After working through a layer of trauma in my story, I distinctly remember being ridiculously excited about eggs in the morning. Somehow, the prospect of being able to wake up and make myself scrambled eggs filled me with a deep, irrational joy. It was as if God had enriched all the colors of life, quickening my soul to beauty and opening my physical senses to a place of rest and enjoyment. My journey of healing was affecting every part of me.
As a trauma therapist, I’m honored to come alongside people as they courageously journey toward wholeness. What a gift to witness how their lives, relationships, and particularly their bodies respond to breakthrough in this work! Bessel van der Kolk describes trauma as being “primarily remembered…as isolated sensory imprints: images, sounds and physical sensations that are accompanied by intense emotions, usually terror and helplessness.” To that end, he states that “all trauma is preverbal.” We need to find words for what happened, but it is our body, through those sensory imprints, that holds the impact of the trauma. Just talking about trauma is like describing a roadblock—our words might be accurate, but the obstacle is still there. I am thankful for experiential trauma treatments which integrate the body, emotion, and mind; they can yield incredible results in actually removing the roadblock of trauma.
This reflects the sanctity of the body. God divinely created us to image and love Him through the devotion of the mind and also through the body and emotions. I love exploring the emotions of God throughout the Bible; I am always struck by the depth and passion of our God’s feelings. And through the incarnation, Jesus forever dignified what the Godhead created and imbued with the very breath of God: the human body.
Trauma also fragments and distorts our perceptions and relationships; biological changes to the body’s stress response mean a traumatized person may see danger where none exists. In order to survive, we disconnect from people or situations, and sometimes even disconnect from our own bodies through a coping mechanism called dissociation. Just as Adam and Eve’s sin resulted in leaving the garden where vulnerability and intimate relationship dwelled in harmony, so trauma ruptures relationship.
How comforting that God has provided salvation in every way! Even as we find ourselves estranged from our very being, Paul assures us that God fully knows us even when we do not know ourselves (I Cor 13:12). Embodied spirituality simply aligns with the truth that God is viscerally present with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us, and is continually reclaiming our bodies beyond the isolation of trauma to reunite us to Himself, others, and even to ourselves.
1 Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score, 2014, p. 70.
1 Ibid, p. 43.
