The survival mechanism that served us as children inhibits health as adults

Everybody adapted to survive his/her childhood. It sounds extreme but it’s true. There are no perfect parents and everyone has some degree of relational trauma, even in happy, well-adjusted families. .

For some of us, that trauma is minor and through our growth and healing we have been able to mature through it. For other people, with more significant trauma and/or less opportunity to heal, the very patterns that served as children inhibit health as adults.

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Let’s consider an example. A child who grew up with an emotionally volatile parent may be highly sensitive, always on the look out for potential danger. That adult may be more prone to nervous system weakness or disorders from prolonged hypervigilance. On a simpler level, that adult may be more prone to trouble communicating and trusting people. The list of potential ramifications is endless.

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Therapy is a great first step. It helps people become aware of their childhood wounds and the adult impact. However, most talk-based therapy has some limitations. People may understand their patterns intellectually and be able to use techniques and strategies to change their behaviour, when they are conscious of it, but the trauma lives on in the tissues of the body. The body responds instinctively until the trauma is released on a tissue level.

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That’s why I’m such a fan of somatic psychotherapy. In my healing practice, I am doing more and more body based emotional therapy (BCET), because it moves what’s under the symptoms that people present when they come looking for a homeopath.