Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods ― Peter Levine

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Special interests

What is Somatic Experiencing for Trauma Healing?

 

Trauma is often wrongly understood as an event that creates physical or emotional pain. However, Dr Peter Levine redefined trauma as an inability to release blocked energy in the body. During a traumatic situation, we are sometimes unable to fully move through physical and emotional reactions (for example escaping or fighting), resulting in blocked energies deep in the body, that make is feel “stuck” and unable to fully reengage with life (often long) after the event is over. In other words, trauma is not in the event, but rather what we hold inside of us. From this point of view, our bodies become the map for trauma resolution. As Sigmund Freud stated: The mind has forgotten but the body has not – thankfully.

 

In trauma renegotiation therapy, a bottoms-up approach is used to help clients (or trauma survivors) to feel fully alive in the present moment and ultimately move on, beyond the traumatic event, with their lives. This is done, by teaching them to access and release the blocked trauma energy in a slow, step-by-step manner (called titration). This allows the client to come out of his/her shutdown state into a process in which they re-own their own life energy. This process allows the client to have experiences that deeply contradict rage, helplessness or collapse that result from trauma. In this manner, the body learns that the danger has passed and is able to live in the reality of the present.

 

Learn more about Somatic Experiencing by reading an interview with Dr Peter Levine here https://www.psychotherapy.net/interview/interview-peter-levine; or watching him in action here https://www.themeadows.com/component/k2/item/467-dr-peter-levine-demonstrates-somatic-experiencing.

 

I studied Somatic Experiencing for trauma healing for three years under Dr Sonia Gomez and Dr Raja Salvam and qualified as Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in 2017.

What is Imago Relationship therapy?

 

Couples often arrive at psychologists’ consulting rooms feeling angry, sad, disappointed and shocked. They are in despair because they cannot understand how they have plummeted from the heights of love into a swamp of conflict and hopelessness. Others have been married for many years but now feel that they have nothing in common anymore and live “separate lives”, perhaps staying together for the sake of the children.

 

Dr Harville Hendrix developed Imago Relationship Therapy and founded the Imago Relationship Therapy Institute. The Institute now has an international membership of over 1000 therapists.

 

In therapy, couples learn that the romantic phase naturally ends and is followed by a power struggle (i.e. conflict). In other words, conflict is supposed to happen, and it is a sign that each person in the relationship is trying to heal, to get their needs met and become whole. It is only without this knowledge that conflict is destructive. Thus, the key to healing and transformation lies in this awareness. The main tool used to understand the root of the power struggle and move beyond it, is the Imago Dialogue, which is practiced in and outside of consultation. This approach to communication allows couples to move from blame and reactivity, to understanding and empathy, so they can create a safe, deeper connection with each other. In this manner, the relationship is transformed to a conscious, intentional and passionate one.

 

Learn more about Imago therapy here http://www.imagoafrica.co.za/imago-relationship-therapy-different-couples-therapy/.

 

Imago Relationship Therapy can be helpful for couples that:

  1. Want to discover new skills to break destructive cycles of communication
  2. Want to equip themselves with tools to accept and conclude childhood issues that could be obstacles to growth in their relationship
  3. Want to re-romanticise their relationship
  4. Feel their relationship is on the rocks and need to make a decision about it
  5. Want to deepen an existing good relationship
  6. Are starting a new relationship

 

I studied to be a Clinical Imago Therapist under Dr Kobus van der Merwe, executive of Imago Africa, member of the Imago International Faculty and international winner of the Harville Hendrix Award for Clinical Excellence.