Somatic Psychotherapy with Margaret Howard

In order to heal trauma, we have to engage the body. I work with adapted Somatic Experiencing methods that include attachment systems. The work is gentle, and does not require the prolonged exposure to traumatic memory, or talking about events over and over again. In fact, with somatic methods it's possible to heal traumas that aren't even overtly remembered. 

Here are some shortish articles that might be helpful in understanding how including the body's responses in therapy is crucial to healing:

Rethinking Trauma: The Third Wave of Trauma Treatment, Ruth Buczynski, PhD

Trauma 101: Physiology and Causes of PTSD, Elizabeth Bader

"Somatic Experiencing: A Body-Centered Approach to Healing Veterans' PTSD" (2015, J. Scott Janssen, MSW, LCSW, Social Work Today, Vol. 15 No. 5 P. 12): 

And here is a short explanation from the Trauma Healing website: 

SOMATIC EXPERIENCING (SE) is a potent psychobiological method for resolving trauma symptoms and relieving chronic stress. It is the life’s work of Dr. Peter A. Levine, resulting from his multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma.

SE facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotions.

SE does not require the traumatized person to re-tell or re-live the traumatic event. Instead, it offers the opportunity to engage, complete, and resolve—in a slow and supported way—the body’s instinctual fight, flight, freeze, and collapse responses. Individuals locked in anxiety or rage then relax into a growing sense of peace and safety. Those stuck in depression gradually find their feelings of hopelessness and numbness transformed into empowerment, triumph, and mastery. SE catalyzes corrective bodily experiences that contradict those of fear and helplessness. This resets the nervous system, restores inner balance, enhances resilience to stress, and increases people’s vitality, equanimity, and capacity to actively engage in life. ~ From traumahealing.org