What If we are ALL Trauma Survivors?
I believe we are all living inside Trauma bodies. We have experienced losses, pain, broken hearts, physical traumas like car accidents, or falls. Some of us have experienced horrific situations. Sometimes we have had an impact to the body that we don’t remember; maybe we fell out of the highchair, or off our bike when we were little. Either way, our trauma bodies respond best to a level of touch that meets the body/the tissue where it is at. Most of the time this quality of touch may be gentler than you think you might want.
Many massage clients say, “I want deep tissue.” I think this is a miseducation. Therapists get “deeper” into the tissue, when we warm it up, and approach it slowly–with honor and respect. Some people are so disconnected from their body, they think pain = good. But I am here to tell you that is never true. We should never inflict pain to try and get the body out of pain.
Staying Present in the Body
When we begin to inhabit, fully embody our body, our presence actually enhances our sensation response. Most of us are not present in our body. Remember those traumas… yeah, most of us have learned that disassociation from the body kept us safe.
Whether you are present to your body, or your trauma, no matter what stage of your healing evolution on this beautiful journey, there is great power in comfort-oriented, quality, compassionate touch. A skilled manual therapist who can intuit and interpret where you are, and meet your tissue. and your body were it is at is an excellent person to have on your self-care team.
The Distance Healing Sessions I offer are a great way to enhance your body awareness, and a great practice to integrating your Body’s Wisdom Areas and having Full Body Presence (Suzanne Schurlock Durana’s work).