If 'The Body Keeps the Score': Mapping the Dissociated Body in Trauma Narrative, Intervention, and Theory

Psychotherapy, a central social space for remembering, has from its inception centred upon the healing and integrative power of putting experience into words and narrative forms of expression. However, those who have experienced traumatic events often lack a coherent memory for or understanding about the trauma they have undergone; they may be haunted by inchoate bodily sensations and 'memories' that have not been fully integrated and cannot be put into language. Such splits in experience - between body and mind - can provide a means to understand the way we conceptualize memory, consciousness, and body-mind. This paper describes an intervention that seeks to help people to make the experiences of the body more intelligible.