Suddenly, you feel your face contort and stretch tautly and a loud declaration emit from your lips; your loved one responds in kind, and a debilitating, destructive exchange unfolds. Or, someone you value says something that triggers an unconscious reaction in you; you don’t understand it, but you slowly move out of the room and sit heavily down on a chair to regain your composure; you withdraw to protect yourself. These are behaviors that might be associated with unresolved traumatic experiences or losses. If these behaviors are mysterious and disruptive to you, you can change them with intention and focus.

Makes and models of trauma

Trauma comes in many makes and models, and generally can be categorized as physical, emotional, mental, collective, and spiritual. Falling off a ladder, witnessing an accident, being in a natural disaster such as an earthquake, and violence can all cause trauma. All living beings experience trauma, and resolve it in their own ways. Cats can be a good model of successful trauma resolution. Watch a cat after she has been in an altercation in the neighborhood. Once she is safe, in her home or with her caregiver, she shakes off the traumatic energy that may still reside in her body and goes on to other adventures, food, or a nap.

Consequences of unresolved trauma

Humans could well learn the tricks of trauma resolution from our mammalian companions in this regard, especially if we choose to give ourselves the space to resolve the trauma soon after we have sustained it. For past traumas, many of us have learned to repress the unresolved traumatic feelings, thus postponing the release of the charged energy associated with the trauma. This can cause discomfort in our interactions with self and others and disrupt our overall sense of well being. Some of us will choose afflictive behaviors to avoid the discomfort of the trapped energy. Addictions, codependency, rage and withdrawal, overwork, promiscuity, crime, and violence sometimes complete the picture of damage and lost vibrancy that are the hallmarks of unresolved trauma.

Unresolved trauma can lead to projections on others of the feared trauma, which significantly affects our harmony within and without. If we repeatedly project our past experience on others, we deny ourselves and others the opportunity to act and be in the present moment, thus compromising our expression of creativity and love. To evolve into the unique individuals we are and to realize our specific destiny, we liberate from the ties that bind us to the past traumas, and eliminate projections of the past.

Empathy and love: The time to heal

The repressed feelings and charged energy associated with unresolved trauma may nag us until the time is right to seek to resolve the trauma and open up space for more peace and satisfaction in our lives. One area of specialization of my practice is trauma resolution. Over the years, I have discovered a handful of therapeutic and healing techniques that are useful in the resolution of trauma and will describe them briefly below and more extensively in future articles. However, concurrent with useful techniques, the acquisition of empathy for and trust in your self are essential to the resolution of trauma and lie at its foundation.

Empathy and trust may sound like tall orders. They are achievable over time and with practice, and in turn lead to a greater facility to love. It is through love that we learn to be centered and better able to move through storms without breaking down. Centering maintains your connection with your authentic self.

Therapeutic approaches

In my practice, I use these therapeutic techniques and approaches, among others, to work with unresolved traumatic complexes of feelings, destructive thinking, physical tensions and pains, and spiritual stuckness:

• Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing—EMDR works by bilateral stimulation to the nervous system to change the thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations associated with a traumatic experience.

• Body-oriented processwork—Integrates body wisdom, structure, breathing, and touch to grasp the body’s messages and integrate and release past traumas. Gait and posture help to reveal where a person might be holding trauma, protecting the self, or holding a detrimental core belief, such as “I’m not good enough.”

• Regression work—Allows us to relive past and recent traumatic events and respond differently to them in the present, thus transforming the stuck energy and releasing the debilitating response.

• Meditation—Through deep experiences of relaxation and guided imagery, we access different parts of the brain and stimulate specific brain waves, especially the theta waves of the limbic brain where the traumatic memory response is stored and can be changed.

• Trance and journeying—A deep state of relaxation allows your mind and soul to take you to the places, people, and other aspects of life that can provide the information needed to resolve the unconscious traumatic complex and then apply the knowledge to your life in the physical world.

• Art and creativity—The expression of creativity is like the plough that prepares the fields for sowing, growing, and a productive and evolving life of good.

Therapeutic relationship

Resolving our unconscious traumatic response requires perseverance to stay the course. We need to trust our self, our soul, and our body’s intelligence to lead us in the direction of wholeness, growth, and well being. The relationship with our chosen therapist is also important for these reasons: 1) It can help change the limbic brain’s response via the consistent activity of attending; 2) It reflects our relationship with our self and all its potential; 3) Concurrent reciprocity in our relationship with the therapist and the self leads to a life of greater unconditional personal regard for self and contributes to the resolution of trauma in this way.

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