Expanding awareness on Trauma: The body keeps the score
So much work is being done to expand our awareness around trauma and how it truly impacts our wellbeing. Thanks to thought leaders in the field like Gabor Mate, Richard Shwartz, Bessel Van Der Kolk and many others we are becoming more informed about trauma as a neurological adaptation response of the mind and body connection. This highly intuitive perspective allows for person to person differences in trauma manifestations and leads us away from the highly restrictive and somewhat shame based brain disease model. So, rather than having a ‘brain disease’ caused by trauma, we can view the more dynamic nature of the nervous system and its widespread influence throughout the body and the psyche. This new perspective allows for more treatment options and takes the distress out of what feels like a hopelessly injured brain.
The nervous system is a complex, adaptive and flexible system. It is highly sensitive and profoundly intelligent with the ability to detect slight changes in our environment and create a reaction instantaneously. These reactions can be felt physically, emotionally, biochemically as the nervous system draws on the innate intelligence of the body to respond to stimuli. Because of this, we can also appreciate that trauma doesn’t always come in large shocks or macro-aggressions on the system. We can come to appreciate that trauma can be accumulative of micro aggressions, we can appreciate the significance of repeated exposure to environments that don’t meet our needs as humans. Our nervous systems are contextual and will respond to the conditions surrounding us and within us. So, trauma is not just the big things that happen to us but also the little things, the things we don’t necessarily view as traumatic but in a certain context and over a period of time the effects are seen in our nervous system.
Trauma can carry an ominous tone, we think of it as damaging and the effects everlasting. However, when we view the nervous system as a dynamic and intelligent system that is highly adaptable and also sensitive to context, then healing and growing through trauma is not just possible but accessible and effective.
Traumatic events and accumulations shift our nervous system into a more dominant survival state, this is where we are picking up on sensitive information in our environment that feels and seems similar to the original threat. We react to these stimuli by secreting stress hormones and changing our state. We might change our state to hypervigilance or shut down depending on our learnt stress coping mechanisms. More often than not, we have a combination of different coping mechanisms that lead to certain behaviours like overstimulation, substance abuse, fixations, oversleeping, doom scrolling and so on. Our nervous system is trying to keep us safe and also trying to manage the elevated levels of stress hormones. This survival state has physical and emotional manifestations such as pain, gut issues, hormonal imbalance and hormonal conditions (PCOS, endometriosis), autoimmune conditions (Crohns, rheumatoid arthritis), anxiety and depression.
This survival state and its manifestations are not the truth of who we are, not that we should dismiss it or try to avoid it, rather we need to compassionately meet these aspects that have been wounded and tend to them. Soothe and heal so that there is a level of safety in our mind and bodies. Because of the mind and body connection and due to the nature of our adaptable nervous system we can assist our healing journey through trauma by improving our nervous system, by facilitating the release of trauma from the body and by facilitating compassion. How do we do this? Well, because the nervous system is so sensitive and adaptable we change its context, we bring it back to what it does best - adapt, we allow ourselves to adapt to a new context. These are the different ways to do this:
Therapeutic Bodywork: Massage, Chiropractic care, Neuro emotional Technique, Kinesiology, pelvic floor manual therapy and acupuncture. These therapies restore balance to the nervous system and even help the body to release trauma and heal tissues that have been affected by the stored trauma.
Somatic Therapy: EMDR, movement, shaking, rocking and stroking are all effective psychotherapeutic techniques that allow the body to release trauma and emotions. By doing this the nervous system gets more ‘space’ to build resilience and to adapt in different ways.
Breathwork: Different breathing techniques facilitate the release of emotion and trauma from the body. These techniques can be used as a regular practice to create a context in life where the nervous system can be regularly regulated.
Mindful Movement: Yoga, dance and movement to not just release trauma but to facilitate a new connection with the true self - the self that is often shut away via learnt protection mechanisms. Reconnect with the body through a regular movement practice.
Mindfulness and Meditation: Build a relationship with the self that is true to the authentic self by exploring the inner world. Meditation allows connection with the self but also creates a safe space to explore the difficult emotions and experiences that are often avoided.
A common trauma response is to go it alone. A necessary aspect of healing is collaboration with a guide, a professional - someone who holds a safe space and is well informed and well trained. A trauma informed practitioner makes all the difference in healing and is critical to the journey. Not just this, but a team of professionals is usually required to properly facilitate the different healing modalities required. Collaboration, connection, coregulation and community are pillars for a healthy relationship with the self and also for creating that new context that the nervous system can adapt to. These aspects create post traumatic growth.
Self care practice is essential to stay regulated and to allow what needs to come up and come out the space to do so. A regular self care practice includes journaling, meditating, hot/cold therapy, relaxation techniques and ways to regularly connect with the true self.
Understanding trauma and its impact on the mind and body allows us to create new ways to understand ourselves, our behaviours and our life circumstances. It is the way, and the way is through. Creating a relationship with trauma and creating a lifestyle that supports nervous system regulation shifts us from post traumatic stress to post traumatic growth.