PTSD can deeply affect every aspect of your life. Your symptoms can vary to include difficulty controlling emotions, intense rage, terrifying flashbacks, high levels of anxiety, flashes of intense fear, depression, hopelessness, extreme exhaustion and chronic illnesses or ailments. You can develop extraordinary coping mechanisms to deal with PTSD and still feel deeply traumatised. Even if your coping mechanisms manage to allow you to function from day to day, unless your body is able to fully release the emotions associated with the trauma, you will still experience distress.
Contractions in the body
The body holds the trauma in place by an involuntary contraction that occurs when we experience anything painful – be it physical or emotional – the body can’t differentiate between the two, it just contracts around the pain site. It is this contraction that should be released in order for the emotion to release and dissipate. Our emotions emerge from our Biofield (energy system) at specific locations down our torsos. These are often referred to as Chakras. SHEN ® therapists refer to them as Emotional centres.
Healing from the Flashbacks
A client with PTSD will need a number of sessions to work through the complex emotions deep trauma can bring. When a person has suffered a great trauma, it usually involves a level of shock. When a client presents with PTSD, we need to work at their Root centre (base chakra). This is because the Root centre is where feelings such as mortal terror, horror, shock and massive grief emerge from. These emotions are trapped at the Root centre causing bodily functions to shut down and an overwhelm in mental activity.
Clients presenting with PTSD often have recurring flashbacks to the event or experience that traumatised them. This is because the feeling of shock, horror or terror is usually still stuck in the body causing the parts of the brain known as the hippocampus and amygdala (respectively involved in the process of memory and emotion) to repeatedly replay images until the emotion is released.
Once the emotion is released properly, the repetitive replay of the traumatic experience or event stops. Flashbacks can be the most distressing symptom for someone suffering from PTSD. These flashbacks can feel so excruciatingly real it can feel as if the event is being relived over and over, causing further trauma. It is crucial to healing from PTSD to release the emotions trapped at the Root.
Healing from the complex emotions involved
SHEN ® Therapy is particularly helpful to those suffering from PTSD. The transformation and healing that takes place through a journey of SHEN therapy can be life changing. PTSD is complex and challenging to the person presenting because it is never about just one emotion or one symptom. There are many emotions and many symptoms involved.
A client suffering from PTSD will require a lot of work at their Kath (Sacral chakra), their Solar plexus and their Heart centres, in addition to work at their Root. The emotions experienced will usually be high levels of anger, fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, powerlessness and sadness. A SHEN ® Therapist will take you on the journey in a gentle and restorative way. We use the energy flow from our hands placed in very specific positions around your body to effectively release the contractions that are holding painful emotions in place. We facilitate the healing process as your body releases what it needs to. You don’t need to ‘relive’ the experience, or even talk about it if you don’t want to. If you would like to know more, please get in touch with me or find a SHEN therapist near you.
Important notice:
Recent trends in somatic therapies and somatic exercises for the release of trauma are very popular. Many people practicing these exercises are finding themselves having releases in their bodies. This is amazing BUT be careful… it is important to remember that once these muscular releases take place, they allow the emergence of deeply trapped emotions. Sometimes these emotions can be a very strong and very powerful, people aren’t always prepared for what is released. It can be too much sometimes. To overwhelming.
If you’ve experienced this and you are struggling with the emotional element of a somatic release, please reach out to a trained trauma counsellor or someone who is licensed to deal with the emotional and mental aspect of this. Certified SHEN ® Therapists are trained to work with the emergence of emotions from the body.
