How do we help our loved ones who have experienced the unthinkable? What do we do when a client has lived through difficult and stressful events that leave lingering effects on their day-to-day lives? I believe the answer is to use trauma-informed care with interoceptive exercise and practice.
This trauma support framework ensures that a client can be given the tools to re-connect with their body comfortably and re-establish healthy self-regulation habits, which frees up their mental and emotional energies to better proceed with the healing process.
I have worked for years to develop a structured but flexible way to build on the inner sense of interoception for self-regulation and mental health, and I am proud to share these with you today!
How Trauma Affects Interoception
When a person survives a traumatic experience, it can fundamentally alter their brain chemistry on a physical level – it is itself a form of neurodiversity. Trauma support often makes room for this fact, but it can be challenging to acknowledge and adjust to how a person has changed after experiencing traumatic events.
Often, these changes are largely inwardly focused, coming from a change within their interoception. While some people who have survived trauma do so without these long-term effects, it is far more common to react in one of two ways: hyper-vigilance and dissociation.
Hyper-Vigilance
Hypervigilance is a common defensive reaction to trauma. Because this person has experienced something terrible, they constantly look for possible re-occurrences of trauma and discomfort. With this heightened sensitivity to their surroundings, they might ignore their bodily functions and signals. Additionally, a person who has experienced trauma might react more heavily to these internal signals as they misinterpret even small signals of discomfort as major signs of danger.
Dissociation
On the other hand, trauma can also lead to a withdrawal from sensations and senses in an attempt to escape possible bad feelings. This detachment from their body is often accompanied by depression or avoidance of their physical selves.
Clients with lower interoception due to trauma often feel numb or disconnected from other people. Or a person who withdraws from the world might obsess over their bodily signals to find something they feel they have more control over.
In terms of bodily awareness, both of these trauma responses can cause very different difficulties for our interoceptive awareness. Over-alert sensations can cause a person to become stressed, anxious, and exhausted from constant vigilance and awareness. Disconnecting from our interoception can quickly lead to dysregulation when a person struggles to care for basic functions like bathrooming, hygiene, and eating.
How to Promote Healing Through Practicing Interoception
You might want a fast and easy solution, but the fact is that healing from trauma takes time. However, guided interoceptive practice and exercise are the best ways to provide structure and grounding to your trauma support.
When our interoception is interrupted by trauma responses, hyper-vigilance, and detachment, there is no one-step solution to developing a better relationship between our mind and our body. But with interoception as a goal and measure, we can start simple and build our trauma support through self-guided steps:
1. Establish Safety
Co-regulation is a simple position from which we begin the healing process. Working alongside my clients, I provide a safe and soothing environment that helps them open up to their inner sensations and use simple and soothing sensory input – playing with water or soft plush toys, for example – to slowly shift attention to inner feelings.
2. Connect to the Self
Once we have thoroughly established safety and comfort in sensations, we can move past trauma responses with more awareness. By guiding our attention to the body itself during play and other meaningful activities, we can begin practicing noticing and exploring interoceptive reactions to various inputs.
3. Regulate and Feel Good
Once we have established safety in our body and are comfortable exploring how the body sends us signals in reaction, we can work towards regulating ourselves in more positive and feel-good ways. This final step of interoceptive work is often guided by exploring more activities to help us feel comfortable and happy in our bodies.
It’s important to understand that as we guide clients’ attention towards their interoception – their bodily sensations – we don’t accidentally develop obsessive or unhealthy self-soothing coping habits. When dealing with trauma, it is easy to fall into these kinds of habits because of the drive to find comfort and avoid discomfort – a very natural and understandable response. Trauma support isn’t just about changing habits. It’s about promoting positive and productive forms of self-regulation!
Learn More About How Interoception Can Help with Trauma Support!
Trauma often causes unique, unexpected reactions in those who experience it. Though research is constantly advancing our understanding of trauma support, interoception-based practice and exercise are THE tools to use to help clinicians provide their clients a way through these kinds of difficult times.
I like to call myself an ‘interoception groupie’ in the ways that I have researched and espoused the value of this framework for therapists, educators, caregivers, and parents for years. I have developed several courses and exercise books built around the goals of enhancing and embracing interoception in various contexts – and for all people! If you want to get started, register today and get started on a new paradigm for your healing process!