Therapists in Arkansas provide techniques for recovery and release

Little Rock, Arkansas – The Mental Health Coalition states that experiencing trauma can result in various medical and mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to Little Rock-based trauma therapist Eric Phelps, who specializes in somatic experiencing, trauma can result from a variety of life events, such as childbirth, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as physical harm.

“For me, [trauma] is any stuck sort of energy in the body, whether it’s associated with emotions, feelings, survival energy associated with the fight, flight, freeze response, or thwarted attempts to fight or flight,” Phelps said. “A lot of people don’t understand they have trauma because when a lot of events happen, they happen early enough to where we don’t remember.”

Phelps observed that the physical manifestation of ancient flight energy, such as leg bouncing or foot movement, can occur occasionally.

People frequently want to know why things are happening, he added, but it’s more crucial to attempt to identify the source and release the energy.

Pendulating is a somatic experience approach method that Phelps suggested individuals employ.

“If you’re feeling a lot of tension in your head or neck – find in your body, oftentimes your feet – where you feel the least amount of tension, or the most calm,” he said.

Phelps went on to give an example, advising concentrating attention on the area where tension is least noticeable.

“Then you come back to your head, checking in ahead with your head, notice what you notice, going back to the feet,” he said. “[Do this] slowly but deliberately pendulating back and forth for several minutes.”

According to Phelps, energy should be released and evaporated after the activity.

People can have undigested trauma that is stored in the body’s tissue and occasionally run on some amount of fear, according to Rose Alisandre, a cranial sacral therapist and bodyworks specialist.
“It causes us to have to adapt, it causes our sympathetic nervous system on at a low level, which it’s not designed for,” Alisandre said. “A lot of what I do with people who have trauma or who have had trauma is to help them feel safe.”

According to Alisandre, there are self-help techniques that people can do to assist let go of trauma.

“You can begin to spend time, slow your breath, bringing yourself to move of a state of presence in your body by attuning to the visual, the auditory, the kinetic senses around you that help you know, ‘oh I’m safe in this room’,” Alisandre said.

Finding resources that seem secure and being able to communicate emotions are also crucial, according to Alisandre.

“What makes you feel ok?” Alisandre asked. “Maybe we have a person in our past or present who accepts us, maybe we have a place in nature that makes us feel connected to the earth and to life.”

Furthermore, according to Alisandre, journaling daily might improve one’s emotional state.

“Even before they get out of bed, sensing their breath, sensing their gratitude,” Alisandre said. “Gratitude is another resource, it helps us become grateful for what we do have.”