Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes to critically examine a call to re-establish an ability to experience one’s body present in the new body-based trauma therapies. It questions the transcultural validity of experience and looks at the global dissemination of knowledge regarding “the healthy ways” of experiencing.

Paper long abstract:

In contemporary Western approaches to recovery from trauma, such as SomaticExperiencing, a central claim is that healing happens through reconnecting with the so called felt sense. Sensations and feelings signalized by the body are seen as an authentic and true expression of the self. Trauma is said to cut people of these deep-seated capability to recognize their own states. (Levine, van der Kolk). Healing happens through reestablishing of an access to a whole range of emotions: being able to feel your body, “connecting with yourself” etc. It seems that we live in a culture, where such phrases sound so acceptable, that it becomes difficult to raise any doubt about this call to experiencing.

The aim of my paper will thus be a critical analysis of the theory and practice of Somatic Experiencing (SE), an American therapy designed to help in trauma-resolution, as taught in Poland and in India. I want to pose questions about the very meaning of the notion of the embodied experience. My hypothesis is thus that the claim of accessing the bodily experience as a condition of healing is itself culturally specific. It delineates concepts of the body, affect and healing which might differ across cultures. I will thus track the possible limitations of transcultural application of the “universal” language of experience. The research will thus constitute an ethnography of “trauma-work” and will be based on interviews with SE practitioners in Poland and in India as well as participant observation during trainings of SE in Poland.