Rhythm'n blues 

When the rhythm is disturbed it is really difficult to dance

Overwhelming trauma causes you to lose your rhythm.
Where you used to be able to sleep, you now just lie awake.
Where you used to feel free, you now feel trapped.
Where you used to feel safe, you are now on alert.
Where before you listened to music and danced with others, you now stand on the outside and apathetically look in on them.
What was familiar is now foreign. The rhythm is disturbed, and then it is really difficult to dance.

The usual rhythm breaks off in the middle of the song, and suddenly it's fusion jazz. (A small digression, but I have seen grown men vomit from chaotic and arrhythmic music. The whole physiological system is thrown into imbalance, and the body is unable to digest. A common reaction to traumatic stress as well).

When a person loses their rhythm, they need time to be at peace - but at the same time together. Being able to lie down and rest, but at the same time hear sounds
everyday life and human movements nearby,
the sound of food being prepared,
clothes being washed,
floor that costs.

In certain treatment centers in the Congo, one can also supposedly hear the sound of a drum circle in the middle of the village - rhythm imposed from outside - distant but present. And when one day the person chooses to approach the community, perhaps participate in the dance around the fire, the balance is about to be restored. Then you are on the road to recovery, but the path is still long and tortuous.

Towards balance

Here in Norway, we play slightly different music and dance to a greater extent alone. The treatment does not take place in the community, but preferably in conversations with a therapist. It is not a family matter but an individual problem. A bit like the sound of a lone oboe. Through conversations, psychotherapy or medication, you try to find your rhythm from within.

But perhaps good treatment lies somewhere in the middle between inside and outside, on the way to balance.

I think the ancient healing rituals of Native Americans approach an ideal of good treatment after trauma. When the warriors returned home from battle, the whole village gathered for a ritual led by a wise chief who had seen it all (therapist?). The story was retold to everyone present (exposure therapy?), and then roles were assigned and the story acted out with emotion (psychodrama?). Often there was some form of intoxication (medicines?) and later both dance, rhythm and movement (yoga, body-oriented therapy). Sometimes trance states (hypnosis?). And relaxation. All this together, so that everyone owned the story and the individual did not have to carry it all alone.

Inner healing, collective ripple effects

To see the whole of you, without distinguishing between body and mind; to look for your own attempts at healing - this is our aim at the trauma center. No human being is completely separate from the community, either when we are in harmony and balance or when we suffer and feel isolated. As much as we aim to treat the whole person, we are concerned with how inner healing can have ripple effects for the community, and can create positive changes outside of ourselves.

Modern psychotherapy is a kind of intellectual dance, but when we bring the body into the treatment we can at the same time find a new rhythm together. Paying attention to your body's reactions and really listening to what it is trying to say is wise. If one needs to rest for several months after a shock, yes, that is part of the healing process. If your legs are shaking and you want to go out and walk, it may be wise to follow the impulse (we think clearer and more creatively in motion). If the body stiffens and becomes stuck in tension, there is something around you that still feels dangerous. Insight into what this is and then moving slowly towards it can eventually provide relief from anxiety, tension and panic. And if sleep won't come, maybe it's best to get up, not angry at the wakefulness, but curious about what it's trying to tell you (Maybe it's you calling out to you?). The balance has not yet been restored. Things take time. Don't punish yourself. Seek and provide comfort and nourishment in, or close to, a good community.

Put on some music you like? Maybe rhythm'n blues

Written by Akiah Ottesen (PhD) Psychology specialist v/Psykologvirke