Liberating Herself from Trauma: A Client Tells Her Story

May 8, 2010 by Donnella Wood

When I first saw Donnella Wood, I was having problems with my back.   My allopathic physician had diagnosed the persistent pain, grinding, and popping noise in my back as "arthritis."  I had tried traditional physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractors, yoga, and large daily doses of ibuprofen, but it just seemed to keep getting worse.  I had also been diagnosed with depression, attention deficit disorder, and anxiety. I was taking daily medications to manage these disorders.  Unfortunately, the side effects of the medications left me feeling detached from myself.   I was also  dealing with panic attacks, insomnia, and flashbacks as the result of past trauma.

My sessions with Donnella started out very exercise-based, but they evolved into something more. Through my movement therapy sessions I have come to see how the pain in my body and the ruminations in my brain are intricately connected; how my past emotional trauma is held in my body and affects the thoughts that are produced in my brain.    Through these sessions, I have learned to trust the signals that my body gives me and to pay attention to fear, panic, and pain as sources of valuable information.  I have learned to trust myself and my instincts. (Instead of thinking of myself as having Attention Deficit Disorder, I see how my varying interests all fit into a pattern of things I'm drawn to that interest me, that nourish me and give me energy.)

I also have learned how to pay attention and stay with the sensations that I feel when an old trauma is triggered.  I've learned that if I pay close attention to what and where the feeling is in my body, if I pay attention to the energy associated with it and watch how it moves and changes, if I just stay with it and don't try to change it, don't try to make up a story about it, don't try to "fix" it, the energy associated with the emotion is able to move through my nervous system and not get stuck.  My nervous system seems to learn to integrate the energy, my body relaxes and physically settles, and my thoughts automatically change.  The emotional charge associated with the energy dissipates and I feel physically lighter, and emotionally more open.  My thoughts change automatically, and I feel as if I'm able to be my authentic self.

Through my Movement Therapy sessions, I have learned how to pay attention to, trust, and work with my body's signals.  As a result, my nervous system is much less reactive.  People and social situations that used to trigger physical sensations of panic no longer do.  I no longer take any psychoactive medications.  I no longer wake up at 3am with flashback nightmares.  When I am triggered, I have the ability to recognize what is going on, both emotionally and physically, and I now have some skills that help me work with the situation in a way that doesn't increase my pain and suffering. Thanks to the work I have been doing with Donnella,  I now move through my life with a much greater sense of ease.

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