Somatic Responses to Trauma & Energy Healing
I'm really sorry if you're behind on the science, yes science, but the 'alternative energy healing' sector has proven to be effective in healing both trauma & the physical (somatic) pain associated with it.
Personally - I'm a big science nerd. I love deep research, especially on health, psychology, biology, physiology, sports, nutrition, biohacking & everything related.
But I have a 'woo-woo' hippy side to me. I love the spiritual, un-labelable, herbs & crystals, naturopathy, feel-it-out, enlightenment hunting stuff.
So when I started learning about trauma having links to physical health problems I jumped into the deep end.
Let's set some ground work here:
Our bodies have physiological responses - your body's automatic response to stimulus.
Which means when we experience stress or trauma - our body has a physical response to that. Not just a reaction of movement like flinching - I'm talking full hormone production that creates a chemical change in our brain. This also creates a memory stored for later use for our survival.
Now lets talk about those hormones. You have some that are made in the brain & the others are made in your kidneys, pancreas, ovaries or testes & adrenals (near your kidneys) and your thymus & thyroid in your neck. Your adrenals control your cortisol & adrenaline used for a stress response - near your 'gut.'
Have you ever gotten a 'bad vibe' from someone and felt it 'in your gut'? Kind of like intuition...right? Are we getting into the woo-woo? Yes - yes we are.
We can actually tell when someone has negative or dark energy. When someone is angry or has bad intentions & they enter a room, we sense it. Or the opposite! If someone has really 'great' energy & it pours onto other people - it 'lifts our spirits.' We have actually created machines that can read & measure a person's bioenergy signals.
What our ancestors called magic is now our science.
So what does this have to do with Reiki & healing trauma?
Clinical trials & tests are now proving that trauma, both acute & chronic, are stored in the physical body which manifests into dis-ease, either localized (pain in one location) or generalized (disease.)
Now we're asking the question - how do we heal emotional & psychological trauma?
We try therapy or counselling which is a great option for tons of people.
We also now know that building resiliency and life skills is a huge help.
We are also learning that pharmaceuticals that synthetically alter our brain chemistry isn't the best path....
We're also learning that spiritually focused, mental health & wellness, self-care practices are major contributors to healing our bodies. When we elevate our mental health - we often find that our bodies follow suit.
This is also a hormone release of serotonin, endorphins & oxytocin - all the feel good guys. And when someone else around you is producing and releasing these hormones, YOUR body picks up on this.
A Reiki Practitioner is most often explained as a channel or conduit for energy shifting or transforming. They (just like all 'healers') aren't actually doing the healing. A Reiki Practitioner is setting the conditions, offering guidance & creating an environment where healing can take place. These are people skilled in producing powerful levels of positive energy, so much, that the person they are with can experience them too.
There are some strong arguments made that the effective results produced by Reiki to alleviate depression, anxiety and promote physical wellness is actually due to the client experiencing someone offering them warm, supportive, focused, empathetic, undivided attention.
It is a one hour session where someone has not only offered you but amplified an environment that allows the hormones in your body a chance to create a chemical restructuring opposite to what trauma produces.
Doesn't that sound magical?
If you're looking for more information on any of this, check out these books:
When the Body Says No - by Gabor Maté
Reiki in Clinical Practice - by Ann Baldwin
Or check out this Youtube video
Julia is a Level 2 Reiki Practitioner, Certified Personal Trainer & Coaches Trauma-Informed Resiliency Skills. If you would like to work with Julia, send her a message.