Effects of Trauma and Bodily Protective Responses · Berlin
Safety · Boundaries · Body
Sometimes a distressing situation has long since passed, yet the body continues to react as though it still needed to remain vigilant. At the conSenso® Practice in Berlin, we support people experiencing the effects of trauma and bodily protective responses when sleep, closeness, touch, breathing or a sense of safety remain altered.
Some people experience inner alarm, heightened startle responses or recurring images. Others freeze, withdraw or perceive their own body only indistinctly.
Not every distressing experience leads to post-traumatic stress disorder, and not every bodily reaction has the same meaning. What matters is what genuinely continues to have an effect in the individual experience.
Sounds, movements, smells or the proximity of another person may be perceived as threatening more quickly. The heart beats harder, breathing becomes short and muscles tense.
These reactions often occur before a conscious thought arises. They were, or remain, the body’s attempts to create protection.
Memories may return as images, bodily sensations, nightmares or a sudden sense of danger. Sometimes the trigger is recognisable. Sometimes it is not at first.
What happened does not have to be fully available in words. The body can also react when a situation touches something familiar.
Freezing and Withdrawal
Not every protective response is loud. Some people become very quiet, can barely move or feel inwardly cut off.
Individual parts of the body may feel numb, unfamiliar or not fully one’s own. Time and surroundings may sometimes be perceived only vaguely.
These responses deserve to be taken seriously without forcing them or trying to dissolve them prematurely. Contact begins where perception is still possible and safe.
Physical closeness may be wanted and difficult to tolerate at the same time. Breathing stops, the body becomes rigid or an impulse to withdraw arises.
This is neither a contradiction nor a failure. A conscious wish and a bodily protective response can exist side by side.
Some experiences are not easy to tell or place in context. Shame, guilt, confusion or gaps in memory can make speaking about them even more difficult.
An immediate or complete account is not a prerequisite for body-psychotherapeutic support. Present-moment experience may be the starting point.
Nightmares, frequent waking or persistent vigilance can prevent genuine recovery. During the day, concentration becomes harder and stimuli more difficult to assess calmly.
An exhausted body often reacts more sensitively, while inner unrest continues to disturb sleep.
The effects of trauma may be associated with pain, physical heaviness, withdrawal or a loss of pleasure and interest.
The aim is not to trace every symptom back to a past experience. What matters is whether protection, pain and exhaustion genuinely influence one another in the individual course.
Psychotherapeutic Assessment
Existing psychotherapeutic, psychiatric and medical treatments are taken into account and are not replaced.
Post-traumatic stress disorder may involve recurring memories, avoidance, inner alarm, sleep difficulties and a sense of estrangement or numbness. Diagnosis belongs in qualified professional hands.
The conSenso® Practice is not a psychotherapeutic or psychiatric emergency service. In acute danger, with specific suicidal thoughts or if you feel unable to ensure your own safety, please call the emergency services on 112 or contact the Berlin Crisis Service.
conSenso® Practice 1 · Wilmersdorf
Body-psychotherapeutic support for the effects of trauma and bodily protective responses takes place at Pfalzburger Straße 43 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.
During the appointment there is no parallel waiting-room or treatment activity. Closeness and touch are not assumed. Every step is discussed beforehand and can be changed or stopped.
Safety does not arise from the body suppressing its response, but from experiencing that choices are available again.
Complimentary introductory consultation
In the complimentary introductory consultation, you can describe which reactions burden you in everyday life and what you need in therapeutic contact in order to feel safe.
You do not need to share distressing details or already have your story fully organised.
