Somatic Experiencing®: “It’s worth healing your body deeply!”

Interview with Dr. Phil. Isa Grüber , alternative practitioner and coach

"Every traumatic or long-lasting stress experience leaves stressful traces in the body as long as it cannot be successfully resolved. Some people live with an increased level of aggression, others have a more avoidant lifestyle; in the long term, however, traumatic stress leads to psychosomatic complaints such as sleep disorders, migraines, panic attacks and more. By being mindful, we can 'tap' into our body memory, discharge the stressful energy in a controlled manner and restore healthy self-regulation."

The alternative practitioner Dr. phil. Isa Grüber, author of the paperback “What the body has to say”, works very successfully with the Somatic Experiencing ^® method according to Dr. Peter Levine.

Many people experience their body as a source of discomfort and react to everyday situations with sleep disorders, high blood pressure or inner tension. What do these symptoms indicate?

Dr. Grüber: Many people do not know that their body is under constant stress because they are suffering from the consequences of unresolved trauma. No matter how long ago a traumatic experience occurred, the body remembers. When it comes to stress symptoms, we differentiate between an appropriate physical stress reaction to certain triggers, which then subsides, and a permanently elevated internal stress level. For example, before an exam, it is normal to be on edge and sleep worse than usual. After the exam, the tension eases and the symptoms disappear. However, chronic stress symptoms are different. They are caused by long-term overexertion or unresolved traumatic life events. Traumatic stress remains stored in the body and leads to psychosomatic problems in the long term.

When you think of trauma, you immediately think of a dramatic or difficult life event. But while some people survive strokes of fate relatively unscathed, others are thrown off course by seemingly insignificant experiences. What constitutes a traumatic experience for an individual?

Dr. Grüber: We define a traumatic experience not primarily by the severity of the event, but by how it was dealt with and whether the physical reaction it triggered - fight or flight - was successfully completed. If this is not the case, the body is stuck in the violently interrupted reaction and keeps trying to complete it. It may be that you are stuck in a pattern of fight impulses and have a high level of aggression. Or you are still internally geared towards flight and have a more avoidant lifestyle. If all attempts to fight and flee are unsuccessful or you are taken by surprise, you can also collapse internally and remain in a state of deep resignation. In my book I describe how these incomplete physical impulses become life-defining patterns.

At the beginning of your book it says that the entire history of one's life is stored in the body and that this information can be used to heal psychosomatic complaints. How can one learn to access this body memory?

Dr. Grüber: The door to the body's memory is mindful sensing in the body. In therapy, for example, a client may talk about a topic and, without realizing it, make a defensive or protective gesture with her hands. The body's memory remembers an earlier experience in which she tried in vain to defend herself or protect herself from an impact. We take up such a gesture and work with it. A memory may emerge. However, this is not necessary or not possible if the event took place in a pre-verbal time. While the client slowly repeats the demarcation gesture and consciously perceives her body sensations, her body receives the information that it can now successfully complete the unsuccessful attempt at protection. This initially leads to a feeling of inner security and deep relaxation and ultimately to an increase in life energy.

In your practice, you follow the method of “Somatic Experiencing” ^® developed by Dr. Peter Levine. What is this approach and how does it differ from other therapy concepts?

Dr. Grüber: The special thing about Somatic Experiencing ^® is the connection between psychology and biology. We incorporate the body's memory into the therapy. We let the body speak and it shows us the way. Somatic Experiencing ^® was developed by the psychologist and biophysicist Dr. Peter Levine. In a unique way, he combines observations from the animal world with findings from psychology. Since animals in the wild are not normally traumatized, but literally shake off life-threatening experiences, there had to be another way for people to deal with trauma than talking about it in therapy or reliving it. Dr. Levine developed a model of mindful oscillation between trauma- and resource-related body sensations. The autonomic nervous system is invited to discharge the survival energy bound up in the body in small steps. In this way, renewed overwhelm is avoided. Once the survival reaction in the nervous system is complete, the body no longer needs the traumatic symptoms. Self-regulation is restored. In my book I describe in more detail how this process can work.

Your book also aims to show conversation-oriented therapists new possibilities as to when and how dialogue with the body can complement and enrich therapy. What are these possibilities, and how does the "inner voice" contribute to healing?

Dr. Grüber: People who come to therapy understandably talk mainly about problems. This can make physical discomfort even worse. Particularly with traumatic experiences, you can't go into too much detail, otherwise they develop a pull that is difficult to escape. Nevertheless, every client also brings resources with them, inner sources of strength. If someone, for example, talks about a difficult time of grief and at some point says, "If I hadn't had my brother back then... he helped me so much!", we as therapists can pick up on this resource and expand on it by asking questions. The client will feel a physical relief. We can then reinforce this by tracking the positive physical sensations and anchoring them in the body's memory. This is just one way of involving the body in therapy. I describe many others in my book.

Countless guides recommend various relaxation techniques such as autogenic training or similar for psychosomatic complaints or stress symptoms. Why can too much relaxation sometimes be detrimental or even dangerous?

Dr. Grüber: I like to ask my clients how high their internal stress level is on a scale of 0 to 10. The critical level is 7. Above 7, the body is in a state of emergency, in the red zone, so to speak. This means that the nervous system is geared towards survival. If someone has been in the middle or upper range of the stress scale for a long time, they experience a state of danger in their body and are always on guard internally. This is associated with a fight or flight readiness, i.e. high muscle tone, even if there is no concrete danger at the moment. As soon as they start to relax, the muscles also relax. This feels relaxing at first. But, to put it simply, at a certain point an authority takes over again and says "Be careful, don't relax too much, you have to be careful!" and the body starts to get back up again. A special feature of Somatic Experiencing ^® is that we carefully dose the discharge of pent-up energy according to the motto “less is more” and anchor the relaxation firmly in the body.

You studied sinology and lived in China for five years. How have these insights and experiences shaped your view of body, mind and soul?

Dr. Grüber: My years in China gave me a new, holistic view of body and health. As a student, I suffered from chronic headaches. I tried everything, but I couldn't get them under control with the usual medical means. In China, I had acupuncture, and after just one session, half of the symptoms had subsided. After the second session, I was completely pain-free for the first time in a long time. I thought (typically Western!) that I was now cured. But the Chinese doctor, who gave patients acupuncture in the evenings after his clinical work for free, kept booking me. I trusted him. It took 20 sessions to stabilize my energy system. After that, the headaches never appeared again. This experience has shaped me. In over 25 years of body-oriented psychotherapy in my practice, I have experienced time and again that lasting healing is more than the disappearance of unpleasant symptoms. In the long term, it is worth healing in depth.

Book tip:
Dr. Isa Grüber: What the body has to say. Holistic health through mindful sensing.
Stress and trauma management with Somatic Experiencing® (SE). Mankau Verlag, 1st edition May 2017 (original edition published in 2013 by Südwest), paperback. 12 x 19cm, 272 pages, €9.95 (D) / €10.30 (A), ISBN 978-3-86374-392-5.

Link recommendations:
More information about the guide "What the body has to say"
To the reading sample in PDF format
More about Dr. phil. Isa Grüber