I don't like listening to podcasts, but I'll listen to yours any day of the week, Alyssa. This was very helpful and resulted in me purchasing Peter Levine's book, 'Healing Trauma' in hopes I can get closer to that feeling sense we talked about in your response to my comment on your Alchemical Inner Work post. Thank you.
I recently had two of those dreams from which I could actually feel pressure... it could be sleep paralysis although they also seemed to be my waking experience from some people. The first one I woke up from, I simply cried. I don't have the vocab yet of the somatic tools, frankly I didn't find them helpful when I first tried somatic therapy. It could be that the therapist was inexperienced or it's the fact that the tool was not effective for me when my nervous system was fresh out of the frozen situation. In fact, a couple of years on now, I believe my nervous system is still in the semi frozen state, if you will. The pendulation method sounds like EMDR which I've also tried for a while with a therapist. My frustration is that my body is still easily triggered by the same old fears, what I usually do is to take long walks or go on bus rides but at night I'm still quite high strung and I'm even relying more on sleep aid. I'm not so ashamed of my progress like before but I do wonder sometimes will I ever heal.
What kind of somatic therapy did you try initially? I didn't have much success with EMDR. I felt it opened a lot of imaginal material for me, but didn't help with processing what was happening in my body.
Somatic Experiencing specifically is what had the most impact for me. Since you're still getting triggered, SE might be a nice option as the focus is on moving slowly and touching into small parts of the overwhelm, etc.
I don't like listening to podcasts, but I'll listen to yours any day of the week, Alyssa. This was very helpful and resulted in me purchasing Peter Levine's book, 'Healing Trauma' in hopes I can get closer to that feeling sense we talked about in your response to my comment on your Alchemical Inner Work post. Thank you.
Glad you found it helpful :) I'm a huge fan of Peter Levine's work, which has been really powerful in my healing journey.
Very helpful, I can really use this. Thanks!
You're welcome! Glad to hear it :)
I recently had two of those dreams from which I could actually feel pressure... it could be sleep paralysis although they also seemed to be my waking experience from some people. The first one I woke up from, I simply cried. I don't have the vocab yet of the somatic tools, frankly I didn't find them helpful when I first tried somatic therapy. It could be that the therapist was inexperienced or it's the fact that the tool was not effective for me when my nervous system was fresh out of the frozen situation. In fact, a couple of years on now, I believe my nervous system is still in the semi frozen state, if you will. The pendulation method sounds like EMDR which I've also tried for a while with a therapist. My frustration is that my body is still easily triggered by the same old fears, what I usually do is to take long walks or go on bus rides but at night I'm still quite high strung and I'm even relying more on sleep aid. I'm not so ashamed of my progress like before but I do wonder sometimes will I ever heal.
What kind of somatic therapy did you try initially? I didn't have much success with EMDR. I felt it opened a lot of imaginal material for me, but didn't help with processing what was happening in my body.
Somatic Experiencing specifically is what had the most impact for me. Since you're still getting triggered, SE might be a nice option as the focus is on moving slowly and touching into small parts of the overwhelm, etc.