Supporting Trauma with de-armouring
“It is not the trauma we suffer in childhood that makes us emotionally ill, but the inability to express the trauma” Alice Miller
What is trauma?
Trauma can be classified as an event or events which were too fast, too soon and too much for the nervous system which goes into fight, flight, freeze or fawn states. It is a loss of connection from self, whereby a part of us splits. Trauma is a body experience of threat and or harm, that still holds unprocessed memories stored in the tissue and nervous system. If not treated it can debilitate us from living the life we want.
Examples of trauma
Trauma can be caused by a single moment, a car accident, medical procedures, one time life events.
A repetitive set of experiences where you are not cared for, seen, heard or having your needs met by a care giver as a child
An action by a perpetrator
Being involved in a natural disaster
While it’s true all traumatic events can be stressful not all stressful events are traumatic. When it comes to trauma no two people are alike, indeed one person may perceive an event to be threatening whilst another may find it exhilarating.
The survival of a baby is dependent on a primary care giver to meet their basic needs and if they are not met areas of the brain may not develop properly leading to problems in adult life such as addiction or creating fulfilling and nurturing relationships.
What happens in the body when we are faced with a threat?
When our body feels threatened we create a lot of energy in our bodies to block the threat in preparation to fight or flight and if this energy (cortisol and adrenaline) isn’t fully discharged it can stay frozen in our nervous systems, which can be re-activated over time, even when there isn’t a threat and if the message to normalize in the brain is not given. When traumatic responses in the body take over the conscious rational part of the brain shuts down and the more primitive instinctual part, the amygdala, takes over.
When humans are injured or overwhelmed our body’s can go into a freeze response, our muscles lock up, we can feel numb, stuck, detached, overwhelmed and dissociate.
During a de-armouring session if a client goes into a freeze response, we can practice boundary setting, stating our No’s to build up muscle memory. Create a place of safety so that the client can visualize that place in their mind to go there when they feel triggered. We can also re-engage the body with a body to mind activation:
Pat your legs with your arms
Stomp the feet on the ground
Shake the whole body
Peter Levine, the renowned psychotherapist and creator of Somatic Experiencing, noted that animals in the wild can play dead so that they don’t get eaten by their prey, once they are clear of danger they will shake violently to rid themselves of this frozen energy and appear completely fine afterwards.
The trigger point touch used in the de-armouring process works with the frozen energy allowing it to shift and release, which can help the cycle of the trauma into completion.
De-armouring body work is not about healing trauma, nor is it about dissolving the painful memories, rather it helps the client lean into the experience from a place of feeling safe, with expansion, thereby creating more space for all the emotions to arise and to let them go. It re-connects the parts of ourselves that were split when the challenging experiences occurred so that we can feel more wholeness, oneness and embodiment.
