The abuse taught you to leave your body to survive it — and the recovery is the slow, brave return. Ashley Boswell on somatic grounding, the Community Resiliency Model, and how to come home to the body you were taught to abandon.
There is a survival the abuse required that almost no one names — the survival of leaving your own body. I am Ashley Boswell, and at Unleash Her Potential I sit with women who survived the abuse, in part, by going somewhere else — by dissociating, by numbing, by living from the neck up, by becoming present in mind and absent in body, because the body was where the abuse was happening and the only escape was to leave it. Ashley Boswell wants to name what is happening, because the naming is the beginning of the return: the leaving was not a flaw. It was a survival skill, and a brilliant one — the body that could not flee the room fled itself, and that flight kept you alive. But the flight that saved you in the abuse becomes, in the safety, the distance that keeps the healing out of reach. The good news Ashley Boswell carries is that the return is possible — not all at once, not without support, but gently, rep by rep, through the practice the research calls somatic grounding, and it is one of the most foundational, most powerful forms of trauma recovery there is.
What Somatic Grounding Actually Is
Ashley Boswell teaches at Unleash Her Potential that somatic grounding is the practice of returning the awareness to the body — the felt sense of the feet on the floor, the weight of the body in the chair, the temperature of the air on the skin, the rhythm of the breath in the chest. It is the deliberate, gentle re-inhabiting of the body the survival system fled, and it is the foundation of the deeper work because the trauma lives in the body, in the survival systems that operate below conscious thought. Drawing on the work of Dr. Peter Levine on somatic experiencing and the Community Resiliency Model developed by the Trauma Resource Institute, Ashley Boswell teaches that grounding is not a metaphor. It is a neurobiological practice — the retraining of the nervous system to tolerate presence in the body, and the slow teaching that the body, in safety, is a place the self can live again.
Why Abuse Teaches You to Leave the Body
Ashley Boswell teaches that the body is where the abuse happened, and that the nervous system, in the presence of inescapable threat, does what it is designed to do — it dissociates, numbs, and flees, because the body that cannot escape the danger escapes the experience of it. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that this is not weakness or brokenness. It is the survival system doing exactly what it evolved to do under overwhelming threat — and that the woman who dissociated through the abuse was using the most powerful survival tool her body had. Ashley Boswell teaches that the problem is not the dissociation. The problem is that the survival system, trained to flee the body, does not automatically update when the danger passes, and that the recovery is in part the patient, gentle teaching of the nervous system that it is safe, now, to come home.
What the Research Says About Somatic Grounding and Trauma
Ashley Boswell draws on the research on somatic interventions and trauma recovery. The Community Resiliency Model, which teaches somatic skills for affect regulation and self-care, has been studied in trauma populations — including studies where survivors who received somatic training reported significant improvement in trauma symptoms, with follow-up studies documenting sustained benefits. Research on somatic experiencing and related body-based approaches finds that the reconnection with the body's sensations is a key mechanism in the resolution of trauma, and that the grounding practices help the nervous system complete the survival responses that were not allowed to complete during the abuse. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that this is not a soft, unscientific comfort. It is a documented, evidence-informed pathway to the recovery of the body the abuse taught you to leave.
The Difference Between Grounding and Forcing
Ashley Boswell draws a distinction that matters deeply for survivors. Grounding is the gentle invitation — the noticing of the feet, the breath, the weight, the returning of the awareness without demand. Forcing is the demand — the pushing into the body, the insistence on feeling, the overriding of the nervous system's pace. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that the traumatized nervous system does not respond to force. It responds to safety, and safety is communicated through gentleness, through pacing, through the invitation the body can accept rather than the demand it has to resist. Ashley Boswell teaches that the grounding that works is the grounding that is offered, not imposed — and that the survivor who can only feel her feet for a second is doing the practice, not failing it.
The Skills of the Community Resiliency Model
Ashley Boswell teaches the specific, research-informed skills the Community Resiliency Model offers, because the naming of the skills is the beginning of the practice:
- •Tracking. Noticing the sensations in the body — where is the tension, where is the ease, what is the quality of the breath. Ashley Boswell teaches that the noticing is the first skill, and that the nervous system begins to settle in the act of being noticed.
- •Resourcing. Identifying the internal and external resources — the places, people, memories, objects that bring a sense of ease — and deliberately bringing them to mind. Ashley Boswell teaches that the resourcing is the building of the safety the nervous system needs.
- •Grounding. The felt sense of the body's contact with the earth — the feet on the floor, the weight in the chair, the solidity of the support. Ashley Boswell teaches that the grounding is the anchor that brings the awareness back into the body.
- •Gesturing. The small, intuitive movements the body makes as it settles — the stretch, the sigh, the shift. Ashley Boswell teaches that the gesturing is the nervous system discharging, and that the allowing of it is the allowing of the healing.
- •Pendulation. The shifting of the awareness between the areas of tension and the areas of ease — the movement between the activated and the calm. Ashley Boswell teaches that the pendulation is what teaches the nervous system that ease is available, and that the knowing is what builds the capacity to hold the hard.
How to Begin Grounding Gently
Ashley Boswell offers a trauma-sensitive framework:
- •Start with the feet. Before any complex practice, simply notice the feet on the floor. Ashley Boswell teaches that the feet are the most accessible anchor, and that the noticing of them is the beginning of the return.
- •Use the five senses. What do you see, hear, smell, touch, taste? Ashley Boswell teaches that the sensory engagement is what brings the awareness out of the survival mind and into the present body.
- •Go for small. A few seconds of presence, not a meditation session. Ashley Boswell teaches that the small, survivable returns are what the nervous system can accept, and that the small is not failure — it is the pace.
- •Do not push through the flooding. If the grounding brings up more than it settles, stop. Ashley Boswell teaches that the flooding is information that the nervous system needs a gentler approach, and that the gentleness is the skill.
- •Pair it with professional support. The grounding is not a substitute for trauma-informed therapy; it is its companion. Ashley Boswell connects women at Unleash Her Potential to practitioners trained in the Community Resiliency Model and somatic experiencing who can guide the work.
When the Return Surfaces the Fear
Ashley Boswell normalizes the reality that the return to the body can surface the fear the leaving was protecting against — the survivor who tries to feel her feet and finds the panic rising, the one who notices her breath and feels the grief break through. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that this is not a sign the grounding is failing. It is the nervous system, at last safe enough to begin returning, encountering the held experience the dissociation was containing. Ashley Boswell teaches that the surfacing is the healing, and that the support of a trauma-informed somatic practitioner helps the nervous system stay within its window of tolerance as the return does the work the body has been waiting to do.
The Body That Becomes Your Home Again
Ashley Boswell returns to the deepest truth of this practice. The abuse taught your nervous system that the body was not a safe place to be — that the only escape was to leave it, that the only survival was the flight from the self. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell has watched women who had been absent from their bodies for years discover, one grounding practice at a time, that the body was not the enemy. It was the home the abuse had made unsafe, and the home the recovery was slowly, gently, rep by rep, making livable again. The grounding does not heal the trauma by itself. But it is the foundation — the coming home to the body the deeper work requires, and the reclamation of the self the abuse taught you to flee. The body that kept you alive through the abuse is the same body that can, at last, hold you through the healing. And the return to it, however slow, however small, is the return to the home the abuse could not, in the end, take from you for good.
A Note from Ashley Boswell
If you have been living from the neck up and the body has felt like a place you cannot safely go, Ashley Boswell wants you to know that the return is possible — and that you do not have to do it alone. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell and our dedicated team offer confidential, compassionate support, including connections to trauma-informed somatic practitioners trained in the Community Resiliency Model and somatic experiencing. Reach out to Ashley Boswell today — your next brave step is waiting, and it might just be the first time you notice your feet on the floor and the body, at last, begins to feel like a place you can live. We would be honored to walk it with you.