How Does the Word Trauma Land With You?
It feels different for all of us
I remember when I was working for a mental health private practice, I was fairly early in my career, and I felt discomfort in my body when the word Trauma came up. Back then, I didn’t know what was gnawing at me about it, but it was a feeling in my gut.
I now know that this was denial, I had not ever considered the events in my life as traumatic.
This was partially because being in the mental health world, I was always facing my own issues, and I hadn’t come across this particular moment of understanding until I was confronted in a new way to see it. I was studying complex trauma at the Wellspring Institute, we were doing embodied practices, and we were held with support with other professionals doing the same thing. It was safe enough to ask the question, and also held and supported enough to explore more fully.
The general population uses the word trauma to accentuate and recognize an acute or chronic overwhelming event or events that has/have devastating influence on our lives. So much so that it can mean we lose sleep, we feel general malaise, we stay in difficult and unhealthy relationships or we turn towards substances or other addictions as an unproductive or maladaptive way of coping. In chronic instances it shakes our foundational beliefs and shapes our sense of safety.
With the right support we can overcome these symptoms and many others, and re-shape and create more thriving and supported lives. I have found somatic bottom up strategies a much more powerful support to effective and long lasting change.
In my next blog we will look at why including the body is the most important resource we have to effectively create change. I also have an introductory experience that will help one better understand how disembodied we are when we overwork and bypass our bodies as important to our wellbeing.
Have questions about how you are processing events in your life? Reply Here
Jennifer Degen
September 20, 2022
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