Using the Body as a Sensing Device for Healing

I recently attended Linda Kohanov's workshop, "Trauma: tools for the clinician informed by the wisdom of the horse." I especially resonated with exploring how our bodies experience threat and how, when we empathetically listen to our bodies, we can come back into balance. One exercise we practiced was dropping into our bodies and noticing what happened within when approached by another person. Nonverbal somatic cues are key to knowing when one's energetic boundaries are being approached.

Our nervous system assesses threats in two ways. First, we use our external sense organs to discern and assess threat from our environment, i.e., a sudden shadow may alert us of a potential threat, and the large imminent shape of a cougar or bear lets us distinguish grave danger. Secondly, we assess potential threats directly from our internal sense organs, through the state of our viscera and our muscles. Tight muscles in our shoulders and neck may signal to the brain that we may be struck. We may need to run and escape when we sense tense legs and furtive eyes, while a signal we are about to strike out can be taut arms.

In order to reverse trauma when it has already occurred, one must become aware of, and learn to listen to, their visceral sensations. If we experience nausea, twisting guts, collapse in our muscles, and low energy, we can feel helpless and hopeless even when there is no actual external threat. This distress can occur when our guts are persistently overstimulated by the vagus nerve, our gut-to-brain alarm system. Intense visceral reactions are meant to be acute and temporary. These reactions must cease, once the danger has passed, to return to balance and prevent trauma. The following is an inspiring and deeply moving example for undoing the brain/gut knot using the way of the horse. (Written by Kerry Borcherding, MA, LPC.* and used with permission.)

"I have been seeing a seven-year-old boy who has been sexually abused by two different individuals in his young life. So, my work with him has been to slowly help him begin to learn how his own body reacts to different experiences and different emotions. I have been helping him to notice when he feels happy or safe and to notice what his body feels like when he feels happy or safe.

He still has nightmares on a regular basis, so I invited him to paint one of his dreams on the horse. As he painted, I checked in frequently about sensations he felt in his body, especially when I would notice him petting the horse, which I knew was helping him to regulate his nervous system. He painted a ninja on both sides of the horse. We talked about his "protective" ninjas...how they protect him, what they protect him from, what it would feel like to actually be a ninja, etc. We even practiced together some his favorite ninja moves which was a way for him to allow his body to act out the protective defense responses that it wasn't able to do during the abuse. During all of this, the horse never moved. She was half asleep the whole time. Just as he was finished painting, the wind picked up and the horse became extremely alert. I asked if he noticed what she did and what she may feel in her body. He described how she may be feeling. I asked if he has ever felt that way. He said "Yes." I checked in with him how his body felt in that moment, and we played with that for a while. Then I asked what he would have wanted to do and couldn't when he felt like that. He said, "Run away." So, I said, "Let's get out of here and run to somewhere safe." We took the horse and the ninjas and ran to the pasture and through the gate until he said he said he felt safe. I asked how he knew he felt safe. He said, "The horse doesn't look scared." I said, "What does your body feel like?" He said, "My stomach doesn't hurt." We stayed with that positive feeling for a while. That seemed like the perfect place to end the session. We let the horse go, and he said thank you for protecting me and goodbye. The entire herd was at the other end of the pasture which wasfar away. Normally, I let her go and she rushes back to the herd. This time, she took about 10 steps and turned around and stared at the little boy. He noticed and walked out to pet her. I asked if he wanted to walk her back to the herd, and he did. She was completely connected and literally attached to him. I had him stop to see if she would stop, and then walk in circles to see if she would walk in circles, and she followed his every move. We got out to the herd and he said goodbye again. We started to leave, and she followed him all the way back to the gate. I said, "Your protection doesn't seem to want to leave your side." He said, "Now she will be in my dreams kicking at the bad guys." Before he left, I took a picture of him with the horse and his painting. He sleeps with it next to his bed to protect him from the bad guys."

I love how this example highlights that when we receive resonant, empathetic support to experientially learn to use our body as a sensing device and our emotions as a language, we can become more horselike in response to the energy and information flow within our experiences. Linda Kohanov lists this as a 4-step process: 1. Feel the emotion in its purest form; 2. Get the message underneath the emotion; 3. Change something in response to the message; and 4. Go back to grazing. When we learn to listen to the involuntary physical responses which contain our body's wisdom in its earliest stage, we can begin to experience all emotions as temporary. We can receive these visceral signals as the energy and information that they are and begin laying down new neural pathways to peace. This opens up the possibility of restoring our ability to remain open, interested and curious about anything and everything once again.

* Kerry Borcherding, MA, LPC has spent her life in the company of horses and has personally experienced the healing power inherent in them. Because of this, Kerry is passionate and committed to bringing horses and humans into relationship, whether through Equine Assisted Psychotherapy or Yoga with Horses. It is her belief that building a relationship with a horse will deepen your relationship with your Self, others, and nature. Horses are sensitive, intuitive, social beings, who help to illuminate our patterns of relationship and behaviors by giving us immediate feedback. Through relationship, they offer the opportunity to learn, grow, and heal.

Her website is www.kerryborcherding.com