By Helaina Hovitz
As I worked more furiously towards the deadline of finishing the edits on my memoir about growing up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder while verbally telling my story over and over again to others, I noticed things were happening to my mood and to my body that scared me.
What I soon came to realize was that, while Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and 12-Step Programs were all very effective in helping me recover, they didn’t target the way my body experienced and processed the trauma itself.
So, I embarked on a new journey to healing with EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and Somatic Experiencing, which got me thinking about other methods that people might be using as an alternative for working out the way traumatic memories live inside of our subconscious brains, our muscles, and other body systems. And that’s how I stumbled on Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) as yet another approach to healing PTSD and its many systems.
Share This Post!
From Survival to Advocacy: How Chester Street Foundation is Healing Texas
Written by: Shawn Alex Nemeth In 2009, Shawn Alex Nemeth was hospitalized and diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It was the culmination of a lifetime of trauma, encoded into his [...]
How Trauma Affects Kids in School
Source: Child Mind Institute For many kids who suffer from trauma, it’s not one event. Often, it’s ongoing abuse or neglect. This could be violence at home or in their neighborhood. [...]
Associations between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Measures of Poor Sleep Health in Adulthood
Source: ResearchGate Background: Sleep health is a multidimensional concept that plays a critical role in both physical and mental well-being. While there is evidence to suggest that sleep health may be linked [...]
Childhood trauma changes how the brain processes caregiver cues
Source: PsyPost For most young children, the sight and voice of a parent serve as a primary source of comfort and safety. A new study suggests that for children who have experienced interpersonal [...]
Child abuse and eating disorder symptoms: Shedding light on the contribution of identification with the aggressor
Source: ScienceDirect Childhood abuse has been increasingly recognized as a risk factor for eating disorder symptoms. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that childhood abuse may lead to identification with the aggressor, an automatic [...]
Can the positive buffer the negative? Testing the impact of protective childhood experiences on adjustment in adults following trauma exposure
Source: National Library of Medicine It is unclear if protective childhood experiences (PCEs), like emotional support and economic stability, exert influence on adulthood adjustment. Prior research suggests PCEs can promote childhood resilience through [...]