Befriending the Tiger…
The Mindful Cup

Befriending the Tiger…

I recently completed my first years training (of three) in Somatic Experiencing (SE), a body-based approach to healing trauma. I’m learning so much interesting and relevant stuff about the nervous system, and thought I would share a little bit with you…

The word ‘trauma’ has such huge connotations and associations but the truth is, none of us are exempt. We all have a nervous system and at some point, each one of us will be overwhelmed by life events. Simply put, it’s part and parcel of this human life!

At my first training module I remember trauma being described as… ‘too much, too soon, too fast’. Of course, trauma covers a vast range of human experience and there are large traumas and lesser ones, but interestingly, different people will have different outcomes to similar events. So, trauma lies in our body and beings’ ability to deal with the impact of an event, rather than in the event itself. Seemingly small life happenings like standard operations or a minor car accident, can have longstanding symptoms for many years after. And these symptoms don’t necessarily manifest in a complete breakdown but can show up as a dampening down of pleasure or ability to feel.

From an SE perspective, trauma is the unresolved survival response that gets locked into the body, and later wreaks havoc. When under serious threat we are wired for three courses of action: fight, flight of freeze. If this effort is thwarted, we get stuck in the charge of unresolved survival response, and it’s like getting stuck with the ON button on! We might get stuck in the sympathetic nervous systems ‘fight or flight’ response (hypervigilance), or in the parasympathetic nervous systems ‘freeze’ response (collapse). The freeze response operates just  like a fuse in an electric box… if there’s too much sympathetic activation that threatens to overwhelm our system, the parasympathetic response shuts us down. Many people swing between the two extremes, eventually completely burning out.

SE is a gentle and powerful modality that helps us learn to re-regulate our nervous system. And it has many overlaps with Mindfulness…

  • Instead of focusing only on thoughts or emotions connected to a traumatic event, SE works with the body’s responses that occur when we experience or remember the event. Like in meditation, we use the language of sensation as a way of becoming aware of what is present for us here now. And we slow it all right down!
  • Connecting to resources is at the heart of SE. It’s also the missing component at the time of trauma and so fundamental to its healing.
  • In SE we pendulate between the edges of what feels challenging and then resourcing as a way of expanding our container – our capacity to deal with intensity (something I regularly talk about in meditation classes). In this way we begin to help the nervous system re-establish it’s natrual rhythm and build resilience.

And obviously this small bit of theory doesn’t come close. Actually watching our skilled tutor work her gentle magic on the brave volunteers was amazing. I got to witness them make the profound shift from reactive mode of being to a more proactive one.
And I have felt this for myself too. It’ll take some time to assimulate my learnings from our rich and hugely challenging week, but I can certainly feel it working its magic on my nervous system already. And SE is already weaving into and enriching all the work that I do.

PS. If you’re intrested check out the books ‘Waking the Tiger’ and more recently, ‘In an Unspoken Voice’ by Dr Peter Levine. And as always be in touch if you have any questions or comments…

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