Releasing Held Pain: Trauma Discharge and the Body

In-depth clinical learning on a key area of practice, guided by leading experts.

Event overview:

The Body Psychotherapy Series

The ruling metaphor of the Trauma/Discharge model is expelling a splinter that has created painful inflammation around itself. Usually, the body attempts this on its own. In body psychotherapy, the practitioner’s role is to support and encourage a similar natural healing process, helping the system to discharge and integrate what has been locked away.

In this 2‑hour webinar, we will look at how emotional abreaction, muscular holding and somatic discharge are understood within the Trauma/Discharge model. The focus is not on dramatic catharsis for its own sake, but on the release and fully conscious expression of emotions “locked into” rigid musculature and nervous system patterns, within a strong therapeutic container.

We will examine:

• The core assumptions and metaphors of the Trauma/Discharge model
• How traumatic experience becomes organised in the body and musculature
• Emotional abreaction: when it helps, when it overwhelms, and how to tell the difference
• Practical ways to support gradual discharge – through breath, sound, movement and tracking impulses
• The centrality of pacing, containment and relational safety in trauma‑discharge work

We’ll emphasise a gentle, titrated approach that avoids “retraumatising” the client, highlighting how to focus on their strength and competence rather than their vulnerability alone. The aim is to support clients in managing and integrating traumatic experience, rather than reliving it.

Clinical Takeaway

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Describe the Trauma/Discharge model and how it differs from purely narrative trauma work
• Recognise somatic signs that a system is ready for, or not ready for, discharge
• Support micro‑discharges safely, rather than aiming for dramatic release
• Work with abreaction in a way that strengthens clients’ agency and competence
• Embed Trauma/Discharge principles into your existing trauma and attachment frameworks

This webinar forms part of The Body Psychotherapy Series

The Body Psychotherapy Series is a four‑part Grove Series CPD pathway with Nick Totton and Robert Rees, exploring adjustment, trauma discharge, relational and process‑oriented models of body psychotherapy.

Pricing and booking options

You can book this event on its own for £30 (optional CPD & recording purchase available), choose selected sessions, or purchase the full series as a bundled CPD course for a discounted rate of £120 (includes CPD certificates and recordings).

To only purchase selected events, follow the links below to visit each event page, or click here to go directly to the purchase page.

Dates and times

All on Zoom, 14:00-16:00 (UK time)

1. Freeing the Breath: Adjustment in Body Psychotherapy – 6th November 2026
2. Releasing Held Pain: Trauma Discharge and the Body – 27th November 2026
3. Two Bodies in the Room: Relational Body Psychotherapy – 4th December 2026
4. Following the Process: Spontaneity and Wildness in Body Psychotherapy – 8th January 2027