WORKING WITH TRAUMA
“This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor….
Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honourably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them all in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
~ Rumi
Psychological trauma refers to the intense experiences of not feeling safe in one’s own body, in relationships, and experiencing the world as an inherently unsafe place to live in.
Traumatic incidents can occur in isolation as single-event trauma, through a chronic sequence of events, or through abusive relationships.
Events and circumstances that may contribute to a traumatic response include sexual abuse, terrorism, war, accidents, physical assaults, emotional neglect, illness, death, and human services work.
It is the individual’s response to that particular event, not the event itself that can result in a traumatic response.
The individual’s history, life stage, context, environment, and available supports all influence whether a traumatic response will follow an event.
For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and it is in the relationship that we can begin to feel the changes of this.
This is why Gestalt Psychotherapy - a relational and mindfulness-based therapy is profoundly valuable - matched with its four pillars, it can be a powerful facilitation for those experiencing the impacts of trauma on the body and mind/soul.
Chronic interpersonal trauma is not recognised by the predominant diagnostic system. As a result, practitioners have utilised the adopted term, complex trauma or complex PTSD to support clinical presentations of this type of trauma.
Complex Trauma presents as a deeply embedded lack of power in the context of relationships, often with exposure to chronic abuse of a sexual, physical, emotional or neglectful nature.
Furthermore, some scholars explain that this manifestation is deeply embedded, self-perpetuating, and resistant to healing, associated with devastating and significant problems in affect and impulse regulation.
Clinical practice suggests that most trauma clients hover somewhat between moments of extreme and uncontrollable arousal, flitting between helplessness, paralysis, and collapse, and experiences that are difficult to be integrated.
Such experiences can produce the fight-flight-or-freeze response. The flight response evokes the sympathetic nervous system to release adrenaline and switches the senses to hyperalert, allowing the human organism to mistake the event or relational interaction as life-threatening.
In this hyperalert state, the heart pumps stronger (tachycardia), adrenaline is released and the body begins to shake as oxygen moves toward the muscles and internal organs to keep the body alive.
Memories and visual or sensory flashbacks can accompany these symptoms, making the experience intolerable. In some cases, the flashbacks make it difficult for the individual to differentiate between the past and present.
The freeze response emerges differently and is usually associated with numbing or disassociation. Often a cessation of movement, an activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, and a shutdown is evoked, preparing the body to feign death.
Waves of shame and despair, feelings of detachment, isolation, and a sense of “not me” can also accompany the freeze response. The freeze response can result in a person losing contact with the awareness of their body.
These responses are replayed and recycled in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, with a decisive impact on one’s physicality.
Extensive somatic consequences can result from unresolved trauma. Although, in most cases, the initial wound was predominantly psychological. Physiological responses can become physical or somatic if the trauma response is chronically activated in a cyclical way.
At the moment the retraumatization occurs, a cascade of physiological changes can take over a person, preparing them for instinctive action and flooding the body with neurochemicals related to stress such as adrenaline and cortisol.
It is the long-term exposure to these neurochemicals that alters the person’s nervous system and body. Panic attacks, anxiety, chronic fatigue, skin disorders, digestive problems, endocrine disorders, autoimmune disease, dissociation testify to clients that have presented with trauma histories.
With many and diverse bodily responses, it is a logical consequence that the body is actively addressed in the treatment of trauma. Recent studies in yoga and trauma suggest that it is possible to support people in becoming autonomous in regulating their systems.
SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF TRAUMA
Chronic health and stress
Anxiety and depression
Addictions
Eating disorders
Dysfunctional relationships
Constant triggers
Memories and flashbacks
A sense of stuckness
Feeling powerless
Feeling numb
Lack of sleep
A dissociation from the body
Relational patterns that are repeated in different relationships
Inability to move forward and the past continuing to replay
Feeling like you are going to die
Feeling a loss of purpose in life
Certain parts of self are unable to grow
Lack of self-care
Experiences are met with resistance and overwhelm
Lack of access to jobs
Lack of access to healthcare
Emotions are unable to be expressed
INTEGRATION OF TRAUMA
Trauma can be integrated in SAFE relationships
Parts of self are able to be integrated together
Shame is a fleeting experience and not the fully-lived experience
Embodiment is supported and consistent
Experiences come and go in cycles without interruption
Relationships are healthy and growthful
Self-care is accessible and frequent
Emotions are fluid and able to be expressed freely
A sense of thriving is possible
Connection to others and the environment is possible
Purposeful and chosen work
Vitality is felt in the body
The sense of balance in life is accessible
Healthy relationship with coffee, food, and alcohol
Healthy relationship with exercise