It’s thought that Body Armoring (tensions, contractions, or numbness of muscles and fascia) in people happens to protect themselves from extremely painful emotions and thoughts, that is, as a means to cope with an experience that is felt to be otherwise unbearable.
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Nevertheless, it’s important to note here that not all bodily tensions and contractions, or the opposite — disconnectedness and numbness, are due to “stuck” emotional or traumatic experiences. This is of course something that first needs to be assessed and diagnosed, because someone perhaps need a completely other type of (medical treatment).
At any rate, Body Armoring has an important function as an emotional survival mechanism. Yet, when a physical or psychological threat or dangerous situation is over, one should ideally emotionally digest what happened, relax body and mind, leave things behind, and move on.
However, sometimes an experience is extremely severe for the person involved, or continues for a prolonged period of time, and the emotional and physical defenses can become chronic, which may create a Character Armor and accompanying Body Armor, that is, fixed patterns of constricted breathing, repressed or suppressed emotions, muscular tensions and contractions (or numbness and insensitivity), and specific ways of thinking and behaving.
Now, if people at some point in their lives become aware of the negative physical, emotional, behavioral, or social effects of their defenses or traumas, and they would want to work on the latter, Body De-Armoring (and subsequent Character De-Armoring) may become a treatment option.
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It may, because Body De-Armoring can be very intense and abrupt, one that may bring subconscious traumatic experiences too quickly to the surface, and some people really need a more gradual approach to (learn to) deal with what happened and come to healthy emotional release.
In addition, it depends very much on the De-Armoring techniques used. Not all techniques are good for everyone. For instance, some breathing techniques are too intense or even dangerous for one’s health, and hard pressure or acupressure may bring a person’s body in a state of stronger resistance and even tougher Armor.
In fact, there are also other ways to come to emotional and trauma release and digestion. Body De-Armoring is just one of many options, but, for instance, Talk Therapy (Psychotherapy), Dance Therapy, Music Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET), or even medications, may be the better solutions depending on the person.
Hence, as a rule, it depends very much on the person’s willingness, openness, preferences and readiness if Body De-Armoring therapy would be the right choice.
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