How dance therapy releases trauma from the nervous system

Dance therapy releases trauma from the nervous system by helping you to reconnect to your body again after numbing and dissociation, perhaps for a long time.

When your nervous system is triggered and responds automatically to past traumatic experiences it does so usually in one of four ways: fight, flight, freeze, or shut down.

How dance therapy can help with releasing trauma from the nervous system

Instead of your nervous system hijacking the fear response, your dance movement therapist will help you regulate your emotions and connect you to the present moment. This means that although you may feel the fear arise, your system won’t react in fight, flight, freeze, or shut down mode. You will actually start to stay connected and have some control over how your system responds.

Releasing trauma by rewiring your nervous system

In your relationship this looks like truly hearing your partner when they speak, listening without reacting defensively, staying instead of running out on a conflict, and wholeheartedly letting your partner’s love flow in.

Dance therapy through play and creativity

What sets dance therapy apart from other types of therapeutic relationships are the play and creative movements you will undertake.

When you are in play or creative movement you are in a sympathetic state of your nervous system, which happens to also be the same state you are in when your system reacts in fight or flight.

So, the more you play in your dance therapy, the quicker you can teach your body that you CAN be in an activated nervous state without the fighting or running away. You start to release the trauma in your nervous system, and you start to stay connected in the moment so the next time your system is triggered, you don’t react as fearfully.

Originally published at https://oritkrug.com on June 19, 2020.