Page 379 - Total War on PTSD

The therapist gives words to trauma as a way to mediate the flood of experience. Resolution necessitates a process of going over and over an incident or experience such as a deadly accident where a family member died. Each time the Veteran tolerates the discussion better without being flooded with fear and anxiety. The details can be discussed repeatedly as the terror is felt until it finally softens its grip. The words ground the emotions until they are bearable. As the Veteran can bear the material, bodywork can offer release of pent-up feelings, allowing discharge of fear, rage, sorrow, and grief.
The therapist and Veteran weave a clearer narrative of what happened and create and define a larger context in which incidents were embedded — a new family narrative, for example, that explains many of the perceived problems so they make sense and can be integrated. Horrible situations take on a newer, healthier perspective, that reassures the Veteran and supports a more resilient attitude and positive frame of reference.
As I stated earlier, it is important for Veterans with these somatic syndromes to keep active, if they are able to, with an exercise routine to thwart their overly protective tendencies that lead to chronic identification with being physically compromised or disabled. That faulty self-assessment results in a decline of healthy movement routines such as walking, hiking, or attending exercise classes — anything within their individual physical means. This attitude leads to further pain and symptoms exacerbated by stasis in the body-mind.
The biophysical work can create a deep bond between Veteran and therapist, as it exists in a context where defenses are confronted early on in treatment resulting in increased honesty and vulnerability as therapy proceeds.
Orgonomy is a mind-body analytic approach that understands the functional relationship between the two; it does not hold a dualistic conceptualization of mind as separate from body. Orgonomy treats the problematic character defenses and how those very character patterns translate as “body armor," and manifest in a variety of biophysical symptoms.
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