Truly Healing Trauma – Part 5
- Aug 12, 2024
- 3 min read
Written by Dr Janet Williams, Trauma Specialist
Dr Janet Williams is a trauma specialist working in the UK but now mainly online. Her doctoral research explored the biopsychosocial impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the systemic implications of intergenerational trauma.
This article continues our exploration of how the body is key to addressing unresolved trauma, in terms of what we can do with our trauma practitioner to harness the body’s inherent wisdom for our healing.
If, as mentioned in previous articles, the body holds a record of everything that has ever happened to us, our bodies are the experts of what is required to heal, when and in what order. Imagine trauma as an experience of shock and heightened distress which gets locked in the body as an energetic package. Depending on our personal histories we may have a few different packages of trauma, or we may have one or two that have just been added to and exacerbated over the years by recurring hurts.
So, if these packages or traumatic injuries remain active within us until they are resolved, we are walking around with open wounds that get triggered in daily life by anything vaguely resembling our original pain. Anything big or small, subtle or obvious can arouse an immediate reaction from within our bodies, sending our delicate nervous system into a hyper or hypo-arousal state.
It makes sense then, that by paying attention to where in the body these triggers or reactions occur, we can locate where the package of trauma is held. Of course, developing these skills needs to be facilitated by a practitioner trained in trauma work, because during these moments when we get triggered our rational higher brain functions go offline temporarily and our more reactive threat system kicks in to keep us out of danger. Trauma work is therefore a delicate balance of creating enough stimulation to identify where trauma is stored in the body, while ensuring that the client feels safe enough to trust the process and does not become overwhelmed.
By developing this as a practice alongside a professional you feel comfortable with, it is possible to understand our reactions more and identify exactly what is happening inside us during those challenging moments. The good news is that, as our body gets used to us being so attentive by listening to what it is communicating to us, it is more likely to relax into the process and reveal more for us to identify in the body.
This sense of safety and an ever-deepening relationship with ourselves is key for the body to be able to release held packages of trauma from the body. It may sound complex, but it is actually a beautifully intimate and liberating experience, to simply and finally let go of the things that have kept the past alive within us.
If you cannot find a trauma professional in your area to explore working in this way, Dr Williams runs her 10-week Trauma Programme online, so do reach out.
Visit my website for more info!
Dr Williams has run a successful Trauma Counselling Programme in Bath, UK, these past three years and is now making the 10-week programme available online to increase accessibility. She works with all types of trauma, and has remarkable data evidencing the efficacy of the programme in a matter of weeks. Her work is founded on a deeply relational person-centred approach, with an eclectic mix of evidence-based techniques and a strong focus on the somatic experiences within the body.
