PTSD & Trauma
Safe ground.
Important: R1SE services are complementary wellness support, not medical treatment. Always consult your healthcare provider before starting any new programme, especially if you are under active medical care.
Trauma lives in the body as much as the mind. At R1SE Sheffield, we offer body-based practices that support nervous system regulation, build stress tolerance, and help you reconnect with your body in a safe, controlled environment - complementing professional trauma therapy.
PTSD is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system, not just memory. Traumatic experience leaves the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) branch chronically overactive and the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) branch under-responsive - measurable as low heart rate variability (HRV), elevated resting cortisol, and hyper-reactive amygdala activity. Talk therapy alone cannot reach these physiological patterns, which is why leading trauma researchers (van der Kolk, Porges, Levine) emphasise body-based work. At R1SE we combine trauma-informed movement, vagal-nerve stimulation through cold and breath, and restorative recovery - all delivered in a controlled, opt-in environment - so you can rehearse safety at the nervous-system level while continuing the deeper psychological work with your therapist.
Your Multi-Therapy Plan
How R1SE Can Help
The Science
Evidence-based insights supporting our approach.
A landmark RCT by van der Kolk et al. (2014, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry) showed trauma-sensitive yoga reduced PTSD symptoms as effectively as cognitive processing therapy, with a 33% remission rate - comparable to gold-standard psychological treatments.
Cold water immersion stimulates the vagus nerve and raises heart rate variability (HRV) - a biomarker of parasympathetic tone that is consistently suppressed in PTSD (Cohen et al., 2000, Psychiatry Research). Improving HRV correlates directly with reduced symptom severity.
Breath-based interventions (slow diaphragmatic breathing at 5-6 breaths per minute) produce clinically significant reductions in PTSD symptoms by restoring balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system (Seppälä et al., 2014, Journal of Traumatic Stress).
A 2022 Israeli RCT published in PLOS ONE found 60 sessions of HBOT at 2.0 ATA significantly improved PTSD symptoms, sleep quality, and brain perfusion in combat veterans - with effects sustained at 3-month follow-up.
Body-based (somatic) approaches are now included in the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) treatment guidelines as complements to trauma-focused psychological therapy - reflecting the scientific consensus that trauma is stored physiologically as well as cognitively.
Exercise of any modality reduces PTSD symptoms by an average of 0.6 standard deviations (a moderate-to-large effect) - comparable to SSRI medications - likely via BDNF upregulation and hippocampal neurogenesis (Rosenbaum et al., 2015, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica).
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