Living Fully after Trauma
Having been through trauma and come out the other side, not once but many times, I can say that it is possible to live fully after trauma. And not just fully but meaningful, because of the insight and self awareness you gain from your healing journey. And it’s not like you know the solution to everything. It’s that you trust yourself fully, in an embodied way. Not many have that. You still get triggered but you are able to use it like an alchemist, extracting meaning as pearls of wisdom for yourself and others. You still have moments of feeling lost but you use it like a yogi, endeavoring to be present when in the unknown.
Being a survivor doesn’t mean we got through something, it means we are resilient.
Embodiment is really just being and living through your whole being, not just in your head. We often talk about being in the body not because that’s where the focus should be, but because it’s what we often forget and struggle with the most. In repairing the disconnection that trauma brings, most of our healing is in finding ourselves and trusting ourselves again, not just in our mind and thoughts but in our body and feelings.
We are a sensing and moving lifeform. We interact and grow through sensing and moving. The gateway for this process is our nervous system. When we experience trauma our nervous system becomes highly sensitive and over reactive, for a good reason, so we don’t get hurt again.
The key to restoring balance to our nervous system after trauma is safety, support and connection.
Somatic approaches have pathways to heal our nervous system and these pathways are all about restoring our sense of safety, support and connection. These pathways specifically heal the ways in which our nervous system becomes dysregulated after stress and trauma. If we can calm our over alerted nervous system, support our depleted nervous system and restore a safe way to connect with ourselves and others, then our nervous system can return back to balance.
We can heal a nervous system that is over alerted, as a result of experiencing stress and trauma, by creating a sense of safety that is felt in our body and mind. This comes with somatic practices like reacquainting with the body, orienting to our environment and simple breathing exercises and gentle movement practices. We can support this sense of safety by just slowing things down and listening to what we need when our body is telling us it feels unsafe.
We can heal a nervous system that is shutdown and protected, as a result of experiencing stress and trauma, by creating a sense of support. Somatic practices like reinhabiting the body, along with grounding and resourceful breathing, movement and mindful practices restore support. We also create support by responding to our body signals that tell us when we are feeling collapsed and overwhelmed.
Our nervous system needs connection to ourselves and others to restore and heal. When we feel inwardly connected and are able to outwardly connect with others safely we feel balanced and resourced. We feel able to respond to and meet our needs.
A balanced and regulated nervous system helps us feel safe, supported and connected. It also helps those around us feel safe, supported and connected. With a happy nervous system we can live more fully and be more present to ourselves and others.
Giselle Lamberth
Embodiment Institute Somatic Healing Programs
Clinical Social Worker, Somatic Psychotherapist