Everyone's story matters, and
sometimes our personal mythology needs help emerging from the basement of
repression or forgetfulness. Those of us in the helping professions often
assume that every word of a client's painful story is like a step on a long staircase
that must be climbed for healing to occur. Words can illuminate, organize, and
bear witness to experience, but they are not the only path to transformation.
There is also a sensory field beyond words—a place where memory, emotion,
imagery, movement, and felt experience come together. Within that field,
another kind of knowing becomes possible, and our stories can be rediscovered,
reshaped, and gently integrated.
When I began my mental health
counseling internship in 1990 at what was then known as The Gay and Lesbian
Center in Hollywood, I had the honor of working with people whose life stories
were shaped by homophobic and transphobic mistreatment, often beginning in
childhood. As a young intern, I believed that interrupting a client by asking
them to pause in the middle of sharing a traumatic story was neither polite nor
empathic. Today, I see it differently. I now understand that inviting a pause
can protect clients from becoming overwhelmed by the vortex of their trauma and
from becoming retraumatized. A gentle invitation to shift from retelling the
story to cultivating awareness of present-moment sensory experience beyond the
narrative can offer a safer path toward healing. Rather than asking clients to
climb every step of the staircase of trauma through words alone, we can also
invite them into a sensory field where the body reveals its own wisdom and
where healing can begin without requiring every detail to be spoken.
Years later, after studying
Somatic Experiencing®, developed by Peter Levine, and participating in
additional training in approaches such as the Full Embodiment (FE) Model,
developed by Ariel Giarretto; Implicit Psychotherapy, developed by Abi
Blakeslee; Somatic Practice, developed by Kathy L. Kain; and many others, my
understanding of trauma shifted. I came to see that trauma arises from the
nervous system's response to an overwhelming experience rather than from the
event itself. I also learned that attending to physical sensations, rather than
focusing only on the story of the trauma, is an essential part of recovery.
Over time, I realized that
relying on the thinking mind as the only path to addressing the roots of trauma
symptoms is often not enough. The brain structures involved in reflexes,
implicit memory, and automatic survival responses are deeply connected with the
body's protective responses. Trauma-informed therapy is most effective when it
begins by engaging these systems through present-moment sensory awareness,
allowing the nervous system to move toward regulation before inviting
reflection and meaning-making.
Back then, many of us were
unfamiliar with the concept of titration, the practice of processing traumatic
experiences in small, manageable increments. Titration helps prevent clients
from becoming overwhelmed or retraumatized by allowing them to approach only
small pieces of their experience at a time while gently tracking the sensations
arising in the body. This gradual process supports the nervous system in
integrating difficult experiences with greater safety and resilience.
When offering trauma-healing
approaches such as Somatic Experiencing®, it is important to educate clients
about a bottom-up approach and the basic workings of the nervous system. This
understanding can enhance and clarify the somatically focused therapeutic
process.
The nervous system is constantly
receiving information from both inside the body and from the environment,
helping us assess whether we are safe, threatened, or in need of action.
Through the autonomic nervous system, the body automatically adjusts breathing,
heart rate, muscle tension, and other physiological responses that prepare us
to respond to life's experiences. When we encounter a threat, the nervous
system can activate protective survival responses such as fight, flight,
freeze, shutdown, or appeasement. These responses are designed to help us
survive, but when they remain activated after a traumatic experience, they can
contribute to ongoing distress, emotional reactivity, and a sense of being
stuck.
A bottom-up approach to trauma
begins by helping the body experience a greater sense of safety. Rather than
focusing first on talking about what happened, it supports awareness and
regulation of the nervous system through present-moment sensations and bodily
experiences. During a traumatic experience, survival responses can become
dominant, making it more difficult for reflective awareness and meaning making
to occur in the moment. As the nervous system becomes more regulated, it often
becomes easier to explore the experience, develop new meanings, and move toward
healing.
There is a silent shift happening
in the helping professions. It involves inviting our clients to pause, notice,
and allow that moment of awareness to become a doorway into present-moment
embodied experience. It is a shift from retelling events to noticing and
experiencing what is happening within the body.
This approach is not limited to
working with trauma. It can become an embodied way of living and a deeper way
of connecting with life itself. Whether we are watching a sunset at the beach,
tasting strawberries, or experiencing any moment of pleasure or connection,
pausing and honoring the body's experience in the present moment can bring us
into a greater sense of aliveness. We begin to experience life not only through
thoughts and narratives but also through sensations, gestures, movement,
breath, and silence.
By cultivating the capacity to
pause and notice, we create more opportunities to be present with ourselves and
with the world around us. Embodiment becomes not only a therapeutic practice
but also a way of deepening our connection with everyday experiences.
© Payam Ghassemlou, MFT, Ph.D.,
SEP, is a psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, writer, speaker, and
artist.
Licensed Marriage and Family
Therapist offering online therapy in California, Oregon, and Florida.
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