Yoga and Embodied Trauma
- Trauma has a significant impact on your mental and physical state
- Trauma can become embedded in the body, linking physical, mental and emotional history
- Yoga can be used to create space to mindfully begin to unravel the complexities of embodied Trauma in conjunction with appropriate psychological therapies
Trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing experience, being related to a single event or a lived experience that may have lasted years. While we classify Trauma by type or experience to sub-divide, analyse and better understand it, the Traumatic response is always highly individual, and unquestionably deeply personal. What may be simply distressing for one person may be profoundly Traumatic for another. The response of individuals to Trauma is always unique, though there are often shared presentations or symptoms of Trauma. This includes a physical response to Trauma, even if no specific physical Trauma was experienced.
“Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard… In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them. Physical self-awareness is the first step in releasing the tyranny of the past.”
Bessel A. van der Kolk,
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
We sometimes believe that the body is in some way a complex mechanical automaton – a series of physical pulleys and levers that are operated by the complex programming of the brain. Or that we are computers, with the hardware of the body and the software of the mind. And for the most part these analogies work, however when we work with Trauma and those negative events or experiences that have a lasting impact on our psyche, it becomes clear that these metaphors are gross oversimplifications.
There is ample evidence to show how the mind-body system is a single unit, a continuous existence that cannot effectively be unravelled and symptoms of one ‘part’ treated by only one methodology alone. In Van der Kolk’s ‘The Body Keeps the Score’ as the title implies the body can become a repository for the events of our lives (good and bad), but a deeper reading is that the mind does not necessarily ‘keep the score’, and so does not necessarily match with the reality of the body.
So within this single unit of two integrated systems there are two different realities, and a large part of this is a reflection of the need to function within socio-cultural boundaries. For us to function we adapt (however we need to), because above all we have a deep-seated need to be a part of a social group or tribe. A simple evolutionary directive: to survive you need to be part of the group. We adapt to cope and perform as part of our group and to be accepted, performing our role even when Trauma has created a major psychological wound that requires healing. The body keeps the score, but the mind is geared towards survival.
We have a mismatch between the body and the mind, with the body integrating Trauma and the mind doing its best to quarantine Trauma, to reject it so as to prevent it interfering in our lives – in some instances even blocking out the memory of the Trauma. But the body can start feeding back ‘wrong’ information and the mind is unable to acknowledge and process the source of emotional responses triggered by physical sensations within the body (and vice versa: strong emotions can trigger physical feelings, another indication of our integrated whole). The mind is working to suppress what the body is working to uncover with two different goals; the mind looking to maintain function, the body looking to acknowledge Trauma. This struggle impedes the process of healing.
Yoga is a holistic tool for healing: we work with mindfulness to bring awareness to the present moment, the sensations, thoughts and emotions we experience, using meditation to both connect (and disconnect), as well as reflect through metacognition. When dealing with Trauma this process can be intense and potentially triggering.
As always in Yoga, we work with the challenge that is comfortable to us as individuals: I like the phrase ‘stroke the bear, don’t poke the bear’: we acknowledge that Trauma exists, that it has had an impact on us, and we can use slow and gentle exploration to outline the extent to which embodied Trauma exists within us. By being able to find where and how we feel Trauma, being able to describe it, connect back to the roots of Trauma, we have the opportunity to start to unravel and heal Trauma by addressing the presentation of Trauma.
More than just ‘treating the symptom’ it can be a case of untangling the knot of trauma from both ends, the embodied physical in addition to the abstract psychological. And so we can use Yoga to begin to heal from a conscious physical approach, using meditation to help calm and focus the mind, mindful movement to explore the connection to our physical selves and breathwork to help uncover and release embodied Trauma.
Acknowledging Trauma, its origin, its part in our story, and our ability to accept what has happened as well as striving to have empathy for ourselves creates space for healing.
Yoga and Meditation Workshop: Embodied Trauma
27/11/21 10.00-13.00
Jesmond
Led by Conrad Freese
Workshop description and outline here
Bespoke Workshop, maximum 8 people. Cost: £55