The Body Keeps The Score : 4 Week MasterClass
*Reading the book is not required
Healing Trauma Through Somatics
Virtual on Zoom
September 22 to October 21, 2024
Sunday @ 7 PM to 8:30 PM (EST)
OR
Monday @ 7 PM to 8:30 PM (EST)
*No Class on October 13 or 14, 2024
Facilitator: Jayne Madigan, Certified NeuroPsychotherapist
What is a neuropsychotherapist? In short, neuropsychotherapy refers to the practice of integrating neuroscientific research into psychotherapy.
Jayne is excited to share what she learned working with Bessel van der Kolk, well-known Dutch psychiatrist, author, researcher, and educator. Since the 1970’s his research has been in the area of post-traumatic stress. He is the author of the New York Times best seller, The Body Keeps The Score.
According to The Body Keeps the Score, as long as we don't resolve the trauma, the stress hormones that the body secretes to protect itself from danger keep circulating, and the defensive movements and emotional responses that belong to the past traumatic event keep getting replayed in the present. Your loved one died from suicide 1 time, but due to post-traumatic stress disorder, survivors relive that moment over and over hence the reason recovery can be hard to impossible for some. During this MasterClass, you’ll learn easy techniques to rewire your subconscious so you will no longer become triggered from the suicide or past experiences.
There aren't many books containing dense and scientific material that also manage to top the New York Times best-seller list for 150 weeks – that's almost three years – and counting. The Body Keeps the Score by psychiatrist and author Bessel van der Kolk is quite possibly one of the most popular mental health books in the last decade. The numbers speak for themselves; it has sold nearly two million copies worldwide.
The Body Keeps the Score is not only considered a life-changing read for trauma survivors; this book can also help our society become better friends, parents, and partners. It can support us on a journey to becoming kinder and more empathetic versions of ourselves.
According to Dr. Van der Kolk, the journey starts with a deeper understanding of trauma.
During the MasterClass you’ll learn somatic techniques to resolve trauma as a survivor of suicide loss:
Lesson 1: The Brain-Body Connection Is Real
When we experience a real or perceived threat, our brain's alarm system gets triggered. This alarm system involves a region of the brain called the amygdala, which Dr. Van der Kolk refers to as the brain's smoke detector. As a result, the parts of our brains that are on the lookout for danger are always on alert, and even the slightest sign of a threat can trigger the amygdala. It’s this overactivity that might keep us trapped in a prolonged state of emotional reactivity that can take its toll on the body. In fact, according to The Body Keeps the Score, there are many examples where trauma is connected to physical symptoms.
Lesson 2: Trauma Causes Physical Symptoms
Being trapped in a prolonged state of emotional reactivity might change the way our body functions. According to The Body Keeps the Score, when we are chronically angry or scared, constant muscle tension might lead to spasms, back pain, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia (widespread musculoskeletal pain), and other forms of chronic pain
As a remedy, Dr. Van der Kolk mentions that learning to observe and tolerate our physical reactions by practicing mindfulness can calm down our nervous system, making us less likely to be thrown into fight-or-flight mode.
Lesson 3: The Mind Is Not Tending To The Present Moment
Being traumatized is not simply a problem of being stuck in the past; it is also a problem of not being fully present in the here and now. According to The Body Keeps the Score, as long as we don't resolve the trauma, the stress hormones that the body secretes to protect itself from danger keep circulating, and the defensive movements and emotional responses that belong to the past traumatic event keep getting replayed in the present. For example, we might react intensely to some minor irritation as if the world were ending. Upon taking a step back, we may realize that these strong emotions are actually stemming from a traumatic event that occurred in the past.
Lesson 4: We Have the Power to Regulate Our Physiology
If our brain activity has been impacted by trauma, our brainwaves are likely less coordinated than they should be. However, dysregulated brainwave patterns are repairable: they can be rewired and transformed thanks to a process called neuroplasticity that allows neurons (nerve cells in the brain) and the connections they form with each other to compensate for injury and adjust their activities in response to learning or changes in the environment. Brain training technologies such as neurofeedback can promote neuroplasticity and train our brain to regulate our brainwaves to achieve the desired brainwave state, allowing us to be focused or calm.
Lesson 5: Positive Relationships Are Fundamental To Our Well-Being
As Dr. Van der Kolk states in The Body Keeps the Score, our attachment bonds are our greatest protection against threats. Nothing soothes our fear like a soothing voice or a solid hug from a trusted person. Indeed, traumatized human beings recover in the context of relationships: with families, loved ones, support groups and therapy.
The purpose of these relationships is to foster the bravery to accept, face, and process the reality of what has happened while also offering physical and psychological protection, especially safety from feeling shamed, admonished, or judged.
Can somatic therapy help with trauma?
There are a few therapeutic approaches for healing from trauma.
Somatic therapy is a body-focused approach that may be particularly helpful if you have symptoms of chronic stress or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Somatic therapy, aka somatic experiencing, was originally developed by Peter Levine in the late 1970s. It was conceptualized as an alternative to other trauma-focused therapies — which, although effective for some people, didn’t work for everyone.
Somatic experiencing may allow you to revisit trauma without recalling specific events and emotions.
When you practice these body-focused exercises, you focus on physical sensations, instead of thoughts and emotions as you’d do in talk therapy, or your fears as you’d do with exposure therapy.
Trauma is “when too much happens too soon for the nervous system to process,” It’s like eating a big meal and not fully digesting it, but then eating another big meal, and then another. The body does not digest what has happened and instead, we stuff our feelings, numb out, or deny reality.
In some cases, talking about trauma without adequate support, or with a therapist that isn’t trained in trauma, may retraumatize you. Somatic work offers the body time and space to complete whatever it needed to do at the time that it didn’t get to do.
Somatic experiencing also helps you realize if you’ve been “stuck” in the fight, flight, or freeze response. This could lead to symptoms of chronic stress, in addition to those linked to trauma.
One of the main goals of somatic experiencing is to develop a body/mind connection and increase your ability to regulate your emotions. This can help you manage some of your most distressing symptoms.
Impact of trauma
If you’ve experienced trauma, you may develop some of these symptoms or challenges:
excessive crying
irritability, anger, or fearfulness
flashbacks or replaying the experience in your mind
nightmares or trouble sleeping
alcohol or drug use as a way to cope
physical symptoms like stomach pain or headaches
chronic fatigue
hypervigilance
jumpiness, excessive sweating, or a racing heart rate
According to Dr. Van der Kolk and his best-seller The Body Keeps the Score, our most pressing public health problem today is trauma, and with the proper tools, we are well-equipped to deal with it. The choice is ours to act on what we know!