Trauma – and that doesn‘t mean only war, violence, natural catastrophes, accidents and so on, but also being depreciated and disregarded, being exposed to emotional coldness and indifference – can manifest in our body and our nervous system. If it is not relieved it can lead to all kinds of different symptoms on a body- and an emotional level. Most of the times, we only feel the symptoms or the different moods but can’t even see a connection to the original cause. We just „forgot, dissociated, put it in our unconsciousness“.
Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing is a soft method helping to relieve the nervous system and find broader and much healthier freedom of action and moods.
The focus is on the serendipity (perception) in our body and the reorganization of our natural orientation, our reflexes of fight and flight here and now which have been distorted and disturbed and our energies can get blocked and cause all sorts of disturbances.
Usually the therapist and the client sit in front of each other. But there can be situations where you stand or lie down or move. The basis is the moment right now where everything can show and blockades can be solved. That doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to go back to the initial incident. Most of the times the traumatic incident has passed, sometimes even a long time while you do therapy, but the symptoms have stayed.
My life has changed a lot through this method and I appreciate the soft and slow but very effective work that can be done without actually „doing“ anything.
Every human being finds his/her own pace and direction by perceiving, feeling and sensing.
Narm
The orientation of the Narm method is directed towards developmental trauma. It deals with our core needs: The need for contact, attunement, autonomy, love and sexualtity. If these needs are not met adequately when we are young, we delvelop adaptive personalities that are not helpful when we are adults and can lead to sympoms and suffering. No or difficult relationships, not being in contact with our ressources, not being able to feel and articulate needs and boundaries, being afraid of intimacy can be consequences.
The personality structures are divided into five adaptive survival styles having their roots in different developmental stages of our lives.
We look at the bonding dynamics – what was missing then? How did we loose the contact to ourselves, the contact to our needs? How did we compensate? What kind of conclusions do we draw today? What kind of messages do we interprete from that, that influence our feelings and actions? What kind of influence does that have on our self-awareness, on our perception and experience of others and the world?
The orientation is the here and now. We are interested in what is in the way to be in contact with ourselves and others. We give space to what comes up in the here and now in ordert to recognise, dignify and feel the underlying feelings, interpretations and the core dilemma back then. We always bring in the adult.
The goal is selfregulation, establishing the contact to ourselves, others and the world and our inherent lifeforce and vulnerability.
EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing
With this method the cerebral hemespheres are activated by stimulation in order to help the processing of the traumatic material.
It creates a resource oriented break of patterns, a cerebral reorganization of the psyche. New aspects can arise and it can create a change in our thinking, feeling and our behaviour.
Bilateral impulses are received by the eyes – by a movement of the therapist with his/her hands from the right to the left side in front of the client’s eyes – or by tactile stimulation – touch alternating on the legs or the shoulders- or acoustical by music that has a bilateral effect. What is most effective will be figured out together with the client.
This method is meant as an intervention that has to be imbedded in the process of dealing with trauma. It cannot susbstitute a trauma therapy, but can be very helpful at a certain point during the process. Often clients are imppressed by what can happen within them, using this method and how easy and quickly something can change.
The TRIMB method
The trimb method is a gentle approach for traumahealing and traumaintegration. It uses imagination, breath and a swift movement with the head.
The experience of the trauma itself is not the main concern but to recognise, name, solve or transform the charged or covered feelings and the unhealthy entanglements.
Unhealthy and disabling forces in bonding and realtionships – with people but also with situations – will be visualized and then cut through, solved or transformed with imagination, breath and a movement with the head.
With this method clients experience a relief and their freedom of action expands.