Three necessary, first steps to “release” trauma

🔹#1 Creating a felt sense of safety

Without a felt sense of safety it’s impossible to integrate trauma, because the protective layers and defensive accommodations won’t allow the information to come to the surface.

Once enough safety is established, you will be able to face your fears, stressors and suppressed emotions in productive ways. Only then you can process the memories instead of reinforcing them.

🔹#2 Establishing a felt sense of support.

This goes hand in hand with the felt sense of safety. When there is support in place your system knows it can manage meeting the inner and out challenges that comes with healing.

🔹#3 Expansion with titration

With #1 and #2 in place the expansion will happen naturally. The system will be ready to “release” and integrate trauma and it will also be able to discharge incomplete stress responses.

It’s very important for the expansion to be titrated, otherwise the system can feel quite overwhelmed. Too much of a good thing can be counterproductive.

That’s why it’s very important to work with a professional who knows how to titrate (to work with small chunks of somatic information) well.

When these 3 elements are working together, processing of deeper wounds start to unfold. And you will also notice more space for joy, more capacity for life and more energy to start or resume exciting projects.

And don’t forget that all of this happen through the body. A felt sense of safety can only be established through the body, not the mind.