How to Help Clients Shift Out of the Freeze Response and into an Active Defensive Response

According to Ruth Lanius, when trauma results in the freeze response, we need strategies for helping people shift out of it (and an important first step is identifying what’s at the root of this response) . . .

Dr. Lanius: Something we have to really work on in therapy is: how can we decrease the shame that’s often a precursor to the freezing response? And then out of that, how can we help people move from an immobile state into an active defensive response where they can really protect themselves or run away, rather than freezing?

They really have to practice that within their bodies in sensorimotor therapy. That’s absolutely critical for people to shift in their bodies so they can experience the difference between freezing and actually engaging in defensive action.

So we can really change these instinctual responses. And when people change them, you see that positive affect or positive emotion is really able to come online.

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