Analysis Of Nevine Sultan's Article 'Beyond Words'

The article “Beyond Words” written by Nevine Sultan from Counseling Today magazine introduces a new approach to counseling patients struggling with sexual trauma.
Nevine explains how trying to help patients who’ve experiences sexual trauma using strictly cognitive or emotional methods can be compared to attempting to build a house without constructing a sturdy foundation first. She states that in order to heal sexual trauma you must start by working with the body.
Sultan describes a scenario with her client “Jerry”, who has experienced sexual trauma. Jerry is depicted to be tense, anxious, and with a sunken in posture. She notes that Jerry emits a sense of emptiness and is holding his breath. Jerry talks about his anxiety, panic attacks,

persistent need to wash his hands, and relationship problems with his girlfriend. Then he describes his experience of assault and claims that he’s angry because he couldn’t save himself as he clenches his fists.
Nevine then emphasizes how every word and action that Jerry says or does is important to notice. The “paranarrative”, or the emotions hiding under the surface that Jerry fails to mention, are significant as well. Jerry’s thoughts and emotions are frantic; therefore his body is completely ignored. His collapsed posture, unsteady breathing, and stiff movements suggest that the suffering exhibited onto his body is equivalent to his mind.
French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty quoted. “Our bodies are the agents by which we exist in the world. They are also the receptacles of memories that, often vanished from our conscious awareness, are still deeply etched within our being.” Thus proposing that all aspects of the being must be repaired in order to heal the trauma.
John Hughlings Jackson’s theory states that the human nervous system is composed of three different parts: social, sympathetic, and parasympathetic. He compares this system to a hierarchy, when the top system fails then the one below it takes its place. The social nervous system is the highest and regulates communication and relational contact. Sympathetic nervous system, which is ranked lower, is activated when we experience nonthreatening surprise and triggers our fight/flight/freezing/dissociate responses. Parasympathetic responses are what cause us to freeze when we experience life threatening situations. A normal functioning nervous system can regulate sympathetic and parasympathetic responses, a healthy balance of rest and arousal. An unhealthy nervous system cannot regulate between sympathetic and parasympathetic responses and experiences hyper/hypoarousal.
Jerry is incapable of being connected to the present moment because of his inability to self-regulate.

Nevine notices that he holds a great deal of tension in his fists. She asks Jerry to bring his attention to his fists and asks what sensations he’s feeling in that location. Jerry responds by saying” They’re stuck”. Nevine then follows with the question “What feelings a company that sense of stuckness?”. “I feel… angry” replies Jerry and breaks down. Nevine then asks what Jerry is holding in his fists and if his fists had a voice, what would they say. Jerry then again claims that they are angry. Nevine asks “What does your body need to do right now?” and Jerry responds with “I need to move”. He stands, tightens his fists and bellows “I’m so angry” repeatedly which releases most of Jerry’s built up

tension.
Nevine just used an implicit memory, which is represented by the clenched fists, and synchronized it with the traumatic experience to re-calibrate Jerry’s nervous system. Combining somatic and cognitive approaches seems to be more beneficial that only implementing cognitive therapy. “How empowering and transforming for our clients who have suffered from sexual trauma to recognize that their well-being exists within their own bodies, the very site of their original wounding”.
Review:
A somatic approach to healing sexual trauma seems like a constructive and promising method to integrate into traditional therapy methods.

It only makes sense to heal the part of the body that received the trauma. Somatic therapy is a lengthier process since it deals with uncovering your deepest levels of suffering and I think that is why it’s so beneficial. Traditional cognitive therapies mostly teach coping mechanisms and short term fixes but don’t actually resolve the problem. The problem is that people want to take the easy way out and most often aren’t willing to put forth the effort it takes to heal yourself.
Navines work has demonstrated how the body is much more important than we realize and is a reflection of our inner selves. I believe that the mind and body are interconnected and can be used to aid one another. It’s very intriguing to me how our inner thoughts and emotions manifest into our physical bodies, like how Jerry’s anger was embodied his tight fist, and his low self esteem could be the culprit for his poor posture.
For me this raises the question, What if other physical health problems are caused by internal problems as well? Of course physical illnesses are a much larger scale than a clenched fist and poor posture, but the same concept applies. If Jerry were to let his condition persist over time, would his internal condition evolve into more serious physical

backlash?
I think the connection between the mind and body is crucial but also unfortunately often overlooked. I don’t think somatic therapies should stop at just sexual trauma patients, but extend to all platforms of therapy. The body contains it’s own form of intelligence and expresses itself in various ways if you pay close enough attention. I believe that if people spent more time researching the mind-body connection, then we would see vast advances in our technology and understanding of the human being.