Rosalind Arden Somatic Therapy

27/11/2025

The exciting thing about working with trauma is that sometimes things can change very quickly. Our old brains are ruthless, reflexes to protect can switch on at lightening speed.

This speed has helped saved us from dying out as a species, but it leads to lots of false alarms. When engaged, the protective reflexes can stay in place, for minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and, tragically, decades.

However the gift from nature is that they can also switch off quickly, even if they have been in place for a very long time. We should always hold out the hope that even the most stuck conditions can shift if we reboot the threat detection systems.

We would not be here as a human species if we had not learned to overcome and transcend our survival responses.

The research is now clear that most people (as many as 8 out of 10) who go through an overwhelming experience, such as the sudden death of loved one or a bad car accident, define themselves as having grown and learnt from the event.

Research into post traumatic growth shows life has more meaning post trauma. People are forged in the fire of trauma and can emerge more resilient.

Some people, too many people, do get stuck and the path to healing is longer.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) research shows growing up in a consistently unsafe environment can lead to complex trauma. The journey of healing may need to be a slow, step by step process of reconnection, but it is still possible.

But with skill, practice and the right context we can reset the primitive parts of the brain to work from the present moment, they do not always have to predict the worst-case scenario.

Skillful bodywork, learning to feel, and learning to move again can help create a sense of safety. The model offered here is that learning to feel connected to your body is a powerful and necessary first step to healing.

23/11/2025

22/11/2025

When we’re frightened or overwhelmed, the body shifts into a survival mode that happens faster than thought. The heart begins to race, the breath becomes shallow, the muscles tighten, and the whole system prepares to defend itself. Inside the body, chemicals like adrenaline and norepinephrine surge, sharpening our attention toward threat. Cortisol rises to keep us on alert. It’s a powerful system designed to protect us, but it narrows our perspective and keeps the mind scanning for danger even when the danger has passed. The Buddha didn’t use the language of hormones or neurology, but he understood this state well. He spoke of agitation in the body, restlessness in the mind, and the way fear can burn through us and make everything feel urgent.

When we sit down to meditate, the body begins to shift out of this survival pattern. It often starts with something as simple as paying attention to the breath. As the breath slows and deepens, the vagus nerve is gently stimulated. This long nerve runs from the brainstem through the chest and the abdomen, and its activation signals to the whole system that it is safe to settle. The heart rate slows. The muscles release some of their tension. The mind stops bracing against imagined futures. Cortisol begins to drop, and the chemistry of the body moves toward balance rather than vigilance.

As the nervous system shifts from threat to ease, different capacities come back online. The amygdala, the part of the brain that constantly scans for danger, becomes quieter. The prefrontal cortex, which supports perspective, patience, and empathy, becomes more available. Mood-regulating chemicals like serotonin begin to steady. Sometimes oxytocin rises when the body registers a sense of safety or warmth. Nothing dramatic is required. Just breathing slowly, sitting with some sincerity, and allowing the body to find its way back to equilibrium. What we call “calm” is not a mental trick; it is a physiological state in which we can see more clearly and respond more wisely.

The Buddha taught this long before anyone knew about the vagus nerve or stress hormones. He spoke again and again about calming the body, steadying the breath, and allowing the mind to become tranquil. He understood through direct experience that a peaceful mind depends on a peaceful body. When the body softens, the heart opens. When the heart opens, insight becomes possible. Meditation is not about suppressing anything or forcing a particular state. It is about creating the inner conditions in which the nervous system can let go of its defenses and return to its natural clarity.

Over time, this practice reshapes us. We become less easily thrown, less reactive, more able to pause before responding. We find ourselves able to stay present in situations that once overwhelmed us. This is the nervous system learning new patterns. And it is also the Dharma working through the body, breath by breath. When the body settles, the mind begins to experience the world without fear. And from that place, add compassion and wisdom have the space to grow.

21/11/2025

FREE LIVE EVENT on December 2!
What if the process of healing your own pain could help heal your family, your ancestors, and even our world?
Join Dr. Richard Schwartz, creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS), Thomas Hübl, teacher of collective trauma integration, and Tami Simon, founder of Sounds True, for a free live conversation:
From Burden to Belonging: Healing Trauma Across Generations
Tuesday, December 2 at 10am LA / 1pm NY / 7pm Berlin
Together, they’ll explore how trauma healing—personal, ancestral, and collective—can help us become more resilient, connected, and whole.

✨ Free to attend, with replay available.
🎟️ Save your free spot: https://hubs.ly/Q03Vhwym0

21/11/2025

18/11/2025

My goal as a bodyworker is to help people - whether they are working with trauma, pain or anxiety - is to reconnect to a sense of wholeness and include more in their sense of self.

Embodiment is key to this process - when we feel at home in the space bounded by the skin, we feel less defended and fragmented in our internal world, and more connected to the flows, movements, resources and aliveness inside of us.

This in turn allows us to feel safer to connect to others, to nature, to mystery, to all of life that isn’t human, and to a richer experience of being alive.

One of the important connections I’ve seen in my clinic work and research about the connection between embodiment and health is this: when we can’t feel, it’s hard to heal

To truly feel the size, shape and weight of our body is surprisingly tricky - I see this in my clinic work often. The struggle to map our bodies is predictive of poor outcomes when it comes to our experience of pain, anxiety and trauma.

In trauma, many people dissociate, shut down, or immobilise to protect themselves. Although this gesture of disconnecting is useful, necessary and enables us to survive traumatic situations, it means we can lose contact with the size, shape and weight of our bodies and it can be hard to return to the body.

Over the years, I’ve seen that maintaining a thread of good connection with the body predicts good outcomes when it comes to health.

Embodiment tools form a key focus on my two-year Art of Touch biodynamic craniosacral therapy (BCST) training. If you’d like to explore this approach to safe, relational touch either to add a new modality to your work as a health professional, or as well as a way to start a career in an exciting and evolving therapy, please see the link in my bio.

04/11/2025

Noticing.

Emotional agility begins with recognizing that you are not your feelings.

When you say, "I am sad," your identity becomes fused with the emotion. You become this gray cloud of sadness.

Instead, when you say, "I notice that I'm feeling sad," you create space between yourself and the emotion. You become the sky, and the gray cloud of sadness is simply passing through.

You. You are not the cloud. You are the whole damn sky! 🌅

03/11/2025

Who is visiting you today? Is your house overwhelmingly full, chaotic with voices, or is it quiet, with just one or two guests sitting nearby?

Let your feelings ebb and flow, and take comfort in the knowledge that you are capable of hosting them all.

03/11/2025

DBTSkills.
Befriend the discomfort. Listen to what your emotions are telling you.
Only by understanding can we process and move on.
This may take repeated attempts.
[Image credit : rockinruksi on Instagram]

29/10/2025

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