Biodynamic Massage and Trauma
Massage can both energise and calm the body. This is because the contact received by touch works directly with the autonomic nervous system and the polyvagal system. When we talk about trauma we are essentially referring to the body's responses to shock.
Shock: Two Types of Response
Post Traumatic Stress
When someone experiences shock, for example through a frightening event such as a car accident, it takes time to recover. By recover we mean for the residues of fear and startle to dispel themselves through the body. The client may feel ‘stuck’ in the physicalised moment of the event, unable to relax and allow the body to return to normal rhythms. We can feel very depleted. This is called Post Traumatic Stress and it is well-accepted that attuned massage can support recovery from this common state of dysregulation by encouraging the body’s own systems – cardiac, breathing, digestion as well as the nervous system - to return to a state of stability (homeostasis).
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is very different. The sense of recovery is not reached because at a neurological level the body and mind cannot accept that the frightening event is over. Clients are frequently triggered into a state of ‘fight/flight’, the body’s hormonal response to fear. They may experience ‘flashbacks’ or even shut down into a state of dissociation. It is as if the frightening event is happening now, in the moment, and the series of trauma responses have to be played out in order for the person to feel they are coping.
Biodynamic massage can be helpful in terms of recovery from both Post traumatic Stress and PTSD. It is contacting touch that aims to stay in touch with how you are feeling both at the level of sensation as well as feeling. It can soothe the nervous system and offer an alternative physical and emotional 'holding' to the fight flight freeze responses of trauma.
Professional training is necessary to help a client recover from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. If a client asks a massage therapist to help them ‘release’ their body from post traumatic stress, there can be a danger of 're-living' the frightening event. We have to go carefully to avoid facilitating the release of sensations and feelings that can be overwhelming.
Babette Rothschild’s book, The Body Remembers, is a useful reference. Rothschild believes it is necessary for a person to re-find a sense – either a memory or a somatic sense, of what it feels to be calm and relatively free from fear. The worst thing you can do is to go back into the frightening feelings that have occurred if you have no ‘safe’ place to return to. From a safe starting position the client and therapist can gradually begin to process what happened to them little by little, without being overwhelmed by fear and panic.
Developmental or Early Trauma
Sometimes people struggle with PTSD because the early establishment of the neurological system for self-regulation has been impaired. A client may have been traumatised from a very early age, for example, if they were brought up in a household where there was a lot of fear or violence, or if their relationship with their early care-giver was extremely unpredictable. Essentially, they have no ‘safe place’ to go back to because they never had one. Many biodynamic massage therapists are trained to work with early trauma but again, care is needed when we come into contact with these clients through touch.
Read a blog about our latest workshop on biodynamic massage and trauma: in-case-you-missed-the-trauma-workshop-on-the-4th-november.html
Shock: Two Types of Response
Post Traumatic Stress
When someone experiences shock, for example through a frightening event such as a car accident, it takes time to recover. By recover we mean for the residues of fear and startle to dispel themselves through the body. The client may feel ‘stuck’ in the physicalised moment of the event, unable to relax and allow the body to return to normal rhythms. We can feel very depleted. This is called Post Traumatic Stress and it is well-accepted that attuned massage can support recovery from this common state of dysregulation by encouraging the body’s own systems – cardiac, breathing, digestion as well as the nervous system - to return to a state of stability (homeostasis).
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is very different. The sense of recovery is not reached because at a neurological level the body and mind cannot accept that the frightening event is over. Clients are frequently triggered into a state of ‘fight/flight’, the body’s hormonal response to fear. They may experience ‘flashbacks’ or even shut down into a state of dissociation. It is as if the frightening event is happening now, in the moment, and the series of trauma responses have to be played out in order for the person to feel they are coping.
Biodynamic massage can be helpful in terms of recovery from both Post traumatic Stress and PTSD. It is contacting touch that aims to stay in touch with how you are feeling both at the level of sensation as well as feeling. It can soothe the nervous system and offer an alternative physical and emotional 'holding' to the fight flight freeze responses of trauma.
Professional training is necessary to help a client recover from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. If a client asks a massage therapist to help them ‘release’ their body from post traumatic stress, there can be a danger of 're-living' the frightening event. We have to go carefully to avoid facilitating the release of sensations and feelings that can be overwhelming.
Babette Rothschild’s book, The Body Remembers, is a useful reference. Rothschild believes it is necessary for a person to re-find a sense – either a memory or a somatic sense, of what it feels to be calm and relatively free from fear. The worst thing you can do is to go back into the frightening feelings that have occurred if you have no ‘safe’ place to return to. From a safe starting position the client and therapist can gradually begin to process what happened to them little by little, without being overwhelmed by fear and panic.
Developmental or Early Trauma
Sometimes people struggle with PTSD because the early establishment of the neurological system for self-regulation has been impaired. A client may have been traumatised from a very early age, for example, if they were brought up in a household where there was a lot of fear or violence, or if their relationship with their early care-giver was extremely unpredictable. Essentially, they have no ‘safe place’ to go back to because they never had one. Many biodynamic massage therapists are trained to work with early trauma but again, care is needed when we come into contact with these clients through touch.
Read a blog about our latest workshop on biodynamic massage and trauma: in-case-you-missed-the-trauma-workshop-on-the-4th-november.html