For people with trauma, PTSD, or C-PTSD, the relationship with the body is complicated. The body becomes more like a burden, nuisance, or enemy. Reconnecting with the body is further complicated by the fact that the body, more specifically the nervous system, holds the imprint of what happened. The journey from head to body and heart is counterintuitive to the strategies developed to survive. These strategies often require the survivor to disconnect from the body and heart. The containment, compartmentalization, and management of the traumatic charge create symptoms. In order to survive, the survivor has to disconnect. When survivors of trauma seek therapy, they are usually frustrated. Their symptoms have pervasive impacts. All their usual strategies are counterproductive to intimacy, connection, and thriving. Good for survival, but not good for closeness.
Trauma and post-traumatic stress usually develop when protective factors are not in place. Having loving support, time to process and debrief, shaking off the trauma, and access to support, like somatic therapy is necessary for not developing PTSD.

Recognizing Trauma: From the Obvious to the Subtle
Trauma is such a huge umbrella term that covers a broad range of experiences, from ancestral, conception, and birth, throughout life to death. Trauma can happen without us knowing "this is trauma". Trauma is not just what happens to combat veterans. Trauma is subtle at times and sometimes disassociated from consciousness. Trauma happens from experiences of “not enough”, “too much”, “too little”, or “too long” that are not properly integrated or processed (Abi Blakeslee, PhD).
The difference between post-traumatic stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder can be as simple as one is short term and may not impact every area of someone's life (6 months or less), the next is a single incident that propels someone's system into a stuck state, and the other is chronic, multiple incidents, usually with original imprints happening during development.
Trauma Symptoms: How the Body Manifests Stress
Disparate symptoms are connected to the overarching post-traumatic stress. The manifestation of symptoms of trauma and post-traumatic stress is organized differently in each person.
Symptoms of Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress:
•Issues with Mental health such as anxiety, depression, OCD, and rumination.
•Relationship dissatisfaction and relationship insecurity, avoidance, or ambivalence.
• Issues with pleasure embodiment
•Issues with affect tolerance and affect regulation
•Disconnection from authentic self and body
•Metabolic issues and disease
•Expedited Aging
•Chronic pain and tension
•Cardiovascular and GI disorders
•Eating Disorders
•Neurological and Neuroendocrine Dysfunction
•Avoidance and compartmentalization
•Flashbacks, somatic flooding, nightmares, and state-dependent triggering
•Exposure to overwhelming conditions such as witnessing or in close proximity to violence, abuse, neglect, death, and horror.
•Reenactments, attempts at re-dos (finding similar dynamics wishing for a different outcome)
•Issues with boundaries and self-care
•Default automated emotions or reactions such as anger, frustration, anxiety, dissociation, or collapse.
•HPA-Axis dysfunction like dysautonomia, CIRS, MCAS, chemical sensitivity, and vital fatigue.
•Sexual dysfunction.
•Avoidance
The Importance of Reconnecting with Your Body
So why would a survivor of Post Traumatic Stress want to reconnect with their body?
Restoring coherence (aka flow) in the heart, mind, brain, and body is necessary for post-traumatic growth. The bi-directional action of the mind, body, heart, and spirit is disrupted by adversity. Like driving a car--you are driving along, flowing in the right direction and suddenly you slam on the brakes and the emergency brake gets stuck. The gas pedal is pressed to the floor, revving and revving, but the brake is also on. The stuckness disrupts and alters our gut, inflammation, brain signaling, limbic reactivity, and HPA-Axis dysregulation. Leading to vital exhaustion. When people are stuck in these states, they are surviving in an isolated, automated, numbed, and out-of-sync state. One time hitting your toe hurts, inflammation happens, and healing inherently starts. Chronic, daily hitting your toe, is like a system with unprocessed trauma and post-traumatic stress.
The physiological impact of cumulative and chronic stress which results in neurological and neuroendocrine changes is called the allostatic load. Somatic practices and therapy seek to work through and restore proper flow. Enhancing coherence in the nervous system, thus reducing the allostatic load.

Healing Through Somatic Therapy: A Path to Recovery
Mindfulness and embodied training increase the regulatory axis of the brain and body. Processing a traumatic charge and helping it digest and release removes a burden on the person.
Somatic interventions, in conjunction with whole-health practices like integrative nutrition and exercise, help restore well-being. Here are 6 essential tips for trauma and PTSD survivors to help reconnect to the body's ability to heal:
1. Grounding Techniques | A.K.A Presencing.
Anchoring into the present moment is a powerful tool that helps post-traumatic stress find resiliency. Grounding into the present moment can alleviate feelings of dissociation, anxiety, and rumination. Orienting to where you are at, in time and space, gives the nervous system a chance to settle. Enhancing awareness of your sensory experiences such as taste, sight, touch, hearing, and smell can orient your nervous system to presence.
2. Cultivating a Safe Space
Hypervigilance accompanies post-traumatic stress. This chronic scanning and sensing for danger creates a feedback loop of chronic mobilization. This creates an inability to truly rest. A significant step one with post-traumatic stress can take is to create a safe space that signals to your nervous system that you are not in danger.
This can and should include removing yourself from people, places, or things that are unhealthy for you. You can pick a spot in your bedroom, car, or nearby park that is your space to let go. Fill it with personally resonant items like clothing, blankets, scents, pillows, pictures, flowers, candles, jewelry, plants, or whatever brings you peace. Make a point to enter this space, practice presencing, enjoying, and resting.
In the somatic therapy field, we talk about finding the glimmers of light. Cultivating a mindset that looks for the glimmers of calm, little tickles of pleasure, or small specks of connection has a ripple effect on our nervous system. Cultivating a safe space is likened to this mindset work, by actually choosing and cultivating your space, you are increasing your chances of exposing your system to safety. That exposure, built up over days, weeks, or years, cannot be underestimated.
3. Mindfulness and Body Scan practices
Creating the connection between the mind, body, senses, and sensations tones the nervous system. Creating a tone in the nervous system increases resiliency. Mindfulness is being present with what is, on a physical, mental, and emotional level. The ability to witness without judgment. Developing a witness to observe the sensations and senses through scanning the body is a central tenement in somatic therapy. For significantly traumatized people, working with a skilled somatic therapist may be indicated if feeling sensations cause flooding or other symptoms. For some, practicing mindfulness and body scanning while working out is a safer pathway for trauma survivors.
4. Gentle Movement
The effects of movement alone on our mitochondria is a good enough reason to add this to a somatic therapy strategy. A movement that is mindful and that brings breath and flow to muscles, nervous system, and organs signals to the trauma brain that you are out of the woods. Especially if you feel stuck, paralyzed, have issues staying sedentary, and have depression, your system is getting trained every day by these defaults.
Gradually challenging the system to increase movement will shift this state. The movement supports feel-good hormones, access to your organic natural pharmacy, and a good mood feel. Trauma-informed yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, or more intense activities like lifting weights, spin class, hiking, HIIT, or running all have certain benefits that might just hit the spot for you.
5. Bodywork, submerging in water, or self-contact.
When the body is numb and/or overwhelmed, bringing in soothing external contact can enhance the ability to tone the nervous system. The body container, the whole of the body, is the vehicle for the digestion of traumatic experiences. EMDR has a distinct phase dedicated to helping the somatic body digest the left-over traumatic "charge". Getting regular touch and giving yourself regular touch can help de-armor the stuck protective sequences. Submerging in water feeds back to your brain and body about the body container and acts as a bridge for creating the mind-body connection. Sensing into your body while submerged in water can help with identifying feelings and sensations.
6. Getting quality connections with friends, family, and well-trained professionals.
Our nervous system comes down from stress with a safe connection. What happens when the connection with others gets you flooded and overwhelmed? In books like Anchored by Deb Dana, In an Unspoken Voice by Peter Levine or Janina Fischer's Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma, the authors go into detail about the importance of a safe connection for someone with trauma.
These authors are pointing to what countless other authors and researchers have found. Safe connection feeds back to our traumatized brains and bodies, signaling the much-needed "You made it, I love you, You are alive, You matter." This information is fragmented and dissociated when trauma is active in the body. We might KNOW it logically, but the embodied belief of this is usually difficult to feel the body is focused on surviving. Taking the time to settle into a positive connection can help you reconnect to your body.
Sadly, safe connections may not be found in our blood family or partners. This is what relational therapy is for. We can, however, have an incredibly fulfilling relational life with a chosen family.
From Survival to Thriving: Your Journey in Somatic Healing
Reconnecting with the body as a trauma survivor is an essential element. This, however, is quite tricky for the person with trauma and post-traumatic stress, because encountering the body means encountering what happened. With these 6 elements, you will begin to safely inhabit your day-to-day life and gain more information about where some healing needs to take place. These strategies are meant to be guideposts for the healing journey. If you find yourself feeling feelings, emotions, or sensations that cause distress when working on reconnecting with your body, you may have unprocessed trauma that needs to be acknowledged and processed. Be gentle and kind. No one got better by shaming themselves.
The Compass Healing Project is here to support you along the way, helping you navigate this journey with compassionate care and professional guidance. By engaging with tools like somatic therapy and mindfulness, and with the right support system, you can move from mere survival to thriving. Healing is a gradual process, but with time, it's possible to regain control of your life, filled with hope and renewal.
You are worthy of care, support, and quality trauma resolution. There is hope and incredible processes that are here to move you from a survivor to a thrive.

Begin Your Healing Journey With Somatic Therapy in San Diego, CA
If you're ready to begin your healing journey from post-traumatic stress, somatic therapy can help you reconnect with your body and release the trauma held within. At Compass Healing Project, we provide compassionate support and evidence-based somatic practices to guide you through every step of your recovery. Follow these three simple steps to get started:
Reach Out and Fill out our New Client Inquiry Form to get started.
Schedule a discovery call with one of our skilled somatic therapists to discuss your needs and goals.
Begin healing from your post traumatic stress soon!
Additional Counseling Services at Compass Healing Project
At Compass Healing Project, we provide a holistic approach to therapy, incorporating a variety of modalities to address a wide range of issues. Alongside helping you address and heal from your post traumatic stress with somatic therapy, we also offer EMDR, Clinical Sexology, hypnotherapy, ketamine-assisted therapy, and embodiment practices. These therapies are effective in treating anxiety, depression, PTSD, grief and loss, sexuality concerns, and relationship challenges. For more information and to get to know us better, visit our blog. Our Colorado and California clinics are staffed with caring therapists who specialize in trauma resolution, emotional healing, and integrative therapy here to help you thrive.
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