Trauma, Sex, & Holistic Healing
Sexual trauma therapy helps you heal & let go of the wounds of the past. Integrating your stories. Staying present & opening up to pleasure.
The sexual cycle response of desire (libido) and arousal (excitement) consist of physiological and emotional responses that prepare an individual to both receive and give pleasure.
However, when there’s been a trauma that has been experienced, quite the opposite is true. The same sequence that aids the body in opening up to pleasure, may feel like the very reason to shut down and avoid it. The body essentially freezing in a state of being stuck.
What is trauma?
Traumatic experiences involve a threat to life or safety, but any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and isolated can be traumatic, even if it doesn’t involve physical harm.
It is not the objective experience that ultimately determines whether an event is traumatic—your subjective physiological and emotional experience of the event does.
And, it’s not so much reliving what occurred, but feeling as if you are re-experiencing the event in the present. The more frightened and helpless you felt during an event, the more likely you are to be traumatized.
Events that can be considered traumatic are wide ranging—from what might be considered the stuff of ordinary life such as divorce, illness, accidents and bereavement to extreme experiences of war, torture, rape and genocide.
Sex Therapy After Trauma – Making Sense of the Trauma
Suffering from trauma can leave you struggling with upsetting emotions, memories, and anxiety that won’t go away. It can also leave you feeling numb, helpless, hopeless, disconnected, and unable to trust others and your body’s natural responses to sensations. Sexual trauma therapy can help with these issues.
Freezing is a State of Hyper-arousal and Fear.
When a traumatic event occurs, it can shatter one’s sense of security, making you feel helpless in a dangerous world. And in an effort to feel safer, many individuals experience a disconnection with parts of the self.
Trauma is disruptive to the body’s natural equilibrium and holistic state.
In essence, leaving you in an endless cycle of being slightly “turned-on” to sensation, so when you are engaging in desire and arousal, your body is quickly overwhelmed leading it to shut-down or not feel pleasure at all. Sex therapy after trauma is important to break this cycle.
Sexual Trauma Therapy and Holistic Healing
We find ways to release and heal the memory of the body, relaxing the emotions, and ceasing the mental loops while connecting to more aliveness and relaxation.
At HSH, our sexual trauma therapy takes a holistic approach—movement, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral, somatic practices—to help you unravel the habitual mental loops and your stories beyond what occurred and remembering pleasure as your birthright while opening up the heart space and reconnect more “wholey” with the energy of the body.
We provide a safe and inclusive place to explore yourself and spirituality, embracing all cultures, religions, orientations, expressions, backgrounds, and lifestyles.
With holistic healing we can let go of the idea of being “fixed” and instead receive healing. Contact us to learn more about sexual trauma therapy.