
Tessa Fergusson

Working With Trauma Safely
Pulsation supervision focus with trauma is within and from the body, as is now been well recognised, trauma is held at body level and needs to be processed and integrated from the body, verbal therapy is seldom enough. Pulsation supervision starting from the practitioners/therapists own body with the understanding that one cannot safely work on other peoples bodies or with trauma if we have not become aware and processed and integrated our own body stories, our own frozen history. Trauma is held within our nervous systems in our muscles and flesh, in our eyes, our throats, our jaws, our arms and chests, our diaphragms, our belly, our pelvis and legs. Trauma informed starts from being able to be embodied and present, online and having capacity to stay regulated, when our clients/patients process their trauma and express strong and often disturbing material, our capacity to stay regulated, with our clients at this times, to remain open to feel, is how trauma begins to heal, in safe and trusting relationship with another, who has capacity to stay present with you and available as you feel and explore what is needing to be processed. Right brain to right brain our clients/patients know whether you are available and nervous system to nervous system they are aware of your capacity, at a body level. These spaces to heal trauma are few.
To be without trauma is to have flexible and adaptive ways of being, to have access to resource, to have choice, and to be able to move between parasympathetic and sympathetic as appropriate. To have flow and pulsation to have the capacity to feel all feelings, to be embodied and present.
In pulsation supervision we focus on processing old stories, beliefs and experiences that have left felt patterns or detachments of feeling that are unhelpful and limit our feeling of choice. In our clients/patients we learn to recognise trauma held within the body and ways of safely processing that trauma.
Radix body psychotherapy works deeply with trauma and developmental interruptions and is one of the best, if not the best way of working at body level with trauma, safely and effectively. Working with Trauma safely means being able to recognise when someone may be affected by trauma, being aware of how commonly we will be working with trauma within our practices and work place. We become safe places for our clients/patients to process their trauma when our own bodies as practitioners/therapists the spaces that offer space for this have capacity to stay online and present, to have regulated nervous systems and have processed their own trauma. When as practitioners/therapists/facilitators we can recognise trauma within the body, when we work with trauma consciously rather than assuming that there is no trauma unless it is spoken to by the conscious awareness of our clients/patients. We become safely able to work with trauma in the bodies of our clients when we recognise there are different forms of trauma that trauma can be a one off experience or long term over a period of time, it can be high intensity or low level and chronic. It can be experienced at any point in life and is usually complicated by developmental interruptions. As we work with trauma consciously we begin to realise that we all react differently, feel differently about things, are impacted differently by the experiences we have.
As practitioners/facilitators/therapists we need to know how to recognize it, and respond to trauma held within the body, within the nervous system in a way that supports recovery and places steps to establish deficits of development and reduced access to resource. As therapeutic spaces the minimum is to do no further harm, working at a pace and in a way that does not re-traumatise and instead offers choice, empowerment, relationship, presentness and validation of feeling. Recognising the central importance of Relationships and the therapeutic relationship between client/patient and therapist/practitioner. Trauma informed practice includes understanding the nervous system, include the window of tolerance and polyvagal theory and comes from making sure there is resource, embodiment and presence, and the pace of the work is dictated by those things.