Trauma
Our body is a beautiful fortress. It protects us from all that is out there and all that is within. With those experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the body cannot tell the difference between the past and the present. So when exposed to a trigger, past trauma can be experienced as if it were happening in the now. So, why Reiki?
Reiki works on four levels: Mental, Emotional, Physical and Spiritual. It is an energy system that can release stuck, blocked and stagnant energy, encouraging and stimulating healthy, positive, pure energy to flow in its place, which in turn activates and promotes healing.
Reiki promotes this from the outside in and reminds the body how to feel calm again. During a flight, fight or freeze response emotions are often buried to assist a person through a traumatic experience.
The concept of “trauma” means something different to everyone. It’s a word that carries an incredibly subjective interpretation. What is extremely traumatic to one, can be belittled, shrugged off and minimized by another, what exactly counts as trauma?
In terms of Reiki, trauma can include everything from a physical injury such as a broken bone or surgical scar, to a deep psychic insult that results in feelings such as loss, grief, anguish or even terror. These represent clear assaults to the integrity of the mind, body and are easily identifiable as traumatic. But trauma can also arise from seemingly innocuous events, things that result in energetic disturbances that cause distress to the spirit. In Reiki, these are also considered trauma and are treated as such.
In my experience working with the Police force for many years further on with the International Criminal Court where human atrocities are a daily confrontational reality. I can say that an initial trauma can be caused in many ways. It can result from a physical injury, a health challenge, physical abuse, shock, sudden change, loss, or from mental/emotional abuse. But there are also other classes of trauma.
Vicarious trauma, for example, involves internalizing the experience of another. As an example, children who have witnessed their loved ones being abused or even their lives taken before their eyes.
On the other side; this is particularly common in the healing profession itself. When a therapist connects empathically with a client or patient, they may internalize the emotions and experiences, causing them to take on the trauma as if they had experienced it themselves.
Another form of trauma is trans-generational trauma. Passed from one generation to the next, this is actually much more common than people realize, and they are often surprised to learn, that when left unhealed trauma can be passed down from one generation to the next.