The 7 Bands of Tension & the Body’s Tightly Held Trauma
Trauma is healed physiologically because trauma is stored physiologically.
In my somatic healing sessions, we can work through the body’s bands of tension together over a series of sessions. Working this way is ideal for those seeking general healing or transformation.
The bands of tension (or belts of tension) are our own inner layers of experience. Each belt of tension reflects different dynamics from our fears deep in the abdomen blocking our gut instinct, our relational wounds at the heart, and our authentic expression at the oral belt. Working through them, we’ll shed layers of defensive mechanisms and identity, revealing new creative resources you didn’t even know you had and make new space within.
The bands of tension were created by Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian psychoanalyst and psychiatrist in the early 20th-century. In addition to character analysis and other foundational concepts in body-oriented therapy, Reich developed the idea of “body armoring,” which later became known as the seven belts of tension. The concepts are based on the important premise that repressed emotions and trauma manifests physically in the body.
Emotions are the element of water. And as such, they are meant to flow. When they are not expressed, however, they manifest overtime as rigidity of the nervous system and even tension of the muscular system. The nervous system or parts of it can get stuck in fight-flight-freeze states. The muscular system, representing the last line of defense as these emotions deepen into us, can get tense, tight, and disconnected. This creates an armoring or defensive posturing of our bodies representing the armoring around our hearts and our true self, waiting to be fully realized and expressed.
Just think of how when we are sad or are crying, we naturally collapse our posture. And when we are excited, we jump for joy and open our arms and chests. These are our emotions manifesting through the body.
Reich's concept of the seven belts of tension describes areas in the body where this emotional and psychological stress can manifest as physical tension. Releasing tension in these areas can help access deeply held emotions and, ultimately, heal.
The belts are the concentrated centers of bodily held trauma but run through the full body, from head to toe.
The Body’s Bands of Tension:
1 - Ocular: the eyes, temples, forehead, and crown of head. This belt is often linked to emotions like suspicion or grief. Like our eyes flashing in REM sleep, we can also use the eyes to process deeply held trauma physiologically. I incorporate a full Brainspotting session when working with this belt in my breathwork series and we engage the breath only to the extend we need to help our intellectual mind surrender.
2 - Oral: includes the mouth, jaw, and tongue. This belt is associated with feelings like longing or fear. This belt also represents how we express our authenticity and creativity to the world, or the extent to which we’ve had to “swallow” who we truly are. I like to incorporate the vowels when working this belt as the vowels are connected with our emotional expression.
3 - Cervical: neck and shoulder area. This belt is further connected to self-expression and creativity. Like the jaw in the oral belt, this area is very often tense as we build up chronic stress, repressed emotions, or unprocessed trauma. Many of us are breathing from this belt, rather than our diaphragms and thus we’re living in a heightened nervous system state, more easily prone to reactivity rather than presence and intention.
4 - Thoracic: the chest, heart center, and arms. This belt is my favorite. This is where love, grief, and joy can be felt deeply. The full spectrum of the human experience right at our centers. This belt extends out to the hands as they express and act on behalf of our heart, if we let them. With this belt, we can explore the heart space, giving and receiving love, and all the old survival strategies hindering our own innate self-worth and thus secure attachment.
5 - Diaphragmatic: the diaphragm and stomach. This belt can block sensations from the lower body, like severing the body and its subtle energy or flow of life force into two. Our power to fully feel is from this space and this is the power of a truly felt deep breathe.
6 - Abdominal: the belly. This belt is tied to feelings of nourishment and trust. Our gut instinct is activated here through self-trust or blocked through fear and unresolved trauma waiting to be complete.
7 - Pelvic: the pelvis, hips, and legs. This belt is all about fully being in your body and a sense of grounding. This is our rock. It’s also connected to our sexual energy and thus can be a very powerful but also sensitive pelt.
I integrate many of these concepts in my somatic healing work. In my 7-session breathwork package, we work through the belts of tension while incorporating Biodynamic Breathwork, Brainspotting, Somatic Experiencing, reflective exercises, and the like, depending on your needs and goals.
-Susan Reis
