Healing Past Trauma, Part Two

My Approach:
​Pillars of My Practice

by Cailin O'Hara, MAcOM, LAc, Dipl OM

"The body keeps the score. If the memory of trauma is encoded in the viscera, in heartbreaking and gut-wrenching emotions, in autoimmune disorders and skeletal/muscular problems...this demands a radical shift in our therapeutic assumptions." 
-Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD

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​​Treating anxiety and the effects of trauma can be tricky.

​There are many methods, which generally involve counseling. Finding the right counselor for you can be invaluable when you're navigating PTSD, trauma and anxiety. 
​However, sometimes it's not enough.
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​Sometimes we need a more integrative approach to healing.

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Example Patient Case

A patient is attempting to process a traumatic experience from years before. They feel like after that traumatic experience, they haven’t been the same. They don’t sleep well. They feel on edge. They experience a sensation of anxiety in their body that feels like they're shaking from the inside out. Sometimes their heart races, and they can’t feel their legs. These experiences impact their life every single day. They’ve been working with their therapist, and it helps quite a bit, but they aren’t making the progress they want to make. And sometimes, talking about their experience worsens their anxieties.

This is when they wind up in my office. ​
The traumatic experience could have been emotional, physical, environmental, sexual… the effects are similar in all cases. Fear, hypervigilance, sleep disturbance and feeling disconnected from yourself, your body or your life are some examples of the effects of trauma.

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Pillars of My Practice
Healing at the Root

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Pillar #1: Chinese Medicine
​​I practice a fusion of medicine rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

​According to TCM, everything is connected: mind, body and spirit. In fact, working with the emotions and our “spirit” is considered an essential aspect of treatment for any symptom or disease in TCM. Your spirit is the essence of who you are and what makes you uniquely you. This aspect of Chinese medicine is the foundation of my practice of medicine.

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I see everything as interconnected.
Working with the unique essence and spirit of each person I treat is fundamental to everything I do. 
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Pillar #2: Body-Centered Medicine
​Another core aspect of my approach is what I refer to as “body-centered medicine,” which means I treat the body in order to affect the whole being.

​This method is based on the fact that our body holds our history. It is also rooted in the idea that we all possess the innate ability to heal. Working with the body creates a powerful healing effect across all levels: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. 

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 In order to access our own healing potential, we must restore harmony to imbalanced systems in the body and mind. 
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Pillar #3: Treating the Root Cause 
​Why is working with the body so powerful when it comes to balancing emotions and healing past trauma? It treats the roots of emotional experience. 

A primary condition we treat through the lens of TCM is called stagnation. Stagnation implies there is some sort of holding pattern that is creating a lack of movement, which then creates an array of symptoms (from pain to anxiety to fatigue and so on). Without healthy movement and flow in our bodies or minds, disease and bothersome symptoms arise.

​In the case of trauma, an experience or event sends a shockwave through our entire system that has lasting effects of stagnation. We can become "stuck" or stagnated in the experience- physically, mentally and emotionally. But here's the amazing part... we can treat the roots of trauma and anxiety by unlocking these stuck places in the body.

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This means that the effects of traumatic experiences that have become stuck in a holding pattern in our body and minds finally have the opportunity to be set free.
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Releasing past trauma means just that-
We let it move through us, and then we let it go. 

Check out the final article in this series which will offer guidance on this process of letting go of past traumatic experiences. When you begin to reconnect with yourself, you will learn how to move past fear and into your own power. 

Part ThreE: From Fear To Power

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Interested in working with Cailin?
Schedule a complimentary consultation.