I learned from studying Dr. Wilhelm Reich and Dr. Alexander Lowen that our history is stored in our tissues. When the child or even the adult experiences trauma, because it is often not safe to express the emotions involved, they tighten different areas of the body, thus storing that experience along with the emotions.
Often, while working with clients over the years, some would start shaking. This was usually frightening for them. When I would ask them, “Is it scary and painful or scary and pleasurable?” They would reply, “Oh, I guess it’s scary and pleasurable.” They would then settle into the experience and let themselves shake until it stopped and then they would be breathing deep belly breaths.
When the shaking was happening I would affirm for them, “Your body is releasing old memories. Maybe they will come to you or maybe not. It doesn’t matter.” A few years back I discovered this video by Dr. Robert Scaer, How the Brain works in Trauma. It proves that animals in the wild relive and shake off trauma as soon as it’s over, ending in deep belly breaths. Dr. Scaer explains that animals in the cage (zoo animals, pets, and humans caught in the cage of culture), do not. They go into a freeze response.
In Self acceptance Training, client/trainees sometimes intentionally or other wise find themselves reliving a trauma. I facilitate them through the experience, helping them to express the emotions that the child could not and sometimes re taping the experience in a more positive way.
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