A top down and bottom up approach to healing

In my experience, the pathway to healing from developmental trauma necessitates a top down and a bottom up approach.

Since many of our identifications develop in the first five years of life, (in our implicit memory), distortions in identity keep us seeing ourselves and the world from a child’s perspective. And if our childhood needs for safety and connection were not met, it imprints our nervous system and shapes our perception of who we are and how we see the world around us.

As nervous system regulation and somatic awareness increases, we can become aware of the survival strategies that kept us safe, let go of the shame and judgement, the beliefs we held, and restore our inbuilt capacity for connection and aliveness.