RELAX & UNWIND DECEMBER 2009
I have been working in Sderot for the past few months with people who are suffering from aches, pains, and more serious conditions due to post trauma stress. It's been an amazing learning experience to expand my practice in this area - and I'm only beginning to scratch the surface in helping my clients and in my own personal growth.
I recently treated one of my regular clients, a Sderot resident. He walked in annoyed after dealing with his phone company, getting transferred from person to person until finally losing his tempter and getting his way. He asked me to dig deeper than usual, telling me that every noise he hears makes him tighten up. It turns out that he had witnessed a Kassam rocket hit his car just as he was walking up to it. His car just blew up in front of his eyes. And he's been processing that experience ever since.
When the body is in a state of danger it produces adrenalin, heart rate goes up, pupils dilate, and blood moves to the skeletal muscles preparing for possible fight or escape (otherwise known as the fight or flight response). This gives us a vast amount of energy to deal with the situation. But there is also a third response - to just freeze. According to Peter Levine (Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma), the "freeze" response is the most important in terms of the source of trauma.
Levine explains that the freeze response or "playing dead" is the last resort to save our lives in the face of danger. When an animal is being chased, if it drops and plays dead, there's a chance that the attacker will drag it back to its home, giving the animal extra time to escape. Also, the freeze represents a shift of consciousness that serves as an escape from the horrible pain that may be caused. So the first thing that happens is the body creates a huge amount of energy to protect itself and if the freeze response is activated, there's a sudden stoppage in the system. And then all that energy is stuck in our bodies.
If the animal survives the traumatic experience, it goes through a thawing off stage of shaking and sweating to dissipate the stuck energy. Peter Levine explains that trauma happens because we as humans are able to override the thawing stage with our brain power. Basically, we don't allow ourselves to thaw out for many different reasons. It's a physiological process that must be allowed to complete itself, and if we don't allow it to happen then we are traumatized.
My client from the other day obviously needs to have a serious thaw out, as do probably most of us from our seriously fast paced stressed out lives filled with a long term build up of micro traumas. He walked out my treatment with a huge smile and said "that's exactly what I needed."
Stay tuned for more in two weeks time!!!
Matt Gleicher, CMT
Jerusalem Massage
matt@jerusalemmassage.com
052-636-2000