How can I heal from stress and Trauma?

 These days almost everyone  has or will experience trauma in their life time.  These experiences can range from being a part of a natural disaster, being involved in a car accident, being sexually, physically, verbally, or emotionally abused,  fighting in an armed conflict, witnessing an injury or abuse to another living thing,  a sudden loss of a loved one or meaningful relationship, to discovering your partner or significant other is living a double life and isn't who you thought they were.  Sometimes having ongoing stress can lead the body to react as if a trauma has occurred.

The brain has a built in response to danger that is unconscious and it happens before your higher thinking  brain even knows what is going on.  This is known as the fight, flight, or freeze response that occurs in the sympathetic nervous system.  There are very specific biological things that happens when the sympathetic nervous system kicks in.  Blood is sent to the major muscles to prepare to fight or flee, certain chemicals are released like adrenalin to aid in this process.  In a normal response, once the threat has passed, the body is able to turn off the sympathetic response and the body returns to homeostasis.

Sometimes the brain and body can become over sensitive because of trauma that has occurred or stress that has been ongoing.  When this happens, the body stays in the sympathetic response, chemicals stay in the system for more time than is healthy, and our physical and mental health begin to decline.

With SomatoEmotional release, the trauma or emotion that is stored in the tissue of the body can be accessed and released through light touch, gentle movement, or sometimes through dialogue and imagery.  When the pent up energy or emotion has been released, the brain and body can begin the process of recovering from the trauma and the body can return to the relaxed state that occurs when the parasympathetic nervous system is back on line.