ABSTRACT
Emerging research of the new paradigm the neuroscience of relational human development teaches us that the inner world of people suffering from trauma is based on a rigid, dysregulated nervous system that produces dissociated and conflicted emotional states, with feelings of emptiness, despair, rage, anger, and anguish. The effects of trauma include physical and emotional illness, disabilities, relational betrayal, and the formation of social structures based on power dynamics rather than interpersonal connectivity. The process of the Polynesian way finder is similar to that of the somatic practitioner seeking to heal trauma. Information from developmental neuroscience and theories such as affective regulation therapy are challenging helping professionals to develop intuitive, complex, integrative skills to navigate murky inner subjective worlds that have been disrupted by trauma. The therapeutic model and educational processes of Somatic Transformation continue to be a fluid, dynamic synthesis of emerging neuroscience, ancient culture and wisdom, and phenomenological ways of knowing that can be used to heal personal.
