Healing Sexual Trauma - Lyn Smith & Erika Shershun

Lyn welcomes licensed therapist and somatic trauma specialist Erika Shershun for an illuminating conversation on healing & recovering from sexual trauma.

Drawing from her own 17-year healing journey, Erika demystifies complex concepts like Polyvagal Theory (understanding the relationship between the nervous system and our emotions) and the body’s innate "flight, fight or freeze" responses, explaining how trauma physically embeds itself in the nervous system long after the event.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Trauma isn't just a mental hurdle; it’s a physical state where the nervous system remains stuck in a defensive response of flight, fight, or freeze.

The nervous system decides to enter a protective state (such as freezing) faster than the conscious brain can think, often as a primal survival mechanism.

"Talk therapy" often falls short because it ignores the physical patterns of constriction and numbness that trauma leaves in the body.

Recovery involves learning to gently transmute trauma by shifting between nervous system states, moving away from chronic hyper-vigilance and back toward a felt sense of safety.

BEST MOMENTS

"The realisation came to me about 17 years into therapy. I realised just how much the trauma stays in the body until it's integrated."

"Your nervous system has a wisdom. It took you to a freeze state because it knew it was your best chance of survival."

"If you only work with a persons thoughts, the patterns of movement and constriction are still taking place in the body; you're not really integrating the trauma."

"Healing is no longer getting triggered by the trauma and having the symptoms clear up that are clearly associated with it."