Trauma

In a world of unrelenting tumult and rapid change, there is an enormous number of people who suffer the physical and emotional effects of trauma. Whether as the result of warfare, sexual or domestic abuse, or even a simple fender bender, the residues of trauma can be distressing or even disabling to those who suffer them.  A trauma can be defined as an event that changes our ability to trust our surroundings or as a pain that lingers after the event that caused the injury. In Spacial Dynamics®, we say that an accident alone is not the trauma; it is reliving the fear and pain as if the danger were still there, an unwanted response that has a negative impact on our lives. In a very real sense, trauma becomes a habit of gestures and reflexes, a painful skill that we practice through our daily routines and in our movement.

Spacial Dynamics® assists individuals suffering the effects of trauma by identifying the gestural habits of their injury and replacing those habits with the gestures of ideal health. We view the spacial, or life-force, body as the leader of our emotional and physical well-being; for every feeling or pang, there is a preceding spacial change that can be identified and corrected through movement. Spacial Dynamics® is unique in that it brings about change by reshaping the space around us; we start with “what works”-- healthy movement-- and then correct “what is” by inverting the gesture of the trauma and moving toward the gestural ideal of health. The exploration of “personal space” and “inner volume”, as well as balance, can be powerful tools in overcoming that which hurts us. Through the use of slow movement, games, and meditation, we can begin to see the “motion in the emotion” and begin to identify with something more than the limited identity of trauma. We begin to discover the beauty and freshness of ideal movement. Through this new lens of spacial movement, we find a route out of the reflexes of trauma and can once more become the architects of our own lives.

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