Trauma comes in many shapes. Wars, car accidents, surgical interventions, violations of personal space in physical and emotional ways, continuous stress and many other life situations can leave a mark on a person’s ‘blueprint.’ Some of us are more resilient than others and can resolve these traumas on our own in our own ways. But for some, it lives in our bodies for a long time.

Peter Levine, the founder of awareness therapy called Somatic Experiencing, writes about trauma and the nervous system activation that changes the body chemistry. Animals instinctually dissipate stress through movement but humans don’t always do that. We often freeze as a response and the trauma is not allowed to be processed in the body. Over time, the internal tension accumulates.

The story I heard in my training was about a polar bear in a Zoo in the United States. It had been given some vaccination while sedated and as it was coming back to consciousness, it was making movements with its paws lying on its back. I was told that Peter Levine identified this behavior as a running motion by which the polar bear dissipated the violation experienced with the sedation and vaccination.

In my Rolfing practice, I notice that people sometimes experience feelings and movements that are associated with certain places and events in their lives. It may be a concrete or abstract awareness but after the experience, the person feels more integrated or whole or relieved. As if the meaning is felt within the cells themselves and the system can re-set.