Trauma-Informed Somatic Healing
For Deep Transformation
(and the occasional bout of irrepressible cosmic glee)
Are you in the right place?
The challenging experiences we have in life leave a DEEP imprint on our mind, body and spirit.
Your parents divorcing. Being bullied. Being judged and criticised. Or just not receiving the fullness of attention, care, love. And a million and one other things big and small.
As a result, many of us are stuck in survival mode.
Even if our life looks good on the outside and we think we ‘should be happy’.
This looks different for each person.
Where do you recognise yourself? >>>
Numb and disconnected
You live in your head, unsure what you feel, who you are or what you need.
Emotionally overwhelmed
You struggle with emotional overload, feeling unsafe, on edge and exhausted.
Small and powerless
You ignore your own needs and people-please. It feels scary to be and express who you are.
Driven and controlling
You need to be in control: your house is spotless, you never let anyone down, but you’re exhausted and unfulfilled.
You’re in the right place if you’re stuck in survival mode but you’re convinced that there must be a way out.
There is.
What’s Your Coping Mechanism?
It is NOT our fault that we are in survival mode.
No one ever supported us to process our difficult emotional experiences.
Instead, we developed unconscious coping strategies to help us get through the day.
These are all innocent ways of dealing with our feelings.
They’re not wrong.
But they are incredibly painful, unsatisfying and inauthentic.
Do You Act Them Out?
Rather than feeling our feelings, we unleash them on others: exploding with anger, judging, blaming and venting.
Do You Numb Them Out?
Rather than feeling our feelings, we make them disappear through substances, work, sex, busyness, TV, internet etc.
Do You Push Them Down?
Rather than feeling our feelings, we are overly-nice, focus on others’ needs and avoid expressing in ways others might not like.
Do You Hold Them In?
Rather than feeling our feelings, we keep them at bay with defences like anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, tension etc.
“BUT BEN, I’VE TRIED EVERYTHING…”
…doctors, talk therapy, hot yoga, Vipassana retreats, raw veganism, carnivore diet, aromatherapy, vision quests, a tattoo to represent the ‘new you’, expensive personal development workshops, sharing circles, dancing under the full moon, reading dense philosophy, moving to Bali, strange rebirthing ceremonies, healing crystal necklaces, positive affirmations, the Law of Attraction, joining the 5am club, overenthusiastic life coaches, coffee enemas, cold showers, getting a PhD, ayahuasca…
And they probably helped a bit.
But deep down you still don’t feel like yourself.
There’s a sense of lack, unworthiness, anxiety, shame, fear, unsafety, brokenness, stuckness…
If this is you, you’re likely missing the key piece of the puzzle: the body, repressed emotions and the nervous system.
Are You Ready To Get To The Root?
We carry a lifetime of repressed emotion and stuck survival stress in our bodies, which is the real root of our issues.
Our endless seeking for different therapies and practices tends to be just another way to resist and avoid what we’re feeling.
We’re (completely innocently) looking for a way of resolving how we feel without actually feeling how we feel.
(And with good reason. It’s really hard!).
Btt there is simply no substitute for gently—but directly—feeling your feelings.
There’s no shortcut. There just isn’t.
There is no yoga posture that will release decades of repressed anger.
There is no meditation that will process deep shame and grief.
There is no philosophy that will heal a deep emotional wound from childhood.
There is no intellectual insight you can have that will relax a deep sense of unsafety.
Feel It To Heal It
In order to truly heal, you need to learn how to compassionately meet yourself: increasing your capacity to welcome and metabolise the painful emotions, core wounds and unconscious trauma that is held in the body.
When you learn how to meet and alchemise your pain and restore regulation to your nervous system, you finally start coming out of survival mode.
You come home to yourself.
Healing Is A Welcoming Of All Of You
I help to you XYZ
Somatic Inquiry is a combination of:
Nervous system regulation
Bottom-up trauma healing
Emotional processing
Parts and inner child work
Spiritual self-inquiry