Reminding the body: Using touch therapy with female incest survivors

Psychotherapists working with traumatized clients must be alert to the symptoms of dissociation and disembodiment, which such clients commonly manifest. Since the late 1980s, somatic therapies, which make the client's body an important focus of treatment, have played an increasingly prominent role in treating trauma survivors. This study specifically explores bodywork's influences on dissociation and disembodiment in a significant subpopulation of trauma victims: adult female incest survivors.; Using semistructured interviews, the researcher surveyed six such survivors who had been both psychotherapy and bodywork clients. Analysis of these interviews showed that one-half of the participants had clearly benefited from their bodywork, and the other one-half had mixed experiences with it. The benefits among the first group included decreased anxiety, impulsiveness, and compulsiveness and increased intimacy, self-esteem, sensuality, creativity, and spirituality. The mixed experiences included heightened anxiety, confusion, and distress in two cases. One participant experienced no bodywork.; Similarities in the experiences of the three participants who were positively affected by bodywork produced a provisional model for understanding how bodywork benefits this population. In the course of the bodywork, the clients experienced regressed and disorganized states, becoming aware of their somatic defenses (e.g., tightening or numbing of muscles or holding of breath) while they remembered the traumatic events of childhood, often for the first time in years. This awareness ultimately led the clients to voluntarily disengage from their chronic defensive patterns, thereby facilitating their recovery process.; Observing clients' regression (e.g., in the form of a childlike voice), the somatic therapists might help clients understand the experience by making timely interpretation. As the somatic therapists maintained an empathic observational stance, the clients gradually learned to differentiate the therapists from the abusive actors and situations of the past.; The positive results of bodywork among the first group of participants demonstrate the central role the body plays in recovery from incest trauma. The ambiguity of results among the second group of participants highlights the need for specialized training for professional bodyworkers who wish to address the unique problems of incest survivors, as well as other victims of physical and psychological trauma.