Kate brings a wealth of experience to her workshops and over the years she has witnessed how common the freeze response, in trauma, is, not only in her clients but for much of the population.
Freeze is a physiological response to stress or trauma where in the moment of overwhelm the body freeze in preparation to mobilise to take flight or some kind of action. Unfortunately in threatening situations the freeze responses becomes thwarted, trapped in the body as it was too unsafe to move and act. Continual exposure to fearful situations hardwires the freeze response into the body, characterised by tension throughout.
The defense cascade model “Freeze-Flight-Fight-Fright-Flag-Faint Fawn” initially developed around the beginning of this century by Peter Lang and colleagues & further advanced by trauma theorists helps us to understand the role that the Freeze response plays in trauma and how it can lead to tonic immobility and collapse.
Through our wonder way of adapting to life, trauma survivors become accomplished at getting on with life and masking what is beneath the surface. A typical analogy is that of the swan – calm on the outside but highly activated on the inside.
Through this workshop you will:
- learn about the freeze response as an adaptive mechanism to survive and how it goes on to become maladaptive in later life.
- explore the defense cascade and it’s role in trauma survival
- learn a variety of somatic interventions to unfreeze and warm the body enabling impulses, once again to be acted upon.
- learn how to bring movement gently and safely back into the body through breath, posture and movement.
Learning Objective Participants Can Expect From This Event
- Understand how the freeze response develops through trauma and introjected messages from society
- Understand how functional freeze manifests in clients
- Learn a range of breath and somatic practices to unfreeze and warm the body – freeing clients!
Who is This Workshop Appropriate For?
- Therapists and anyone with an interest in trauma, the body and the breath
How May This Workshop Impact Your Practice?
- To add breadth to your trauma-informed client work
Course Content
Presenter
Kate Williams has been in therapeutic practice since 2009 with a background in counselling in further education. She currently runs a busy private practice, works with NHS clients and enjoys running workshops for onlinevents and staff wellbeing workshops for NHS Hull & Humberside.
Kate is centre manager for the Bedfordshire Centre for Therapeutic Studies where she teaches on the CPCAB L5 in Somatic Trauma Therapy course & L2 Award in Breathwork Coaching as well as the Level 4 in Therapeutic Counselling.
Kate has a passion for bringing the body into her practice supporting clients to release the trauma that is held within their bodies. Kate is know for her relaxed teaching style, experiential somatic practices and skill of bringing theory to life and making it applicable.
