How to Somatically Approach Your Trauma Story: Avoiding Rumination
- Jessa Hooley
- Oct 28, 2024
- 5 min read
While I work primarily with body-oriented trauma recovery tools, I do believe that working with the story of what happened to us can be very valuable. Understanding what happened and how it impacted us can often feel like an inner compass in our healing journey. In this article we will explore how to use your story to uncover the somatic experience of trauma (because trauma is kept in the body).
Please note this article is NOT addressing the concepts of traditional psychotherapy (an entirely different modality). Rather this is written as a guide to help survivors explore their personal relationships with their stories in a way that is body-oriented.
We Like to Keep The Story In Our Heads
It is natural for us to keep our stories in our heads. After all, a story is made of words not feelings. Over the ages our culture has evolved into practicing a mind and body disconnect. We have been raised to believe that we are brains operating a meat-machine that is our bodies. Nothing could be further from the truth when we are speaking about trauma.
The memories of what happened awaken the imprints of our experience that remain in our bodies.
These imprints can be uncomfortable to encounter, so it feels easier to intellectualize our story. To think and think and think about it, even though it never seems to provide any long term resolution. In fact, rumination inhibits proper healing.
Why We Should Bring It Into Body
The story already exists in our bodies. The imprints of what happened are already there. When we expand our attention to the story beyond the boundaries of our thoughts and into the experience of our bodies we can be guided to the places that need healing. These can be:
The tight shoulders from a memory of childhood abuse...
The heavy heart from a time we felt forgotten...
The twist in the stomach when we remember being afraid...
All of these sensations help us access the locations of residual traumatic memory so we can process them and heal.
An example:
Suppressing the Body's Response to Story Can Make Things Worse
It can be tempting to sink into the mind when the sensations of the body are so unpleasant. However, these sensations exist to keep you safe. And they will continue, and often grow, until they are addressed.
It is better to listen to the whispers of the body so you don't have to hear the screams.
How to Experience Your Story Somatically
So how do we do this? Let's dive in!
Cautions & Preparations
Working with sensations is critical to trauma healing, BUT it can be a risky business. Especially if you have spent your entire life trying to ignore what your body is saying to you. In order to safely explore your story somatically we want to work with these guidelines:
Go slowly and start small – Try not to work with any sensations or stories that you do not feel equipped to tolerate successfully. In the world of trauma healing, less is more and slow is better. (To fully understand the importance of this read "Slow Down! Why Confronting Too Much at Once is Dangerous in Trauma Recovery").
Have a plan in case you feel overwhelmed – We don't want to enter a trauma vortex of sensation. Have some resources at hand to help you come back to a place of safety and stability in the occasion that you feel overwhelmed. This article can help if you don't know where to start.
Give yourself time to discharge energy – We will cover some methods of discharging tension in a minute. But before you start exploring your story, make sure you're not in a rush. You'll want time to release any tension that builds and/or integrate any shifts in experience you may have. If you are crammed for time I would recommend using some of these techniques for stopping rumination and save your somatic exploration for later.
Somatic Story Exploration
STEP ONE – Enter the Story with Boundaries
When you feel called to your story go ahead and enter it. Choose how you want to create boundaries. We don't want to get lost in the story. To do this you can try:
Picking a specific scene in an event
Choosing to focus on a specific person in the memory
Focusing on a particular mood (the moments you felt sad, angry, etc.)
Give yourself a time limit for exploration
There aren't any hard and fast rules about the boundaries. Just find a way to contain how much of your story you're working with that feels right for you.
STEP TWO – Finding Sensations
Once you have spent a little time inside the boundaries of your story begin to notice what sensations arise in your body. If you don't know where to start with sensations, this article can help you get started. Notice if certain parts of your story make the sensations more obvious. Stay with the sensations in a spirit of curiosity. We're not trying to change anything, just notice.
Remember, if any sensations get too overwhelming step away from the sensations and story and resource yourself back in the present moment.
STEP THREE – Re-exploring the Scene and Details
After a short period of sensory exploration, come back within the boundaries of your story. See if you can notice any additional details that you may not have noticed before. Somatically processing our memories can help bring in more details, which can be instrumental in placing the memories back in their proper place and time.
STEP FOUR – Revisiting Sensations
Move your attention back into your bodily sensations. Notice if any sensations changed, disappeared, or if new one arose overtime.
STEP FIVE – Addressing Your Somatic Needs
This part might require a little trial-and-error. Once you notice the sensations that have been brought up by your story you can ask yourself what these sensations need. Some examples:
If you found tension you may need to shake it out or massage it.
If you felt erratic spiraling energy you may need a sense of containment with a self-hug
If you found heaviness you may need to dance.
If you found a pressure on your heart you may need to hum or moan.
It's okay if it takes you several tries to find what feels right. The more you practice this the easier it will be to know what you need.
Working with the story in this way is a powerful method for not only avoiding rumination, but utilizing your story in a way that can make a big impact in your recovery. It can help create a bridge between the chasm created between your mind and body – the ultimate tool for healing.
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