Emily N. and a Somatic Treatment of Trauma

Ancient Healing

For quite some time, I have studied and practiced a Chinese Healing modality called Qigong to lessen the physical tension of a busy and sometimes upsetting career in mental healthcare.  Taught by the iconic Teja Bell, Qigong helps me integrate the mental exercises of teaching, therapy sessions, and analysis with healing movements for my mental and physical bodies - the Mind-Body.  Qigong might be considered the “medical branch” of Tai Chi.  Both entail prescribed movements. Both are components of Energy Medicine.  Both address the integral healing of the human being. In my therapeutic practice, I also use Qigong when my Clients have extremely difficult cognitive and emotional healing to do or when they need “extra” help.

 High Anxiety

Emily N.* was an elegant, professionally dressed woman of 34, a mother of two, and an attorney for a large nonprofit organization.  She said, “I can’t relax.”  She enjoyed her work and her family.  She appeared composed and confident.  She said that she was neither.

 Emily reported a childhood history of complex trauma with an angry, alcoholic, and abusive father and an often absent mother.  Her symptoms included difficulty sleeping, constant anticipatory vigilance (a sense of always “bracing” for something to go wrong), shallow breathing, and chronic neck, shoulder, and chest tension.  She reported panic attacks which, however rare, aggravated her fear of her stressful job.

 “The Talking Cure”

Emily worked consistently and well in therapy to become conscious of and conversant with the sources of her anxiety and to be able recognize and defuse its triggers.  CBT, Hypnotherapy, and Mindfulness helped, but something more was needed.  Her unusually sensitive nervous system was conditioned to sympathetic dominance (”Fight or Flight” responses) and reduced parasympathetic flexibility (the inability to create and maintain relaxation).  Hypervigilance and muscular guarding remained.  Asking her to “relax and think differently” often increased her stress and strain.

 The Phoenix Qigong

I introduced Emily to a short video by Teja Bell with no spiritual language, no demand for belief, no performance requirement, and no instruction to visualize or meditate.  The video features only slow, rhythmic, bilateral movements and breathing.  Emily’s response was subtle but important.  “I didn’t feel relaxed exactly,” she said, “But I felt less braced.  Like my body wasn’t holding its breath anymore.”  With brief, consistent exposure to the practice, Emily reported reduced baseline muscle tension, improved sleep, fewer anxiety spikes, and a greater sense of being “inside her body”.  There was no emotional catharsis or insight during this part of our work.  Emily described a physical shift: “My body doesn’t feel like it’s always waiting for something bad.”

 An Ancient “Science”

For those of you who are interested in in a more “rational” explanation of the last stage of Emily’s healing, in my next blog, I will show you the video of the Phoenix Qigong and comment on what possibly happened neurologically in this case.  Just as there is nothing “magical” about the mind’s ability to help the body, the body’s ability to assist in calming the mind should be equally self-evident.  After all, mind and body are one and the same.

*My Clients are never identified by their names or exact circumstances.