What You Need to Know About Trauma
Trauma comes to us in many ways.
As a Denver and Boulder-based somatic therapist and certified Rosen Method Bodywork practitioner, I believe that the use of phrases such as “trauma therapy” or even “healing and recovering from bodily trauma,” can be misleading.
While it is true that somatic therapy addresses the existing interactions of earlier trauma and its effects on the body, and that somatic therapy recognizes the linking of our mind and body, it is wrong to view trauma therapy as always having its roots in a single catastrophic or dreadful event.
As a somatic therapist, I work with a wide range of people with unresolved past trauma. However, trauma has a wide-range of meanings. A leading British psychology facility describes trauma as:
“Trauma is when we experience very stressful, frightening or distressing events that are difficult to cope with or out of our control. It could be one incident, or an ongoing event...” A person can also experience multiple traumas over the course of their lives.
Trauma can be something like a slip on the ice and a broken arm, but often it is longer-term, often in the past and creates long-term, sometimes hidden stress.
Some examples: An executive might have a job that is so stressful, it has led to months, even years of poor sleep. A police officer or healthcare worker might have experienced tremendous stress from a series of incidents on the job. A person might have had a parent or sibling who treated them badly for many years and even if they were exposed to traditional “talk therapy,” it never fully helped or resolved the impact. In the psychology world, this more extensive, longer term experience of trauma at home is referred to as “cumulative relational trauma” or “Complex PTSD.”
The physical effect.
In the examples I cite above, examples that are drawn from experiences of clients I have worked with, there is an unmistakable connection between the mind and the body.
For past trauma is held in the body and clients often suffer the present effects of past trauma. The trauma may not have been physical as such, but the effects have resulted in ongoing anxiety and nervousness or disordered eating, insomnia, depression, chronic headaches, stomach aches, body aches, clenching or grinding of teeth, and related issues. Make no mistake, many of these traumas go back to childhood. Most interesting, our bodies know and carry around the fear, discomfort, sleeplessness and depression for years. Sometimes, if we just listen to our bodies they can at last become our allies in healing.
As a somatic therapist who has worked with many clients in Denver and Boulder, I cannot begin to tell you how many clients start to feel better and experience lasting relief when they integrate mind and body. You might say that somatic therapy develops or restores the connection, the path of discovery that enables the mind and body to start real communication and collaboration with one another. As such, somatic therapy can help free both body and mind from the effects of difficult situations of the past.
Is there a common trauma?
The ultimate goal of my work as a somatic therapist and certified Rosen Method Bodywork practitioner is to help each client resolve the effects of “unanswered” or un-addressed past trauma and to gain new outlooks on their own, unique experiences.
My therapy is always rooted in compassion for the individual’s journey.
Physical pain or discomfort, depression, anxiety or stress, and disordered eating can be signals and real-life indications that the trauma of the past is unresolved.
Somatic therapy is gentle, compassionate, non-judgmental, and safe. My work is not a form of, or a substitute for, medical or mental health diagnosis, care and treatment. It is, however, a valuable complement to these and all other health and wellness approaches. I am always honored to talk about my work and how it may help.
Todd R. Schwartz is a somatic, whole person therapist and Rosen Method Bodywork practitioner with offices in Denver and Boulder, Colorado. To reach Todd, please call him at 303-704-8331.
My work is neither a form of, nor a substitute for, competent medical and mental health diagnosis, care or treatment. It is, however, a fine complement to these and all other health and wellness approaches.
Copyright © Todd R. Schwartz, 2024.