"One little piece at a time, because each piece adds to the others. It's like a teeny little island in this sea of trauma and overwhealm, and then you find another little island, and then another, and another, and then these islands come together to form a mass of stability, of presence in the here-and-now, even though there's this storming all around" (Peter Levine).
There are various ways to work with the parts of yourself that have been impacted.
NARM
A lot of research on adverse early childhood experiences had been carried out, and the effects have been translaten into ACE. Because these experiences happen very early in life, we have no conscious memories of them. There might be memories in the body or in images. These studies show that we do see the effects of ACE in the present, especially in the relationship with yourself and the relationship with others. NARM, developed by Lauwrence Heller, is to (re)gain control over your life by approaching our experiences in the here and now as conciously as possible. We achieve this by using the expertise you have about yourself and letting the therapist guide you, from the shared interest, understanding your experiences in the here and now. We always use NARM; the extent to which depends on the extent to which you experience difficulties that are difficult to explain in the relationship with yourself or with others. Because as a young person or adult you have been using your survival strategies for some time, this process to review and potentially change them, can sometimes take a little more time.
Somatic Experiencing
Peter Levine developed a different approach that mainly uses the body as a source of information. From that, memories are stored in other parts of the brain than in the thinking and reflective parts of the brain. That is relevant as we sometimes have no memories, yet the event has been very disruptive. In those cases, we do experience the 'side effects' from that what we do not remember. Somatic experiencing uses this intelligence of the body. With your therapist you inquire into the information that has been stored in the body or in feelings that don’t seem to make sense. Sometimes a movement has not been made or hasn’t been finished. Sometimes you feel stuck in a strong sense in the body or strong (unexpected and uncontained) emotions. Through the enquiry, we explore what the feeling tell us and what is needed to be able relax again. For other people, the work is to reconnect to the body and to feelings where the connection got lost.
Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) and Heart Rate Coherence
With the study of our nervous system, Stephen Porges has mapped out how a short circuit in our nervous system had led to a disconnect from ourselves. When it’s hard to relax, sleep, take a break and we are in a high state of activations most of the time. Others have shut down and lost the connection with their aliveness. It’s possible to develop self-regulation capacities and reconnect to yourself again. Breathing exercises are the tools to the way free the way to relaxation states again and is the least invasive way to work on blockages. However, it is necessary that you produce the discipline to practice before and after the sessions. With the use of heart coherence exercises, you can practice 3 times for 10 minutes daily and look at the session to the effects thereof.
EMDR
Francine Shapiro developed EMDR and this is now more and more established method to reduce sensitivity from less pleasant events and feelings that keep haunting you. The of what happened remains and you can look at it with a certain distance and with less sensitivity. The method is based on so-called bilateral stimulation, which means that both brain halves are stimulated by moving back and forth with your eyes. Because research shows that the eye motion is more effective than sound, we use this way of working. EMDR generally raises discomfort in the body in people, because you stimulate the body quite intensively. These side effects often leave again with one or a few days. 3 to 5 sessions are needed to process trauma, depending on the content of it.