Jake White Healing LLC, Winchester, VA (2026)

03/30/2026

Talking about traumatic events can reinforce the patterns of fight, flight, and freeze. This might put the nervous system back into a place of overwhelm and powerlessness.

Healing might actually represent a pattern of mobilization of energy to get away from threat and to reinforce a protective boundary in relation to what may have harmed us. In somatic experiencing we are searching for how the nervous system would utilize energy to escape and sustain life. We are not searching for a recreation of fight, flight, and freeze that leads to hopelessness.

When we work with trauma we have to know the difference between what is traumatic and what is actually healing.

03/27/2026

This is a short video on how we explore the opposite of trauma in somatic experiencing. The memories, stories, thoughts, and emotions of trauma are not healing. The bodily postures, emotions, thoughts and sensations of regulation are deeply reparative.

When working with the nervous we have to understand what is healing and what is not. That putting people back into a trauma response will never heal the nervous system. Let’s focus on supporting healing and regulation while also teaching people how to be with difficult sensations that may relate to past trauma and memory.

03/26/2026

I recently had a great example of using tracking to support my nervous system. Something happened, and I felt extremely disappointed. I had plans to do something I was excited about, but my plans changed.

I immediately turned to my practice of tracking. I felt my head drop, a flush through my neck and face, and sadness in my eyes. As I tracked this pattern in my nervous system, I also began to feel my legs connecting with the floor, my slow and steady heart rate, and a steady awareness as I held my body’s sensations.

Tracking in this moment helped me feel the pain and sadness, as well as notice other parts of my body that felt less reactive. Having both experiences together helped me stay present with my feelings of disappointment.

As I continued to track, I felt myself becoming more accepting of the situation and less overwhelmed and exposed.

In Somatic Experiencing, we teach clients how to track their nervous systems and follow their bodies as stress rises and settles—through their own attention and awareness.

Try simply tracking your body next time you get triggered. Take a small amount of time to notice your body’s response and hold your sensations with awareness. Tracking is the main tool I use to regulate my nervous system.

03/23/2026

In somatic experiencing we let the body or nervous system guide our work. We pay close attention to the movements, gestures, and postures that we often overlook or bypass.

For example a client may look outward when feeling afraid. We may follow this glance outward with a question. Who or what may you be looking for when you feel afraid or anxious? They may indicate needing someone to move closer to them and remain present for them.

We may then notice the sensation that is present when they resource this person. They may notice their fists open or their chest soften.

Instead of staying in a pattern of fear and anxiety the client has found a resource of safety through their own body.

Gestures, movements, and postures are essential in working with the nervous system. Supporting a movement out of fight, flight, and freeze and into the parasympathetic nervous system.

when

03/05/2026

We may logically understand that our fear-based thoughts are not real, but our body reacts as if the fear is real. We do not always understand that the fear is a signal from our body to our brain. Our brain then creates an autonomic response in order to produce stress hormones. This increases the threat level of the nervous system to mobilize more energy to protect us.

Fear comes from a visceral reaction that triggers the production of stress hormones. This is why we may logically understand that we are not in danger, yet our body is still responding to protect us.

Fear can be addressed by observing our thoughts, then bringing attention to the felt sense of our fear, and then slowing ourselves down and holding the fear with awareness. Instead of trying to rationalize why we should not be afraid, we can work on validating our fear and regulating our nervous system.
Through awareness of fear and moving toward our body, we give ourselves a practice. Over time, our body becomes the place we move toward for stability and safety. This comes from a relational process of acknowledging fear-based thoughts and addressing the places in the body where fear is held.

03/02/2026

Grounding is used as an anchor back to our sensations. We don’t ground to get rid of feelings we ground ourselves to provide stability to our nervous system.

As I ground I like to think about the earth holding my sensations with me. I also think about all the other people in my life that also feel stress, grief, overwhelm, shame, or rejection. That feelings can be experienced with the love and support of others.

Grounding brings stability and can help us to find safety in the midst of stress.

Try this out and let me know how it goes in the comments.

02/26/2026

This is an exercise that I always utilize in sessions. It can be such an amazing resource to visualize how others support us.

In moments when a client starts to feel an overwhelming response in the body, we may resource the oasis. I may ask the client, “Who could be with you in this difficulty? Who could hold the bigness of these feelings with you?” They may mention their uncle, who was kind and always present. We may then track the response in the nervous system, noticing how a posture of collapse may change into something a little more upright and open. We notice the importance of emotions being held and supported by a part of the client’s oasis.

This exercise highlights how important connection, community, and attachment are for the nervous system. It also informs us that states of the nervous system can be held rather than avoided or neglected. Through the oasis exercise, we see how trauma can bring us together rather than separate us.

02/20/2026

I just wanted to specify that love does not cause or lead to the wounding or ruptures. In my video I said love led to abuse or neglect. It’s more the case that our biological need for love was expanding us into connection and others neglected or abused us.

Part of the repair in the nervous system is to now see that love is healthy, it’s essential, and that it leads to safety and connection in healthy environments.

This helps to heal relational wounds and repair the activated states of the nervous system that may be present when we search for connection.

Working with attachment is establishing love as a core connection with ourselves that can be shared and reciprocated with others.

02/19/2026

This is an exercise that I always utilize in sessions. It can be such an amazing resource to visualize how others support us.

In moments when a client starts to feel an overwhelming response in the body, we may resource the oasis. I may ask the client, “Who could be with you in this difficulty? Who could hold the bigness of these feelings with you?” They may mention their uncle, who was kind and always present. We may then track the response in the nervous system, noticing how a posture of collapse may change into something a little more upright and open. We notice the importance of emotions being held and supported by a part of the client’s oasis.

This exercise highlights how important connection, community, and attachment are for the nervous system. It also informs us that states of the nervous system can be held rather than avoided or neglected. Through the oasis exercise, we see how trauma can bring us together rather than separate us.

02/18/2026

We all carry wounding around our self expression and existence. We carry old memories where being ourselves led to shame, rejection, threat, or abuse. I think the core impact of trauma is that it impacted our existence.

Since we hold these patterns of wounding we often experience them as a need to pull ourselves in and suppress ourselves. We share something with someone and then we apologize for it. There is actually something really healthy and important happening when we express. We are opening and expanding and testing the environment to see if it will hold us, love us, approve of us, and connect with us. Yet our past wounding contracts and pulls us away as we apologize for taking up too much time and attention.

I think we have to consciously work on taking up space and no longer apologizing for existing. We can be aware of the space around us, lift up our posture, swing our arms around our body to feel the space around us. No one is asking us to be small and take up less space. In fact most of the time people respond positively to our voice, our expression, and our presence.

Next time you want to apologize don’t. Remember to take up space and exist. Give others the grace and time to accept you and respond to you.

Let us know in the comments how this post lands and if it touches a part of you the may feel the need to apologize and pull inward. Feel free to share.

02/17/2026

I try to notice the moments where my attachment wounds become triggered. I notice how a lack of response will tighten my solar plexus, weakness in my legs, and tensing in my heart.

I used to try to figure out what I did wrong or how I caused them to leave. In these moments I was feeling hurt and I was feeling shame at the same time.

Now I find it really helpful to not make myself wrong or responsible when someone creates distance from me. I don’t have to fill the gap of connection with my own hurt and shame.

I can actually use this space to connect with myself. To feel my heart, my solar plexus, and my legs. I can move out of my head and into my sensations. I can also give the other person agency and freedom to make their own choice. To allow movement toward me and away from me when necessary.

This approach has helped me feel free and liberated. It has also deepened my connection with others and has brought more people into my life.

Remember to not make yourself wrong or responsible and give yourself and others space and freedom. Let me know in the comments how this post resonates and connects with your life and experience.

02/17/2026

In private sessions we will often take a moment to say out loud, “I survived.” Acknowledging the difficulty of the past while also embracing our own survival.

A lot of times in sessions we then talk about the loved ones, therapists, animals, career, and environments that are apart of our current life. We notice how these people and life situations are felt within the response of the nervous system. We may then look around the office to orient to the present.

When the nervous system moves into the patterns of fight, flight, and freeze we often feel consumed by threat and overwhelm. The nervous system begins to relate to the past instances of trauma.

In these moments we can remember to remind ourselves that we survived, we are alive, we have a present and future. We can think about the safety in our current life. We can also get our feet on the ground and orient to our present environment. Look around your space and say to yourself, “I am alive, I survived.”

While we notice our nervous system become really overwhelmed and threatened we can always remember our capacity to survive and make it through difficulties. Save this post for a time where you may need a reminder of your resilience and survival.

Jake White Healing LLC

03/30/2026

03/27/2026

03/26/2026

03/23/2026

03/05/2026

03/02/2026

02/26/2026

02/20/2026

02/19/2026

02/18/2026

02/17/2026

02/17/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Practice

Shortcuts

Share

Category