with great curiosity and gentleness while slowing down and noticing deeply.  

Through my training I learnt to understand my own nervous system better and better.  I became skilled at noticing what nourishes and resources, and, what overwhelms me. I finally understood why getting too excited and becoming ungrounded can have such a negative backlash for me. I also learnt that being great at making big brave decisions and jumping into cold water is a strength I will always have, but learning to make smaller steps between decisions instead is much more helpful for me in the long run.

I have been working closely together  with other therapists in this time and it has been interesting watching myself in the role of the client.  I became faster at realizing who was good for me and who wasn’t.  It sometimes was confusing when someone working with me was so nice and well meaning, but my body gave me signals that this wasn’t really going to help me move forward. I learnt that I always need to listen to my body. It knows best. Full stop. Even when it is against all rules, theories and expertise in another healing field. We are all unique and in the end only our own self can determine what is right for us.

I have had my break and lived through it with all its ups and downs (yes, there were plenty of downs as well!) and am now ready to go onto more of these detective treasure hunts with you.  I am taking on new clients! Since I know my nervous systems limitations I however will only take on a limited number of clients at a time.

If you want to find out more about your nervous system and the incredible healing of trauma I am inviting you to read the short articles on my blog under www.counsellingsomatic.com.au or on my Facebook page “Counselling Somatic Barbara Schmidt

Artwork by Meera Jacka (first left handed painting) meera.mazdamoo@gmail.com

I haven’t written for a while and it’s because I needed to sit back and rest. Writing my series on trauma education, setting up a newsletter system (weeks of work, I  couldn’t believe it!), then unplanned and suddenly moving into an office space of my own (lots of physical renovating) and with it all of a sudden a full private practise with a waiting list....took its toll and now that I am back online I can share what I have learnt (the hard way) as I hope it will help you (to avoid the hard way).

I just heard this story of an inlet, where a little trickle went through the thick sandbar and then over time this small trickle went bigger and bigger, turned into a slither of a stream with a stronger flow and eventually the whole inlet broke and the water rushed back into the sea.

It’s a great analogy for how therapy (and life!) works. Most of us are so desperate with our conditions that we start digging into the sandbar, starting to shuffle a wide opening with big movements. While we are working overtime and pushing ourselves beyond our capacity, it will take forever digging the inlet open that way. By the time we are a third into the big thick sandbar we will be exhausted and we will have to stop and take months to recover . We forget the bigger picture, that drawing a thin line all the way from the inlet to the ocean, allowing for this gentle trickle to go through while taking in the scenery would have a much bigger effect in the end. With the water doing the work for us. In tune with the elements around us.

Pushing ourselves outside our nervous systems capacity NEVER takes us forward. It might feel like we are getting there quicker for a short time, but that’s forgetting about the recovery time we will need along the way or afterwards. And that one is usually a lot longer than we ever could have  anticipated. I know this and I teach this in my sessions and yet I still fall for it at times as I am naturally a bit impatient.

It is so tempting to “get in there” and “just do it quickly” as we have so much energy and enthusiasm and hope to begin with. Society trains us from early on to go over our limits, to ignore or not even hear that little voice which says “Enough! I need a rest!”. We are racing along as our mind has long taken over pumped with the injection of hope. It now runs the show, completely ignoring intuition that put us on the path in the first place. We are rushing onwards with great big steps, ignoring our sore muscles and massaging a cramp away while hobbling along annoyed - our goal seems to be so close in reach. But we won’t get there. The path that opened up is closed as our mind has pushed intuition out of the way along with our bodies and nervous systems needs.

A healthy nervous systems is relaxed, open, attuned, coherent and flexible. That way it can respond best to any given situation. If we have experienced trauma the nervous system contracts and the more constricted it is, the less flexible we can respond. Little things can then throw us into big chaos.   

                                                                                                                                                                 Trauma means that something happened way too fast for us to process and to cope with and so whenever we go with too much speed we are retriggering our system. Going slow is the best antidote to any trauma – the whole brain then has a chance to come online and to process what happened in small “doable” little segments. If we are however pressing on we are not helping the nervous system to de-constrict: Pushing means pushing inwards. Overriding means overriding the boundaries of what is possible. Pushing and overriding means causing the nervous system to contract  further.

Overriding can be when we are saying “Yes” to something even though we’d rather say “No”; when we are staying that half hour longer with our friend who needed support, ignoring that we need our own space again; when we are pushing ourselves to clean the whole house even though we’ve had enough half way through and could just as well finish it the next day; when we are hanging out with someone thinking we should enjoy their company, but feeling tense throughout most of it; when we visit a busy place on a day where we’d rather be curled up at home – the list is endless.

I am not saying we shouldn’t challenge ourselves – there is plenty of challenges to be had without overriding our deeper needs. As a therapist I encourage my clients to listen to their needs and boundaries  and I watch out that my clients don’t override by telling too much of their story, by sitting too close or too far away from me or by following an invitation by me when it’s not really serving them. Healing cannot happen in a therapy session if you are overriding (“to get there quicker”) and if you don’t feel really safe.

It has been an amazing journey getting to know my own nervous system during my Somatic Experiencing training and ever since. It has been extraordinary learning its ins and outs and I am still learning about it every day. It still stuns me that going slow and gentle can have such amazing results as I am so used to “digging in hard”. There is so much more fun to be had if we take it easy, as we can take in the scenery along the way, enjoy every little step alongside our passage, watch with awe the flow of life doing “its thing” and taking over in this unexpected “much-bigger-than-us”- way.

I am really good at following my intuition and when I become inspired I follow it no matter how scary at first. But I jump in way too quick and then run out of steam. My sensitive nervous system can’t hack that, my mind takes over and I get into a “doing mode” rather a being mode. I work harder and harder and push myself (“Almost there!”, “So close, just a bit longer!”, “ You worked so hard, don’t give up now!”) only to then requiring months of recovery.

I hope I will learn from this last time where I pushed myself way too much, renovating my new office space with lightning speed while slowly beginning to limp emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually (my guess is it will take a few more learning lessons though). I wish next time my intuition inspires me I will sit back and wait a bit longer before jumping into action and letting my mind (it doesn’t know how to stop!) take over. I will try to not override my need for breaks and allow time for the transition. I want to go with the pace my nervous system can take easily. It works so much better in the long term. Life is so much more fun if we go a bit slower.

If you like these posts, please feel free to share them. Everything I have written is copy righted and I am only requesting to give me credit for information passed on and copied. Thanks.

Should you have missed my trauma education series, just check out my Facebook page “Barbara Schmidt Counselling Somatic” or scroll back under the blog section on my web site www.counsellingsomatic.com.au and you can read these easy to understand articles on nervous systems, trauma and healing. You can also subscribe to my newsletters so you won’t miss any future posts.

Have a great day,

Barbara

Counselling Somatic

Barbara Schmidt

Mental Health Social Worker

EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

144 Stirling Terrace, Albany &

3/55 Strickland Street, Denmark

e: barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au

w: www.counsellingsomatic.com.au

m: 0458 234 410

When trauma symptoms take over as sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve go into chaos (Trauma education V)

If you suffer from trauma symptoms like migraines, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, crohn's disease, pain syndromes etc. my last posting of my trauma education series might shine a bit of a light into an often misunderstood area in terms of nervous systems.

I have talked about the play between sympathetic (activating) and parasympathetic (calming)nerve. It’s a wavelength-like reciprocal homeostatic up and down when things are in balance. When we sleep the sympathetic nerve takes a break while parasympathetic nerve and a low dorsal nerve let us rest peacefully.

When we wake up our sympathetic nerve lets us become active (increased heart rate, getting ready for action) and the parasympathetic nerve comes in to keep us in balance (while maintaining functioning of  gut, kidney, liver etc.), so we can stay relaxed. If something upsetting happens, our sympathetic nerve goes higher than normal and the parasympathetic nerve has to work harder to balance things out, but after a while both nerves settle back to where they used to be before the unsettling event and return to normal functioning, a happy reciprocity.

When the stressor is bigger and becomes chronic though, the parasympathetic nerve can’t balance things out and the high energy from the sympathetic nerve doesn’t completely discharge. The failure to return to normal baseline results in the nervous system not functioning properly and a person will notice this in their life by being unbalanced and things being “not quite right”.

When severe trauma happens though the play between the two nerves becomes completely out of whack – they fall into an unpredictable chaos. With this nervous system background trauma symptoms are being created: migraines, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, crohn's disease, pain syndromes....

Does a client present with these patterns, it will take a longer time to teach the nervous system to return to equilibrium. Patience and going slow are crucial for healing to occur here while pushing, rushing and overriding are the biggest hindrances for the nervous system returning to homeostasis.  Small shifts will occur along the way when the right trauma treatment is administered. These changes need to be noticed and celebrated so the nervous system then can identify that a new way of being is possible. In the end, once the nervous system is functioning properly again, the trauma symptoms will leave and a person can return to full health. This is a very delicate process impossible to explain in this article and it is something I only learnt in an intense 3 year Somatic Experiencing training – it will take me many more years to refine this. Learning to read Nervous systems is not something you can learn from a book!

In my personal experience counselling alone won’t  be the solution if your nervous system is in chaos. I find it is imperative to support the nervous system with the right food (minerals, pre- and probiotics, amino acids), exercise, rest and loving support. I myself find the right constitutional homeopathic and bush flower remedies very supportive and powerful as well. Trauma specialized psychiatrist Basel Van der Kolk emphasizes that all areas need to be treated equally in trauma treatment:  Social, Emotional, Physical, Cognitive, Spiritual.... So I encourage you to take a honest look and see which of these areas you might tend to neglect. Most of us have our favorites, but to achieve balance, all 5 areas of our life need equal attention.

If you fall into the last category of nervous system behaviour it is more than likely that your digestive system (our reptilian brain looks after the gut) is out of balance and needs a lot of support restoring. Inflammation and leaky gut syndrome are at the heart of (mental health) issues. I suggest you find a good naturopath or functional doctor who specializes in this area to find out how to support your digestive system differently. I cannot emphasize enough how important a good diet (and some healthy foods might not be tolerated by you until your gut is healed!) is to support your mental health!

Life is so much easier with a well functioning nervous system. Pleasure, joy, relaxation, connection increase naturally when it’s coherent and in homeostasis.

This is my last post in my trauma education series! Thanks for your encouraging  feedback - I might write more in the future.

If you like these posts, please share them. Information on trauma is something that needs to go viral. Everything I have written is copy righted and I am requesting to give me credit for information passed on and copied. Thanks.

Should you miss a post, just check out my Facebook page “Barbara Schmidt Counselling Somatic” or have a look under the blog section on my web site www.counsellingsomatic.com.au where you can subscribe to my newsletters so you won’t miss any future ones.

So far I covered “What is trauma?” ,“Freeze state that follows fight flight survival mechanis”, Reptilian, mammal and rational brain “speak” different languages” ,“How the self soothing Parasympathetic Nerve develops and how patterns of worrying and over-thinking can be set up in childhood” and “Corrective experience creates a new imprint in cells of our body”

This is the last post in my trauma education series. Your questions will inspire me to write a new series. If you are looking for good trauma counselling, look for someone who is offering therapies like Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Hakomi, MATES or Brain spotting.

Have a great day,

Barbara

Counselling Somatic

Barbara Schmidt Mental Health Social Worker, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

 art by Meera Jacka

Barbara Schmidt

Mental Health Social Worker

EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

144 Stirling Terrace, Albany &

3/55 Strickland Street, Denmark

e: barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au

w: www.counsellingsomatic.com.au

m: 0458 234 410

Corrective experience creates a new imprint in cells of our body (Trauma education IV):

I used to love going into the deepest depth of trauma in sessions, but realized over the years, that trauma symptoms didn’t disappear that way and so I was on the lookout for a different approach. My supervisor pointed me into the direction of Peter Levine, who had developed a therapy model approaching trauma very differently and I started reading a book he wrote for therapists. Every page in this book resonated with me and I just knew I had to do this training, no matter what. I felt very lucky when this training was offered for the very first time in Australia a few years later.

Through my Somatic Experiencing training I have learnt how to carefully renegotiate the challenging past without re-traumatizing a client. As a therapist  I now go gently back to the edge of traumatic events with the intention of changing it. Visualizing the support we would have needed back then in an embodied way means shifting the past for good: Receiving the support of unconditionally loving people or beings around us, being caught tenderly by the softness of a mattress to catch our fall, being held soothingly by warm water, carried and embraced, a body hugging and hand wiping away our tears, a "lion" protecting us and an assertive person setting a clear boundary for us. It is important to let our body complete movements it held back for survivals sake – in the traumatic situation it might have been too dangerous or inappropriate for a person to follow these body impulses. But when these movements are not completed the massive energy that prepared for fight or flight will stay trapped, hence the body will perceive it is still under threat, even years later if the charge isn’t released.  Sometimes it takes the form of running away, shaking, biting, spitting out words, hands pushing or punching the imagined person away. All this happens in a slow, carefully titrated way and is very different from the emotional catharsis therapy work I used to do.

This of course doesn't change what happened to us in our past, but it does change how it is stored in the body! Instead of the body re-remembering over and over again what happened to it years ago it can now let go, arrive in the present time and become finally unstuck from the past. It is a great relief for the nervous system to no longer be in constant fight/flight/freeze when not required. Instead the whole system can now return to equilibrium and engage with the outside world in a relaxed way.

We can store this new imprint in our body on a cellular level so we know how to truly nurture ourselves and how to self regulate. Neuroplasticity means our brain can build new and better neural connections when receiving a new, good and corrective embodied experience. Clients then can make new and better choices, step into the world in a more embodied, empowered and assertive way. As a client recently said coming out of a deep corrective experience when gently working on her childhood sexual abuse: “I feel proud, enlightened and  empowered”. She left the office feeling at peace with herself and the world, experiencing a new joy which is lasting to this day.

If you like these posts, please share them. Information on trauma is something that needs to go viral. Everything I have written is copy righted and I am requesting to give me credit for information passed on and copied. Thanks.

Should you miss a post, just check out my Facebook page “Barbara Schmidt Counselling Somatic” or have a look under the blog section on my web site www.counsellingsomatic.com.au where you can subscribe to my newsletters so you won’t miss any future ones.

So far I covered “What is trauma?” ,“Freeze state that follows fight flight survival mechanis”, Reptilian, mammal and rational brain “speak” different languages” and “How the self soothing Parasympathetic Nerve develops and how patterns of worrying and over-thinking can be set up in childhood”

Next week I will write about: “When sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve go into chaos and trauma symptoms take over”

Have a great day,

Barbara

Counselling Somatic

Barbara Schmidt Mental Health Social Worker, 

EMDR & Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Barbara Schmidt

Mental Health Social Worker

EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

144 Stirling Terrace, Albany &

3/55 Strickland Street, Denmark

e: barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au

w: www.counsellingsomatic.com.au

m: 0458 234 410

How the self soothing Parasympathetic Nerve develops and how patterns of worrying and over-thinking can be set up in childhood (Trauma education III):

We have a nerve that helps us to calm down and to self regulate –this great “ relaxer nerve” (parasympathetic nerve) develops in babies only via its care takers: Skin contact helps it to come online and loving, tender touch helps it to thrive - hence the importance of skin to skin contact for babies!  A comforting, kind and gentle voice teaches the baby how to self sooth. When a baby is born it has a fully functioning sympathetic nerve (controls activation and arousal) and the dorsal vegal nerve (so it can go into the freeze state).

Babies in the womb depend entirely on their care givers. All they have in terms of protection is the possibility of contracting their little bodies when something traumatic and emotionally threatening happens and to shut down . When the baby responds by contracting its body, the spine then also contracts from the tailbone all the way up to the tip of the spine. The energy there can then only go up to the head. And it’s this “stuck energy” that then can creates a lifelong pattern of worrying, over-thinking and analyzing;  for other people a pattern of ungrounded, dissociated spirituality and a “longing to go home” . I am personally familiar with both patterns and shifting it made a big difference in my life.

 It will be important for people with this pattern to start going into the new direction of embodiment via sensing what is happening in their body – mindfulness, aware exercise , massage, tai chi and yoga are amazing tools to help a  person become more embodied and mindful of inner experiences. Instead of being stuck in thinking, stressing and /or leaving the body a person can now find entirely new solutions in connection with their gut feelings – decisions will be different and more supportive when they come from a deep place of intuition.

If the sympathetic nerve is revving up and there isn't enough parasympathetic nerve available to counter act, the arousal in a baby keeps getting higher and higher...until the dorsal vegal nerve kicks in and brings the whole system into the freeze state. This is good, otherwise the arousal would get dangerously high. As mentioned in previous posts however, this shutting down works so well for the baby or young child that the young nervous system then can learn to rely on this way of being too much. Instead of living life in a gentle wavy up (sympathetic) and down (parasympathetic), the nervous system learns to zig zag treacherously up and down - stuck between sometimes manic hyperactivity and disconnected, depressed states. Living life this way is exhausting!

It is so important that a therapist won’t let you repeat and relive your whole trauma story – it would lead to your sympathetic nerve shooting up too high (and then the dorsal nerve might be the only way to bring it down again). In my therapy sessions I carefully observe a clients nervous system for signs of arousal and will respectfully interrupt a client and teach them how to settle again before they can continue to tell their story. Everything in life consists of wave length and a well organized coherent nervous system will mimic gentle ocean waves.

A good trauma session will imitate a gentle wavelike up and down of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve - until the nervous system can learn that this way of being is so much easier on the rest of the organism.

 If you like these posts, please share them. Information on trauma is something that needs to go viral. Everything I have written is copy righted and I am requesting to give me credit for information passed on and copied. Thanks.

Should you miss a post, just check out my Facebook page “Barbara Schmidt Counselling Somatic” or have a look under the blog section on my web site www.counsellingsomatic.com.au where you can subscribe to my newsletters so you won’t miss any future ones.

So far I covered “What is trauma?” ,“Freeze state that follows fight flight survival mechanis” and Reptilian, mammal and rational brain “speak” different languages”

Next week I will write about: “Corrective experience creates a new imprint in cells of our body”

Have a great day,

Barbara

Counselling Somatic

Barbara Schmidt

Mental Health Social Worker, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Barbara Schmidt

Mental Health Social Worker

EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

144 Stirling Terrace, Albany &

3/55 Strickland Street, Denmark

e: barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au

w: www.counsellingsomatic.com.au

m: 0458 234 410

Reptilian, mammal and rational brain “speak” different languages: Trauma Education II

When someone is stressed out & irrational it makes sense to explore negative thinking and to help that person to return to rational thinking (CBT). In Trauma however the frontal cortex (our rational thinking brain) is not connected to the rest of our brain and areas in our brain like the Broca’s (responsible for reasoning and articulation/ finding the right words) break down.

This means that we need to develop a new language beyond words that our brain can actually understand when we are working with trauma.

The question is, how can we bypass language in therapy and reach the parts of the brain, where the trauma is actually stored?

To make it very simple: our brain can be divided into three parts that coincide with our evolution. We share our oldest part of the brain with reptilians, it is responsible for all our instinctual responses, helping us with breathing, swallowing, heartbeat, digestion, circulation, sleep, sexuality, action and survival. And it is in our reptilian brain that trauma is stored!

Next up is our mammal brain, it makes us into emotional human beings and has the herd instinct wired into us (we need one another, we are “herd animals”). To reach this part of the brain a client needs to feel comfortable with the therapist they see and be met with an empathetic, accepting and non judgmental approach and soothing sounds (that’s why when someone is upset it works for us parents to simply nod and say “hm...” in an feeling empathetic way).

Only human beings have the third part of the brain, it allows us to think rationally and have use of our words. It is a wonderful brain and enables us to be clever, clear and smart, come up with wonderful inventions and solutions. We can express how we feel and share our inner world with others. Without it communication via words wouldn’t be possible. As mentioned before though, the rational brain isn’t online when a person is in trauma. (“Use your words!” command doesn’t work with angry, upset people old or young, neither does advice giving – that part of the brain then simply isn’t switched on)

Coming back to the reptilian brain where trauma resides: It can be accessed only via the language of sensations. “When you feel the sadness, where does it sit in your body and how does it feel? Soft, tight, tingly, knotted, hot, cold, heavy light....?” Gently and with a lot of mindfulness the bodily felt sense is being explored via a trained Somatic Experiencing practitioner. The reptilian brain now finally receives the information it needs to register that parts of the body are actually tense and hold trauma memory. This means you are on the road to recovery.

It is such a relief that there are now trauma approaches (Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, MATES and Brain spotting) available that have developed a language the reptilian brain can actually understand. It works - once the reptilian brain is on board, it no longer will sabotage your emotions and rational thinking and can now concentrate on its important job of instinctual responses.

If you like these posts, please share them. Information on trauma is something that needs to go viral. Everything I have written is copy righted and I am requesting to give me credit for information passed on and copied. Thanks.

Should you miss a post, just check out my Facebook page “Barbara Schmidt Counselling Somatic” or have a look under the blog section on my web site www.counsellingsomatic.com.au where you can subscribe to my newsletters so you won’t miss any future ones.

So far I covered “What is trauma?” and “Freeze state that follows fight flight survival mechanism”

Next week I will write about: “How the self soothing Parasympathetic Nerve develops and how patterns of worrying and over-thinking can be set up in childhood”

Have a great day,

Barbara

Counselling Somatic

Barbara SchmidtMental Health Social Worker, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Barbara Schmidt

Mental Health Social Worker

EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

144 Stirling Terrace, Albany &

3/55 Strickland Street, Denmark

e: barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au

w: www.counsellingsomatic.com.au

m: 0458 234 410

Freeze state that follows fight flight survival mechanism - Trauma education I

Thank you for signing up to my newsletter! As I am starting with my series on trauma education I am resending my first article of the series. If you missed the introduction “What is trauma” you can find it on my blog on my web site.

Most people have heard about fight and flight: It’s a survival mechanism that kicks into place when we are in danger and chatting and smiling don’t work anymore. The new situation requires us to do something different: We now need to be assertive and set a clear boundary , when it’s more severe push someone away (fight impulse) or we need to turn around, walk or run away (flight impulse).

It is normal having to use fight/or flight in life and it is clever that our bodies are set up for it. Without it people could walk all over us and things would get messy very soon.

 It is just as healthy that we have access to the freeze state. It’s our oldest survival mechanism controlled by a nerve called dorsal vegal. It helps us in smaller doses to go to sleep, in big doses it helps us to survive when even  fight/flight isn’t enough anymore. We then go numb, dissociate and submit into immobility - we take refuge in the freeze state. In this state nothing hurts too much emotionally nor physically. Nature intended it this way to help us for when we have an accident or when we are being attacked.

While on this survival mode systems like digestion are shut down to conserve energy.  Staying in this state too long means our digestion suffers (irritable bowel syndrome) and since we feel less pain we also shut down from pleasurable experiences. We are meant to stay in this state for short times only -  we are not reptilians who can comfortably stay frozen for hours and even days.

The thing is – and here it gets problematic – that some of us when we were young were faced by situations where fight/flight would have been necessary. But a baby can’t set a boundary or pack its bags and walk away. The only way it can escape is by physically contracting  and then by going into a freeze state straight away.

The freeze state works so well, that as babies we then become used to frequently going into the freeze state. As adults later on we therefore go into a freeze state when fight or flight would be much more appropriate. Life that way becomes difficult and complicated very quickly and can look like one big exhausting survival instead of a joyful living.

The good news is, that therapies like Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, MATES and Brain spotting can help reinstate fight/flight and support a person to become unstuck from a freeze. By following sensations and slowing things down the body can carefully be coaxed back to homeostasis. Having fight flight online again and being able to transition to relaxed social engagement translates into a much more healthy way of being. Fun, joy, relaxing and nurturing can now be a much more regular part of your life with a healthier nervous system supporting you.

If you like these posts, please share them. Information on trauma is something that needs to go viral. Everything I have written is copy righted and I am requesting to give me credit for information passed on and copied. Thanks.

Should you have missed my post “What is trauma?” , just check out my Facebook page “Barbara Schmidt Counselling Somatic” or have a look under the blog section on my web site www.counsellingsomatic.com.au If you want more info on this subject, check out Stephen Porges Polyvagal theory.

Next week I will write about “Reptilian, mammal and rational brain “speak” different languages”

Have a great day,

Barbara

Counselling Somatic

Barbara Schmidt Mental Health Social Worker,  EMDR,  Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Barbara Schmidt

Mental Health Social Worker

EMDR, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

144 Stirling Terrace, Albany &

3/55 Strickland Street, Denmark

e: barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au

w: www.counsellingsomatic.com.au

m: 0458 234 410