Could Stress and Trauma Be Holding You Back?
In an average life, some kind of traumatic or extremely tense situation has been experienced. If unresolved, traumas can lead to substance abuse, violence, depression and high levels of chronic stress, which often manifest in hypertension, insomnia and cardiovascular illness. However there are many tools that assist with resolving and working through traumatic experiences, some do not even require you needing talk about your trauma, such as Trauma and Stress Release Exercise (TRE) which is about to come to Namibia in the form of talks, workshops and practitioner training workshops. 99FM’s MYD Heart spoke to Lauren Voges, a Windhoek based, internationally accredited Coach and Founder of Latitude Integral Coaching and Development, to find out more about TRE and why Lauren is bringing this style of therapy to Namibia.
“It works directly with your body and it taps into a natural process that a lot of us have actually blocked.”
“Trauma release therapy is an effective way of dealing with the accumulation of stress and trauma and tension that you hold in your body.” Explains Lauren who goes on to say, “It’s a methodology that works directly with your body, it doesn’t have to engage your mind so it means you don’t have to make sense of what happened. It works directly with your body and it taps into a natural process that a lot of us have actually blocked.”
Stress, tension or trauma, is experienced both psychologically and physically in the body. When facing any tense situation, the body reacts. Some of these reactions include releasing hormones or getting our muscles tightened and ready to fight or flight. These are natural protection mechanisms in the body, however without releasing the intensity that has been created in the body, the body itself is placed under intense pressure which can lead to many health related problems.
“Think about what happens if you are very stressed out, angry, or if you are threatened. Your body tremors and you start to shake. That’s a natural mechanism to help you release some of the energy that gets stored up in your fight or flight response.” Says Lauren.
Without safe and supportive releasing of stress and trauma, Lauren outlines the results often seen as, “a shut down of our systems and breakdowns in our relationships.”
Without safe and supportive releasing of stress and trauma, Lauren outlines the results often seen as, “a shut down of our systems and breakdowns in our relationships.”
When talking the benefits of trauma release, Lauren says, “Benefits include your sleep improving, your mood improving as well as improvement in anxiety and depression. And when those things are taken care of then you have more capacity to be more conscious about how you live, to build relationships and to be content.”
Lauren is bringing this style of therapy to Namibia, because she too went through a traumatic experience and TRE helped her through the process of the pain. “I found TRE very helpful. Recently we experienced events that have been threatening and challenging, and when I was looking at how my family and I would deal with this, I found there weren’t really many resources. So I thought well if there’s nothing here then lets bring it here. I know the value of engaging with your whole person in dealing with trauma and this very gently, very supportively, allows your body to relax and release.”
“I know the value of engaging with your whole person in dealing with trauma and this very gently, very supportively, allows your body to relax and release.”
When asked what we can expect from this process, Lauren explains “There will be an introductory talk, there is an introductory workshop which is a lot more experiential, where individuals can come and learn about the methodology and also experience it. There will also be a practitioner training workshop. This is for people, such as physiotherapists or yoga teachers who want to offer this as a service themselves. It would be great if more people could get involved in that because then it becomes a service that is here and is available.”
TRE Workshops will be kicking off at the end of May and beginning of June 2017 in Windhoek
For more information contact Lauren Voges by sending her an email : ljvoges@gmail.com or calling +26481869 0210
For more information about TRE, take a look at their website by clicking here or here
Written by Kirsty Watermeyer