Can Bodywork Help Heal Hidden Trauma?

If you feel like something’s not quite right with you life but you can’t put your finger on it, this episode of Woman Worriers is for you. Host Elizabeth Cush and her guest, Michelle Dixon, talk about developmental and preverbal trauma and how bodywork and talk therapy can work together to help heal these early wounds.

Quotes:

“The first thing I notice as a bodyworker is what I call armoring, or muscle tightness, in different parts of the body that can’t be explained through injury, illness, etc.” — Michelle Dixon

“When you bring your attention to the body, it can be pretty magical.” — Michelle Dixon

“Emotion is so embedded in memories and the connectivity of all of our memories and how they create this tapestry and then we make meaning of them.” — Michelle Dixon

“There’s something in there they can’t quite articulate; they’re having a body reaction that doesn’t make sense.” — Michelle Dixon

“That ‘right now’ moment is the window to all of the other moments that connect to the feeling you have.” — Michelle Dixon

Show Notes:

Some people have painful recollections of childhood. Others may remember their childhood as happy, but as adults feel like something is not quite right, like they don’t have a right to be here or that the world would be better off without them. That’s because some wounds occur before we have the words to understand or describe them. In this week’s episode of the Woman Worriers podcast, host Elizabeth Cush, LCPC, a licensed professional therapist and founder of Progression Counseling in Annapolis, Md., welcomes Michelle Dixon, a trauma specialist and mindfulness coach who takes a holistic approach to recovery, which includes releasing trauma from the body. They talk about developmental and preverbal trauma, how to recognize it and how to heal it.

Listen and learn:

The meaning of a “somatic approach” to therapy and why it can be helpful What preverbal trauma and developmental trauma are and why they have such an impact on our lives Why talk therapy alone sometimes isn’t enough—and how to know you might need something more Why you might not have painful memories of past trauma How unremembered trauma might show up in your life today Why a sense of worthlessness might signal that you may have experienced trauma before you learned to talk What de-armoring is and the different traditions of de-armoring for emotional release How the native American tradition of de-armoring is carried out today How bodywork and talk therapy complement and balance each other Different types of bodywork Why old traumas are surfacing and resurfacing during the pandemic What to look for in a bodyworker and where to find one Where to find a free emotional detox program to help you through the holiday season