Orientation

What is Orientation and how can it help?

Orientation is a practice used in somatic work, when we work with the body's wisdom to bring healing and regulation to a dysregulated nervous system. 

Trauma disconnects us from our body's external world, we need to orient back to safety, back to our body and emotional world. 

Complex childhood trauma, when a parent is emotionally unavailable, verbally abusive, or neglectful, can result in being disorientated in our body and making it difficult for us to process painful emotions. We become confused and overwhelmed, unable to relate to our world healthily. 

This is a very common trauma response (there are many of course, more on that later) which many of us are familiar with but are unsure as to what we can do. 

We need to create safety, connection, and belonging.  It allows us to feel fully present and with the capacity to experience a range of emotions and sensations that may have been unavailable to us due to unprocessed trauma. 

To orient is to ground, feel more capacity, and experience more sensation in our system. It is a guided practice that takes you through various steps to simply notice and get more attuned to your inner and outer world. 

It’s an ideal practice to do daily to build more resilience and to have as a resource when processing more activated and deeper feelings. It gives you the confidence and space to move more freely in your nervous system, bringing you more online.

I have created this guided practice of orientation here for you. There is an introduction and a fuller practice.