Fight or Flight Inhibited at the Abortion Clinic

Peter Levine (1997) in his book Waking the Tiger, introduces the reader to the concept of Somatic Experiencing. He pioneered the concept by watching animals in the wild. He was curious to find out why animals that were often threatened in the wild, rarely experienced trauma. He then took what he learned and applied it to humans when they experience trauma and what would need to happen in the body in order to recover from that trauma. 
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I have often wondered about what happens to a man and a woman's body after going through an abortion experience. If that experience is traumatic for either of them, then what is happening to them at a body level. In Peter Levine's work with clients, he helps them let go of energy in their body that has not been discharged from previous trauma. Energy that comes from the body being stuck in a fight, flight or freeze response. By discharging this energy, the body can begin to heal from the trauma symptoms. 

Millions of men and women may walk into our counseling offices with trauma stuck in their bodies because of a previous abortion decision in their lives. Women are often inhibited in their flight response in the abortion clinic. They are literally trapped in the surgery room. Many will come out of that room having lost their flight response, and appear quite frozen emotionally. Men are often inhibited in their fight response. They are not able to act on fighting to protect their partner and their future child from harm. Many of these men will come out having lost their fight response and frozen emotionally as a result. 

This month I will be writing an article on how to approach this issue with our clients. Taking what has been learned from Somatic Experiencing, we can help our client's bodies heal by encouraging the release of what the body wasn't able to do prior, during and after the abortion decision for both the man and the women. 

Being able to effectively help clients who have experienced abortion related trauma in the future should include helping them at the body level and not just the cognitive and emotional. Being no longer stuck in not acting on their fight or flight response may hold the key.