Body Memory Recall, Unwinding, and Emotional Release
“Body memory” or “somatic memory” can be thought of as held or unprocessed emotional or physical trauma that remains held in the tissue until it has the opportunity to be released. MFR is one of several manual therapy approaches that addresses “body memory”, allowing for resolution of old stress and tension patterns to be completed.
Allowing for more time, having sensitive touch, and bringing ones attention into an area of restriction or pain allow the client to attune to the energetic content of the tissue. This can help the tissue unwind (spontaneously release) and process unresolved emotion or trauma in the safe environment. Sometimes clients may feel things “come up” once they return home after a session and have more space to process. Scars are a common place that typically has bound up “body memory”.
When stress and trauma accumulate in our bodies, it can create difficult emotional experiences and throw our equilibrium off, having negative effects on our health. We may have symptoms such as anxiety, depression, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances, abdominal, back, or pelvic pain, or other somatic stress responses, all of which limit our ability to move through life in a healthy and thriving manner.
Body Memory Recall (BMR) is a form of hands-on bodywork approach which supports the body to release accumulated stress, tension and memory from past experiences, while treating myofascial, structural, and energetic restrictions. This therapeutic bodywork integrates four mind-body therapy techniques; Myofascial Release, Craniosacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation and Unwinding to address a variety of conditions based on the understanding that the body not only holds physical tensions, but also emotional and energetic tensions that are often related to specific events, memories, or traumas, i.e., “body memory”. This approach helps others process emotions, stress, and physical imbalances, which have been stuck in our minds and bodies for a long time.
Body Memory Develops from chain reaction of biological events:
Overwhelming experience > Freeze Response > Suppression > Isolated Muscle Tension >
Whole Body Tension via Connective Tissue Restriction > Body Armor > Physical Symptoms
What is Body Memory Recall?
Body Memory Recall (BMR) incorporates Myofascial Release, Visceral Manipulation, Craniosacral Therapy, and Unwinding to address a variety of conditions. These techniques comprehensively treat the effects of stress, trauma, and chronic pain. The approach was developed in 1997 by Jonathan Tripodi, a physical therapist and pioneer in the field of the mind body connection. BMR helps individuals transform body memory and allow people to experience deep and profound healing of their entire being, physical, emotional, and spiritual.
A Brief Description of BMR techniques:
Myofascial Release
Myofascial release is the component of BMR that treats connective tissue, also referred to as fascia. Fascia is a continuous, web-like tissue that surrounds and interconnects every structure in the body. Unlike a muscle that has a defined location in the body, fascia is three dimensional and is uninterrupted from head to toe. Research in biophysics has revealed that when fascia is hydrated it becomes a liquid crystalline substance capable of receiving, storing and transmitting our experiences in the form of bioelectricity. When body memory develops, it is structurally and energetically encoded within the fascia. Body memory causes muscle tension and over time the surrounding fascia hardens and creates patterns of restrictions.
Fascial restrictions in one area of the body can create tension and pull into other parts, creating tension and pain. If someone has neck pain there could be fascial restrictions coming from the shoulders and back. Myofascial tension and restriction directly cause muscle and joint problems, including pain and mal-alignment.
Myofascial release uses gentle, sustained pressure and stretch into areas of restriction for 3-5 minutes, sometimes longer, until a release is felt allowing the fascia to unravel and lengthen. As restrictions are released, movement is restored and so is body memory. Myofascial release techniques can be applied to all major areas of the body including the arms, legs, back and neck.
Cranial Sacral Therapy
Cranial Sacral Therapy consists of light, sensitive touch to areas of the head, sacrum and spine, which relaxes the nervous system and releases the freeze response. Cranial sacral techniques are also used to release connective tissue or fascial restrictions around the spinal cord, brain, sacrum and head.
In his book, Waking the Tiger, Phd psychologist Peter Levine describes how humans can remain in the freeze response long after the threatening or overwhelming experience has passed. This explains why so many people remain tense despite good therapy and exercise that does not result in the release of the freeze response. The freeze response maintains muscle guarding even while you sleep. Since cranial sacral therapy directly interfaces with the nervous system, one can release subtle fascial restrictions, but also allow the nervous system to reset and regenerate. For real changes to occur, our bodies need to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present moment.
Visceral Manipulation
Visceral Manipulation incorporates gentle, rhythmic massage with sustained pressure and stretch around organs to release muscle guarding, scarring and body memory. Visceral manipulation restores healthy breathing, proper digestion, elimination, reproductive health and circulation to individuals. Low back pain and organ dysfunction are associated with protective muscle guarding in the abdomen that develops from body memory and stress.
The abdominal psoas muscles, pelvic floor and respiratory diaphragm lock down in response to stress and emotional overwhelm. Abdominal tensions from body memory, which include surgical scarring, also limit the passage of fluid and metabolic contents within the organs and their circulatory vessels. Spastic colon, gastric reflux, constipation, infertility and urinary incontinence are common examples of the effects of stored stress.
Unwinding
Unwinding refers to the release of body memory through involuntary movement. As the body unwinds, it may shake or tremble, get hot or cold and suppressed emotions can surface and release. Sometimes, individuals will involuntarily move into positions of old injuries or trauma, an experience referred to as "positional memory release." Due to our unfamiliarity with unwinding and the fear of losing control, our body's most powerful ability to heal itself has been minimized to yawning. Yawning is the most common experience of unwinding. Its involuntary movement coincides with a release of tension.
Unwinding can happen using many different techniques like the approaches mentioned above. It can eve happen spontaneously in a massage session or be accompanied by spontaneous emotional release. If a practitioner is familiar with unwinding, they can assist ones body to go through the full release by tracking the unwinding patterns in the fascia, and support the body’s natural movement. Most people inhibit this response because we are conditioned to remain still on a table and embody a passive experience, meaning we think someone is doing something to us (massage/tissue manipulation). If we have an impulse to move or unwind, we may stifle it out of fear of looking weird, that we may be dong “something wrong” or because we assume the authority in the room is the therapist, not our own body (which is untrue). Thats why it’s so helpful to have someone trained in unwinding, as well as someone who has a trauma background, so that if anything arises, the practitioner can act as a support.
“Trauma has emotional and cognitive effects, but primarily its a physiological process. Until we begin to resolve it at the physiological level, we can’t start the emotional”
— Peter Levine, Founder of Somatic Experiencing
Renegotiating Touch
“The implications of this are far reaching, for when we accept touch as supportive and nurturing our body’s stress response is down regulated, we experience increased vagal tone and parasympathetic activation, and an increase in the production of oxytocin and opioids—all of which play an important role in social, psychological and physical well-being” -Brittney K. Jakubiak
Having someone touch our bodies with sensitivity, attuned to our bodies story, can allow us to change tissue patterns and nervous system patterns that have been present in us for years, even generational patterns. We have the opportunity to explore embodied consent, notice what feels safe or unsafe, and regain a new sense of feeling comfortable in own skin. This can be particularly beneficial after our boundaries have been breached, even by someone we care for. We can take up space.
Body Memory Recall can help provide relief and resolution for these conditions and others:
Joint & Muscle Dysfunctions
Fibromyalgia, Low Back Pain, Sacral Iliac Pain, Neck Pain, Joint and Muscle Pain ,TMJ, Headaches, Scoliosis, Restricted Movement, Post-Surgical Pain and Dysfunction
Organ Dysfunctions
Digestive and Intestinal Disorders, Gallstones, Asthma, Breathing Problems, Heart Conditions
Immune System Disorders
Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Lupus
Stress Conditions
Anxiety and Depression, Panic Disorders, Shock, Phobias and Fears
Reproductive & Pelvic Conditions
Infertility, Pelvic Pain or Painful Intercourse, Ovarian Cysts, Excessive Weight Gain or Loss, Overwhelming Change
FAQ’s:
What is body memory?
Body memory refers to the energy of past experiences that are stored in the body.
Our senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch) provide information for our perception and give rise to how we experience ourselves and the world around us. When you feel overwhelmed or threatened by an experience, the body’s natural protective mechanism is triggered. If you don’t act on the initial impulse the energy is stored in your body until a later date when you feel safe and able to fully experience it. This experience is often referred to as the “freeze response” and activates when the fight or flight survival responses are unavailable during overwhelming experiences. All animals and humans respond this way. For example, a mouse being pursued by a cat may initially run (flight) and then when trapped in a corner fend off the cat (fight). When neither strategy work the mouse may freeze. After danger has disappeared the mouse may come out of the protective freeze response and shake or tremble, discharging the massive amount of energy that was held in the system for survival. This is a crucial point when understanding how “memory” gets stored in our body’s systems. Humans have the tendency to go into these responses, especially freeze, and have a difficult time coming out. Our feelings and sensations may be unconsciously suppressed to maintain a sense of control and safety, rather than allowing our body’s own innate healing mechanisms to take place.
To understand body memory, or somatic memory, we must acknowledge that the body and mind are intimately connected and influence one another. A fundamental aspect of mind body medicine is understanding interconnectedness of the way the mind, body, emotions and the environment influence each other. Physical and emotional pain are signals that we need to restore balance, eliminate whatever is causing the blockages, and reestablish the healthy flow of the body’s intelligence and systems.
Psychiatrists Bessel Van Der Kolk and Peter Levine, pioneers of the effects of trauma and post-traumatic stress, have extensively studied how our traumatic experiences get stored in the body. “Trauma is much more than just a story that happened long ago. The emotions and physical sensations that were imprinted during trauma are experienced as disruptive physical sensations in the present”, Bessel Van Der Kolk. Their research has contributed to a growing body of knowledge documenting how memory is stored, accessed, released and felt through the body and mind. Both assert that body based interventions such as yoga and bodywork offer effective treatment tools for people suffering from trauma and somatic symptoms that stem from overwhelming and traumatic events. “Body memory” or “somatic memory” is born from overwhelming experiences, including pain, trauma, stress, abuse, and surgery. Symptoms are the unspoken voice of the body trying to gain resolution.
The body therefore replays the overwhelming experience over and over as somatic signs and symptoms until the energy held in the body and nervous system is released. It’s not primarily about the memory of a past experience, but the recycling of what you could call the procedural memory, “body memory” and how it gets stuck. It’s a psycho-physiological process. If we hold this perspective when approaching both trauma and physical complaints then we can access that particular individuals pain in an entirely new way. Even if it’s severe, it can dissolve during a session in moments as this held energy from the past is released.
“Body memory” creates tension that adversely affects the function of every system in the body.
Many of the chronic, recurrent symptoms commonly experienced in ones body are caused by body memory that has accumulated over years. Body memory can occur through physical injuries, surgery, traumas, long term stress, and emotional upset or overwhelming occurrences. Difficult life experiences can manifest in our bodies in a variety of ways as physical symptoms such as chronic pain, inflammation, headaches, low back pain, and gastrointestinal imbalances, to name a few. Anywhere in the body that feels tense, tender, painful or hard is a likely indicator that there is body memory, especially those parts of the body that have felt that way for a long time. Chronic fatigue, anxiety, or emotional challenges are also likely indicators of body memory. By being human and moving through life, we all have developed held tension patterns and somatic memory. How much and to what degree is this stored energy affecting the way we look, move, think and feel is the real question.
Addressing body memory allows someone to regain access to optimal well being, vitality, and wholeness.