. . . but if we don’t help patients move beyond these early stages of recovery, they’re at risk of staying stuck in the past, repeatedly re-engaging with their trauma.
So in the video below, Bessel van der Kolk, MD shares what can help patients reclaim their vitality and move beyond experiences of trauma.
Not only that, he’ll reflect on how he approached treatment earlier in his career, and why he thinks this (common) approach kept his patients from feeling fully alive after trauma.
Have a look.
I think you’re interviewing Ruth Lanius also. And Ruth’s lab has done a series of very important studies about a default mode network. And it shows that traumatized people in an ordinary state do not access their default mode network. That means, under ordinary conditions, they don’t feel quite at home with themselves. But when they get re-expose to their trauma, that network gets activated. And so you feel alive when you get exposed to your trauma and you feel not alive when there is no trauma going on. So your brain gets rewired.
The example I like to give is that it taught for several years at the Neiman Foundation at Harvard, a program for advanced journalists. And I met all these war correspondents who felt alive in the Congo and in Syria and in Afghanistan, and when they come to this beautiful building in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they feel dead inside. And several of the people who I met at the journalism program are now the reporters that you hear from in the Ukraine. So they feel alive when they’re exposed to trauma and they feel dead the rest of the time. Huge implications for psychotherapists because psychotherapists say to replay the trauma with people over and over again, which is what I did at the VA. It’s a terrible thing to do because it makes the trauma more and more alive and makes everything else less and less relevant. So the challenge is how to help people to be alive without the trauma.
You do it by helping people to engage in rhythmical, physical activities that helps make connections with people right now. I went to Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, very traumatized place. And you see the tango, you say, this is not optional. They had to do the tango to get reengaged with each other and to be attuned to each other because trauma makes you so mis-attuned to people. And then you go to China and you see in every park in China in the morning there’s tens of thousands of people practicing Qigong together or dancing together. These people know something that we don’t do. They know how to help people to feel physically in sync with each other and in tune with each other.
For more expert strategies to help patients access feelings of vitality and reclaim their lives from trauma, sign up for the new program on Mastering the Treatment of Trauma.
When you register, you’ll hear insights and interventions from Bessel van der Kolk, MD; Judith Herman, MD; Janina Fisher, PhD; Pat Ogden, PhD; Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD; and more. Just sign up here.
Take a look here.
Now we’d like to hear from you. What strategies have you used to help patients reclaim their lives from trauma? Leave a comment below.
Thank you for this comment.
I work in Buenos Aires and I know the problem.
I greatly apprechiate Bessel van der Kolk and Peter Levine’s approach to trauma. Their books offer great insight and are very useful. I still think, as a trauma survivor (and whatever), a holistic approach can lead to real healing. We are humans, we not only have a body (nerves and tissues etc)., but we also have a soul and a heart, that also needs to be nurtured. Taking care of and reconnecting with the body is essential. For me, as a had trauma from pre-verbal stages too, underwater swimming (the sound of the water), massage (head, feet, belly too), music resembling the rhythm of the heartbeat and dancing are very soothing. Finding meaning in one’s life is also crucial, the work of C.G. Jung offers me an endless source and foundation for my spiritual journey. Finding the right archetype, the individuation process, myths and fairy tales are excellent sources for spiritual growth. Our inner child (children) love stories, and have a large amount of joy and vitality. They are not only bad. Processing trauma also means unleashing tremendous amount of energy and potential. Trauma recovery is the hero’s journey. ” Amor fati” as Nietzsche wrote.
A way to feel alive – to go to a park, garden or forest and to fully connect with and be fully visually aware when in nature.
Tree of Life Zimbabwe has been working with survivors of severe trauma using exactly this approach. Our survivor-led, group-based approach focuses on facilitating a reconnection with self and community and a restoration of hope.
i am helping my clients with hypnotherapy to find the meaning and belief they have attached to the event and to let that believe go from the subconscious and through NLP and CBT install new ways of thinking and doing things. EMDR is also a great tool to overcome trauma and I usually provide a bespoke audio for my clients so they can create new neural pathways visualizing the ideal situation and hearing the right words they need so they have a better programming replacing the traumatic one.
For trauma treatment I joined an online weekly therapy video chat over 2 yrs ago. I found the app on my iPhone. It’s Brightside Health: www. Brightside .com
Many more treatments are available like; depression, anxiety, grief, codependency. I highly recommend this program.
I would like to find Trauma therapist in Southern California. Orange County area.
Hi, unfortunately, we do not offer referrals, nor do we release any information about the practitioners who’ve participated in any of our trainings.
I can, however, recommend that you check out this database through Psychology Today.
Through this site, you’re able to search for therapists and support groups based on location, and filter through the results based on a variety of factors – specialties, approaches, and methods.
Alternatively, I would also recommend that you review some of our blog posts or free materials and reach out to our community. Many times, both practitioners and patients will comment on our materials, which may help you with what you are looking for.
I am sorry I can’t be of further assistance, but I do hope this is a step in the right direction and helpful in finding the resources you need!
so how do you find a practitioner who can teach you how to feel alive without the trauma??? What do I look for in a practitioner?
have you tried RTT therapy ?
Hi There!
Unfortunately, we do not offer referrals, nor do we release any information about the practitioners who’ve participated in any of our trainings.
I can, however, recommend that you check out this database through Psychology Today.
Through this site, you’re able to search for therapists and support groups based on location, and filter through the results based on a variety of factors – specialties, approaches, and methods.
Alternatively, I would also recommend that you review some of our blog posts or free materials and reach out to our community. Many times, both practitioners and patients will comment on our materials, which may help you with what you are looking for.
I am sorry I can’t be of further assistance, but I do hope this is a step in the right direction and helpful in finding the resources you need!
Thank you.
I appreciate the fact that there is much emphasis on helping the client move from the early stages of recovery and move beyond the experiences of trauma. Most psychotherapists have done more harm by just reigniting the trauma events and causing more psychological damage because they are not well equipped with purpose and direction in the treatment process.
However, please, accept me say that some of the interventions are meant and are well establish in the developed nations where Safety and Stabilization process can be fairly guaranteed. I am in Africa where I practice; I am for example handling a client that experienced repetitive trauma that I refer to as complex (to my definition). This client during the stabilization and safety, she experienced abuse from the person she was expecting protection from. She feels she has to protect him; she feels the law will not protect her (will support the perpetrator); she is vulnerable. I have experienced this many times, this many times brings the process to keep at a stage of early recovery. There is need for more research to establish a tailor-made approach to the therapeutic process in the developing countries for we experience and approach life differently.
However, I truly appreciate that fact that much emphasis is being made for therapists to understand much more about trauma.
I am a patient, not a psychotherapist.
At the age of twenty, in 1978, I was diagnosed with severe bipolar illness and I started lithium at 1.200 mg per day.
At the age of thirty-six, in 1993, I began a serious psychotherapy in Rome with Gianni Liotti, once a week, until 2018 when Liotti died. From 1993 until 2009 the psychotherapy did not work. In August 2009 Liotti went for a congress to Australia and talked about my case with Russell Meares who suggested to work only with episodic memory during sessions. We did that. I noticed during the week episodes that would take me out of the window of tolerance and discussed them with Liotti during sessions.
Very rapidly everything changed and parts that were separated began to integrate with each other.
I am now very well ! I do not take any treatment!
I therefore encourage all psychotherapists to work with episodic memory during their sessions !
Thank you for sharing your experience! May I ask you how you define episodic memory? Also, are you therefore not agreeing with Bessel van der Kolk that therapists should not revisit the trauma as that may simply perpetuate the trauma place and the memories as that is the main place where they can feel alive?
He says we should diminish the trauma place, so that it allows the focus in the present, but you are suggesting the opposite? Have I interpreted your comment corectly?
I use Art Therapy in many of my clients in processing their trauma. They don’t need words, which they might not have, to connect with their feelings.
yes, that’s a lovely way to feel, to connect. We have a creative craft group for older women who received little help when they were being abused. They make beautiful things from from all sorts of bits and pieces, lace, leaves, paint, cloth scraps, stamps, cut out pictures or wrapping paper. And they chat and share refreshments.
what bessel says is so true!
besides a trauma counseller i am a dance pedagogue. there was this young woman from albania sitting before me shivering with her traumatic history. in the end of the session i asked her to please translate for me the albanian lyrics of a song that i was using on my dance class. talking about albanian folk music i heared her say that she never danced the pogonishte (the most common albanian folk dance) because of her extreme social exclusion as a child in albania. so i immediately took my mobile phone, choosed a pogonishte in YouTube and tought her the steps. this really opened doors and we went on dancing many times. there is hardly anything that can bring you into presense and into contact as dancing.
Engage with creativity