176: From Trauma to Healthy, Lasting Romantic Relationships

From Betrayal To Breakthrough

Trauma has many faces and many sources. For some, it may stem from a childhood event. For others, it could have been caused by an unhealthy relationship. But one thing ties all forms of trauma together—healing from them requires a release.

Releasing trauma is different for everyone. One way that has been found to be effective is dance movement therapy. Just ask Orit Krug.

About Guest/Topic

Orit Krug is a board-certified dance movement therapist who helps women get past trauma through dance therapy so they can enjoy healthy, lifelong relationships with their partners. No stranger to trauma herself, Orit experienced betrayal on a daily basis due to her tumultuous childhood. This eventually affected her romantic relationships as she grew older.

Orit got into unhealthy, abusive relationships with emotionally-unavailable partners. After one of her partners left her, she understood that it was her negative attitude that pushed him away. She then resolved to deal with her long-standing trauma. And that’s how she found dance movement therapy.

Through dance movement therapy, Orit learned how to release her trauma in a healthy and productive way.

Join Orit Krug as she discusses how organic, expressive, and creative movement helped her rewire her nervous system and enabled her to break unhealthy relationship patterns.

In This Episode

• Learn about how childhood trauma can affect your future relationships
• Discover the relationship between trauma and movement
• Learn the power of movement when it comes to stirring up layers of trauma
• The difference in the approaches used in trauma therapy and dance movement therapy
• Learn how movement can mirror trauma responses

Quotes

“By the time I met my husband, I was like, wow. He was like an anomaly because he was the most gentle, sensitive, caring man I’ve been with, which was so different from any other relationship. It was such a shock to my nervous system and everything I knew that I was just sabotaging it day in and day out.” [2:50]

“Because all the men I grew up with, my family, were so explosive and unpredictable, I just couldn’t believe that he was so calm and gentle. I just kept waiting until he would explode or until he showed his true colors. I just kept constantly testing that through different approaches. It was like an addiction to me to sabotage.” [5:04]

“Every movement that we do represents a different behavior, a different way we cope with the world.” [08:23]

“Even if you don’t know, when we go through trauma and extremely stressful events, this thinking, talking higher executive functioning part of our brain goes offline. And the trauma, memories, feelings get stored in our body. They get stored as fragments. And the memories are actually sensations. ” [11:52]

“Because trauma is stored in the body, when we start to move our bodies in different ways and new ways, it’s going to inevitably stir up this old trauma that’s been stored there.” [15:56]

“Trauma stays trapped until it’s released. And it’s up to us to find the most helpful and healing ways to release it.” [32:33]

Resources Mentioned

Wired for Love Free Course

Orit Krug’s website

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