S9.22 | The Role of Somatics in Christian Trauma Healing
In today's episode, voted on by our Instagram community, we're diving into the topic of somatics and how it plays a crucial role in trauma healing and mental wellness. Carla, a certified Christian mental health coach and trauma integration specialist, unpacks the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit, emphasizing the importance of regulating our nervous system to achieve whole-person healing.
From breathwork to movement and tapping, Carla shares practical somatic practices designed to help you stay within your window of tolerance, manage triggers, and make wiser decisions. God created our bodies - so we need to tend to them as well as we journey through healing. Let’s explore how to honor our God-given bodies as we work towards thriving in Christ.
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Key Takeaways
Understanding Somatics:
The term "somatics" simply means "body."
It refers to understanding how trauma affects not just the mind and spirit, but also the body.
Carla breaks down how somatic practices can help in trauma recovery by addressing the physiological impacts of trauma on our nervous system.
The Importance of Regulating Your Nervous System:
Before engaging in mental or spiritual healing practices, it’s essential to regulate your nervous system.
Carla shares that achieving this regulation allows better access to your prefrontal cortex, enabling more effective use of cognitive and spiritual tools.
Symptoms like anxiety, panic, dissociation, and emotional instability can indicate a dysregulated nervous system.
Biblical Context:
Scripture supports the idea of caring for the body, mind, and spirit collectively.
Verses like 1 Thessalonians 5:23 stress the importance of sanctifying your entire being
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Connect With Carla:
Foundations to Healing—-> https://www.carlaarges.com/foundations-of-healing
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Check out the blog
Resources:
5 Steps to Building Resiliency
Affirming Truths Facebook Community
5 Tips for Overcoming a Negative Body Image
Who You Say I Am Biblical Affirmation Cards
TRANSCRIPT
Carla Arges [00:00:08]:
Hey, friends. Welcome to Affirming Truths. I'm your friend and host, Carla Arjez. This show is a safe place to share our struggles, grow in faith, and root our identity in Christ. My hope is that you will leave each episode feeling encouraged in your journey. Subscribe so you don't miss an episode. And it would mean the world to me if you would leave a review. I am so glad you're here.
Carla Arges [00:00:32]:
Let's get started. Hey, friends, it's Carla here. Welcome to this episode of Affirming Truths. So this is an episode that was voted on on Instagram. I put it out there. What do you want a podcast topic on? And I gave some options. And this was by far the topic people wanted to talk about the most. And it has to do with somatics.
Carla Arges [00:01:01]:
And I want to give a little context and background to that because you may be thinking, what is that? Or maybe you've heard about it in more secular ways and it makes you feel nervous or uncomfortable. And I want to break that all down for you. So many of you know I am a Christian mental health coach. What you may not know is that I'm also certified in trauma and integration. And what that means is really, how do we move trauma through our body? So without getting too scientific, if you really want the science of how trauma affects the brain and the body, you can watch my webinar on trauma. It's a three part series on trauma, the scripture and the science, and really looks at what happens to our brain in our nervous system. You can find that webinar on my website. It is $20, but it is super informative and that will give a lot of deeper context and understanding.
Carla Arges [00:02:12]:
But essentially, what I believe, what science shows and what actually shows in the Bible is that we are mind, body, spirit. We're not just body. We're not just mind, we're not just spirit. And when we are emp by trauma, when we are dealing with mental illness, the impact to ourselves is also mind, body, spirit. And so often in healing from trauma, we only look at one thing. We only look at the mind. How do we renew the mind? Or we only look at the spirit. How are we operating in forgiveness? How are we allowing the Holy Spirit to move in our pain? And we often neglect the fact that our.
Carla Arges [00:03:03]:
Our body has been impacted by trauma as well. And this is an important piece of the puzzle in healing and moving on with trauma. And so one of the ways that we approach the body when we're healing from trauma is with somatics. Now, somatic Just means body. That's all it means. It just means body. And this is why it's important. When we have trauma, when we have mental illness, when we have had a significant experience in our life, our nervous system becomes dysregulated.
Carla Arges [00:03:44]:
And that can show up in feeling really triggered. That fight, flight, freeze, any of those things are a sign of a dysregulated nervous system. It can show up as panic and fear. Maybe you, you feel your heart race and maybe you feel tightness in your chest. Maybe your mind is racing. Maybe you feel disassociated and apathy and just can't get out of bed and your body feels so heavy. When we experience triggers, that hyper arousal or that hypo arousal, something is physiologically happening in our body, in our nervous system. We are either take it into our sympathetic nervous system, and that's with hyperarousal, or we go deep into the dorsal vagal, which is hypoarousal.
Carla Arges [00:04:39]:
And we want to get back into our window of tolerance. And over time, we want to expand what our window of tolerance looks like. And here's the thing, we need to approach it. Mind, body, spirit. Now, I do a lot of work on the mind. I talk a lot on the, on the podcast about the mind and the spirit because those are easier things, things to talk about in an audio format, right? It's harder to give tips on the body when you can't visually see me. But I'm going to do my best today to explain to you what different somatic practices are and how it helps our body. So in order for us to actually access our prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that allows us to do the work of renewing our mind, that allows us to access the scripture we've stored up in our heart.
Carla Arges [00:05:39]:
In order for that to be working, we actually have to be in our window of tolerance. When we are triggered outside of our window of tolerance, when our nervous system becomes dysregulated, we can't access our brain in the same way. You know, I teach my students, my students, my clients, so many tools, and sometimes I get the question when I'm triggered. It's like I forget all my tools. Well, yeah, that's because our brain actually goes offline when our nervous system is dysregulated. So before we can access our tools, we have to regulate our nervous system. We have to tend to what's happening in our body. And here's the thing.
Carla Arges [00:06:28]:
God created our nervous system. It is good. God created our nervous system to go into hyper or hypoarousal for good. There was intention behind it. But we know we live in a broken world where God, where the enemy takes what God created for good and distorts us and distorts it. And so there's many times now where we are so actively triggered out of our window of tolerance. We're walking around as people with dysregulated nervous systems are. Relationships are affected by this, our motherhood is affected by this.
Carla Arges [00:07:07]:
We're constantly overwhelmed or snapping out of anger or completely shut down. We need to know as part of healing from our trauma, in our mind, in our spirit, how to release it in our bodies, because it gets stored up. In 1st Thessalonians 5:23 it says, May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all three things. We're told to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Our mind is a thing. We're told to not walk after the flesh, but after the spirit. The spirit is a thing.
Carla Arges [00:07:55]:
We're told to treat our bodies well because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The body is a thing and they all work together. And you can't give attention and care to some of those areas while neglecting the others. God created our body and it is just as important that we take care of it in our trauma healing, in our healing of mental illness, as it is that we take care of our mind and our spirit. And so what are some things that we can do to regulate our nervous system? This is really what I want to talk to you about today. Now I will say, like any good thing, the world has co opted it. So you may find or come across somatic practices that aren't in alignment with the word of God that have been co opted by the New age movement. Right.
Carla Arges [00:08:53]:
The same thing happens with renewing our mind. We're told to renew our mind and secularism has tried to co opt that too. In the self help space where we manifest and we, we, you know, say affirmations about how great we are. Right. So we have to recognize wherever there's a good thing that God intended that the world will have co opted. And we can't shy away from doing it the biblical way just because it's been co opted someplace else. And so, for example, one of the big things you'll see in the secular world around somatics is somatic yoga. Now I don't know how you feel about yoga, we all have our own Holy Spirit convictions.
Carla Arges [00:09:38]:
I am of the conviction that yoga doesn't actually have a place in the life of a Christian. And it's okay if you disagree, it's okay if you disagree. I have no judgment on what you choose to do or how the Holy Spirit is working in your life. But because that's my conviction, I don't use yoga in my somatic practice. When I'm teaching my clients on how to regulate their nervous system and work with their body and their healing, I don't do that. Right. I look at the body as a gift from God that He intuitively designed it to work a certain way. And we are just tapping into how he originally designed it to work.
Carla Arges [00:10:19]:
And he's given us such incredible tools to help us do that. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about when we're in that hyper arousal, outside of our window of tolerance, that fight or flight, right where we, we are agitated, we're irritable, we're angry or we're panicked. And anxiety, you know, what's happening in our bodies, our heart rate is going, maybe we feel it in our stomach. Anxiety has a huge link to our stomachs, right? Lots of people experience high anxiety, have digestive issues as well, you know, showing that connection between mind and body. So how do we bring ourselves out of that? How do we regulate our nervous system so we can approach the situation with wise mind, rational mind instead of being emotive? Because I can tell you, when we are led by emotions, we make bad decisions. When we are led by our emotions, we make bad decisions. And I'm not talking about the God given gift of intuition, I'm talking about the emotions that are fleeting, that come and go based on where we are in our window of tolerance.
Carla Arges [00:11:37]:
Those emotions make bad decisions. That's not to say that we suppress them. We need to bear witness to our emotions, otherwise they will not pass like the wave they're that they were designed to pass like. But we don't make decisions. And too often when we don't bring ourselves back into our window of tolerance, when we don't take the time to regulate our nervous system, we make decisions based on our hyperarousal, based on our fight, flight or our hypoarousal, based on our freeze, that is not productive. And we often do more harm to our relationships and to ourselves when we make decisions and do behaviors from that place. And I think you can all find times in your own life where you have made it an emotive decision that has negatively impact your relationship, maybe with your spouse, maybe with your child, maybe with a parent, maybe even with yourself. Because oftentimes following those decisions that we made from our emotions is shame and guilt and self loathing.
Carla Arges [00:12:47]:
And so one of the ways to break that cycle is to learn how to regulate your nervous system so that you're operating from a wise spot, so you're allowing wisdom, wisdom, God given wisdom, to direct your steps and your behaviors. So there's five ways that I really use sematics in helping my clients, right? So what a session with me would look like is maybe you come in to the session and you're already outside of your window of tolerance. So we would do a little bit of somatic work before we get into the wise mind work the wisdom, work the spirit work how God wants to move, how we want to transform our thinking, how we want to transform our core beliefs, how we want to address those things. We have to be in a regulated state. And so here are some things. Now, if you follow me on Instagram, you will see that I've shared these in my stories. You will see that I have some reels explaining these. So definitely if you're not following me on Instagram, you want to.
Carla Arges [00:14:00]:
But one of the things is breath work. So number one, not number one in that it's the best, but number one just in the order that I'm sharing them with you. Because there are a lot of different tools, but not every tool works for every person. And so it's trial and error seeing. Okay, what works for you? I know I have some favorite go to somatics, some go to things. You know that I love ice as one of my things. But number one is breath work. So how do we tap into our breath to take ourselves out of that sympathetic nervous system, which is fight or flight, into our parasympathetic nervous system, which is arrest and digest.
Carla Arges [00:14:50]:
And it really is taking control of the breath, deep breathing in and out. There's different formulas of breath work. Maybe you've heard of box breathing where it's in for four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four. There is the extended exhale breath work where you breathe in for five, hold it at the top and then exhale for a count of seven. So there's many different ways that we can tap into breathing that when we are hyper aroused, especially breath work. Breath work can be activating. So making sure you're doing it slowly, deeply is important when we want to get into our parasympathetic system. And so breath work does that.
Carla Arges [00:15:41]:
Breath work works on calming things down. And it is amazing to see how someone's posture of anxiety and angst can settle with intentional breath work. The other somatic practice is movement. And this is where a lot of the yoga comes in. But I avoid yoga. Movement is not just like exercise, but it is intentional. Like, how can you intentionally stretch and learn to lean into discomfort? How can you intentionally shake out your body? How can you find freedom in movement? Right? This is very helpful for people who may have felt like they didn't have control or agency over their body as part of their trauma. How can you take back control and agency in how you move your body? How can you connect with your body that way? A third somatic practice is body scans.
Carla Arges [00:16:58]:
So this is where you bring special attention to different parts of your body. This is really great, too. If you tend to disassociate or tend to be so much in your head, how can you connect to your body? How can you feel where your emotions are showing up in your body? How can you settle into that? How can you soften? Right? That can be very powerful. Tapping. Tapping is a great exercise, too. Tapping that stimulates the dorsal nerve or the vagus nerve. Tapping that helps bring some relaxation. Tapping is great for anxiety.
Carla Arges [00:17:49]:
You start at the crown of your head and you can move down. You tap at your temples, in between your eyebrows, above your lip, underneath your lip, by your collarbones. Tapping has great research to show. And then there's bilateral movement. And maybe you've heard of bilateral movement in more of a clinician setting, like EMDR therapy or ART therapy. But you can do bilateral movement on your own when you're hypoaroused. And that can be moving your eyes back and forth. That can be giving yourself a butterfly hug where your hands are across your chest with your fingers just underneath your collarbones, and then alternating tapping.
Carla Arges [00:18:35]:
So bilateral movement engages the left and then the right side of the brain. It's very good to help process things. So we have to be very mindful of not neglecting the body. Somatics aside, we have to be very mindful not neglecting the body when we have. When we want to thrive. If you've heard me talk about my four pillars of thriving, you know, like, three of them have to do with the body. Resting the body. How are we resting? Resting is actually a commandment.
Carla Arges [00:19:13]:
We're commanded to keep a Sabbath. Rest is. Is God given? How are we moving our bodies? We were not designed to just sit all day moving our bodies. Works with the chemicals in our bodies to create more happy hormones, right? Produce more serotonin discharge energy that may be pent up. How are we fueling our body? There's so much science on how food affects mood. You know, if you do nothing else, if you are struggling with trauma, if you are struggling with mental health, if you do first lifestyle changes, you will notice such an improvement in your life with that alone. And it will make it easier for you to do the things like therapy, like sitting with the tough emotions, because when your body's well taken care of, it gives you more capacity to work on the mind and the spirit. So somatics is an important part of healing from trauma.
Carla Arges [00:20:27]:
It's important practice on how we stay in our window of tolerance and don't react on emotion. It's regulating our nervous system. We are so dysregulated as a society, even if you don't have active trauma, we are so dysregulated as a society. The way the society is built is work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work. Produce, produce, produce, produce, produce, produce. No time, no space for the things of the spirit, for the things of our mind. And our nervous system is begging for some care, for some attention. You know, I want to affirm with you today this truth that I am mind, body and spirit, and my body needs to be a part of my healing process.
Carla Arges [00:21:21]:
I am mind, body and spirit, and my body needs to be a part of the healing process. And I go back to Thessalonians because it's just so good. And may your spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely. Yes, we need the peace that passes all understanding, not just for our mind. We need to feel that peace in our body as well. We need to embody the peace of God. We need to embody the comfort of God.
Carla Arges [00:21:55]:
We need to embody that. It's not just for our spirit. It's not just for our mind. It's for our body, too. It's for our body, too. And so I want to encourage you today, if you have not been looking at how you can help your nervous system to do that. I want to remind you that I work as a coach. That's my main thing, that the podcast is a beautiful addition to how I support people.
Carla Arges [00:22:23]:
But my main thing is that I'm a coach. I'm a mental health coach, a Christian mental health coach that I help women move through being dysregulated. I help women who are overwhelmed and anxious and just tired of surviving, who feel like they're failing at every side. I help these women come to thrive in Christ Jesus in mind, body and spirit. Their relationships are changed, their careers are changed, their life is changed. And so I want to invite you, if you need this in your life, to reach out and book a Discovery call with me. And let's talk about how we can get you out of being constantly dysregulated into a place of regulation where we can work at renewing your mind, feeding your spirit, and thriving in Christ in such a beautiful way. So book a Discovery call with me.
Carla Arges [00:23:31]:
You can find that on my website or in my show notes. And guys, there's only a couple more episodes left of season nine and I will tell you, between season nine and season ten, I will be taking a longer break than usual. Usually my break between seasons is only two or three weeks. This break is going to be six weeks because I need a break of renewal myself. I need God to just move. And I need a moment of rest and restoration. And what does my body and my mind and my spirit need right now in this very busy season as I'm a student and I'm working and I have all the things and so make sure that you are catching up on the past episodes you missed while we do this extended break. I'll share more about that in later episodes.
Carla Arges [00:24:31]:
But guys, you were meant for more. You were meant for more. Lean into that and I'll talk to you later. Thanks for joining me today. I hope we're already friends on social media, but if we're not, come find me on Instagram at Carla Arges or at A Affirming Truth. Can't wait to see you back here next week. Bye, friends.