A basic exercise in body work focuses on releasing tension or energy that is stuck in the body so that we can let go and regulate in a natural way. I will walk you through the steps as I learned them, using an example from my own therapy that is hopefully not triggering for you.
The situation
We start with the situation that is stressing us. If we are alone we stick to situations of the present or recent past where we didn’t do well with regulation. You need support to release serious trauma. As always, you can’t do your own trauma processing alone, even if the steps are the same. Smaller things that keep us locked in hyperarousal can be dealt with though. We know we got the situation right when our stress levels start rising if we even just think of it.
My situation in this example is the loss of a loved one when I didn’t manage the grief well enough and it turned into overwhelm, tension and then physical pain.
The body
Next we listen to our body to find out where the tension is. There are no wrong answers here. Arms and legs often hold a lot of tension when we suppressed a flight/fight response, but other areas can be meaningful too, so we go with whatever we perceive. It might make sense later. By now we have moved away from the situation itself, we focus on the sensations in our body.
In my case, I felt my jaw being extremely tight, to the point of causing pain (and probably serious grinding at night…)
The impulse
In the next step we ask ourselves what an animal would look like, if it felt that kind of tension in that place. Usually the right animals come to mind intuitively. This creates an even greater distance to our situation, which makes it a lot easier to cope with. Similar to the distant observer we step back a little to avoid overwhelm.
Once we can imagine an animal with that kind of tension, we can imagine what it would act like. That way we find the impulse that belongs to the feeling/state. We usually suppressed that impulse because it wasn’t socially appropriate or it was impossible to follow through with it. Holding back the impulse or being held back is what got the energy stuck. Reconnecting to the impulse is important or getting unstuck.
Concerning my grief I realized that I had the impulse to make a sound. All my tears had been silent so far, like I learned to do it during TraumaTime. The animal that came to my mind was a wolf howling in grief.
Following the impulse
In the next step we follow the impulse to release the energy. For some it is helpful to do running or hitting or shoving motions, or to shout words that need shouting. It will look different for every person and situation.
Sometimes doing this properly is not within our abilities. Maybe because it is physically impossible or the situation doesn’t allow for it or maybe there is too much shame to do it. That’s ok. It is enough to imagine doing the motion or action. Our brain is incapable of telling the difference between a movement we made and one we imagined. We prefer imagining things because that way we can do it just right.
When we nailed it, there will be a sudden increase in the intensity of the emotion or physical experience, like a rush. It comes up from wherever we pushed it. This can be intense and it is best to do it with professional help at first, especially if our skills in orientation&grounding are still low. A helper could offer co-regulation when needed. The release that can happen can be surprisingly intense and include shaking or feeling hot.
I felt a bit self-conscious about howling like a wolf and didn’t have much confidence in my howling skills in general, so I imagined it. A rush of pain and grief came up, accompanied by hot tears. I kept looking around for orientation while I kept imagining making the wolf sound. After the first big wave the intensity went down all by itself and I could feel my jaw loosen considerably.
Repeat as needed
One round might not be enough to get all the tension out of the system, so with small breaks for orientation we repeat following the impulse to see if anything else will come up (pendulation). At this point it might help to return to the situation to check how it feels and to dig a little deeper, maybe check if the impulse changes over time. The waves get smaller after the first one. It is still good to take the time to allow the body to finish this process and return to a regulated state. This is where titration can come in, especially if the situation is a big one. It means taking tiny steps, letting the wave pass, before taking the next tiny step. The reactions become less intense with every step as we neutralize the tension.
When I repeatedly imagined myself howling the emotional pain went down, there were some more tears and the relaxation in my jaw became even more noticeable. The physical pain of the tension vanished completely.
Reflect
To process things it helps to think about what just happened. The experience often holds a lesson we can learn from. Learning that lesson instead of just moving on with life after the release happened can help us change our behavior so that stress won’t get stuck in the same way in the future.
I noticed a pattern of silence in my life that I want to work on in therapy. Allowing myself to have a voice has become a meaningful goal.
If you can, work with a body work therapist. A release like this can be pretty intense and it might need pacing and co-regulation to avoid getting overwhelmed. If you want to try it yourself, make sure to stick to small things and stay away from using it for trauma situations. This is only self-help when it comes to those situations in everyday life when we get upset and don’t manage to regulate, so we are stuck with tension even hours later. The energy of trauma situations is a lot more explosive and it is pretty much impossible to pace and regulate yourself while it is happening, so make sure you get the appropriate help.
People who are severely over-controlled like we are might have to learn to trust their impulses. Nothing bad will happen. We are not losing control. If anything, there is more control in this exercise than we ever had in the initial situation. It is vitally important for over-controlled people to start to follow healthy impulses again (More). We get stuck more often because we habitually suppress our impulses and thus fail to regulate ourselves.
It is impossible to get it wrong. Whatever comes up is ok. Feeling grief in my jaw didn’t sound logical at first, but it ended up making perfect sense. There is no need to understand every bit of it to profit from it.
Compared to this, TRE is a vague one-size-fits-all solution that starts with artificial shaking, if it’s needed or not, to dissolve a situation. I believe it is better to start with a specific situation and allow it to be released however it wants to naturally. When we work closely with the impulses, what comes up is a lot easier to contain, which lowers the risk of getting overwhelmed. We also learn lessons about regulation we would otherwise miss. It actually changes the way we cope with similar stress in the future so it won’t get stuck in the first place. Natural regulation is superior to an artificial release.
Some specific body work techniques for trauma use this basic principal. You could find body work therapists to support you this way by looking for practitioners for Somatic Experiencing (Levine) or Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Odgen).
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