Laurren Jones, better known as L has been a licensed massage therapist and Public Speaker for 5 years. L champions herself as a healing justice advocate focused on freedom from the constraints of social injustice & imbalance and believes that everyone has the power to live, breath & lead a life that reflects their truest selves.
“ I will still be a queen even though trauma has been a part of my life.“
How did you become a Somatic bodyworker?
L: So somatics kind of found me through both blending massage and my studies in African-American history in college. I went through the process of going to massage school and learning about the body, and working with clients. What I kept seeing is that people would get on my table and I may touch a certain area and all of a sudden they are having an emotional reaction. They would either shed a tear or, let out a deep sigh. And I was like, there's something more under the surface that this touch work is bringing forth and I wanted to learn more about it. So my curiosity sent me down this rabbit hole, and eventually, I realized the underlying problem of people who are struggling in today's life is trauma. As I started to dig deeper into it, the next thing you know, I found the Somatic Experiencing Institute.
What is somatic healing?
L: Essentially “soma” the root word of somatics means “of the body.” And it's essentially this connection, the regarding of the body when we look at healing through all three parts with the mind, the body, and the spirit. But there's just this overarching connection that relates to the nervous system and how we heal through all those different pieces. Somatics essentially is a healing modality that works through the body, through the sensations, and through different elements of experience that resources those things to help aid the nervous system and processing out old traumatic residues and releasing stress, regulating to bring us back into a state of balance. We like to call it the ventral vagal state.
How is somatic bodywork different from a regular massage?
L: Somatics is like bridging between forums of mindset work and touch. There are so many different ways that you can blend somatics into your personal practice. My somatic bodywork sessions have a whole beginning hour within the session that isn't even hands-on. Completely almost in this meditative connection with one another where we're feeling the sensations in the body and allowing them to take us through this journey within. We regard the sensations in somatics as the language of the body. For every one nerve fiber coming from the brain to the body, there are seven nerve fibers coming from the body to the brain. All that means is that there's more information that the body is sending up to the brain than the brain is sending down to the body. And so it's in the body that has like all these different elements of our experience that need to be looked into and worked with in order to create a change within.
How would you introduce somatic bodywork to people who are scared of healing?
L: The beautiful thing about this practice is that it does not have to dip so deeply in. Within somatic experiencing, we truly believe in titration. Taking things little, by little, by little. And we can be working from the outermost layer of what they may be feeling. We can deal with just the stress of everyday life. We don't always have to go too deep into the content. The why, the what of what happened. We mostly need to look at the how and the after effects of what the body is carrying. We can work directly with that and make a change without ever digging into the topic.
What advice would you give to people who are going through the same thing that you experienced?
L: One is to consult with your gut. We often go and want to consult with somebody else and we think someone else is going to have the answers for us. But the truth is that your body is responding with the answers that you're looking for. There's a feeling inside of you that will say like, “Hey, stop. Step away” or “continue and just move slowly.” Take your time. Don't rush. Just go through the experience and allow yourself to receive what you can, what you have the capacity to receive. Second is to find support. Find someone who can hold the space for you to heal as you move through other things. Don't try to put it at all on you. I think I went through that phase as well, where I thought I was the only person who can be there with me in the depths of my healing journey and all the things that were coming up. As soon as I hired my somatic practitioner and soon as I worked with other healers, I instantly started to heal so much faster.
What healing has helped you get to where you're at and how has it helped others?
L: My actual healing journey is what birthed my business. A lot of the entrepreneurs that I've worked with have also birthed their businesses in COVID, in this pandemic. And so it pulled on so many strings. I had two choices. I have the choice of being sucked into that experience, wallowing in whatever depressive state. I'm losing everything that I ever worked for and I would've never birthed the “trauma queen.” I would've never birthed anything that I actually wanted to put out there. And so I made the choice to invest in healing. It was in those personal investments of my time and resources that help me shape myself and become clear and become more empowered to be able to show up in my business and give what it was asking me. We think we can just keep wearing this mask and keep pushing ourselves through, but your clients will feel and will sense this energetic deficit. When I was in that beginning phase and I wasn't as embodied as I needed to be, to be at the level I was at, I could feel the disconnect from my clients. It’s like I'm walking them through a journey that I, myself, haven't fully walked myself through. I finally was like, “No. Here I am.” We both are meeting in the middle. This is the journey. This is how I can show up for them.
How did you come up with the handle “The Trauma Queen''?
L: I've actually gotten a lot of controversy around it and it's funny because I wanted it to be a little bit controversial because my brand is a little bit controversial. We are digging into topics that have been swept under the rug for centuries. People don't want to mention their dark past that we have just been taught to silence. And so the trauma queen is me boldly stating that, we're going to authentically bring this trauma to the table and remove the taboos around it. It's my commitment to my own healing of trauma. But it's me saying that I will still be a queen even though trauma has been a part of my life. Even though I've gone through some things that may break some other people, I'm still going to regard myself as this queen willing to heal and reclaim my power, the pieces of me lost in that trauma. To be whole and ready to show others how to do the same thing.
Learn more about L
Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_trauma_queen2.0/
Her Email: traumaqueentherapeutics@gmail.com
Embodying You 1:1 Somatic Mentorship: Embodying YOU 1:1 Mentorship
Upcoming workshop/offerings: https://linktr.ee/thetraumaqueen
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