Body De-Armoring, which depending on the focus is also called Emotional De-Armoring, Sexual De-Armoring, or Genital De-Armoring, has become a popular type of somatic bodywork to reconnect people’s body and mind, to improve their body awareness and energy flow, and to free them from pent-up emotions, stress, and unresolved trauma, often related to sexual healing.
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De-Armoring Therapy — being a specialization within a range of Mind-Body therapies or Somatic therapies — is typically practiced by professional massage and bodywork therapists and by Somatic Psychologists, and needs special training and trauma-informed competencies, apart from the training and proficiency in their specific domain.
However, in past years one increasingly finds short Self De-Armoring training courses for the general public just taking a day or weekend or so, guided online Self-Dearmoring coaching sessions, or even “Genital Self Dearmoring Kits” with Yoni Eggs or Yoni Wands available to buy online.
Moreover, today it looks like anything can be used to “De-Armor oneself,” such as a “special” Yoga poses, Taoist and Tantric techniques, self-massage (for instance, of the breasts, abdomen, or penis), self-acupressure, magic crystals, conscious masturbation, breathwork, hiking or biking, psychoactive substances, meditation and mindfulness, and whatnot.
The question now is if Self De-Armoring is at all possible, if it makes any sense, and if there are risks involved by trying to do it yourself.
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I feel that some form of Self-Dearmoring may be possible, depending on the case. But, first of all, a person should deeply understand the concept of Body Armoring, that is, how it relates to suppressed or repressed emotions and trauma, the role one’s nervous system and physiological processes in the body play, how an Armor can be recognized and how it manifests itself physically, and what techniques can be used to get rid of one’s Body Armor and related Character Armor.
Secondly, a person should actually be trained in the techniques they intend to apply to De-Armor themselves, may that be massage, mindfulness, Yoga, breathwork, exercises, imagery or visualizations, or the use of a Yoni Egg.
In addition, a person should be able to guide themselves properly in the event of Catharsis and intense emotional or trauma release during their Self-Dearmoring session, that is, they shouldn’t get into more distress or perhaps even add new trauma to their “system.”
And last but not least, one should be able to digest and integrate new cognitive insights and subsequent changed attitudes into one’s life, meaning that one should be capable of giving oneself proper aftercare.
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It’s important to realize that Body De-Armoring is professional and diligent work, and although Self De-Armoring is theoretically possible, it needs quite some knowledge, preparation, and caution to be able to do it yourself, in most cases by first having undergone De-Armoring (and having learned the theory and techniques) guided by a professional De-Armoring therapist.
Nevertheless, I think that most of what is commercially offered as Self-Dearmoring usually only consists of rather simple and straightforward stress and tension relief techniques and not a form of deep trauma De-Armoring. As such, there’s basically no harm in so-called “Self De-Armoring,” because very often the term is used as a fashionable name for something that’s not actually covering the professional practice of Body De-Armoring.
Body awareness and stress and tension relief techniques are plenty to be found, may it be meditation, fitness exercises, spending time in Nature, Yoga, self-massage, watching television or going to the theatre, or having a good night’s sleep, and those can usually be done safely and responsibly without the risks that are attached to re-experiencing trauma or deep trauma release.
