Survivors of severe trauma and sexual abuse have had unthinkable atrocities devastate their bodies. They are often immensely disconnected from their bodies, and often cannot feel their physical self. Dissociating the body and having limited or nonexistent feeling in the physical body makes it easy to dissociate pain. Removing the pain from awareness is an incredible but absolutely necessary survival skill in the midst of severe trauma and abuse. “If you don’t feel it, it doesn’t hurt as bad.”

However, removing the pain at the time of the trauma may help with the trauma, but it leads to increased problems in other areas of life. Feeling little to no pain makes it easier for these same survivors to do excessive self harm and self mutilation because they do not “feel” it and it does not “hurt” them. Secondly, they are left with the overwhelming residue of unprocessed trauma issues that continue to affect their lives and infect their bodies, whether they “felt” the trauma or not.

As you can see, the very nature of trauma survival requires separation from the body. Therefore, an essential part of healing involves the reconnection of the person with his/her body.

The healing power of dance and movement involves the slow rebuilding of positive connections between the survivors and their bodies. As the survivors begin to safely move themselves around to music, they learn to feel their bodies again. They begin to feel happy with what their bodies can do. They may even begin feeling beautiful, strong, and physically powerful. There is great healing power in creating something beautiful, joyful, resilient, and exciting from the very same place that was once filled with devastation, trauma, and pain.

Regaining this positive physical connection can happen through dance, sports, physical therapy, massage, yoga, martial arts, kick boxing, self defense, or any activity involving a positive use of the body.

Please note: any physical touching of a trauma survivor’s body can bring very powerful memories of unprocessed abuse issues to the surface. Please do not use these methods unless you have a good plan for processing the trauma, and plenty of therapeutic support in place to do so. Remember, the physical body contains memories in some truly incredible ways, i.e. body memories.

Another benefit in movement therapy, is working with sports and recreational activities. Using the body’s energy to release anger through exercise can be a positive part of healing. For example, kicking a soccer ball against a brick wall will probably not hurt anybody, and yet, can be a great exercise for processing and externalizing angry feelings and overwhelming chaos.

Please note: anger work is a highly delicate and complicated issue, as it can easily be triggered into self destructive or externally destructive behavior. Please ensure that you have sufficient therapeutic support and sufficient external safety before you work in depth on your anger issues.

If you would like to process any of these issues, please consider a clinical consultation.