What is impeding you from living the life that you want and deserve? If you are a trauma survivor, you might be carrying the memory of that traumatic experience with you, in your body and mind, everywhere. You could be stuck in that stage of response to the trauma, unable to complete it and move on. My name is Jen Stuart and, in today’s post, we will talk about how Yoga for Trauma can help you complete the traumatic experience.

credit : @peoplebypierre

Trauma is part of our lives

Trauma is an element in our lives that is always present, directly or indirectly. You, someone close to you, or people whom you interact with daily, might have faced a traumatic experience at least once in a lifetime. Trauma means a wound. In a study called “The epidemiology of traumatic event exposure worldwide: results from the World Mental Health Survey Consortium”, it was determined that over 70% of a sample of 68 894 adults from 24 countries had experienced a traumatic event.

Around 30.5% of them expressed having experienced four or more traumatic events during their lives. The events were classified into 29 categories, such as accidents, domestic violence, natural disasters, and others. Trauma does not only seems to be intrinsic to human life, but it’s also present in the animal kingdom. When a gazelle is chased by a lioness, the flight or fight response to trauma is immediately activated. The gazelles usually complete the circle, while humans can remain stuck in a permanent loop.

What is more, a person does not necessarily need to face what is commonly perceived by society as a “life-threatening experience” to be traumatised. A very stressful event, like an overly demanding boss, being bullied at school and others, can trigger multiple times the sympathetic division, just like if life was at stake. 

This part of the nervous system prepares the body for an emergency. If activated chronically, it gets vulnerable. An over-aroused nervous system becomes more and more sensitive to the stimulation of the environment, making it harder for a person to regulate their emotions, and even re-traumatising them.

Nowadays, we are exposed to stress all the time. And if you are a trauma survivor in your healing journey, you might notice you are stuck in an endless loop. How do you stop reliving the trauma and recover? By completing the traumatic experience.

Completing the incomplete

credit : Ashley Batz 

Completing the traumatic experience means to address the trauma and fully experience the response to it to be able to move on. It can be a difficult path to choose for some people since it requires them to acknowledge what happened to them. Some people decide to repress their emotions, others are not physically able to speak about the trauma, where as some avoid everything about it: we are all unique and therefore, can react in different ways. But to be able to step out of that zone of discomfort and back into comfort, you need to allow yourself to complete the cycle.

Trauma Sensitive Yoga allows you to reconnect your body and mind in a safe space. Through techniques such as somatic experiencing, it helps you to complete the response to the traumatic experience, recalibrate your nervous system and get out of that loop of reliving the trauma. 

Through somatic experiencing, trauma survivors can discharge all the energy accumulated in their bodies. According to “Somatic Experiencing for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Outcome Study”, this type of therapy can make the body more tolerant to the environmental incentives and to the emotions that are related to the trauma. It doesn’t require the person to narrate in detail the over stressful event, but to allow themselves to experience the memories linked to it. 

Trauma Sensitive Yoga uses this technique to increase self-mindfulness and make the person aware of their body and how it reacts when certain memories are recalled. It teaches the clients to track their own bodily sensations and feelings, giving them the tools they need to avoid being overwhelmed by the intensity of their emotions and helping them to regulate themselves and go back to a state of homeostasis.

The trauma response can be completed and successfully managed when Yoga for Trauma combines somatic experiencing, interoception, mindfulness meditation, exercises that increase your empowerment, and more. To learn more about this practice and its benefits, please contact me and allow me to accompany you through your recovery process.