Body As Resource

Body Centered Psycho- Education for the symtomology of PTSD in a Group

Setting.

This body centered group blends psycho-education and techniques from

mindfulness awareness with somatically based interventions (such as learning to
track bodily sensations and working with movement) to address PTSD.

Trauma: the body’s physiological response to a life threatening or perceived life

threatening situation that does not fully sequence out of the body.

“Trauma is in the nervous system, not in the event,” Peter Levine

GOALS:

• Using mindfulness and body –centered interventions to track breath and

body sensations.
• Using body centered interventions to directly address the hyper arousal
associated with PTSD and learning to self regulate.
• Using body centered interventions to cultivate safety in the body and have
an empowered response to trauma.
• Normalizing traumatic response. Moving away from a sense that body
symptoms cannot be controlled to a sense that the body symptoms can be
regulated.
• Cultivating the sense that the body is an ally in the task of overcoming
PTSD.
• Focus is on self- observation rather than analysis.

RESLIENCY FACTORS:

• History of past traumatic experiences including systemic and societal

oppression IE. sexism and racism.
• Current coping mechanisms.
• Opportunities to discuss, debrief, engage in healing activities.
• Life factors: state of health, disabilities, age, sexual and racial identity, and
resources.
 • Availability of internal and external resources IE. Capacity to ground in
one’s own body, community, family support, connection to the divine,
capacity to self soothe.

#1 THERAPEUTIC GOAL: THERAPIST MUST LEARN TO STAY REGULATED!

• There are two different levels at which healing happens- conscious and
implicit (bodies speak to each other through resonation).
• Model regulation
• Transparency – being honest about where you are in the moment (why is this
here?)
• Hold the field. The most regulated nervous system “wins.” We are the
healthy parent that the client is regulating off of.

∗ Reestablish safety in the body

∗ Sequence/process /move energy through the body
∗ Allow any stuck fight, flight or freeze to process through the body
∗ Reestablish safety in the world
∗ Make meaning of the experience
∗ Integration of all fragmented parts and time zones so that more of them can be in
the here and now
∗ Coherence- healthy range of sympathetic / parasympathetic and the capacity to
oscillate between the two
∗ Restore exploratory orienting vs. defensive orienting (play)

A. Short-Term Interventions:
Resourcing:

• Define (Bringing people into a state of greater connectedness, presence,

safety and ease)
• Identify and utilize positive internal and external resources.
• Bring people into the present/ help the part of their brain that doesn’t
know the event is over catch up to the here and now
• Help clients find safe ways to come into felt sense awareness
(neuroception) of their sensations
What happens in the body during a life- threatening event?

• Increase in heart rate

• Increase in respiration
• Increased in adrenalin in the body
• Increased blood to the large muscles
• Increased hyper-vigilance
• Body is ready to Fight or Flee!

What happens if the person is unable to Fight or Flee?

• The body FREEZES

• Additional chemicals get dumped into the bloodstream that creates
numbing.
• This is an intelligent and compassionate response: some predators won’t eat
prey if they think it is dead (opossum), also it helps numb us from the pain
Freeze = immobility response, while dissociation = splitting.
• All of the fight/flight physiology is still active in the body…. But there is no
movement or action to sequence the energy.
• This is like having your foot simultaneously on the gas and break at the
same time in a car.

The after effects of a life-threatening event on the body

• When the energy does not get processed or sequenced through the body,
then it remains held in the nervous system, creating a self- perpetuating
cycle of continuous internal activation and reactivation.
• This creates trauma disorders, such as PTSD, depression, anxiety
• There is now an absence of an external threat, but still internal cues so at
this point the body is reacting to itself without the opportunity to discharge
/ release activation. This is called kindling.
Retraumatization- any stimuli reminiscent of the original trauma can re-trigger
this process.
PART II: RECOGNIZING TRAUMA: SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS
Hypo
• Lack of eye contact
• Irritability
• Cowering
• Physical Freezing
• Disassociation
• Shock
• Unable to speak or move
• Lack of humor
• Confusion
• Not aware of own body
• Change in skin color- pink, pale,
clammy
• Voice change-flat effect
• Shallow or irregular breathing
• Avoidance of touch
• Tightened musculature
• Increased heart rate
• Inability to form healthy
relationships
• Inappropriate physical or
emotional boundaries
• Showing discrepancy between
emotion and situation
Hyper
• Lack of eye contact
• Irritability
• Acting out
• Overuse of humor
• Nervous laughter
• Crying
• Shaking
• Anxiety
• Change in skin color
• Voice change- high pitched
• Shallow or irregular breathing
• Lack of ability to concentrate
• Overreaction to a situation
• Anger (easily triggered)
• Avoidance of touch
• Tightened musculature
• Increased heart rate
• Inability to form healthy
relationships
• Inappropriate Physical or
emotional boundaries
• Showing discrepancy between
emotion and situation
Interventions/ Practices
• What feels good in body
• Ground-- Feel feet, sit bones, pelvic floor chair under them, couch behind them,
earth, etc.
• Wiggle fingers and toes
• Find the joints (proprioceptively how we locate ourselves in space)
• Sit on floor
• Look around room, name what see
• Have client place a hand on their body
• Or relational regulation through touch. Foot on foot, hand on their back, or
kidneys
• If coming into the present through sensation is too activating for someone meet
them where they are in fantasy, and import resources either into the trauma
(deep imagery and psychodrama), or into the moment (what is lit like to
have your loving husband next to you? And how does it feel to notice that
relaxation in your body?)
• Savoring –deepen and anchor a resourcing experience in the body
• Pushing
• Dancing
• Help them tolerate what doesn’t feel good. Help them stay with awareness
enough to metabolize the anxiety and discomfort and move it through their
bodies.