awareness or physical “literacy.” It may or may not include traditional massage, exercise, or adjustment methods. It is recommended that before integrating somatic therapy in your practice that you complete a training course that will allow you to effectively apply these mind-body combination techniques in your practice. a tense area of the body, for example, without movement. Sometimes the client provides the touch involved by placing his or her hand on a chosen part of the body. An important part of the process is that the work is steered by the client, who is asked to engage in somatic analysis regarding the location and feelings of tension, pain, numbness, etc., held in his or her body. The therapist asks the client where he or she would like to begin, letting the client direct the therapy, and always asking permission to take any action with the client or move from one area to another. The client is continuously checking in with the client, asking about any feelings and encouraging a numbed client to feel present in his or her body. Trauma touch therapy’s objective is an integration of the self, in which the client is able to experience all the sensations related to touch without feeling overwhelmed. He or she learns to: ● Stay present without reliving the experience. ● Maintain communication throughout the session. ● Stay in control by directing the experience and its pace. According to proponents of TTT, individuals learn to experience the joy of their bodies again, feeling more empowered and better able to take care of them. They show increased autonomy and self-sufficiency and know they can feel emotions and not be overwhelmed or diminished by them. Practitioners emphasize that bodywork can play an important role in the PTSD healing process, but the therapist must have not only an intellectual understanding of the physiological mechanisms of trauma (such as dissociation) but must maintain clear boundaries and provide a safe, nonjudgmental space for the client. The work itself can be very draining, and appropriate boundary setting for caregivers is critical (Osborn, 2019). that occurs. When the child feels stuck or unable to escape, he or she learns to repress, deny, or dissociate. These coping mechanisms work in one sense but often become maladaptive over time, causing symptoms of PTSD. Some victims of sexual abuse have an aversion to touch, avoiding it to such an extent that they become touch deprived. Through therapeutic massage, they can begin to experience touch as safe. In the model discussed by Timms and Connors, touch bypasses the cognitive system, facilitating emotional release of muscle memory, which can also assist in remembering repressed memories (Timms & Connors, 1999). Patients may be very fearful and are encouraged to set boundaries with which they are comfortable. In some cases, therapy is limited and may not progress much further for some time. The interdisciplinary team can work to provide a safe space for the clients so that abuse survivors who have learned to shut down their bodies may begin to feel again. As in TTT, it is empowering for the client to know he or she is in control of the amount and type of touch that will occur, and that there is constant feedback.
Disciplines that combine talk therapy with body-oriented protocol typically differ from standard treatment plans in that there is an added focus on sensory awareness and integration of the mind and body, including, for example, steps where the client describes his or her sensory experience or performs an exercise to increase body Trauma touch therapy Trauma touch therapy (TTT), developed in 1993 by Chris Smith, herself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, has been used extensively with victims of trauma. While there is no set protocol (each series of sessions is uniquely based on the needs of the client), TTT is typically provided in ten fully clothed sessions and requires an extensive physical and emotional health assessment, including a discussion of the work in which the client feels ready to engage. Chris Smith began to consider the possibility of using therapeutic touch to address symptoms of PTSD early in her career. She found practicing therapeutic soft tissue work was healing to her own history of trauma; that healthy touch (both giving and receiving) enhanced her sense of self, acting as a powerful counterpoint to the history of sexual abuse. She also found that her experience with trauma was not uncommon among her fellow practitioners. Increasingly, students shared their own stories of violence and abuse, along with a desire to consciously address the issue. Too often, she heard from manual therapists who felt they were unequipped to handle the powerful emotional releases experienced by their clients (abuse survivors) in sessions. Trauma touch therapy stresses a self-referential process, in which the patient or client is continually monitored for what is going on in his or her body. Before any bodywork begins, however, the client is are asked about his or her history—for example, whether he or she has ever witnessed or experienced a violent crime, has a history of suicide attempts, knows of any triggers to which he or she might react, or any other relevant concerns the client would like to share. The session typically begins with an awareness exercise that may not include touch at all—feeling the sensation of material against one’s wrist or arm, for example. Therapists working with veterans have also tried a range of types of treatments that use only minimal touch, resting the hand on Timms and Connors Two other researchers in this interdisciplinary field are a psychologist named Robert Timms, PhD, and a bodyworker named Patrick Connors, CMT, who developed a different model for integrating therapeutic massage for these patients. Their work began when Timms realized during a bodywork session that he had a history of childhood sexual abuse, an experience of which he had been unaware for the previous 40 years (Timms & Connors, 1999). Timms and Connors caution that some survivors of child sexual abuse are not good candidates for therapeutic touch or manual therapy. It may be inappropriate for those who dissociate, for example, or are hostile and angry. In those cases, therapeutic massage may even be emotionally damaging to the patient and detrimental for the therapist. They remind practitioners that treatment of survivors of childhood sexual abuse is a highly specialized field that requires special training and must be accompanied by verbal therapy with a trained professional (Timms & Connors, 1999). Sexual abuse trauma is unique, say the authors, in its betrayal of trust. Timms and Connor correlate the degree of betrayal of trust with the level of psychological damage
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Book Code: MLA1225
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