You may have heard that if you put on a happy face, you’ll actually start to feel better.
But did you know that the physical patterns of our body not only reflect how we’re feeling inside but can actually cause those feelings?
When it comes to working with trauma patients, noticing patterns and changes in body language gives us greater insight into what patients are experiencing. We can also use these observations to develop healthy body
exercises that patients can use to help manage their symptoms.
Pat Ogden, PhD, is the founder and director of the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, which provides training in somatic and body-based approaches to trauma treatment.
Please check out the video below for one way to work with the body in the treatment of trauma.
The effects of trauma run so deep that they often become ingrained in our patients’ body language.
By using a body-oriented approach to treatment, we can recognize and use these body patterns to help people further understand and explore their trauma.
To what extent do you use a body-oriented approach when choosing interventions for your patients? Please leave us a comment below.
I love this…. the impact and comfort measures that the body finds is amazing. I have dealt with someone hugging themselves as a means to find comfort when they become anxious and feel vulnerable …
I have recently unearthed a childhood trauma that has affected my whole life, I am fully feeling my traumatized 6 year old and the extent of the anxiety I have lived with, it is ongoing, during the first onset a full blown anxiety attack I thought I was dying..fortunately I was with someone who intuitively began to stroke my forehead just as my mother used to do through out my childhood, she passed 21 years ago.. I am 57 years old and as my body began to recognize this touch as my mothers hand on my forehead I came back into my body, calmed and fell asleep..this cannot be underestimated.
As a Reiki Master Teacher, I use touch and energy in my coaching practice all the time, precisely because it opens avenues that talk alone cannot access. It is a mystery to me why so many healers do not think of the fact that you cannot pull apart the mind, body, heart and spirit. These integrations are inescapable and when attended to, we can truly provide more holistic and therefore, long-lasting solutions and tools for our clients.
Excellent points.
I usually pay attention to physical expressions of my clients however I did not think to be that specific.
I notice myself that when I am in any form of distress, I embrace my body and then I feel more self-soothing, warmer and safer. I guess I did not pay attention that some of my clients may feel similarly.
What a great way to get a person’s attention to their physical needs and perhaps at the same time take their mind off of the traumatic memory.
Jadwiga
Thank you Ruth and Pat – a nice reminder of this very important aspect of therapy intervention in helping manage trauma
Thank you, Pat and Ruth! I’m very aware now that working with the body is so important, especially in trauma therapy, but I’m still needing more ways in which to do that. So far the breathing techniques I do with clients are very helpful. It was helpful for Pat to give us a concrete example of how to make use of body language. More concrete examples would be so helpful. At least now I’ll be more observant of client body language.
One simple strategy anyone can do, is to focus one-pointedly inside the eyeballs, while simultaneously listening to the rate of the breathing and the heart beat. This engenders a stress-free flow state, effortlessly.
I participated in a workshop this weekend on the wisdom of the 5 energies. Three ties to my past trauma came to life. It will provide information to work further on.
I have worked as a school counselor specifically with at-risk kids in alternative schools in the Miami-Dade public school system for the past 22 years and it soon became evident that all the fighting was a result of fear (as well as childhood and developmental trauma.) Kids would come into my office after a fight and their hands would be still clenched in anger. Once they felt safe enough to talk – and after they had allowed me to guide them through deep breathing practice to help them calm down, they invariably cried (the girls mostly, but surprisingly the boys would often drop a tear or two, too) and allowed the fear to be exposed. Their entire demeanor changed from feral cat with fur standing up to docile, domesticated and open once again for affection.
Once I saw that connection of anger being a cover for fear, their fear seldom scared me again (unless desks were flying!)….
Interesting concept; I have noticed that I often roll one thumb around the other, this is something that my mother used to do, so I have always thought that maybe it was a family thing. Now I can maybe think that this is a comforting activity reminding me of my mother. A patient in one of my groups also commented one day that I must have a good relationship with my immediate family as I tend to twist my wedding ring around my finger, maybe this is again gaining strength and comfort from my family in stressful situations.
Thank you, so powerfully attuned with the person’s whole experience.
Thank you. I have trained in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and found it really effective for my clients.
Thank you for these informative segments. I am currently working with Indigenous children in a school in the Northern Territory in Australia where many of my students have been traumatised. I keep looking for more information and ways to help them. You always seem to offer insight and wisdom. I see a great deal of grief and despair. You seem to offer light at the end of the tunnel.
Thanks Ruth and Pat.
I observe my patients body language a great deal and have
often found it very insightful.
My DID client used to often flay her arms upward when telling me something important from childhood or when trying to convey emotion.
One day I said do you realise you often do (and described and demonstrated her body movements). She looked shocked went quiet and looked at me and cried. Once she was more composed she said “I used to do that to stop from being hurt”.
I often observe and note body language of my patients. It really helps them reflect on themselves and helps me gain more insight.
Hope you will sponsor a course with Pat Ogden. She is so inspirational. I engage in 3 body stances with clints that feel empowered. Thanks for another gift from Nicam
Very interesting information I did not think of in the past.
I change my bodily position frequently depends on the level of tension in my body. When I am on my ight side, I am more relaxed however when I switch to my left side, I feel more tension.
I wonder…is this a way of compensating… ???
I tell my clients to look up. When we are worried or vexing through a problem, it is pretty typical to look down at the floor or ground. In looking down the facial muscles more resemble the muscle profile of frowning. In looking up the facial muscles more resemble those of smiling. When you train yourself to just stop and look up on a regular basis you are training yourself to strike a positive muscle posture, which seems to allow for a more positive mental posture. The bonus is there seems to always be something up there worth seeing – the moon in the day time, some lovely cloud formations, a bird winging its way past or just an expanse of blue sky. For that minute it changes everything.
This is fascinating. I fold and unfold things or smooth things down–table napkins, the hem of my cardigan, place mats, pieces of paper, bed sheets, whatever I can lay my hands on–when I’m trying to talk to someone about a difficult topic or ask for help (which I’m getting better at doing, but it still causes me a very high level of anxiety). I don’t know why this action is soothing to me, but it must be on some level because I find myself doing it every time I’m nervous to talk about something. I think it helps me create smoothness and order in my mind when I’m trying to express something that’s difficult for me to say. I carry around a handkerchief a friend tatted for me for this very purpose. It has served me well. My counselor also commented once about how many times I had smoothed out the front of my sweater during a session. She didn’t address that physical action at the time, just the subject matter, so it never occurred to me until I saw this video that my body is unconsciously already doing something to help calm itself. I’m sure there are other things I do along this same line, as well, but that’s the most obvious one. Thank you for sharing this great insight!
Yes -the body holds its own wisdom -and each body is unique. It is important to both observe movement/body behavior and to respect that the same movement may have different meaning for different people -as Pat says one must check out with the person what are his/her own thoughts/experiences of the movement. Observation of the elements of movement -space, time, force and flow also give further understanding about any posture or gesture. Dance/movement therapy is a field that developed in the 1960’s and continues to this day to train people to use movement elements as the basis for psychotherapy. As a licensed and board-certified dance/movement therapist every moment of my work contains the belief and practice in the wisdom of the body. An example -many times children who struggle with regulation may choose to “hide” -under tables, behind desks, in small corners, following outbursts/aggression -whether verbal or physical. By responding with recognition of the wisdom of this -the child has found a safe place, the child is taking space to calm after her/his anger -the child can feel affirmed that they do have good inside themselves -they can be and are wise -even if they have really messed up. This helps a child to save face, further calm, and be ready to move on.
It would be great to have a video clip of a dance/movement therapist talking about her or his work. The American Dance/Movement Therapy Association has a website -ADTA.org which contains links to talks about our work as does the website for the private non-profit where I work -Hancock Center for Dance/Movement Therapy.
Absolutely the Best Information I have come across acknowledging this type of illness and or
Permanent Injury. Thank you, Brenda L. deGraw
Love this. Re-discovering the wisdom of the body. Would love to do a training @ this. Any scheduled?
Nancy Capers, MFT#41057
Thank you Ruth and Pat,
So useful to be reminded to *just notice* what is happening in our own another people’s bodies.
I was working with a couple recently and the husband unconsciously made a flicking hand gesture in response to something his wife said. In his words he was agreeing with her, but, when I asked about his hand gesture, he became aware that is *hand* was dismissing/disregarding/angry about his wife’s thoughts/feelings/perspective. It was very interesting to notice the impact on the energy in the room (and between the couple) as we *unpacked* what this hand gesture meant to him.
In my work as a focusing-oriented trauma therapist, I am watching for and bringing clients’ awareness into their bodies all the time. The essential message Pat seems to be conveying here is that these gestures have meaning, point to the body’s inherent movement toward calming or healing, but that we as observers can have no idea what the meaning behind these gestures are unless we ask into them. The only thing we can safely assume is that the body’s gestures have meaning that is probably helpful, and all the rest of the story needs to come from the client.
Love hearing this from you, Pat! I have been using client’s own (previously unconscious) self-comforting gestures as anchors for them and have found it to be incredibly self-empowering and comforting…as well as a way to interrupt the trauma pattern. Always amazed at the wisdom of the body/mind…even caught in negative loops, it does its best to compensate and we can become the treasure hunters…helping to bring these helpful compensations to consciousness.
People need hugs!
I joined a 55plus softball league. My particular division had 5 teams with men between the ages of 70 to 91. If you saw these men on the street or in a mall – you would think of many of them as old. and over the hill. However when I observed and participated with them playing softball, I observed their youth and vitality. It was not only the playing of the game that was important, but also the comraderie in the dugout, the going out after the games and the excitement of competing and the looking forward to future games. One man, a former lawyer once exclaimed – thank G-d for the softball league, explaining that it saved his sanity. Relating to sport – I have loved all sports since a young age and can sum it up that it has always brought out the best feelings in me. I have many wonderful kinesthetic memories that have raised my emotions. It also is wonderful to be outdoors seeing the clouds, the sky, the grass . It is all good!!!!
Love this! Thanks for sharing.
Dear Ruth:
Awesome video clip! Thank you. I will look for this in my clients from now own. You are so correct: the body does hold the score (Bessel Van Der Kolk), and the body attempt to heal itself (Gabor Mate).
Thanks you
Isn’t this the theory behind EFT…calming the mind and the body by a series of tapping? Even tapping two finger tips together, an act that can be done without drawing attention when in public, can have a calming effect.
Dear Ruth,
I find Pat Ogden’s experience with her trauma patient strangely familiar to that of my late mother. She too, suffered from hypertension, and would often wring her hands. She would often comment that she had very strong hands. She was also a worrier, as am I, having been diagnosed as having a “hot spot” in that part of the brain, by a psychologist specializing in neurofeedback.
I don’t know how or if this could all be related, since I personally don’t wring my hands, but now that I try it, I find it rather comforting and stress/worry relieving. The body is indeed a powerful ally in our health. It’s as if this gesture communicates “it’s okay…we’ll get through this”.
I work with children on the spectrum who experience trauma regularly due to painful sensory input or processing, using craniosacral therapy and sensory integration techniques.
I had eye surgeries as a child that left me with scars between my eye brows that always make me appear to be angry or frowning, despite the fact that my basic nature is cheerful and kind. It seems the majority of people in my life have judged me according to their visual first impressions and this has resulted in me feeling bewildered, dismayed, misunderstood, neglected, abandoned, angry and betrayed. It’s not my fault and there’s nothing I can do about it.
I have used the body to tell me about the emotional state of a person, sometimes I reflect what I am seeing but I have never thought of it as a way for the person to use that information to help calm themselves. Thanks for the insight.
This knowledge is very important!
Part of Gestalt forty some years ago. We were talk to watch and bring consciousness to what the body in clients was saying.
Very interesting approach. I would love to learn about it.
When I first began my healing journey waking up inside myself after 16 long numbing years on psychiatric medications losing everything, it hurt! I awakened ed to severe scoliosis. And my therapist told me to sit up straight. I remember telling her why I could not. That’s over 7 years ago and no longer true. In fact my pain body is managed without any meds with lite yoga and meditation 4 times a week. I am a survivor of severe preverbal developmental trauma. Mindfulness skills and tools along with Insight meditation give me the ability to be present not all lost in my past or future. Massage and rolfing really helped. Along with one moment at a time finding a new life starting with becoming my own best friend. Self-compassion over and over every day! And allowing myself to be exactly as I am in any given moment in time. Life is fantastic and also messy as I have and continue to learn so very much. Having meditation and yoga as refuge really works. And friends that do the same. My community are ones who have felt the ground of humility and grateful that we have. Love so many great teachers known widely and not. Tara Brach, Jonathan Foust, Jack Kornfield, Eckhart Tolle, Don Miguel Ruiz, and a Course in Miracles. So many paths to awaken out of a pain mind, body, and spirit!
And awaken into the freedom of
Comfort in mind, body and spirit!
Thank you for your share. I feel a deep connection to what you have written as i have just recently discovered Tara and am taking her Awakening the Fearless Heart class. You may be in a “higher grade” than I am but I see you as a role model. I can do it too! Thanks again.
Dear Ruth and Pat,
Thank you for this informative and wise video – very helpful.
It reminds me of my darling late dad, who – from my young childhood (7 yrs) onwards, into my adult life – slouched all the time, weighed down by his depression and disempowerment. It breaks my heart, when I reflect on Dad, to realise how badly he was suffering. As a child, his depression was over the breakdown of his marriage to Mum. As an elderly man, his depressive and despondent state was largely fed by a forced early retirement from his life’s passion.
One day, in desperation, I tried to bring about a drastic change in my dad, by advising him to think of a string at the centre of the top of his head; pulling him up to a more erect posture. Poor Dad was just baffled and asked me: “How do you know about that?” – he’d failed to appreciate his retired Osteopathic Chiropractor daughter once dealt with the body all the time, prior to my retirement. Sadly, Dad didn’t get the hang of it; he was too weighed down by his despondency and loss of empowerment; in his forced retirement, from his much loved allopathic medical practice, by a stroke – only 3 months before his 75th birthday; when he was to semi-retire in full glory, then go on a long trip O.S. trip, before he came back to Australia to work 3 days a week, part-time, with the medicine he so loved. He was a truly loving man and genuine healer, who loved so much to heal his patients. He was never in it for the money; he just desperately wanted to be no more than a true healer.
With kind regards + gratitude + God Bless,
Genevieve Reid
I find the sensorimotor approach very useful to helping most clients with trauma. However, I have one client who is visibly responsive in her bodily actions BUT becomes hyper-aroused if we talk about the body and its sensations in any way at all. That client can’t engage with the approach or even begin to respond to calming measures when in such hyper-arousal. I’m curious how I can support my client to get to a place where we can look at what is going on with her body responses.
At 85, to handle trauma, ever present since my daughter died because of psychiatric malpractice, when she was 40. Speaking to her a few times a a day calms me. I have been helped by the American writer ( K Schultz ) , who wrote precisely of the trauma of parents, “The essence of grief is the constant presence of the absence”. Never has it been defined more accurately!
Dr. Ogden reminds me of how I often use such observations and messages of the body, asking the patient to use and also amplify it, in exploring the meaning underneath. This gives oftentimes a direct insight for the client, to be used and benefited from. Breath is another clue that I observe continually, as it gives such “shortcuts” to the issue at hand, oftentimes much quicker than the “talk-therapy” alone, which often keeps the client in his or her head, rationalizing, intellectualizing etc., away from the experience that needs to be connected to.
Affirming video of Dr. Ogden.
I finally recognize the feeling. I learnt that every situation affect the body and how it tells you the real situation. I found out deception of the body would make the body feel betrayed.
I have become so much more aware of the body reactions of clients during sessions. I also learnt from one of my clients her use of a small piece of cloth that calmed her so much she stopped using her medication with her doctors support. She simply rubbed it between her fingers when she felt the need. It also appeared to empower her at that moment. Thank you for your insight it is most valuable both to myself and clients.
Even before becoming a therapist, I had noticed people’s movements, so it was with much excitement that I heard Pat Ogden speak in Seattle. This led to my taking the First Level pf Sensorimotor Psy. courses offered here. Much as I thought I didn’t analyze my clients during sessions, I discovered an amazing new way to focus on and help them focus on their bodies and sensations. This also opened doors to how countertransference showed physically for me. Thank you Ms Ogden for pursuing your own studies and presenting them for all who wish to change.
I watch my students body language when I do individual counseling and it is very telling that they are feeling very distressed. I have a lot of students who have anxiety so I have them trace their hand in a square to help calm themselves. This is something that they can do in the classroom that will not be noticeable to the other students.
I appreciate Pat’s approach.
I think coming up with a variety of “self soothing” activities that are acceptable to a person can give them a repertoire of choices for different geographic settings. There can be a myriad choices depending. Distraction; breathing; listening to music; taking a shower; Cup of tea or other; masturbation for some; writing; exercise; leaving the current space and going to the restroom(which is legitimate)and give one a “emotional break” from some feelings/situation. I also encourage clients to buy 2-3 “silly Putty”containers, they feel good to squeeze and absorb stress; one for the car; home and work. Usually a $1.00(the original Silly Putty is best to purchase!) Teh options are endless and its a matter of find a variety with your client that they can “tuck” away mentally etc to then use. I also have clients write these down on the back of business cards they can pick up at any business/restaurant etc; then they have a succinct list to look at for choices and can carry in wallet, dash of car etc.
Thanks for your words, Jodi. I am starting to physically self-nurture more now. It makes me feel more emotional and human, which is what I really need because I tend to be really analytical and detached like Mr. Spock!
I agree with Aisling and find all this helpful information. This information also helps us with countertransference. I realized this one day when my own foot started scurrying. At first I was confused where that was coming from but then I instantly remembered where it came from, when I needed to run off to avoid abuse. When I notice my subconscious foot scurrying and it signals I am in jeopardy emotionally. I orient, calm down my body and use the reaction as my own internal red flag, note the issue and process where it came from. Nowadays I know instantaneously and can use this counter transference for my own aide to help a client without anyone the wiser to my scurrying foot. This has become more and more clear as the neuroscience has helped this missing link in the healing process. Before I used images for help in the process or writing, but the added body physiology has opened up a whole other avenue to all human’s healing process. It is wonderful to see how it helps young people when you notice such things, such as hand wringing as you spoke of. It feels so nourishing to know that these young people might grasp the knowledge and stop sabataging their nervous and physiological responses. I want to truly thank you all for showing another avenue to that subconscious. For so many years I believe I only used the cognitive approach and missed so many physical avenues. In hypnotherapy and guided imagery misses this where EMDR has opened up that avenue. This new work you all are doing has opened it up wider, in my opinion. It is clear that just knowing about the nervous system takes full knowlege of the body responses if one is to exit the FFF response. It is not an easy process until one opens up the body responses. I am clinicians but also a music therapist but wish years ago I had really pursued dance therapy. That stems from my own childhood when doing body activity made the adults around me nervous. I think many of us were treated to be seen and not make waves by running or dancing. Today, the times are changing and that is so exciting to see, so we allow our own children to be pleased with their body movements. Thanks and keep adding your ideas to our tools of the trade. So many workshops neglected the tools over the years. The workshops that teach us more tools are gold mines to me. If anyone of you are as old as I, you might remember the Biology of Music Making in the 70s in Denver, Colo. Best week long workshop ever. This is almost unheard of in society as their is so much missed in webinars and agencies promoting the web trainings instead of the hands on approach ti save them money and time
. Frankly I miss the personal contact. The computer has lost something, but at least we can have the experts from all parts of the world. This is gratifying.
Wonderful to read, many thanks for your words Marcia.
The hand clasping may also be the body’s immediate urge to cross limbs. Which is a protective behavior, and which also connects both sides of the brain. Crossing arms or legs, or clasping hands, brings instant relaxation.
Greetings, I am a Somatic Therapist living in the West of Ireland ( also trained in DTR Dance facilitation, and Contemporary Yoga). My work has been primarily body focused for the past 12 years- firstly through Yoga, then through DTR (a form of dance therapy). Now mostly I draw on my Somatics “Origins” training, a 4 year course that I completed last year, very much looking at physiology as underpinning psychology. So it’s very much about the body in my work! Though I do consider it to be holistic, as we work with emotions and cognition, but always grounded in body sensation and often with movement. I work especially within the framework of a nervous system perspective on trauma and a measured approach- Peter Levine/ Bessel van der Kolk. Of course this work draws on a long lineage of body- based modalities, but I think that their work- “titration” and “containment” and polyvagal theory, has been the most exciting and useful discovery in terms of trauma treatment in our times. In my personal experience, at least. And again, I’m aware of the lineage and many many wisdom bringers who have come before. Many thanks, Aisling.
I have found Peter Levine’s technique of holding oneself to be very comforting for clients who report without prompting that they feel as if they are giving themselves a hug. This is a comfort technique that people can use anywhere anytime when triggered without drawing attention to themselves in public.