Bodily Side Effects Of Somatic Experiencing

[Dana1010]

I have not yet had my consultation with the SE therapist and am just going through Peter Levine's book and doing the exercises. I have had some experiences of hyperventilating, shaking, and once an internal heat wave that lasted for a few seconds.

Last night I woke up with a strange arthritic type pain in my left wrist and hand. I don't have arthritis and have not injured my wrist in recent memory. I have a slight hunch that some trauma is attempting to exit my body through my hand - is that crazy?

Has anyone had any similar experiences while doing SE?

 

[KwanYingirl]

I've been dealing with feeling pain in my pelvis and I am getting checked out by doc. It all started during reiki and it's pretty confusing. In my heart of hearts I believe this is body memories. I already have the visual memory that goes with it. I'm going to get acupuncture if I can't get it to stop hurting. Quite the puzzle isn't it?

 

[Springer80]

is that crazy?

Nope. Categorically not.

 

[Justmehere]

I have had experiences like those a lot since starting SE therapy. My therapist says signs like that are uncomfortable and sometimes even a little miserable to endure, but a good sign the body is trying to heal.

 

[marylouise]

I would go farther than it's not crazy, and say that it's normal when healing from trauma. I've found that I need to find a way to listen to the pain/s in my body, even to the extent of asking my body verbally what's going on. Listening to our bodies compassionately is how we heal.

 

[Dana1010]

Thanks for responses everyone.

I went out and bought some Aspercreme and I'm hoping that will help. It was so bad last night, I was finding it hard to return to sleep.

When I used to do meditations for healing resentment held in the heart, I would sometimes feel similar pain in my wrist. In certain Eastern philosophies, the heart chakra is said to correlate with the wrists and hands of the body. This is certainly veering off the terrain of conventional psychotherapy and I'm not saying whether I even believe in the existence of chakras, but I thought it was interesting to note.

Nope. Categorically not.

Springer80, do you have any similar experiences to share?

As much as the pain is an annoyance, it is sort of relieving to think that this crap is leaving your body finally.

 

[Chava]

The musician in me would want you to double check how you position your wrists when typing. But if it's not a little carpel tunnel type of pain it could be trauma-related (sorry I teach, too, so get all motherly over arm joints). I wake up with headaches and don't know if it's related to bad dreams and/or tension in my sleep. I haven't sorted this out yet (I do have some violent nightmares). I have unexplained pain elsewhere but that was with me before I started SE in therapy and we're still working on slowly getting at that stuff.

My trauma responses and releasing involve more like shaking you described (usually good, but sometimes more like a "freeze" I need help separating). The shaking is sometimes really visible and uncomfortable and sometimes more like an inner trembling, like a low-pitched, slower vibration (that's usually a good thing for me). I also have breathing issues, and part of therapy involves bringing my breath back into a comfortable zone, whatever that involves (usually me feeling like I'm breathing through a tube, which would make perfect sense related to my trauma, but breathing changes are common with nervous system activation). Heat too...sudden shift to hot is not a good sign for me, soothing warmth all over is...so it seems more like good re-organizing is the more subtle stuff, but all kinds of feelings can potentially arise, and an SE therapist can help you help your body find a comfortable center point...and slowly our nervous systems reorganize.

I read Peter Levine's book and love that people like him are getting information out there on body-based therapies. I didn't really dare do the exercises much on my own. But it was sort of helpful for understanding this approach to therapy. In therapy it's very helpful because my therapist can help me find a resolution, especially for the uncomfortable body sensations. I hope SE is helpful for you. I'm really happy to find something other than talk therapy because there just aren't words for my stuff most of the time, but my body and my relationship to it has been a real mess.

 

[Hashi]

I went out and bought some Aspercreme and I'm hoping that will help.

I'm afraid I don't know what Aspercreme is, but I'm guessing some sort of heat rub or ibuprofen gel? I've had all sorts of body processing from having craniosacral therapy. This is related to somatic experiencing with many similar effects, and what I always found the most helpful physically was cold gel packs - the sort you have for sports/muscle injuries. I stocked up on them to the extent that I now have nine, which I keep in the freezer, and there was one time I had to use all nine at the same time.

I think one reason they work so well is that a characteristic healing reaction I experienced was to feel a pulse in whatever part of my body was activated, and since cold encourages the circulation it would encourage the pulse and felt like it was working in harmony with what was going on - as well as providing some welcome numbing of the pain.

That and accepting the processing is what helped. Like @marylouise says, actively listening to the body. I used to keep validating it and trying to soothe it too. Throughout, I would focus on this being a healing process - a "healing feeling" is what I used to keep telling myself, usually through gritted teeth ;).

 

[TeaLeaf]

I used to have this pelvic pain for years, there wasn't a medical explanation for what is going on. It felt like an ice block on fire and I believe it was body memories that were processing. It made me feel crazy but my therapist assured me it was my body processing the memories. Acupuncture helped a lot and I think SE would be helpful to because it is a body based therapy. I also received Somatic Experiencing massage and felt like that helped me feel less physically terrified and threatened around men in general, my mental panic mode calmed down a lot.

 

[Seasounds]

As you mentioned, I know the wrists and hands to be the exit points for energy in the upper body. Besides acupuncture, acupressure and Therapeutic Touch provide a self-help means of opening the channels and chakras, to help the energy flow out (through the hands).

 

[Mystery]

Reading these comments scares me. Not that I'm blaming anyone, I'm grateful for reading everyone's stories but it feels so scary to face the long road I have ahead. How do you beautiful people do these therapies and manage to do normal life at the same time?

 

[Hashi]

@Mystery, I wasn't managing normal life before I started to work on healing. At least while I was doing somatic and other therapy, I was going in a positive direction.

I would suggest you don't think too far ahead. One of my principles is that healing is a thousand small steps taken one at a time. You just need to keep taking the steps, and in my experience every now and then I'll suddenly see how much more distance I've covered and that's what matters.

Even though I was a mess anyway, in many ways I did become more so while having therapy. I had to keep everyday life to a minimum and I messed up a lot of it. But I survived and it was worth it. Continuing to live with PTSD and the effects of trauma would have been worse. And I'd be suffering from the same now, instead of much better. I still have a lot to work on, but I'm so much better than before.

I've always experienced the somatic therapy and processing as positive. Even though my responses to it could be painful, distressing and even disturbing, I could see that this was all what I'd been carrying inside and now it was being processed and leaving me. I was shocked at what I'd been holding in my cells, and I loved experiencing it leave. It's worth the pain (physical and psychological) and the struggle with everyday life in order to be free of that energy.[DOUBLEPOST=1405760196,1405759937][/DOUBLEPOST]PS And I think you need really good grounding and coping skills. Not just looking to your therapist to ground you, or to have things to do in a reactive way when you're struggling. You need a whole range of ways to stay grounded and functioning as well as possible all the time.

I'm really serious about how much this is needed. In terms of working on healing I spent about 60% of the time on grounding/coping/psychic protection and about 40% of the time on the actual therapy and my own processing like journalling and art.