Re-negotiation
Re-negotiation
When re-negotiating trauma we engage the universal law of polarity. This law is used to deliberately swing between the resistance/pain and desire/pleasure feeling states.
In moving from the periphery of the experience to the freezing ‘shock core’, the unresolved frozen patterns are neutralized by flexible patterns as the activation is increased.
Somatic experiencing is a gentle step by step approach to the renegotiation of trauma and the resolution of these fixated physiological states. The felt sense is the vehicle used to contact and gradually mobilize the powerful forces bound in traumatic symptoms.
In love, we are swept off our feet. In trauma, our legs are knocked out from under us. By re-establishing the original connection with our legs and feet we can become grounded in our own body again, and with our social world as well. Regaining our ground is an important step in healing trauma.
Renegotiation helps to restore those resources that were diminished in the wake of trauma. The overall strategy of renegotiation is as follows:
First we develop a connection with the felt sense. After that, we surrender to the currents of our feelings, including trembling and other spontaneous discharges of energy.
We can use the felt sense to uncouple the toxic attachment between excitement and fear. Because excitement is charged with energy, we want to maintain that charge as free and far from fear. Thus, we must securely ground it.