Step 2: Support initial exploration and acceptance of sensation
Traumatized individuals have lost both their way in the world and the vital guidance of their inner promptings. Cut off from the primal sensations, instincts and feelings arising from the interior of their bodies, they are unable to orient to the "here and now." Therapists must be able to help clients navigate the labyrinth of trauma by helping them find their way home to their bodily sensations and capacity to self-soothe.
To become self-regulating and authentically autonomous, traumatized individuals must ultimately learn to access, tolerate and utilize their inner sensations. It would, however, be unwise to have one attempt a sustained focus on one's body without adequate preparation. Initially, in contacting inner sensations, one may feel the threat of a consuming fear of the unknown. Or, premature focus on the sensations can be overwhelming, potentially causing retraumatization. For many wounded individuals, their body has become the enemy: the experience of almost any sensation is interpreted as an unbidden harbinger of renewed terror and helplessness.
To solve this perplexing situation, a therapist who (while engaging in initial conversation) notices a momentary positive shift in a client's affect - in facial expression, say, or a shift in posture - indicting relief and brightness, can seize the opportunity and try to direct the client toward attending to her sensations. "Touching in" to positive experiences gradually gives a client the confidence to explore her internal bodily landscape and develop a tolerance for
all of her sensations, comfortable and uncomfortable, pleasant and unpleasant.
The client can now begin to allow the underlying disowned sensations - especially those of paralysis, helplessness and rage - to emerge into consciousness. She develops her experience of agency by choosing between the two opposing states: resistance/fear and acceptance/exploration. With a gentle rocking back and forth, oscillating between resistance and acceptance, fear and exploration, the client gradually sheds some of her protective armoring. The therapist guides her into a comforting rhythm - a supported shifting between paralyzing fear and the pure sensations associated with the immobility. In Gestalt psychology, these back-and-forth movements between two different states are described as figure/ground alternations (see Figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1 This figure demonstrates the alternation of figure and ground perception. Do you see the vase or the face? Keep looking. Now what do you see? You will probably notice that the vase and face alternate but cannot be perceived at the same time. This is a useful concept in understanding how fear is uncoupled from immobility. When one experiences pure immobility, one cannot (like vase and face) also feel fear at the same time.
This shifting, in turn, reduces fear's grip and allows more access to the quintessential and unencumbered (by emotion) immobility sensations. This back-and-forth switching of attention (between the fear/resistance and the unadulterated physical sensations of immobility) deepens relaxations and enhances aliveness. It is the beginning of hope and the acquiring of tools that will empower her as she begins to navigate the interoceptive (or the direct felt experiencing of viscera, joints, and muscles) landscape of trauma and healing.
