What is somatic practice?
Somatics describes any practice that uses the mind-body connection to help you survey your internal self and listen to signals your body sends about areas of pain, discomfort, or imbalance. (Reference)
What is trauma?
The best definition of trauma comes from my teacher, post-traumatic guide and culture maker Rachael Maddox. She is the author of her newly published book ReBloom: Archetypal Trauma Resolution for Personal and Collective Healing, and the creator of the ReBloom method of trauma resolution. This is the method I use in my practice. It has served me best in my post-traumatic healing and growth experience.
Rachael defines trauma as “an embodied violation hangover”
In other words, trauma is:
- a violation (emotional, physical, energetic, or any combination of the three)
- that happened in the past,
- that gets stuck in the body (physical and energetic) and remains long after the violation has ended.
That stuckness, that trauma, influences our behavior. It affects the way we see ourselves, the ways we communicate with ourselves and other, and the way we view the world. Trauma influences our physical and emotional health.
This definition is expansive. Most of us have experienced trauma in some form in the course of living our lives. It is an almost unavoidable byproduct of living in relationship with people and communities shaped by systems of oppression – colonialism, capitalism, sexism, racism – that have shaped us for generations.
A trauma informed approach includes:
- Consensual techniques and tools offered without force, trusting the inherent treatment plan and unique timeline of every individual
- Doing what’s doable and appropriate for you in the here and now; honouring your capacity
- Focus on the nervous system and the reverence for the body’s capacity to grow, heal and transform
- Informed consent and sovereignty central to the coaching experience
- Honouring ‘resistance’ as the body’s way of whispering its needs (permission to opt out; permission to say no)
In addition, ReBloom coaching offers:
- Inclusion of story, myth, ritual, archetype and metaphor as part of the healing process
- Focus on health as the foundation of the model, as opposed to focusing on the trauma (you don’t have to recreate or even remember the trauma event to heal from its effects)
- A critical approach that recognizes the impacts of oppressive systems (colonialism, capitalism, racism, sexism, etc.) and cultures
- An emphasis community-regulation and nature-regulation in addition to on self-regulation and co-regulation
- Radical consent to disclose or not disclose your personal history and story as part of the healing process
- Permission to honour your self, to use your sacred “no” and opt out at any time from any practice that does not resonate in the moment or feels uncomfortable
A ReBloom coach guides you through trauma resolution, teaching and using somatic techniques and exploring using the seven ReBloom archetypes for post-traumatic growth.
* Information regarding the ReBloom coaching methodology is reprinted and shared with permission from Rachael Maddox
This page was created by Janine Bertolo, post-trauma & somatic coach and can be found at www.janinebertolo.com
I am a post-traumatic growth and somatic coach who helps people heal and find ease from trauma that gets stuck in the body, and gets in the way of living fulfilled and authentic lives. Read more here.
Want to talk about what it might be like to work together? I offer Free 30-minute Discovery Calls. Follow the link below to book a session.