As someone who’s been practicing for a while, I’ve seen our view on the treatment of trauma go through substantial development. Our research, theory and treatments have all advanced considerably in the last 40 years.
And as I reflect upon this, I’m seeing 3 waves in the evolution of our outlook.
Looking back at when I first began to practice (in the late 70’s) our understanding of trauma was really quite limited. Of course we recognized the fight / flight response ever since Hans Selye introduced the notion back in the 50’s.
But our prevailing treatment option was talk therapy.
The thinking at the time was that by getting clients to talk about their traumatic event, we could “get to the bottom of” their issues and help them heal.
We were aware of the body and knew it held some power. But few practitioners used it in treatment (except the relatively few who worked with Bioenergetics, Rolfing, Feldenkrais, Rubenfeld, and to some extent Gestalt therapy).
But we were very limited in our ability to explain how body work, or for that matter, a talking treatment, affected the brain (and we had very little evidence-based research for it either). We just didn’t have much of a roadmap to guide us where we wanted to go.
That was the first wave.
Over time, researchers and clinicians started to recognize the limits of talk therapy. We realized that talking about a traumatic event held certain risks. At times, we inadvertently re-traumatized patients, especially if interventions were introduced too soon, before the patient was ready.
We also saw the memory of trauma as more often held in the right brain, the part that doesn’t really think in words.
So we began to use interventions that weren’t as dependent upon talking, interventions like guided imagery, hypnosis, EMDR, and the various forms of tapping.
And as the science surrounding the brain’s reactions to trauma became more sophisticated, clinicians grew to understand more about what was going on.
We began to realize that not everyone who experiences a traumatic event gets PTSD. In fact, most people who experience a traumatic event don’t get PTSD.
And so researchers started to develop studies to determine who did and who didn’t get PTSD. We looked for what factors might predict greater sensitivity to trauma.
And we modified our thinking to add freeze (later known as feigned death) to the fight/flight reaction.
Just adding that piece clarified our thinking about what triggers PTSD.
It also began to expand our treatment options to include sensory motor approaches.
And we started to see how more vastly intricate and multifaceted multiple trauma was compared to single incident trauma.
But I believe a third wave of trauma research and treatment innovations has just begun to crest.
And it’s only come recently.
We continue to see advances in the field of trauma therapy that are opening up more effective methods for working with trauma patients.
Because of all the research that’s been done, we are much better able to predict who gets PTSD and who doesn’t. Not only that but we’ve got a good handle on why certain people get PTSD.
And as brain science has revealed how different areas of the brain and nervous system respond to traumatic events, we don’t think so often about whether trauma is stored in the left vs right brain.
We think in terms of three parts of the brain, the pre-frontal cortex, the limbic brain and the lower, more primitive brain. And we’re much more sophisticated in thinking about which part needs our intervention.
We understand that the lower brain can command the shutdown response, totally bypassing the prefrontal cortex, totally bypassing any sense of “choice” for the patient.
And we see more clearly the part that the vagal system plays in this shutdown response.
We understand more of the role neuroception plays in feeling safe.
Knowing how the body and brain react to trauma opens the door for the third wave.
We are now beginning to use techniques like neurofeedback (based upon but a long way from the biofeedback we used years ago,) limbic system therapy, and other brain and body-oriented approaches that include a polyvagal perspective.
These are techniques I couldn’t have dreamed of when I began clinical practice.
But these are powerful tools that can offer hope to those who have been stuck in cycles of reactivity, shame, and hopelessness.
And now I’d like to hear from you:
What changes have you seen in your work with the treatment of trauma? Please leave a comment below.
Neurofeedback is an exciting avenue of research – and quite possibly the future or the route of futre trauma treatment. However, the training and equipment can cost over $20,000. I work with trauma everyday, mostly complex trauma and having trained in CE, CPT and EMDR, I find EMDR to be the best tool available to me NOW, it is gentle and heals on a deep level.
great article! Thank you!
Over the past decade the expansion of useful knowledge has been enormous. We now are developing assessments and treatment that encompasses the whole being and the connected environment. Thank you for your insight and encouragement.
A helpful, concise update and summary! Thanks
I loved this article, thank you so much!! Although CBT is still the only “accepted” recognised therapy in Australia, EFT is starting to gain traction. I love working with the body-centred therapies and also incorporate heart opening exercises and visualisations as I see a lot of progress when using processes that integrate the mind, body and spirit.
I’m new to this and fascinated. My own therapy is from a paychoanalytic perspective and I’m very interested in how this approach overlaps – concurs and disagrees. Any suggestion for reading welcome!
The disciplined practice of meditation in the Tibetan tradition has “cured” my PTSD over the course of several years. The teachings of being present, self compassion, compassion for others and the path toward waking up are time honored wisdom for human beings managing trauma. The practice is the syntheses of body/mind/ spirit which continues to support new discoveries in neuroscience.
Since training in Brainspotting I feel I am able to assist clients much more effectively. I love working at this somatic level. I can’t recommend this method enough…I love David Grand’s explanations and you tubes.
Brisbane Australia
This is a great summary of the waves of change in our understanding that is leading us to be more aware of the psychobiological processes involved in working relationally with people who carry trauma. The polyvagal work by Porges has helped me regulate myself more readily in situations where I can be triggered emotionally and lose touch with clients, and teach clients simple steps to open their window of tolerance that will enable us to work together with what is arising. Thanks so much for all you bring to us, your work continues to be major platform for my learning, personally and professionally.
TRE by Dr. David Bercelli is phenomenal
This has been my experience as well
I totally agree with Isabella, the main problem being the division between mind,body and spirit and not recognising the person as a whole individual! Whils I think it is brilliant that new waves of therapy and breakthroughs are being explored,I also think that sometimes “back to the future” old therapies need to be revisited and reconsidered,as a neurodevelopmental psychologist(among other things) I am surprised that basic techniques such as NDD(reflex therapy) are not taken into account,still this is a very healthy and exciting forum and I am so glad to be part of it!
I miss here Somatic Experiencing by Peter Levine working with the trauma underlying and trauma feeding physiology, including the Poly Vagal Theory. Absolutely great therapy. I did not meet anything better in the field.
I concur! completely with what you said. Good stuff. Keep going, guys..
Are you familiar with NeuroKinetics? (Important to spell it that way exactly or you get an equipment company in the US or somebody doing some kind of bodywork in Australia.) NeuroKinetics is a traumatology clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I worked there for awhile. I was the communications person who described this cutting-edge trauma technique to the public, physicians, insurers, and media. I will attempt that here.
NeuroKinetics was developed by Dr. Philippe Souvestre, an MD licensed in France. The technique was used in the French Aerospace Agency on astronauts! Did you know astronauts are traumatized–not when they go into space or through a rough landing back on Earth–but by their safe return to their home planet? Astronauts show all the symptoms of physical and emotional trauma: dizziness, imbalance, depression, anxiety, emotional instability, acting-out…. And for no apparent reason.
But there is a reason. In space, the brain begins to mutate. It starts to change in ways it has never done in millions of years…in response to the absence of gravity and an horizon. These are two of the most fundamental ways in which the human brain orients in the world: vertically by sensing gravity, horizontally, which means three-dimensionally being able to move in all directions on the world (walking, turning, etc.). Babies have to do this orienting when they learn to stand up and walk. It is fundamental to brain development.
Gone! in a few weeks living in space.
Shocked–traumatized–on return to the gravitational field of Earth. In a word: disoriented in the central nervous system.
The definition of trauma at NeuroKinetics is the inability of the CNS to adequately process incoming stimuli from the peripheral nervous system. What does this mean for therapy?
It means that massage therapy for the tense muscles coming from stress does not relieve the source of trauma because the messages from the PNS (musculoskeletal system sensory nerves during massage) are not being integrated by the brain in the usual (pre-trauma) way.
It means that verbal psychotherapy doesn’t work because the words heard by the traumatized person’s hearing apparatus are not being received and interpreted by the brain in the way the speaker intends or the way they would be interpreted pre-trauma. So, the astronaut-patient may not be helped or may act out in response.
What does work? What does affect the CNS? Drugs. But they have side-effects that add to the trauma, so in the end they don’t work.
Here is the unique NeuroKinetics treatment for trauma that is both physical or mental, sudden or slow developing….
We know that information travels by two essential means from PNS to CNS: via nerve pathways and by hormonal signalling. The fight/flight/freeze reaction is one typical example of neuro-chemical transmission. But in trauma, these pathways are compromised so that signals do not get through accurately and are not properly processed by the brain.
But did you know there is another pathway?
Russian research as well as European has discovered that cells communicate by what is called “bio-photonic light.” Cells emit light. They “talk” to each other by way of this bio-photonic light. As long as a person is alive, these cells are still communicating, uninterrupted by the trauma or any other means. Think what this means….
In the NeuroKinetics treatment chamber, a patient with (say) traumatic backpain steps onto a platform. Her feet are standing on two detector plates connected to a computer. This person has chronic scoliosis and is in pain due to a motor-vehicle accident perhaps years ago that did not resolve with various physical therapies, chiropractic, massage therapy, etc., and no amount of counseling has helped much. The plates are now warming up, ready to….
…emit biophotonic light into the soles of her feet. There is a pleasant sensation in her feet… In less than thirty seconds, she lurches slightly and is standing up straight for the first time in perhaps years. She steps off the platform, dazed, amazed, saying “What happened? I feel so much lighter! The pain is gone!” I witnessed this. It happened.
I tried the treatment myself. I could feel my feet warm, and then a second later I felt my heart “open” the way it does when having a revelation or emotional insight, and I began to cry. But no thought content. I asked Dr. Souvestre what had happened. I said it felt like I “got” some insight but there was no cognitive content. He said “You ‘got got'”. He later elaborated a bit and said that the light had been transmitted cell-to-cell from my feet to my brain, and my brain “got” the message clearly, completely, re-orienting its processes. I gather this happens during an insight that changes one’s understanding during effective therapy. In my case, I wasn’t in need of therapy so there was no content change, just what felt like a white light going through me.
The point here is that there needs to be a direct, uninterrupted connection between the outside world and the inside world of the brain in order for the brain to re-orient after any kind of trauma. When the neuro-chemical pathways are compromised–as they are in any serious trauma–this reorientation cannot take place and peripheral therapies (those affecting the CNS via the PNS which is compromised) don’t work adequately. The good news is that the biophotonic pathway remains unaffected and messages from the external world to the brain can be transmitted cell-to-cell-to-brain via this light.
NeuroKinetics had an 85% success rate at the time a few years ago when I worked there. This figure was supported by research in the literature as well. Part of the reason for its success is the two-hour assessment that went on for every potential patient. No one was admitted who did not show a strong likelihood of being cured by this approach.
The clinic also used other therapies–acupuncture, EFT, homeopathy, but biophotonic light was the key to success.
This is really interesting. Would it be possible to have references for the literature you mentioned?
Thanks.
Wow! This is a wealth of information. I so appreciate the sharing of your work and everyone else here. This article helped me begin to understand in some fashion more about the nervous system. I had a stroke over 10 years ago and was paralyzed on the left side suddenly. Once you experience this you never take the nervous system for granted. It took over a month for the motor planning center to start to reconnect what I had learned as that child learning to walk. I would be perfect today if I had not got too cocky after I finally could get out of the wheel chair and off the cane, then broke my tibia and fibula so badly had to have surgery. There the connection stopped and for the past years have not only had to heal with metal and screws in my left leg but fell six more times and broke 8 bones. If I had known about this neurokinetics perhaps I might have not been so damaged as I am today, still having tremendous fear of falling. Still just cannot maneuver my motor planning center to navigate sufficiently after I had to have a hip replaced after so many falls. Once that was repaired the motor planning center was again at a loss as to how to change that system again. That stroke and all those falls ruined my body mechanics once again. It has also inhibited prevented healing of childhood traumas as that fear of falling keeps me in the FFF response. Working with vets you can easily understand what causes their slow healing. It is gratifying to work with them to help them overcome their many fears, but still feel like a charlatan my self as I am not as efficient as they become in their own healing process. We are getting there slowly but surely. The marvel of the mind and human body gives me hope. When clinicians get together like this, it brings us all closer to ultimate answers. Thanks for sharing. I will look further into neurokinetics for myself. I long to ride a bike again, or walk the ocean knowing I can get over the fallen trees that block the coast line. I use what was given to me by a neurologist a book called SuperBetter that disusses how games can repair traumas, to a point that they used virtual reality to drop burn victims pain down to 25%. I also encourage truma victims to use certain games to help with flashbacks and find they have helped me in many ways. It was always clear to me over the years that ADHD children were getting a benefit from hand held games that did help their focus in ways that were hard to realize by parents. They have done 30 years of research regarding video games for determining what can help certain areas and what is harmful.
So many questions and so many answers. It is time we do more collaboration to share these ideas instead of keeping them to ourselves.
The next wave will come when people working in the field realise that all of the neuroscience of mental health is a distraction. All of that esoteric ‘knowledge’ makes us sound intelligent and expert but it adds nothing of practical therapeutic value. Everything we need to know is visible in mind, which remains largely ignored by the devotees of science because the mind is not measurable and verifiable using scientific methods. This is why the field of mental health has been stuck in the same place for over a century. This is why mental health problems continue to proliferate and the professions have no answers. It is the belief that trauma is overwhelmingly complex (because of its complex presentation) that precludes us from observing the obvious. The mechanisms of trauma are in fact ridiculously simple. Trauma is emotionally painful experience that the brain has been unable to process, meaning that the emotion and ideas associated with the experience were not discharged. The brain processes experience in mind, where the experience becomes visible to it. If the experience is excluded from mind, due to pain avoidance, it cannot be processed. You want to predict who gets PTSD and who doesn’t? Those who get PTSD are successful at keeping the experience (the intrusions) from mind where it cannot be processed. Those who don’t get PTSD were unable to prevent the intrusions. The intrusions represent the brain’s imperative to place to experience in mind to process it. We don’t need to predict who will get PTSD. We just need to heal them. Trying to understand how the brain processes experience is a waste of time. We don’t need to know, much in the way we don’t need to know about mother boards and CPUs to send an email. In my experience it is rare to come across a trauma that cannot be fully discharged in a single two hour session.
This essay is missing a very important development that has been growing since the end of World War II, music and arts therapies. Unlike so many of the other potential therapies mentioned here, the potential for harm from the various arts therapies is almost non-existent, where all the other therapies listed do have the potential for harm as well as good. A good systems approach to treatment would include these as well. Perhaps the clinical psychology field needs to take the Hippocratic oath seriously.
We’ve gone through many waves of learning about trauma, and we’ve developed many paths and many approaches to healing as we continue to learn more and more.
I have found the work of Ruella Frank, PhD to be a fascinating, effective, RELATIONAL and EMBODIED approach to mental health treatment, and specifically, trauma treatment. Dr. Frank has studied early non-verbal communication and how these earliest of relational patterns can determine things like susceptibility and resilience later in life. She looks at movement patterns between child and adult that get reenacted between therapist and client. These patterns communicate need, create contact or misattunements, and make up the process of repair.
It is the RELATIONSHIP that becomes the medicine, the means of rewiring the brain, the means of restoring health, and learning to trust in Benevolence.
There are no words to describe how boiadcous this is.
We are here for you!
Nice wrap-up, Ruth.
I’m looking forward to the next layer coming forward, to unlock Attachment-Bonding traumas in the mother-baby dyad and family circle (our first relationships)- in the womb, birth experience, neonate, infant and toddler. I think these earliest experiences will open our eyes to CORE INJURIES and EMOTIONS,to how we PROJECT and mirror these in a reciprocal direction, and how to repair relationship–what might be most easily described as broken-heartedness.
If any of your ever have a chance to do research observing mother and infant dyads, you will learn so much about those first months of bonding and how the personalities are affecting mother and infant. I worked as a researcher for my Ph.D at the children’s psychiatric clinic for a year and that benefited me in attachement understanding observing these dyads. We all have a gold mine of learning in this research forums if one can get you foot in the door. I am semi retired but want to do more and more research pursuing answers and reforming truths as new information is gained in the process. Learning for our sake and for the client is truly a gift.
I enjoyed reading your piece on “The Three Waves of Treatment of Trauma.” I have been using new neuroscience research, tools and techniques in my practice with individuals, families and couples. I certainly see the great impact on treatment of my clients, especially professionals who may not believe in therapy at all. Thank you.
Read this post with some tears in my eyes….as I travelled this path on, as they used to say, “the other side of the desk”. Am amazed at 66yrs of age how much I’ve learned, how far I’ve come, and how deeply I’ve healed. Not sayin’ I’m done yet, but…well you understand. So often along the way I met just the right person or persons who held gifts of knowledge, insights for me and offered them with open, compassionate hearts always affirming my ability to find my way….like you, Ruth and NICABM. Thankyou seems faint praise in light of the bigness of the gift! I offer you and all those who walk this path professionally my own deepest gratitude for your persistence, your insistence on believing there are and finding answers…your sisterhood and brotherhood call us home!
September 25, 2012I wish I didn’t have the fraadgrance senadsiadtivadity. It really limadits where I can go and who I can be aruond. The chronic pain is bad enough.Today, I have a lot of pain, which is typadiadcal. Can’t take drugs, so movading aruond is very slow. I have numeradous tools for the emoadtions, but as you well know, they can still be very difadfiadcult. I’m getadting betadter at using them, though.Right now, as I am catchading up on blogs, I’m draped in a few heatading pads for the more painful areas, breath deep, and sip hot green tea. I look out the winaddow and enjoy the vibrant autumn coladors along the mounadtainadside, and the birds freadquentading the feedaders. It’s imporadtant to try and find ways to self soothe like this whenadever the chance arises.Thank you so much for asking.
I am wondering why no one ever mentions the positive contribution that 12 Step programs have made . I look for therapists who are oriented towards the combing therapies of all kinds with all that 12 Step offers. Also , it is my experience that the sex addiction field of therapy offers rigorous treatments for both the traumatized addict and co-addict.
I am appreciating the webinars , last years series as well. I take what I like and leave the rest . I have gained much in the way of healing and am encouraged so much that I can heal . Without 12 Step meetings I don’t think I would even be here. It has been and continues to be the cornerstone of my healing.
Yes Jill you are correct. The many benefits of 12-step groups are often overlooked. They can provide a great sense of belonging and acceptance for some which can slowly work toward healing attachment/developmental trauma through members “loving you until you can love yourself” and the sense of “shared experience”.
There are many other useful benefits in 12-step groups….someday I may endeavor to illustrate these many ways in writing. Cheers from down under
Esta Rose – I recommend you look at the ACES website for the most inclusive definition of “trauma.” Adverse Childhood Events” (ACEs). It’s definitely not all about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) although the lay public might think so. The emotional traumas are perhaps, the most debilitating and long-lasting.
I have enjoyed the audio webinars. They both refresh and teach.
Can someone define “TRAUMA” for me? I am not sure what a “significant incident” or a chronic “significant condition” as opposed to a trauma. It must be subjective on the one hand
or is there another way to define it.
Thank you,
Esta Rose
Thanks for this Ruth. Being in those therapïes earlier were just subsequent traumas or edged them even more into the groves of my brain. Some therapists really caused harm, brought me close to suicide. But this new wave, Bessel van der Kolk speaking in a lecture, not yours, got my hopes up again. I went to the wrong kind of Neurofeedback first. The Zengarmethod. Which claims to influence the brainwaves unconsciously. Since your lecture of Bessel, i did some further googling and had a trialsession with the right kind of NeuroFeedback. To be able to come even close to the 300-400 sessions Sebern Fisher mentioned, i will have to learn the method myself, as i did many other methods, and go into a process of occasionally a practicing with a therapist, a measuring of QEEG and having the discipline to practice myself at least twice a week or more. For many traumapatients, a career, an healthy income never happened. We are living of low sensitive budgets and still have to continue living, often for others. Like i have for my children, grandchildren, even when contact has broken with 2 sons, 3 grandchildren, next monday 4. You once talked about secondary trauma for therapists. You have no idea how it is for children growing up with a mother like that or trying to stay when that mother goes deeper into the process of healing without any therapy. I can just listen to your lectures, read books, do an online workshop and/or buy the equipment myself. i guess in a way with an inability to allow anyone in, possibly being my own therapist is the only safe way for me. Wish the professional field would dive into that more as well into realizing it is like Russian Roulette to have the luck to find a good or even adequate therapist, capable of real help. In an earlier webinar by Pat Ogden i got the impression she also did not know how to treat prenatal trauma. Seems in between lectures she found out how to approach it. Not talking the best suggestion i heard in a long time. I doubt if many therapists would dare that approach. I also loved the approach of a belgian psychiatrist, which i did some 20 years ago, Karel Ringoet, who made his clients/patients go back into the womb, a construction hanging in the deep end of a swimmingpool, which one entered with divinggear. There i was lucky of the psychologist taking a special interest in me. I could connect with her being a mother herself, and through that make a connection with my own imprisonment inutero. The man was ridiculed when giving a lecture at some congress in London at that time. Maybe something for you to look into. Maybe these times are ready for his therapy. I never heard of limbic therapy, but will look into that. Another bodytherapy is Kahunamassage. I had one session, and it reached me, then my therapist fell down the stairs and tore a sinew, and for 4 years she did not heal, after which i had to end the not working talktherapy she replaced it with.
Having survived a nasty auto accident, and begun Somatic Experiencing treatment, I soon realized the symptoms I saw in the children I treated were my own.
It was a major help as I provided OT to recognize that, indeed, these young children had been overwhelmed. A difficult birth, being adopted & other attachment ruptures are typical for my clients. Using body based, sensory informed treatment (combined with parental education) has been my most effective approach. Of course, I must avoid the word “trauma,” lest a parent become traumatized.
The changes are fascinating – and make so much sense. Thank you, Ruth, for being so central in bringing this out much more into the world. Elsa
Looking forward to the wave when practitioners are trained in detailed tissue and fluid hands-on work (limbic therapy), mindful presence, embodiment, advanced energetic and autonomic awareness, self- and co-regulation (+IPNB), secure attachment, verbal trauma-related skills, completion of unfinished motor patterns, thawing of frozen parts (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, etc), cultivation of health after transformation of dysfunction…. When not only healthcare practitioners but also teachers, parents and more of society would have a clue about what is possible in healing. Yes, the healing field is moving in a positive direction. Thank you, Ruth, for what you have created to help spread the word of what is possible now!
Thank you Brigit. I wish that Bowen Therapy would be more closely observed. It was a valuable piece of my recovery puzzle and is now part of my successful practice.
I am very new to this field, but have been drawn to trauma recovery through my work with horses. The opportunities for opening up new treatments are phenomenal, and I hope to be able to be involved in delivering some really good, evidence-based programs over the coming years.
All very interesting. Whatever the method, it has to become safe to fully occupy one’s body. And many of us don’t, whether we’ve been traumatised or not; so what’s going on there? I believe that the shame aspect and the sense of victimisation is a very important element to work with. Our existential dilemmas and the body’s vulnerability can often produce a sense of shame. This may be why Peter Levine speaks of trauma having the potential to open to spiritual awakening; that aspect of our being that is invulnerable – providing we can remain grounded. Donald Kalsched describes trauma as any experience that is overwheliming to the psyche. How much of the psyche’s content is displaced onto the body, who knows? Is this why the body becomes hated? Then the task to have the perfect body or at least a better body becomes the goal – commonly seen in eating disorders. So we not only need to feel safe in the body; but safe in the mind too. How do we fully occupy our mind – the psyche, the soul, our grounded conscious being? All very interesting to me.
I agree with the incredible increase in workplace bullying and victimization. From an anecdotal standpoint, I was the victim of workplace bullying and ended up having what we term as “a nervous breakdown”…I think it more a breaking point in the stress/diasthesis model-the point that tipped things over (I also have significant childhood trauma) and I think that the bullies so to speak are targeting folks who already have baggage. This work is instrumental in so many ways, which is why I went back to school to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner, focusing on trauma. Odgen’s work is critical to being able to move past and incorporate trauma from any situation and release the energy that trauma holds.
Lois, our group members concur with what you are saying.
Working in the field of out of home care, (foster care and residential care)I have studied through the Australian Childhood Foundation, they have great resources on their website. I have working in the field of social care for over thirty years both with adults and children. What strikes me is some of the early learning links into the recent research, we did not always know back then why working within Rogerian principles worked but now we know about the importance of relationships and establishing safety upon the brain. Also, Intendive Interaction (Dave Hewitt) had some amazing results working with people with learning disabilities and autism. My training and subsequent study on neurobiology explains why this was so successful. More research should be done in this area, we need not to work in silo’s but incorporate this knowledge about the brain across other fields.
Working in the field of out of home care, (foster care and residential care)I have studied through the Australian Childhood Foundation, they have great resources on their website. I have working in the field of social care for over thirty years both with adults and children. What strikes me is some of the early learning links into the recent research, we did not always know back then why working within Rogerian principles worked but now we know about the importance of relationships and establishing safety upon the brain. Also, Intendive Interaction (Dave Hewitt) had some amazing results working with people with learning disabilities and autism. My training and subsequent study on neurobiology explains why this was so successful. More research should be done in this area, we need not to work in silo’s but incorporate this knowledge about the brain across other fields.
Not receiving the confirmation email. Your series are of such high value, I don’t want to miss. Please resend.
Thank you
I haven’t worked specifically with trauma…at least with adults. I worked as a child therapist in the 70’s and 80’s. I did work with children who had experienced trauma. I used play therapy and worked with the parents helping them to re-bond with their child. I was in London and was aware of the work John Bowlby was doing. I was working blind. In fact one 3 and a half year old had been kidnapped and wasn’t found and rescued for over a year. I did see the little girl in play therapy, but mostly I worked with the parents. The father was actually blind and I used his blindness as a metaphor the work we were doing. I knew that we had to try to re-build attachment. Well, the story goes on, of course. I just wanted to share a little.
I haven’t worked specifically with trauma…at least with adults. I worked as a child therapist in the 70’s and 80’s. I did work with children who had experienced trauma. I used play therapy and worked with the parents helping them to re-bond with their child. I was in London and was aware of the work John Bowlby was doing. I was working blind. In fact one 3 and a half year old had been kidnapped and wasn’t found and rescued for over a year. I did see the little girl in play therapy, but mostly I worked with the parents. The father was actually blind and I used his blindness as a metaphor the work we were doing. I knew that we had to try to re-build attachment. Well, the story goes on, of course. I just wanted to share a little.
Love your synthesis of third wave approaches. I predict a fourth wave. In my forth coming book i argue against the model of trauma/no trauma. (Based on my forty five years of personal healing–near death at birth, extreme abuse, violence, serious beatings, constant verbal assaults, etc throughout childhood; and upon my professional experience as a psychotherapist, movement teacher and structural integrator). I argue for a model and ideal of coherence–based on the biochemistry/quantum physics of Dr Mae-Wan Ho, I believe we all have a great deal of room to grow in the direction of coherence. Simply defined, coherence is a state in which both individual autonomy and global cohesion are maximized. I argue this applies to the body-its tissues, structure and movement. It applies to our psyche, identities, beliefs and emotions. And it applies to our relationships. Hurray for the right brain, body oriented treatments coming in; but let’s go further. We’re all on the same bus.
Love your synthesis of third wave approaches. I predict a fourth wave. In my forth coming book i argue against the model of trauma/no trauma. (Based on my forty five years of personal healing–near death at birth, extreme abuse, violence, serious beatings, constant verbal assaults, etc throughout childhood; and upon my professional experience as a psychotherapist, movement teacher and structural integrator). I argue for a model and ideal of coherence–based on the biochemistry/quantum physics of Dr Mae-Wan Ho, I believe we all have a great deal of room to grow in the direction of coherence. Simply defined, coherence is a state in which both individual autonomy and global cohesion are maximized. I argue this applies to the body-its tissues, structure and movement. It applies to our psyche, identities, beliefs and emotions. And it applies to our relationships. Hurray for the right brain, body oriented treatments coming in; but let’s go further. We’re all on the same bus.
Thank you for commenting. Millions of snbilig abuse survivors never speak about what happened. They do this because they are loyal to their family bonds. I would suggest that you might try a therapy called EMDR. The trauma related to a snbilig is very scarring. Talk therapy does not help with a violation done by a snbilig.In my life, I am able to speak out because I have lost my entire family (inclusive of over 45 relatives) and my only son. It is time to speak out about this type of abuse and I will do so in my book. It will come out through HCI, April 2013.
My first PTSD case was in the mid-70s. I used talk therapy, visualization, the two chair technique, and some body work to treat her. Since she did not have clear memories of some of her experiences but was having nightmares giving information, I helped her to reframe the nightmares to her mind’s attempt to give her information and help her understand what happened to her. I definitely was flying by the seat of my pants on this one, believe me. Back then, I don’t think anyone in my sphere of practice had ever heard of working the way I was working, even my supervisor. My work was more intuitive than learned skills but she and I learned together and she improved significantly during her treatment.
A few years ago I became certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and have used it with traumatized children, and adapted it for adults to some extent, but I find a combination of treatment approaches to be most helpful when working with people who have developed PTSD subsequent to trauma.
I , too, enjoyed TFCBT until I discovered the SNS and how one can get stuck and still function quite affectively until the crash into the PSNS. That understanding knowing more about Porges work, helped open up a whole new base of information to augment the trauma work. I knew so well about my own traumas but ther connection was not connected to the body. the TFCBT connected it well to amygdala and hippocampus but the nervous system was the other part of the puzzle. the nervous system, the TFCBT and hypnosis with that connection to our subconscious seems to aim to more affective comprehensive healing.
My first PTSD case was in the mid-70s. I used talk therapy, visualization, the two chair technique, and some body work to treat her. Since she did not have clear memories of some of her experiences but was having nightmares giving information, I helped her to reframe the nightmares to her mind’s attempt to give her information and help her understand what happened to her. I definitely was flying by the seat of my pants on this one, believe me. Back then, I don’t think anyone in my sphere of practice had ever heard of working the way I was working, even my supervisor. My work was more intuitive than learned skills but she and I learned together and she improved significantly during her treatment.
A few years ago I became certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and have used it with traumatized children, and adapted it for adults to some extent, but I find a combination of treatment approaches to be most helpful when working with people who have developed PTSD subsequent to trauma.
What exciting time it is for working with trauma. It has changed my appoach to working with trauma to a more body centered approach.
What exciting time it is for working with trauma. It has changed my appoach to working with trauma to a more body centered approach.
Truly with all due respect, you are not the pioneers. The sages who first taught Yoga understood all this. That is why Dr. Bessel van der Kolk repeatedly cites Yoga as the prime tool for trauma recovery. With respect and gratitude.
I agree with Laura Plumb. I am being treated by Dr. Punjab Naram, who treats the Dali Lama, and who treated Mother Teresa. Dr. Naram does not use the word “trauma” very much, but he describes many cases of traumatized people healed by marmas (pressure points) and by mantras and natural remedies. The marma is a form of body work developed over the past 5,000-6,000 years. In a sense, the repetition of a mantra is also a form of body work. The methodology has been passed down in secret to Ayurvedic practitioners, and only recently has information about them been revealed to the public. A fruitful field for study, I’d say. It doesn’t require the radiation of a brain scan, and can supplement what we’re learning through modern science.
I have great respect for Bessel Van der Kolk and the people who contribute to the healing of the damages of trauma. I am an advocate for EMDR,(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) having been trained in 1991 by Francine Shapiro, research scientist who discovered the process. Integrating it with all my knowledge since being in the field since 1982, I find it transformative and goes beyond talk therapy. I also teach EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) as a take home skill, so that people can take charge of themselves in the moment of distress. Mindfulness, Yoga, body work, can all help. It is wonderful to be working in such a field these days. We have so much to offer in healing the pain people suffer long past their trauma.
Many persons observed that now a lot of their colleges and people they know have this traumas but a lot of them can forget about the traumas. The answer how, it is to have a good education, without lies and also be connected to a spiritual, religious side. Yoga, Reiki and natural medicines are also a very good side for them and in case some of such trauma persons can collaborate between them is a more happier possibility. Most of all to concentrate on their mind and stay equilibrated.
Many persons observed that now a lot of their colleges and people they know have this traumas but a lot of them can forget about the traumas. The answer how, it is to have a good education, without lies and also be connected to a spiritual, religious side. Yoga, Reiki and natural medicines are also a very good side for them and in case some of such trauma persons can collaborate between them is a more happier possibility. Most of all to concentrate on their mind and stay equilibrated.
An answer from an expert! Thanks for cottgibuninr.
In the post below our group has predicted more workplace violence on the horizon. If you can acknowledge what we are saying we would love to hear from you.
please post a comment or call me at 25 three, 32 six, 4 four 85.
thanks.
The main changes we see in Stop The Bullies is that workplace bullies are getting sicker, sneakier, and more malicious. It is a sport to these people, and the Targets are getting more injured. Most have to stay in the abusive environment to survive.
We are also seeing more and more people who have been bullied out of their jobs and have NO financial resources whatsoever. Most find themselves with a diagnosis of PTSD, whether or not there was some physical abuse by their bully. This group of people is SINGULARLY unable to pay for treatment. Mostly, bullying happens not to the inept (who simply get fired) but to the conscientious employee who has years and years of civil service with excellent performance record.
Please note: It is not the fired employee who is in this position – it is the employee who is tortured then fired some years later. These are the kinds of situations where people return to the workplace with a gun or knife.
We predict more work violence as long as America does not care about these victims. This is not to condone the violence, but when someone’s ENTIRE LIFE is masticated (i e they lose their job, career, health, health insurance, retirement, home and family) that person is left bewildered and unable to pay for even the simplest mental health care.
While I applaud Ruth and her colleagues for disseminating this information, I hope they spare a thought for our folks – people who were maliciously bullied out of their jobs – They need mental health care as much as the combat vet. Our group members who have been in hand to hand combat and have also experienced one of these bullies tell us that the constant and merciless abuse for 8 hrs a day at the hands of a malicious bully and over a number of months or years – they tell us the workplace bullying is worse – WORSE. WORSE than for 9-11 rescuers – WORSE than being a train driver and have someone throw themselves in front of your train .
Who should pay for their mental health care? If employers had to pay, then they would rehabilitate their bullies or fire them. We have one bully who was not removed until she bullied 24 people out of their jobs. This woman grabbed her subordinates IN BETWEEN THE BREASTS !!
Please could someone respond to this post? Thanks. You can also call me at 2 five 3, 32 six, four 485. Thanks.
I appreciate your series a lot as you keep refining your “up-dates” of our field and I try to stay connected to your work.
I have worked with the freeze response with clients for many years using MBAT, mindfulness based art therapy approach, with specific techniques for generating new resources, and releasing old patterns of response to trauma. I notice that you do not include art therapy in your series. Is there reason why?
Thanks for all you do.
Margaret
I appreciate your series a lot as you keep refining your “up-dates” of our field and I try to stay connected to your work.
I have worked with the freeze response with clients for many years using MBAT, mindfulness based art therapy approach, with specific techniques for generating new resources, and releasing old patterns of response to trauma. I notice that you do not include art therapy in your series. Is there reason why?
Thanks for all you do.
Margaret