Is Touch Therapy Needed To Heal From Trauma?

Rebecca (not her real name) thought she could take it no longer. Nearly every day since the attack a year ago she had been in pain. The assault had happened in the parking lot next to her car after work one evening. She had been able to fight him off by using her legs.

Since then, however, her shoulders always hurt and it was difficult to move her arms. The talk therapy had helped her to be less afraid of going out at night and she no longer was afraid to drive. When her therapist suggested that the pain and immobility in her arms could be related to the trauma, Rebecca agreed. She wasn’t sure, however, that she agreed with the therapist’s suggestion that another touch therapy could help. Rebecca had already seen a physical therapist, who told her that her arms and shoulders had improved as much as they could.

For Rebecca this was just one more attack in a long string of abuses that had begun when she was an infant. She frequently thought of herself as broken.

What Kind of Touch Therapy Can Help?

Physical therapy and massage often focus on physical repair of joints and injured or strained muscles. In many cases these therapies do an excellent job of restoring the function of these structures. Sometimes, however, these therapies are limited because the trauma is extensive throughout the body.

One touch therapy that is effective for trauma-related injuries is based on the principles of Somatic Experiencing © (SE).

Briefly, SE is a therapeutic modality that resolves posttraumatic stress. By inviting awareness to your bodily sensations, the therapist supports your physiology to discharge the energy that arose in your nervous system when you faced an overwhelming threat. In so doing anxiety, depression and physical pain can significantly diminish. Sometimes, especially when the trauma has been very intense or affected your developmental capacity to defend yourself, touch therapy is needed in addition to the talk therapy of Somatic Experiencing ©. (Additional information about the basic principles of SE is available on this website in the “Have You Lost Confidence After a Trauma? How Somatic Experiencing © Can Help?”)

The Benefits of Touch Therapy in Somatic Experiencing ©

A therapist trained in SE touch therapy uses touch to restore your disrupted defensive responses. These can include your ability to sense that danger is present or to fight or to flee from the threat. If you were too little or there was not enough help, time or space for your to adequately defend your self and to relax afterwards, your nervous system may be stuck in one or more steps that were part of your body’s biologica,l automatic and unconscious response to the threat. Sometimes how your body is stuck is beyond your ability to describe verbally or the shock is so deep that the most effective way to help your body reorganize and become mobile again is through touch.

Deep shock often causes different body systems to loose their capacity to “talk” to one another. This, in turn, compromises your ability to defend yourself and to relax after the threat subsides. Bracing in one area may prevent movement in another area. For example, your abdomen, which is so constricted causing you irritable bowel syndrome, may, in turn, be linked to the bracing in your lungs that causes your breath to be shallow and fast. This, in turn, can lead to tight shoulders and arms. Using the principles of Somatic Experiencing combined with a gentle touch, a trained therapist can assist your biology to release these tensions and thus ease these symptoms.

What Happens During A Somatic Experiencing © Touch Session?

To begin, this kind of work is usually offered only after you have some experience with the talk therapy form of SE. This helps you to become comfortable with paying attention to your body’s physical sensations as an avenue toward healing and to working with the more unconscious restorative healing impulses of your nervous systems.

Touch sessions can happen with you in a sitting or reclining position. You do not remove any clothing and no oils are used. Unlike most massage techniques, the therapist will exert very little pressure and her hands may be still over one area for an extended time. She does not force something to move nor does she send energy into your body. You may feel her hands resting around a joint or under your skull or on different areas of your torso. Some sessions may occur with no talking; during others, the therapist may ask you to report what you notice happening physically.

What the therapist directs her attention to will vary depending on the situation. Frequently, she will be feeling with her hand how your breath moves throughout your body. Often it’s her ability to be calm that will invite your nervous system to relax as well. When this happens the energy that has been stuck can finally begin to move. As the nervous system releases the excess energy, you may feel vibration or heat. This may then enable the body to complete a defensive gesture that it would have wanted to do at the time of the assault. Later, your body may finally be able to deeply relax and leave the charge of the threat behind you.

But Wait…

I do not like the idea of lying down in a counselor’s office.

Making the transition from talk therapy to touch therapy needs to be done respectfully and when you and the therapist agree that you are ready. It is understandable that you will want to feel trusting of your therapist before you move into a vulnerable position on your back or stomach.

I already see a massage therapist. Can Somatic Experiencing © touch therapy be done at the same time?

If you are considering working also with a Somatic Experiencing © touch therapist, it is best to give permission for your therapists to communicate with one another. That way they can coordinate their efforts to provide the most effective treatment.

Being touched by anyone except my wife is scary.

If touch, per se, is frightening to you, then it may be best for you to wait to use this approach. It is not uncommon that abusive touch can make you uncomfortable with any kind of touch, even from a well-intentioned and trustworthy therapist. If this is the case, an SE therapist can help you, without using touch, to gain confidence that you do have boundaries and that your awareness of them can keep you safe. As with all therapeutic relationships, it is never appropriate for touch to be of a sexual nature.

What Happened To Rebecca?

I had worked with Rebecca almost a year before we agreed that it would be helpful to use SE touch therapy. The pain in her arms, I suspected, may be due to incomplete defensive moves in her arms and shoulders. For many of the sessions, she lay on the massage table in my office on her back. In the beginning, I touched her ankle and knee joints to provide her with a sense of safety and to establish mobility in these areas. Because she had successfully defended herself with her legs, I could fairly quickly feel her breath coming into this area. The other areas I touched included her wrist, elbow, shoulders and neck. The last areas I touched were on her torso. As the systems loosened, the tissues softened and her breath began to flow throughout her body. I also sensed a wave that could move from her head to feet.

During these sessions, Rebecca occasionally cried or felt heat rise as her systems released the bound energy from the many traumas. After several months, she regained full mobility of her arm and the pain had substantially reduced. After about a year, she no longer thought of herself as “broken.” Having a renewed sense of mobility within her body, she felt confident to move into new areas of life. She began to plan a new career and thought about going back to school.

Summary

Somatic Experiencing © (SE) touch therapy compliments SE talk therapy. It is often used when talk therapy alone can’t resolve deep shock trauma.

SE touch therapy is different than traditional massage or other touch therapies because it focuses on restoring the capacity of different body systems to function in an organized and cooperative manner after traumatic or overwhelming events.

SE touch therapy helps your body systems to regain their mobility, which is essential for being able to defend yourself and to ease emotional and physical pain, and to relax after the threat passes.

SE touch therapy is most effective when you have some experience of SE talk therapy and when you feel safe enough to be touched.

Next Step?

If you would like additional information about Somatic Experiencing © check out the Foundation for Human Enrichment at www.traumahealing.com. This organization provides training for counselors and bodyworkers in SE and a directory of Somatic Experiencing © practitioners throughout the world.

For professional training in SE touch therapy, contact Kathy Kain at www.somaticperspectives.com/

If you would like assistance in deciding if SE touch therapy is appropriate for you, I can be reached at 720-635-7943 or Maggie@HealingAfterTrauma.com