The body can heal itself in trauma: concept and practical exercises

Post-traumatic stress disorder is caused by a traumatic experience, for example rape, a natural disaster, war, serious accidents. Memories of the trauma often haunt the affected person in everyday life. Anyone who has to survive one or more such extreme situations can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, even witnesses of a traumatic event [1]. If the disorder is not treated, it can become chronic and massively limit the quality of life. With timely and correct therapy, the chances of recovery are good. In the experience and psychological processing of those affected, there is a difference whether this catastrophe was a natural disaster or a “man made disaster” in a war or post-war area. It becomes very difficult when the two come together, as for example in Banda Aceh in 2004. The associated individual experience of fear of death, panic, helplessness, loss of control and powerlessness is the same for both types of disaster at the moment it happens. However, the processing of the traumatising experience is different. Traumas caused by people are more difficult for the individual to process than natural disasters. The article describes in detail what happens in the body and in the person during traumatisation. It also describes how the body can heal itself. The second part of the article presents the concrete exercise programme for practice.