Trauma, Love and Somatic Experiencing

As we come out of Easter, I have been reflecting on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, and how this connects with Trauma and Somatic Experiencing.

“This is love: not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” 1 John 4.10.

Jesus, in his suffering, felt all the trauma that we can ever imagine including betrayal, an unjust trial, humiliation, physical and emotional abuse, rejection and abandonment. Then there was the agony of the cross, where he also bore the suffering of sexual abuse - he was crucified naked in public, having first been stripped and mocked by the Roman soldiers.

And he went through all of this willingly out of love for us. If God loves us, he must know and have felt 1st hand every traumatic experience at its most extreme. This is why Somatic Experiencing is important when working with Trauma. Somatic Experiencing is the work of Peter Levine, and connects how the body holds trauma, regardless of whether the trauma is emotional and or physical. This is important in the fact that Jesus suffered in the body as well as emotionally and spiritually. He suffered Trauma.

 Jesus did all this so that we can be set free from our own trauma and from all of its negative effects and consequences.

In therapy working with the physical feelings in the body, helps connect with the mental trauma in the Limbic System in the brain. Recognising that Jesus knows and has experienced all of our trauma, comes as comfort, as his Spirit brings healing through our own invitation and with the understanding of what we have experienced, coupled with effective new neural plasticity. (Please see my video for more information on how I work with clients who have had traumatic experiences)

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Galatians 5:1

All Bible quotations are from the NIV.
Copyright © 2023 Susie Scott Kydd.