How Can I Release Stored Trauma In The Body?

A comprehensive answer to this question would require a book, or multiple books, so let’s look at a few case examples to see what this might look like in the context of a somatic bodywork session.

We can conceptualize a trauma response as a trapped energy in the body, or a movement or bodily expression that has been repressed. This is not necessarily a clinical or comprehensive definition, but for our purposes, what matters is that there is some way in which the body has learned (because of the trauma) to suppress an impulse. I am not a trauma specialist or a therapist, however in supporting people with their somatic development, I have seen that we can’t learn to live in our bodies without confronting the ways in which we also keep ourselves from letting energy move.

Moving energy by making sounds

Many of us, whether or not there was actual trauma, have learned to keep ourselves from being too expressive. It’s not uncommon to have grown up in a home where speaking up or speaking out at the wrong time or in the wrong way led to abuse. I work with clients by guiding them through making (often loud) sounds to support them opening up the tissue around the throat and mouth and to support them in engaging with their capacity for expression and taking a stand. Often we don’t realize how much we hold tension in the body until we are guided into practices that require us to explore the full range of our vocal expression. 

For example, recently I was working with a man with a history of physical abuse as a child, and while he was on the table during bodywork I guided him into a sequence of sounds including a loud, sharp “hey” sound. Immediately he felt his throat start to tighten and felt a sense that something bad was going to happen. The tightening is the historical body (in this case, the trauma) working to keep him from expressing in a way that (historically) was unsafe. Through more bodywork and practice, he is learning to soften and release around the holding in his throat. This is not an example of a “quick fix”; it demonstrates how very often working with trauma is done incrementally by engaging in practices that promote the expression that was at one time stifled.

Moving energy through standing somatic practices

In a recent session with a client with a history of sexual abuse, we were working on the somatic practice of making declines. This is a practice done standing, in which the client will turn me around and walk me away with their hands on my back while speaking out loud “no”. The practice is powerful because we are asking the body to take the shape of a “no” rather than just using cognition and language. Because saying no was not safe in her historical context of assault, this was entirely new for her; almost immediately she found herself in tears at the realization that she was even able to say no in order to take a stand for herself. Simply engaging in the practice physically allowed her body to do something she had learned to suppress. Again, we see how the historical contractions in the body that are connected to the trauma prevent the free movement of energy in the present moment. Somatic coaching and bodywork are pathways of support for exploring that free movement of energy.

Becoming more relaxed and alive

Ultimately we are wanting to live in a body that is both relaxed and alive, meaning that we feel relaxed in our body (such as the sensation of softness in our muscles) but also connected to our sense of aliveness, often felt in the body as a sensation of energy moving (such as tingling). 

Currently I am working with a client with a history of trauma connected to the death of her brother and her father. In this particular case, my client had learned to contain her impulse to grieve because it was not safe to do so at the time of her loss. She had learned to hold her body tight. On the table during her bodywork sessions, when I pick up her leg or pick up her arm, it is very challenging for her to give me the weight of her limb. In her learning to let go of the holding, she will often tremble, shake, cry and generally move a lot of energy. We can see in this example how simply learning to relax in the body can bring to the surface old patterns in which we learned to “keep it together” or “keep it in”. 

As is demonstrated above, while often simple, many of the practices described above are not easy for my clients. If you would like support in exploring somatic practices and somatic bodywork to move more energy and be in a body that is more relaxed and alive, schedule a free consultation. I’d love to hear from you!