How to release trauma from the nervous system
By Orit Krug | June 18th, 2020
Knowing how to release trauma from the nervous system is largely dependent upon the level and severity of the threat your system perceives it is under.
When you have trauma stored in your nervous system, and you are triggered, your system automatically reacts in one of four ways: fight, flight, freeze, or shut down.
When this occurs it’s a good indication that you need to release the trauma from your system.
Doing so, however, involves rewiring your nervous system to start responding differently when the subconscious memories of your trauma are triggered.
Learn how to change your instinctive reactions
The complexity is that each nervous system reaction is essentially a survival response. The way your nervous system responds (either fight, flight, freeze, or shut down) will depend on how severe a threat your system perceives you to be under.
For example: when your partner gets frustrated with you, despite them being a loving and healthy partner, your nervous system may feel like this action is a HUGE threat because you grew up with a father who was unpredictable and violent. So, you tense up your muscles and you freeze. You cannot stay present and connected with your partner because your nervous system feels a threat or a fear in the moment.
Successfully release trauma from nervous system in a therapeutic relationship
Working with a dance movement therapist (also known as an Embodiment Coach) who can support you and has experience is really the only way you can successfully release trauma from your nervous system. This is because you need to gently and safely rewire your nervous system through connecting with your body and movement.
Teaching your system to respond differently when it perceives a threat is a process of practice and patience and requires a safe and secure therapeutic relationship to guide and facilitate the rewiring experience.
A dance movement therapist will help you to expand your comfort zone in a supportive environment so that when you feel afraid in your romantic relationship, your nervous system no longer hijacks your body. Instead you stay present, have control, and get to CHOOSE how to respond.
This can only occur after working through past experiences where your nervous system has responded as if under threat, with a dance movement therapist who helps you to stay present and connected in the moment of the interaction. This act of rewiring shows your nervous system that you can feel the fear, however instead of your system taking over in the moment, you can consciously create new ways of behaving.
You get to release the trauma from your nervous system with control and support.
You deserve to heal your trauma & find peace in your body.
The latest trauma research shows that cognitive-based therapies cannot fully access trauma stored in the non-verbal brain and body. Even alternative approaches, such as EMDR and Brain-Mapping, are often not enough to fully heal trauma from the physical body or nervous system.
This makes trauma healing a very frustrating journey for many people. They end up feeling stuck, even after spending decades of therapy and gaining so much self-awareness.
If you relate, you might’ve considered giving up on your healing. You might wonder if a fully integrated healing is not possible for you.
Every human being is 100% neurophysiologically capable of healing deeply & wholly, because we all have neural pathways that can be rewired from fear and overprotection to love, joy, and openness.
But even with an effective neuroscience-backed Somatic approach, going to weekly sessions could still require many more months or years until you feel that “click” in your body that finally makes you feel WHOLE.
That’s why I run Somatic Trauma Healing Retreats where many people experience accelerated, integrated, and lasting healing in just a few days.
(Disclaimer: each attendee must go through an application process that ensures this accelerated healing is possible for them).
If this sounds like something you might be interested in, I’d love to invite you to check out my retreats! There are several options from women’s healing, plant-assisted, 1:1, and more.
