Gareth
17-06-10, 13:32
Hi there,
Through my psychotherapist I have found out about a therapy called "Somatic Experiencing". I just wanted to post here about it because it is the first thing I have tried that seems to have real promise. I have only been to two sessions, and not claiming that I feel better, but things happen in the sessions that make me believe there is definitely something in the theory.
A practitioner of the therapy talks about it here:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xclzzl_bevis-nathan-talks-about-somatic-ex_tech (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xclzzl_bevis-nathan-talks-about-somatic-ex_tech)
My background is that my therapist believes that the route cause of my anxiety and my wide range of disturbing physical symptoms is being traumatised as a teenager (ages 13-18) by living with a suicidal mother. I was very much trapped in the house, acting as the adult, and even found my mother after a suicide attempt. She also used to disappear quite a lot, saying she was going to drive off a cliff, only returning in the early hours of the morning.
The theory of the technique is that when we are traumatised by an event, we don't tend to complete the "escape" or other action that we need to complete, like animals do. If an impala in the desert is caught by a lion, its nervous system goes into "freeze" - it literally freezes. Often this makes the lion disinterested, as they think the prey is dead, and they're not interested in dead prey, so they leave the impala alone. When it awakes it tends to physically "complete its escape" - its legs actually move like it is running, and all the trauma energy is expelled from its nervous system.
This is something, that due to the way we have evolved as humans, we no longer do when we are traumatized, because of the requirements of society and decorum, etc. We basically live in a way that is not healthy for our bodies and nervous systems.
The therapy focuses on paying attention to bodily sensations in a one to one way, and observing how they change. Its hard to explain, and the video above does a much better job than I ever could.
I just wanted to bring it to your attention as I've not seen it talked about on here before. A few therapists over the years have told me that I am "traumatised" and I never took them seriously to be honest. How could something that happened to me 20 years ago STILL be having an effect. The beginnings of this therapy have shown me just how much energy there is tied up in my system, and it is making me take the "trauma" idea seriously for the first time. As I said, I don't feel "better" as such, but it gives me a bit of hope.
If you wanted to read more, get any book by Peter Levine, who is the main guy behind formulating the tecnhique.
Be well,
Gareth
Through my psychotherapist I have found out about a therapy called "Somatic Experiencing". I just wanted to post here about it because it is the first thing I have tried that seems to have real promise. I have only been to two sessions, and not claiming that I feel better, but things happen in the sessions that make me believe there is definitely something in the theory.
A practitioner of the therapy talks about it here:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xclzzl_bevis-nathan-talks-about-somatic-ex_tech (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xclzzl_bevis-nathan-talks-about-somatic-ex_tech)
My background is that my therapist believes that the route cause of my anxiety and my wide range of disturbing physical symptoms is being traumatised as a teenager (ages 13-18) by living with a suicidal mother. I was very much trapped in the house, acting as the adult, and even found my mother after a suicide attempt. She also used to disappear quite a lot, saying she was going to drive off a cliff, only returning in the early hours of the morning.
The theory of the technique is that when we are traumatised by an event, we don't tend to complete the "escape" or other action that we need to complete, like animals do. If an impala in the desert is caught by a lion, its nervous system goes into "freeze" - it literally freezes. Often this makes the lion disinterested, as they think the prey is dead, and they're not interested in dead prey, so they leave the impala alone. When it awakes it tends to physically "complete its escape" - its legs actually move like it is running, and all the trauma energy is expelled from its nervous system.
This is something, that due to the way we have evolved as humans, we no longer do when we are traumatized, because of the requirements of society and decorum, etc. We basically live in a way that is not healthy for our bodies and nervous systems.
The therapy focuses on paying attention to bodily sensations in a one to one way, and observing how they change. Its hard to explain, and the video above does a much better job than I ever could.
I just wanted to bring it to your attention as I've not seen it talked about on here before. A few therapists over the years have told me that I am "traumatised" and I never took them seriously to be honest. How could something that happened to me 20 years ago STILL be having an effect. The beginnings of this therapy have shown me just how much energy there is tied up in my system, and it is making me take the "trauma" idea seriously for the first time. As I said, I don't feel "better" as such, but it gives me a bit of hope.
If you wanted to read more, get any book by Peter Levine, who is the main guy behind formulating the tecnhique.
Be well,
Gareth