Vision is our dominating sense. We perceive up to 80% of our impressions through our sight. We receive threat warnings by means of our sight. How we interpret visual information and convert it into support for concepts and behaviours is strongly influenced by our cultural, societal and spiritual background and conditioning, as well as by our trauma history. In somatic trauma healing models, visual information is believed to activate pathways of contraction or expansion in the client’s system, and to facilitate their access to bodily experiences. Somatic Experiencing®, for example, places significant importance on visual orienting, as well as eye movement and tracking of one’s internal experience through the visual sense. A client’s pupil responses may also convey changes in the client’s cognitive activity and levels of arousal (pupil dilation or contraction, a fixed gaze, eye contact/movements can inform of sympathetic, dorsal vagal or ventral vagal states).

Vision Somatics™ brings functional vision into the somatic therapeutic process to support the capacity to access imagination and the immaterial. This model has gradually come together through profound visual explorations of archetypal imagery with my non-verbal trauma clients. It is supported by current research on “implicit collective memory” and the power of inherited symbols, patterns or world models that are not explicitly known. Implicit collective memory is non-conscious and non-intentional, and therefore, uncontrollable, but it can influence perception and behaviour in new situations. I believe that implicit collective memory holds large untapped potential for trauma healing work.

My interest in a more layered understanding of the roles of functional vision and archetype imagery in trauma healing was awakened by the consistency with which developmental trauma clients would bring their gaze to specific visual patterns when orienting, grounding and resourcing. While experimenting with imagery during somatic therapy sessions, I found that nonverbal trauma clients would gravitate toward sacred geometry and archetype imagery. The less available the client’s narrative and verbal expression, the more limited their access to their bodily experiences, the higher was the attraction to a visual container that held some type of universal, archetypal pattern. These observations have led me to a deep dive into Jung’s collective unconscious, numerous other writings and research on the role of archetypes and symbols in psychology and psychotherapy, and to the study of symbolistic art. I have found research on the role of symbols in somatic therapy remarkably scarce.

Over time, I have collected imagery that holds strong anchoring in the depth of the human evolutionary experience across cultures and history- sacred geometry, archetypal art, Tarot-style decks (please note that the latter are not used for predictive purposes). With my clients’ help, I have created collections of visual symbols that support and facilitate powerful access to the nervous system in nonverbal trauma work.

Nonverbal trauma is about separation, fragmentation and attunement rupture. About a feeling of profound, and at times, devastating loneliness. Visually leaning into collective patterns of meaning supports a sense of belonging and movement toward self-regulation and safety.

Vision Somatics™ brings together:

-Archetypal imagery and meaning as an anchor into the collective present experience

- Somatic parts work, which supports the unburdening of protectors and exiles within the body; fragments of our trauma somatically inform areas of the body where they may be linked to specific sensations and vagal states. Healing means movement of these parts toward more capacity for self-regulation

-Somatic Experiencing® tracking through elements of SIBAM (Sensation, Image, Behaviour, Affect, Meaning)

-Gentle, purposeful eye movement

Please note that Vision Somatics™ eye work is different from EMDR. While EMDR may target the most challenging part of trauma first, our eye work supports gentle processing from the outside edges of trauma toward the core. While the healing journey may be slower in this case, the release of traumatic activation can be very powerful.

To date, I have supported deep trauma work through visual anchoring into universal patterns and symbols in ways that have provided my clients unprecedented access to their nervous systems and a developing sense of safety. Vision Somatics™ facilitates healing in areas such as transgenerational trauma, developmental trauma, dissociative disorders, out of body and near-death experiences, grief, loss and addictions. It is supportive of healing work at any age, and continues to evolve as a therapeutic model.

My deck of original imagery supporting the Vision Somatics™ model will be released in June 2024. Stay tuned for updates!