Understanding the physiology of both trauma and resilience has the potential to bring about a potent shift in individual survivors' healing. Reframing the body and its acute and ongoing responses to trauma as rooted in an instinctual, evolutionarily-selected for set of survival patterns, can impact how we relate to ourselves and embody our life. Importantly, expanding access to physio-education about how our bodies handle overwhelming experiences can create a societal shift in how we view, address, and respond to sexual trauma as a collective - disrupting rape mythology while increasing empathy, care, and resources. In this workshop, we will focus on the general principles regarding trauma, the nervous system, and resilience that inform Somatic Experiencing, and how it can be a bolster for sexual trauma recovery.

Molly will contextualize this work by focusing on the unique somatic imprints of shame that many survivors experience as a result of how trauma physiology and social norms interact together, we will consider practices that support survivors in cultivating appreciation for their body's innate responses to overwhelm, building capacity to hold the intensity of how our body remembers, and bolstering our resources for safer explorations of our own embodiment.

This workshop is accessible to both survivors of sexual trauma and those who support them in health and healing. Still, the direct experiences of survivors will be centered in the conversation. The format includes lecture, discussion and experiential practice.