Can trauma haunt the body the same way it haunts memories?
According to Stephen Porges, PhD, and polyvagal theory, not only does the body remember a traumatic experience, but it can actually get stuck in the trauma response mode.
So even when the threat is gone, the body still perceives danger and its defenses stay engaged.
Why does this happen and how can we help patients with it? Stephen shares some background on polyvagal theory, and gives his own personal experience to illustrate how this works.
Check it out, it’s just 4 minutes.
Dr. Porges: What polyvagal theory proposes is that when an individual is in the situation of a severe life threat and is unable to utilize mobilization strategies or social engagement strategies to get out of that, the neuroleptic features of that challenge may put that person in this very shut down condition that is characterized by that old unmyelinated vagus, and coupled with that would be reduced blood flow, especially blood flow to the brain, and then one might get dissociative features with that. The issue is really not the horrendous experience of the trauma, but trying to make sense of the physiological response that that traumatic event triggered. For many people who have been traumatized, the event is bad enough but the consequences of that event on their physiology and on the nervous system is really what is profoundly changing their ability to adapt in the world.
Dr. Buczynski: If the body experiences physiological change in response to trauma, what might that look like and how could a practitioner help patients recognize and work with those kinds of changes? Well fortunately for me, unfortunately for Stephen, he’s had personal experience with this. Here’s what happened to him.
Dr. Porges: You see, once we use the word “choose” we are getting into this whole idea that there’s some almost option that we have. The answer is once we realize that our body is in our nervous system, it’s making decisions and it’s not allowing us to the table to to argue our point. The example I always like to use is my experience getting an MRI and on a psychological level I was extraordinarily curious. My friends do research on MRI’s and fMRI’s. I thought, “Well this is a really a good opportunity, so I went down. I had to go in to get this brain scan and it was the for a clinical issue. I got on to the into the MRI and I got exactly up to my eyes and I said, “Wait a moment, I need a glass of water.” So I took the glass of water and went back in and they pushed me into the magnet and got up to my nose. I said, “I’m out of here.” I had no idea that my body would respond with a panic attack from being in the enclosed space. People’s bodies respond in different ways and sometimes they respond without them even anticipating, so I had no idea that I had that type of vulnerability. I felt that in the sense my nervous system totally failed me because I wanted to get this test done and for me to get this test done I had to immobilize without fear, which is a very complex situation for the mammal and that’s really the critical point of life is our ability to immobilize without fear near other mammals, me, or other people in situations. I couldn’t do that in the medical environment and I was shocked.
Dr. Buczynski: If we can understand the impact of trauma at the polyvagal level, it can shed a whole new light on how to approach treatment with patience. The key is to recognize how a patient’s body behaves in response to the traumatic experience. That can go a long way toward helping them begin to heal. now I’d like to hear from you. How have you worked with patients who felt immobilized by fear without understanding what happened? What techniques did you find most helpful? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for watching.
How have you worked with patients who felt immobilized by fear without understanding the reason for it? What techniques did you find most helpful? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
I use a drawn body scan first sweeping the body for just sensation and writing/drawing this along side the drawn body on the right of the paper, moving steadily down from top to bottom so as soon as a sensation is detected and described or depicted we just move on to the next body part. A second sweep starts back at the top and notes emotions associated with awareness of each part of the body and are again drawn on the body drawing and labeled this time along the left side of the paper. A final sweep is taken to notice any more global or overarching phyiscal/emotional experience and it is depicted or labeled where ever it seems most appropriate. To end they do an inquiry into what their body needs at that moment or during that day and write that at the bottom of the page. Then the last question is what is their predominant thought at the moment. If we encounter overwhelming emotion or sensation we acknowledge it as described above but gently and relentlessly move on. If narratives come up the person is redirected to the task being reassured that the narrative can be discussed when we are done. This is all done in a simple scribbler of 30 or so pages that can serves as a container that can be opened and closed at will. It also serves to show how the process is changing physical patterns of body experience and as a baseline against which various psychological and physiological interventions can be assessed for their impact on real body experience. The process does much to release unresolved energy in the body and provide a vehicle to master trauma responses.
Thank you so much for your sharing of ideas and practice on the topic. I often deal with the effect of low serotonin creating perceived trauma but with which there are no life experiences that would seem to warrant it. Much of your information has been useful for these clients.
The teachings of S. Porges and P. Levine added a whole new layer of understanding to my psychodynamic psychotherapy and since my awareness as my ability to contain panic and freezing widened a lot
I find it is often helpful for people to realise this kind of fear response can be leftover from prenatal or birth trauma. Just acknowledging that this exists can be liberating for many who have not been exposed to this concept and have suffered their whole lives without knowing why. They often then have memories or a sense of resonance with what happened back then and can begin to differentiate from who they were as a helpless, dependent little one, and instead orient to their present-time safety, resources and relational field.
I have always thought that many problems that we have are from the birthing experience.
Stephen, could you please explain the brain mechanism that affects the right hemisphere and caused me a left sided stroke motor planning center. I am noticing two of my clients who have trouble with drooping eye on the left side. It scares me as I had curtains over the left eye when I was a toddler and remember them to this day and had them for a good part of my youth. Later in life got right sided migraines and eventually the stroke that affected the left side. I know they are related but am very cautious with client and helping them to be careful of their healing so as not to affect their health in any fashion. So far I have been successful but know that when I am under stress my left side still weakens, even though I learned how to walk again after a few months, but never fully recovered due to broken leg that stopped the healing process. Due to years in the profession, I know all that lead up to my history of a damaged nervous system but want to assure my clients are not overwhelmed. The more information regarding this nervous system shutdown, I know I might be able to sync my thoughts better as to how to help the clients better as this seems to be my missing link as to why a abuse history might lead to weakness on the left side due to the damage on the right side of the brain. They found nothing related to the cause which baffled them all. No one believed what I know to be true, but do not know why the right side of my brain caused the left sided paralysis. Simplistically why would early infancy stress cause the right side of the brain to have faults. I looked it up but all they said was something about the carotid artery feeds that part of the brain. I think I must be missing something either out of ignorance or over thinking the body responses. When I do brainspotting my body responds without my awareness, but I have not noticed it when I do with clients. I have seen the foot move frantically under hypnosis, but so far no one has put a connection to their subconscious thinking which I find odd as if they are related differently to the internal subconscious response, so I have not feedback there. I just feel I am missing an important link. I know my pituitary has a growth on it but no growing for years, but it is small. Can this affect the client or even cause the stroke. the neurologist had no time to help when you have a stroke. They are only focused on getting you walking again and out of the hospital when I was there for three weeks as it is. I could never understand why they did not seem to have a curiosity. So much for the medical field, who saved my life, but not my psyche. The problem caused me to remain in Fight, flight and freeze due to the motor planning center that caused me to fall 6 times and break 8 bones. I am almost over the FFF but it has taken so long and I will never ride a bike again or have not been able to run for over 13 years or go for wonderful long walks on the beach as I cannot figure out how to get over the logs that come up to the water causing a roadblock for me to get over. It is not that I cannot physically get over them, but cannot figure out how. Same thing with curbs. I want so assure none of my clients ever have to go through what I had had to go through due to severe early trauma. I work a lot with children and so enjoy seeing them finally open up and the face softens and they get bright eyed finally telling of the violence, for example, they were exposed to. They change over night. i guess that is why I am actually asking this question. I tried to dicipher from your book but did not succeed. If there is a chapter that I missed, perhaps just to guide me to it, if you would not mind.
BTW, the stroke was an blood clot that damaged and can be seen in the frontal cortex in middle of brain, quite large, yet nothing was found to have caused the blood clot. Wanted to clarify this in case anyone has some advice or thoughts. I am not sure why the clot was caused by the history of violence in ones life.
I am a retired Nurse, recovering from early childhood Trauma.
It is my understanding that the Brain functions in a crossover pattern.
The Left side of the body connects to the right Brain,
and the right side of the body connects to the left brain.
Yes, I understand this but am curious as to why the right side of the brain reacts more to trauma as opposed to the left brain or this true? My left brain seems to be unaffected thus far. Like I said the left eye reacted to trauma early on when I know it was the right side of the brain was affecting the left sided eye neglect. It also caused my left foot to move when I did brainspotting to address trauma. Not the right foot but the left which is what I see in clients. This is why it gets confusing to explain. I realize this is not a forum to address health issues but all I am seeking it understanding of the polyvagal and how it triggers the brain and vice versa especially since they have found early childhood experiences affect the client and how it has manifested in their body might be helpful to give them exercises to help them heal. A homeopath taught me Heaven and Earth exercise and I find it helpful to do so bilateral exercises that do seem to help which I would imagine helps the left and right hemisphere coordinate which are what exercises i encourage them to try and connect to their body responses to what help them calm.
Hi. Right hemisphere is storage for emotional memories amongst other things. RH is more related to emotions – and I think empathy? than lh. More info can be found in most modern neuroscience texts including Cozolino 2017
I have researched the emotional memories but how it the polyvagal nerve works in this process is my focus of research, probably given the health issues I had for a lifetime that did affect the lower extremities, the left eye, the prefrontal motor planning center, right sided migraines and how this all connects for a person. If I was younger I would become a neurologist now that I see there are answers to be had there. Thanks, Helen.
Cancer needs to be heard..tell me more
Thank you . This is such a beautiful thing for clients and us all! to understand –
Only by identifying the neurobiology can we begin to enlarge our capacity as
humans. At a meta level – it makes me wonder how we emphasize “survival of the fittest “
part of the human story (to the exclusion of the survival of cooperation) has amplfied
this shrinking (if you will) of our capacity as humans.
Its fun to imagine how these contributions send waves into planetary healing.
This was helpful and thank you for sharing. What I would like to know if there was anything used beyond the cognitive brain that you used to help this calming, what somatic experiencing was helpful to use adjunct to the thought changes. Like I said I notice people from trauma often shake their left foot when telling their story and I am not sure if this is the somatic answer as they never say they are running but it looks like they are runring but claim this foot shakes often every time they are just sitting at home. I do not remember that when I was young or before the migraines but when I learned brainspotting, my left ankle/foot started moving involuntarily. At the time I thought is was due to the residual left sided paralysis trauma, but now I am beginning to think it has more to do with my hemispheres dominance up in the opposite side of my physical response. Somehow I know this is a possibility, but when I am afraid to ask my neurologist as oftentimes they are not collaborative as I would hope and my primary has retired. I still find the medical profession patronizing instead of collaborative. I had my last doc for 30 year and could get some answers but this one came after she retired when I started to observe clients with noticeable weakness in the left side of the body and is there certain trauma that affects different part of the brain. Why do people have strokes on different sides or the brain. I remember hearing or reading that more and more people are having brainstem strokes due to this polyvagal nerve. How can we strengthen this nerve beyond the socialization using somatic experiencing? I know that Feldenkrais has some answers, I hope this forum might add a Feldenkrais specialist to help. I realize I have those books in my library, so this will be my next stop and hope other folks have some answers, especially Stephen Porges or at least the chapter to focus on. I shall continue on my search possibly with the acupuncturists for knowledge as it seems to me that the latter are sticking needles in the nervous system and have a better understanding perhaps of how this nervous system works. I have one in my building, think I shall corner him. I joke that would it not be exciting that all we have to do is rub our tummy and tap our head to rebuild this nervous system, as this exercise is in a game I play with my child clients called Stop, Relax and Think. Maybe I should try this with my adult clients when they are feeling stress escalate. Peter Levine says when they dissociate to have them change their focus by just standing up. I have been doing this along the way as well, anything to stop the pattern of harmful stress reaction. We need a dance and music therapists on this forum. I have used the listening to female voices instead of the lower drum beating music. It has helped two of my clients who have noticed this phenomenon on their own and listen to the female voice to calm down. For both, they found the panic subside. I work with severely abused client, so any understanding is welcome for them and for me personally. thanks to all of you for your stories. I love learning. It helps with past traumas as well, just that we are not in this alone solving the wonders of the human body.
Sadly six months after witnessing extreme violence (gun involved violence) between my parents I was returned to my parents (something that would never happen today). Every single time they had an argument I relived the experience manifested by hearing the gunshot going off (identical to the original experience). Whenever a balloon broke or a car backfired I had extreme responses like ducking or my heart rate would increase. All of these responses may seem almost impossible to overcome. I requested at age 15 to see a psychiatrist (one may assume I had something more serious going on). He said, and I quote, you are a well balanced individual with a vivid imagination!!! How helpful is that! As it turned out, very helpful. I realized from his feedback that my internal reaction was due to perceived threats that were no longer there. I realized I had the power to turn off those perceived threats. So when my parents argued and the physiological response started I would calm myself and tell myself that “what happened was in the past, what I was hearing was not real, and will never happen again exactly the same way”. Something Naomi Duffield referred to in her comments. Small huh? But for me it put the trauma into perspective. After three attempts my brain no longer recreated the gun shot sound in my head. I recreated my response during the other perceived stresses and overcame the responses enough that I felt empowered, less vulnerable. It has been 47 years and I can’t say I don’t react to startle stimulus; but it is far more normal. I try to teach self talk on calming oneself during stressful moments. Helping people recognize what happened to them is a snapshot in time. I’m not a clinical social worker but I am a social worker who does work with a vulnerable population of children who suffer multiple traumas. And I worked with teens who turn to addictions to drown out trauma and abuse. These are tough people to engage, and even harder to teach the concept that hope and change are possible. But I can assure you change is possible and certainly a key in helping people move forward.
Your story is most helpful. Thank you for sharing.
I am a patient who hasn’t sought help. After reading so many options and views, this makes me even more confused as to which will work for me. Perhaps I should try somewhere, but where ? And how long before I get the right treatment ? In essence, I’m going to have try until I find the right therapy which might take forever ? Or much sooner? Thus, I’m stuck to even start with scepticism
Check out Mark Waldmans NeuroWisdom
It is confusing but so is the body. EMDR can be very helpful or somatic experiencing. I have found hypnotherapy or guided imagery to be healing at a subconscious level but I think we have to heal on many levels. That is why it is confusing, but so is the unique human. I would fear if I had a therapist that said they had all the answers as you are the expert on your body. They are guides with full awareness that it takes a lot of time and avenues to improve. Part of the problem is even though we work through those early traumas, in society today, new traumas are coming at us but all these techniques prepare for this when if you did not start somewhere it might be harder. I trust all the many healers expertise to help with healing. Just a little good counseling does help a person handle daily situations beyond what they handled before they walked in. So many say, they notices the fight flight freeze was triggered but now they have a means to counter so they do not get stuck anymore. It is wondrous.
I work with addiction and Trauma which go hand in hand.The techniques I use are EFT. (tapping) and Matrix Reimprinting and found these extremely beneficial with those I work with but I may also be bias as they are the same techniques that cleared my traumas and allowed me to obtain more than 20 years in recovery and the capacity to embrace and love life again.
I have worked with those with Conversion disorder, anxiety and DID and using relaxation, meditation along with hypnosis, and imagery works well.
I have used mindfulness techniques and meditation paired with focusing and psychotherapy
Yes I have found mindfulnes to be effecrive in dealing with early childhood trauma and subsequent addiction. Visualisation and imagery of the emotion coupled with breathing into the emotion and object assisits with addressing the bodies automatic response and assists in regualtion at a deeper level. In these instances I found with indigenous clients a narrarive approach is l less useful helpful.
If you can enable clients into diaphragm breathing – just 6 of them – it can calm the trauma response in the body – and enable return to centre.
Also to take note of early warning signs – in some cases trauma response builds – and you can enable self awareness and self compassion.,
Also the notion that sometimes all you can do is watch yourself go over the waterfall, rather than stop yourself going over the waterfall – engenders patience and self compassion
Nice
Have the microchip checked and then removed. It seems googling Magnus Ohlsson succeeded doing that. It is claimed that 1/3 of americans have been RFID microchipped without their consent or knowledge. And then there are targeted individuals. They do not need to implant anything but can cause that effect by psychotronic weapons from outside one’s home, even precise kill a person in a group in one’s home. It often saddens me when all these new suggestions come up from Neuroscience, traumatherapy on how to heal, when such horrific things are daily happening and some of us, being extreme empaths through trauma, feel everything happening in our world, with having as little knowledge about what exactly as when preverbal trauma is involved.
I first of all acknowledge how they are feeling by feeding back to them what I am noticing about their posture facial expression and difficulty speaking etc and ask if this is occuring for them…If they can nod I would then ask if we can try an experiment which might help them to feel calmer…I usually get a nod. Then I would ask them to put their hands on their belly, focussing on their belly and describe diaphragmatic breathing asking them to try that. This usually helps and I do a guided imagery with them on creating a “Safe Place” within.
When they are more settled I explore with them what was happening for them and develop discussion around their response.
As a Rubenfeld Synergist, I work directly with the body and combine touch with talk to really focus on here-and-now sensations, emotions, and whatever stories come up to guide the session and where my clients are ready to go. As the body leads the way and we continually come back to real time sensation, we can move into safe places of discovery and allow old traumas to be heard and finally be met with support and understanding. Even when the client is unclear about what happened in the past, the body never forgets and the client knows the sensations themselves (like holding, tension, lack of sensation) with great familiarity. We allow those places of tension to speak, say what they need, what they know. It is quite beautiful and transformative.
Holographic Repatterning (developed by Chloe Wordworth) now known as Resonance Repatterning(.net) has helped me clear several layers of blockages, triggers, panic attacks, shut downs, vengence impulses, riot responses, immobility, intolerances, resignation, apathy, hives, etc… though it is also a system that sources out to other supportive practices/practitioners and healing modalities per one’s individual momentary priority + sequence recovery needs
Chloe Wordsworth 🙂
Can be used as a Self-healing technique, with in-person clients, and long-distance healing. Some utilize it with injured animals.
I use a combination of TRE and energy psychology tools such as EFT, MRE, etc.
For me TRE was the missing link. Allowing the muscles to shake off whatever needs to be released and at the same time calming the nervous system, opened up the possibility of deep healing and other tools being more effective.
I used an explanation that this is not a cognitive response, but a body response. I encourage the person to get in touch with a feeling of discomfort in my session and then tell them to sit with it – afterwards, do deep breathing to help them regain their equilibrium.
Fantastic ! I found this video personally very helpful as I have had low blood flow to the brain etc. Also loved the thread of comments ! I replied to Michelle and Ina de Graaf specifically.
According to Nicolya Christi, “All trauma is caused by empathic disconnect, and healing trauma is created by empathic reconnection”.
Ho’Oponopono helps, as does IFS (Internal Family Systems) as does “Loving What Arises” (unraveling the overstimulated nervous system = ego) Matt Kahn at truedivinenature.com and
Karmic Genetics – See PAST FORWARD
Ann (a lay person)
I love Ho’Oponopono. I will look into the book you mentioned.
I have used my own model “Experiential Unity theory and model – it is an integrative model, combining mindfulness, movement, but also a tool that reflects back current preoccupations of the client in a visual on the board – visuals have the power to bypass the conscious mind and dip into the unconscious – a focus of the tools is generally a metaphor (the language of the soul) that helps the client work through situations where they feel frozen and stuck – I have witnessed significant transformation through this combination of techniques in both group therapy and individual work.
I try to explain to my patients that in order to communicate with our brains we need to use our senses, that the brain will always try to impose a response to danger. We therefore need to convince the brain that while there is danger we are dealing with it. One method that I teach is to blow up a balloon, write down the problem on the balloon and then burst the balloon. This gives input through all the senses and can give one a sense of empowerment at having dealt with the problem.
In working with my own childhood trauma and clients as well, the use of recreating the story through generating a “fairytale” that is similar to the trauma event with a protagonist that is similar to the victim. Then, at critical junctures, allowing them to recreate the endings for the main character with anew story can reach the scared child. Children love the ritual of storytelling. I also use art therapy GIM and mindfulness techniques to practice outside the trauma flashback and physiological kick-in. Powerful work and thanks to all for your ideas.
After undergoing a Pre and Perinatal Psychology class, Stephen’s MRI experience has twice reminded me of how huge the experience coming down the birth canal is….for everyone. Having an MRI is so similar to going back there!–Being pushed back into the birth canal! The body, which is the subconscious mind, holds on to the memory of traumatic situations like a bull-dog because it reacts to the similar situations–by reproducing the same chemicals of fear. This makes a grown-up *show up* like a baby…and perhaps be as shame-filled as a baby, so as to blush, and freeze like a baby and stay frozen during that MRI too.
What still amazes me about early trauma is dissociation…because you cannot report on what happened, because in a way, you were not *there*. Each recapitulation of that lack of control then, is like a black hole, you can only guess about it….and nobody believes the insights you have about it, because you cannot see the whole story to tell of it.
Effective techniques I use are GIM and domestic experience among others.
Can you tell me what domestic experience is? I know what GIM is but haven’t heard the other truck thanks
I have been successful by using psychoeducation. I found that guiding the client towards awareness of the process at their automatic response level and providing them with strategies to regain control (i.e. breathing deeply) – also explaining what this does at body level. It is a slow process but it usually works.
Thank you. Very true. I appreciate how well you articulate the theory and physiological response.
There are so many professionals who have such insightful ideas on this website. Does anyone have any success with working with severe and excessive blushing/flushing, when speaking in a group, one on one, even on the phone sometimes! I am 46, it is so not cute, and practice or exposure does not help. I am confused when the studies indicate that when in fight/flight mode, our blood flows away from the brain (head?) – I wish that were the case for me. Thank you for any thoughts. I have tried clonodine, betablockers, eradicane, CBT, relaxation, SE. I want the surgery. People make comments and it’s not nice. It’s exhausting and draining. The long kind takes hours to go down.
I wish I could ask this question to the Stephen’s, Peter’s, Ron’s of the world.
SSRI”s help 50%.
Have you worked on shame reduction with the concepts brought to us by Brene Brown? Perhaps personal concerns about judgment from others helps to trigger the body into the body response often reserved for embarrassment. Somehow a 46 year old who cares enough to engage in a level that brings about flushing seems appealing, but given you are not okay with it, I thought of Brene Brown.
I will look up Brene Brown. Thank you so much.
Never appealing. Some people ask if I need the hospital, friends who try to be helpful say I can control it with my mind, and that I’m just not doing that. My husband told me once (it happened at a mall when we ran into someone) that he ‘felt uncomfortable for me’.
No doubt shame must fall into place somewhere. I am on a healing journey for developmental ptsd, don’t remember a lot, but somehow this piece must be lifelong.
I suppose the blonde, fair part doesn’t help much, so less appealing and more scary for people I guess. I can still talk, but not as well, and then rush it best I can.
Apparently a young man took his life and indicated that was the reason, he was tired.
The parents have a website and all. I’ve been a school psychologist for 22 years, so you can see why this should have gone away by now. I likely should have picked a different profession. One Assistant Principal told my Principal that I make others feel uncomfortable at IEP meetings, because of it. All other parts of the job have been encouraged. Thank you for comment!
Hi Michelle,
I feel for you, and I am sending you good wishes for your healing journey. Several things come to mind, foremost among them is deep empathy for you. I’m glad someone referenced the work of Brene Brown, as I, too, sense the presence of shame. One modality that might help is Internal Family Systems; it’s parts-based, and they like to say that all parts are welcome. In my experience of shame, there’s a part that is criticizing and shaming and a part that is being shamed. Both need time and attention and deep, deep compassion.
You wrote that since you’ve been a school psychologist for 22 years it should have gone away by now, and I found myself heartily disagreeing with you. Being a facilitator for the healing work of others isn’t the same as receiving the support you need; it’s not the same as doing your own work. And it’s not a matter of “knowing better”. Our understanding of the brain and the way it processes experiences has shown that cognition (intellectual understanding) alone does not heal.
I also felt very protective of you when you wrote about how you’ve been told that you make other people uncomfortable by your physiological responses. Over and over I’ve read that we can’t make other people feel things… the upshot being that we are not responsible for other people’s feelings (I’ve become very fond of the saying that what other people think of you is none of your business.)
You are not responsible for the feelings of the people around you or their responses to you. The people around you have a choice. I wish the people around you had chosen to respond to you with compassion and empathy.
More than anything I want you to know that you’re not alone in experiencing such uncomfortable feelings. And again, I send you good wishes for your healing journey.
p.s. Thought of this later, hope it’s helpful. Occasionally I stutter, and one of the things I’ve recently tried doing is to name it in the moment. So I’ll be in the midst of talking with someone, and I’ll start stuttering, and I’ll say, “I’m stuttering” or simply “stuttering” and I’ll continue to talk. Somehow it helps me – I think in part it’s because the act of naming it makes me feel empowered. Even if I keep stuttering, the fact that I’ve acknowledged it to myself and to the other person helps me feel like I’m raising my awareness of it and I feel less at the mercy of what I fear the other person might be thinking. Lastly, I’m wondering if you have tried or would consider trying hypnotherapy?
Thank you so much.
Yes, the naming it was suggested by one counselor.
He said if I just said, “Oh I’m beginning to flush/blush, don’t worry – that just happens – and then go on.
I could NEVER do it. I ALWAYS secretly hope no one notices but deep down I know they do. Neck, face etc.
Hypnotherapy – some phase of this I believe, imagining, visualizing etc. The hard part is it happens in so many different situations, in situations I wouldn’t even have expected.
I am now practicing Inner bonding (Dr. Margaret Paul), which may be similar to IFS, and that has, by far, helped the most with other ptsd symptoms (hypersensitivity, reactive behavior, excessive worry). And, I most recently am trying mediation with Emily Fetcher’s program online and feel this may help a lot. I hate thinking about all the horrible times in high school, college, as a new psychologist – but that’ over now – and I can use the inner bonding actually to help with the obsession about the past. My supervisor once told me (because he asked me to speak to his college class) – “stop turning red already”. I guess a lot of people really think it is under our control. I wish.
It helps to write about it. Thank you.
JT What a beautiful response to Michelle !
i understand your suffering. “the work” from Byron Katie is a way out of suffering. have a look
thank you.
Michelle, like JT, I have experienced IFS (Internal Family Systems) with a friend who is a psychotherapist. In the presence of an “expert/teacher/professional/therapist” (the rapist!) I usually shut down/freeze but I was asked to be present to what is present, such as embarrassment, nervousness and ask that aspect of myself to temporarily step aside to get to the real “me”. (I imagined extreme nervousness go outside into the sun). Then came doubt/judgement etc. When all these aspects (my childhood coping strategies I presume) stepped aside, I got some revelations. Afterwards, when I called the “aspects” back in, I perceived them on stage, taking a bow. I clapped and there was an encore !! It made me laugh and that relaxed my nervous system !! I found a card with four girls bowing and I keep that on my desk to remind myself these aspects are actors on my stage, serving me, but they are not the real me. Matt Kahn, True Divine Nature, says the ego is an over-stimulated nervous system…to welcome all aspects home like you would a hurt child…so, from this point of view, your blushing needs to be welcomed and embraced, not pushed away… It’s counter-intuitive but it WORKS. I did it myself with Cancer…seeing it, not as an enemy, but an aspect of myself needing to be heard. Have you asked “red, blushing, flushing” what it needs from you? Matt also says, if you can’t love that, then love the one who can’t love it. It’s so KIND and gentle. Perhaps if you say “hello” to it in the mirror and practice your speech, watch blushing arise and say, OUT LOUD, “hi, there you are again – you have my full attention – you’re really quite charming in your own way – welcome home to my heart”, even though you feel the opposite ! What have you got to lose as you’ve tried everything to make it go away. Paradox. It’s really integrating ego into soul, rather than trying to kill it. It’s ego’s job to protect you and it is doing that by causing your face and neck to go red, so if you reassure it, it can relax and unwind. And, like JT says – “what other people think, is none of your business..they’re actually too busy thinking about their own issues”. Another thing to try is : Ho’Oponopono – saying to your blushing “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you”. One more thing you could try: Silently sing the word HUuuu – it’s a love song to God and it works wonders.
Michelle….I have the same problem.and I have never yet found a solution.
It’s deeply painful feeling of having absolutely no control over your body and feeling deeply ashamed
and you don’t really know why…
Exactly.
Perhaps a mineral imbalance like low potassium
It is like they say in our training with the webinars, it is necessary to have a host of tools as everyone is unique. Some work best for some folks while those same tools are not right for someone else. I like to present many different ideas for them to try. What I personally have found helpful are also a different set of tools, i.e. EMDR was helpful to help find out the causes of the event or a combination of hypnosis to help with grounding using an anchor for calmness couples with a word association for the event: lately I love brainspotting as a very specialized part of EMDR that I have found the most helpful.
I combine it with hypnosis or guided imagery since this connects it to the body sensations, nervous system and cognitive and subconscious understanding. As far as this shame in speaking, there was an excellent book long ago called Soprano on My Head by Eloise Ristad. She has passed away but I used her techniques for people with stage fright. The people I used it with have found the techniques helpful in acting or performances. These techniques never worked for me personally where EMDR did help be get closer to performance anxiety which is connected to the abuse I had to endure with my own mother’s smothering and negative thinking. Once I am through that, I think I might be able to perform again, despite a stroke that left me not as balanced in that skill as once had.
Ina de Graaf and Michelle – I came across a technique for “Shedding the Coat of Shame” – Summary: Removing Compacted Toxic Residue from Cellular Memory –
which you can find on PAST FORWARD – Karmic Dictionary – Past Life Causes of Present Life Disorders / Past Life Carryovers, Karmic Genetics. Unfortunately I can’t remember exactly where I found this technique on the huge site ! There is also one for “Panic Attacks” and “Trigger Desensitization Plan”
I personally got great relief, understanding about Fibromyalgia, which is a mysterious condition in medical terms.
Michele
From our neuroscience research what you are experiencing is a coping mechanism your
Subconscious mind is utilizing to distance your focus from an emotional trauma that is connected to a
Core trauma going back to early childhood. This core trauma does not reside in your
Physical brain, but rather in the energetic / quantum field. Coping mechanisms are basically addictions that
Subside whenever the core trauma is erased / cleared. Reframing or desensitizing never clears
A core trauma. Dr. Gabor Mate’ from Canada has an excellent 18 minute video / YouTube on early
Childhood trauma and addictions. In our research when we permanently erase core traumas in the quantum
Field the coping mechanisms disappear.
Hi Michelle,
I too have the flushing thing. I suffered a horrible medical trauma, including a complete hysterectomy against my wishes (though I had to give approval, it was life or death but I was still cohegent and they had to have “permission”) that triggered the onset. Initially, I thought the flushing was simply chemical Menopause, which I was told would go away within a couple of years at the most, or sooner if I took bio identical hormone replacement, which I tried but it literally made me feel insane. I tried everything I could think of to get rid of them (the hot flashes) which came with a panic attack right before being triggered to flush. I would have these initially up to 50 or 60 times a day then finally tapering off to about 10 per day on average for about a year. After another year I noticed that they started to come only when I had the beginnings of a stressful thought (I was able to figure this out through in depth study of myself and the timing of the flushes) be it talking with someone/sharing something important but I didn’t think they were understanding to working on something and being upset with myself for not figuring it out as soon as I would like. So, yes, I think it definitely originates in the primitive lower (stress response) part of the brain, in the shame/embarrassment part of the brain. This all happened four years ago – then six months ago I noticed tingling and pins and needles in my toes and fingers and then vision distortions, bright flashing lights, afterimages, halos around lights, etc. I went to my GP doc who referred me to an opthamologist who ruled out vision issues and referred me to a neurologist. The neurologist ruled out all the “big scaries” (brain tumor, MS, strokes, etc) and said he believed me but just couldn’t figure out the cause (he even sent me to a neuro-opthamologist who said I needed to see another specialist, but I was DONE). I kept asking the neurologist if it could be some sort of deficiency, and he kept saying he really didn’t know what deficiency would cause these reactions until I started asking him to look at my former blood work and cortisol levels (we are all truly intuitive about our own health if we listen). He then looked at me and said, “well, a B12 deficiency has x, y, z symptoms…” I said, “you mean the same symptoms I’ve been having?” He ordered a B12 blood test and my results came back at 230 (Extremely LOW). Low B deficiencies affect the myelin sheath around nerves, affecting the nervous system. High cortisol (or prolonged exposure to toxic stress – locked in trauma) provokes the deficiency (the nervous system becomes exhausted (adrenal burnout) – the brain gut is affected, etc). He prescribed B12 shots and I started taking along with the shots, proper amounts of methylated folate, thiamine (the high absorbency kind) and selenium, potassium, magnesium glycinate, probiotics with prebiotics, fish oil, DIM and stinging nettle root. I know every BODY is different, but for me, these supplements along with other body awareness practices (like if I’m flushing while speaking with someone – and with me it often comes with major sweating dripping down my face) I fan myself, laugh and say, “oh, don’t mind me, I’m just having my own personal Summer!” So, how am I now? I’m down to 1 shorter flush per day on average, with really mild or no feeling of panic right before and minimal sweating. Sometimes (when I’m relaxed) I don’t have any flushing at all!! It truly feels like a miracle!! Now, when I do sense it coming on, I immediately engage in soothing self talk (internally if I’m with people) which I feel calms me down, and then I engage in actively going into my “upper brain” through breathing, or distraction exercises. I said all of that to say, I feel your pain, I’m sorry it’s happening to you and you are not alone in this experience. I too had people comment on it and not understand or make me feel like I should be “over it” (the flushing) by now. My goal is to stay in my “upper brain” with people at all times and extend grace, then I stay healthy, calling my body up to be healthy holistically. Thank you for sharing with us. This is my journey (in brief) with flushing and my hope is that there might be something in my story that will help you in yours.
Hi Katie,
Eat organic kale, one sprig a day. It will regulate the estrogen deficiency. Accept where you have been, ie, the total hysterectomy, you could not help it, it’s not your fault.
Many women suffer after this surgery bc they loss such an important set of organs in more way than one.
Know you ate important, accept where you’ve been, accept those who made what they thought were the best decisions for you and then decide/choose you are not going to be hurt from this again.
I use this reasoning with my patients from the start, so that they can learn to accept the big bad uglies, so that they can move on.
You will be ok.
Candis Firchau, LPC-S
Thank you, Candis. I am OK. 🙂 Best regards, Kate
I work with individuals with developmental disabilities and although I am not specifically aware of a situation where I have worked with someone who is immobilized by fear, I am certain that this happens with folks I work with who often aren’t able to explain how they are feeling and have to find other ways to communicate their experiences. I’m just beginning to learn more about this and look forward to applying what I learn to my work. Thank you!
Great topic. For myself and professionally I find rewiring the brain with changing thoughts and tapping to be significantly helpful. Also working with a psychiatrist who uses classical homeopathy, not traditional psychiatric treatment.
Hello Ruth,
I am a Social Worker and I work with Dr. Jenny Horsman in a new organization we co founded with 7 other people called the Learning and Violence Collaborative. We focus on how violence impacts learning in people’s lives. I am and have come from my own history as a childhood sexual abuse survivor ( there has to be another name ) and also experienced various forms of violence throughout my life. I know that for me being and coming to an awareness of which part (s) in one’s body is speaking and is in trauma time, creating an internal dialogue of safety, using breath and anchoring techniques holding the fear with compassion and offering particular gentle movements to unleash the fear is a practice. I am speaking from my own view. I am very much interested in how trauma impacts the body in relation to chronic illness and eating disorders. I am wondering if Dr. Porges, offers more video’s and I am in the process of now identifiying various training programs for myself as I have been out of the field for quite some time. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and Mindfulness Trauma Counselling coupled with Psycho drama and Psychodramatic Body work with susan Aaron , has been a large part of my own journey… How do you feel about therapies such as CBT..
I really appreciate your work and what you share. I don’t have to sign up for more and more joint ventures to get the meat of your wisdom. Thanks so much.
My body work allows for visualization to aid the healing. This body trauma makes total sense. Thanks again
I have enjoyed and been educated reading this from you thank you very much. It’s a slow process to be working with recovery and I am going about this very slowly as I take your videos and work very seriously
Ruth, Thanks for this and for all of your wonderful webinar offerings.
I use all of the “uncoupling” skills in the toolbox of Somatic Experiencing to uncouple fear from immobilization. Cannot recommend SE training highly enough. It’s a long haul, but so worth it.
Just wanted to add that EMDR is great too.
Fear can be magnified to exponential proportions, if throughout the particular traumatic experience, the client felt alone, isolated, or abandoned to endure their particular traumatic events or repetition of the same events. I believe for those in this fear-controlled condition with no one to debrief them, as it were, they exhibit characteristics similar to an individual locked into a state of shock. They may remain for this indeterminate period of time within a perception of being in a paralyzed state until they can “reach shelter” or receive/accept shelter for the sufficient period of time necessary to reset their traumatized minds, bodies, and spirits to function in the reality that follows trauma.
After decades i learned to accept and stand this situation of FREEZE. There is no resetting, but one can learn to build resilience, remember one stood it all those times before and standing it gets better and stronger. Although one can come to conclude that certain persons causing that state are too unsafe to relate to, be around or even acknowledge existing when passing in the street. Possibly i can be compared to living in a war or dronezone, caused to foreign countries, without shame, continuously by the US military industrial complex.
I use a combination of mindful & focussed breathing to engage the parasympathetic nervous system which demonstrates to the client their ability to regulate sympathetic fear reactions and to self soothe. I’m a trained EMDR Practitioner so I use that for the ongoing treatment & desensitization of the physiological, emotional & negative cognitive aspects of the trauma. I use a didactic instruction about normal physiology to threat & danger giving the client my understanding of trauma from the work of Peter Levine, Stephen Porges and Bessell van der Kolk. I encourage my well educated clients to read these books & increase their sense of self efficacy & understanding of how the “body keeps the score.”
I use EFT. With EFT we don’t have to know what the trauma was/is. We can address how the client’s brain is frozen in fight/flight/freeze/polyvagal response and address the reprograming of the brain all within the EFT protocol.
I am not a practitioner but I was a patient after a trauma. After I felt I had recovered from the trauma my body was stuck and I developed facial pain which I have to this day, over ten years after the trauma.
Meditation has been wonderful in letting me see myself and my reactions. Also I believe it would have been helpful to me if my doctors could have helped me understand why my poor body was not letting go.
Try acupuncture – it can work wonders for what you are experiencing.
The immobilization arises as a result of the hijacking of the logical thinking part of the brain by the amygdala. I use a hypnotic technique to dissolve this fear which I identify by paying attention to the sensations being experienced in the body at the time of experiencing the fear. I also use the VK dissociation technique (NLP) to disconnect the emotions and feelings attached to the memories of the traumatic event. Results – clients can not find or associate with their fearful feelings after treatment – usually after one treatment, sometimes necessitating two treatments. highly effective.
I am also a hypnotherapist and NLP practitioner, John. And agree that the process works very well. I generally begin with the 6 Step Reframe to lower sensitivity. Thanks again for sharing with many!
I have used heart rate variability training to help balance the autonomic nervous system, often simultaneous with EEG monitoring. My equipment reveals several biomarkers and it’s eye opening to see physiological changes result in subjective, attitudinal change. All this takes place in the context of a relationship that mirrors infant/caregiver attachment building. Poly vagal theory explains much of what happens, and a dose of psychoeducation added to the mix regarding hijacked amygdalas and Stephen’s explanation of the social engagement system provides a cognitive element that is helpful to some.
I’m interested in chatting with others who have a similar approach. I’m at galaska77@gmail.com and BeCalmofOjai.com
I once had a client who shared with me her repeated experience of waking up at night with the shocked feeling that she was all alone in the world. I asked if she could trace the origin of first having that feeling. She seemed to be risking vulnerability to share with me the following: “When my mother was 5 months pregnant with me, she received a phone call telling her that her husband/my father had been killed in a car accident. Do you think that could have anything to do with this?” I felt immediate support for her insight and responded, “Yes. The energy that surrounded you of your mother’s attentiveness and comfort may have gone straight into that phone, leaving you feeling suddenly ‘alone in the world’.”
I was working as a ‘Movement Therapist. If there was a ‘technique’ I would call it ‘Intuitive Validation”.
Of course, first you have to build a trusting relationship with the client. Then, after asking permission to take a peak at “what happened” to them, explain how you will help them get rid of as much of the anger and pain, fear and disappointment they experienced.
Have them describe when they felt anger, i.e.
If this emotion is unavailable, let them choose another and simply write down what they say.
Ask them what they would like to do with this description – then let them do it. I’ve had kids rip it up, they can stomp on it, hide it, even show it to a parent, or other loved one.
This can be the beginning of feeling some control within the traumatic situation.
Any suggestions on working with phantom limb pain? As a result of a home invasion and shooting, the lower half of my client’s left leg was amputated above the knee once he was hospitalised. This was in the 1990s and he still suffers unbearable pain.
Elaine,
I have tried mirror box therapy with a client who experienced phantom limb pain. It is promising, although in my case the client discontinued before a benefit was realized.
also, just try searching youtube for some videos of the procedure.
Elaine,
Try Revisioning therapy. Revisioningcenterforgriefandtrauma, Dr. Mark Rider in Dallas. I use it with developmental issues, grief, trauma, etc. The work is based on original work with amputees. Good stuff.
It makes a lot of sense! I have found some patients extremely rigid on their bodies in such way that it is difficult even to be heard by them cause they are like fighting all the time, now I can understand they are in “defense mode”. So the challenge is to take them out of there. ¿How is it? Thank you very much to share! Alicia Ortiz
Thank you for a very helpful clip into the severely distressing realms of Trauma.
Beyond any shadow of doubt, EMDR rescued my bright young daughter from a living death of imbecility. She was a star pupil at school, getting into the newspapers twice for the best GCSE and A level grades in her school – in the Year 10 Roll of Honour Book and on a Gold Plaque in the Reception area for getting the prestigious Governors’ Award in Year 13.
Being younger sister to an older sibling with learning difficulties, she had a compassionate heart and began a career helping disturbed children in schools, some of whom had unpredictable challenging and violent behavioural disorders.
Unknown to us, she had survived at least two separate incidents of having her drink spiked with the rape drug whilst at university, by gangs of fellow students, themselves high on drugs, undergoing numerous assaults whilst unconscious – and due to exceptionally sick mental abnormalities on the part of some of these ‘people’ – attempted strangulation attempts which were mercifully interrupted. She was unfortunate enough to have been conscious for one rape attack.
Her courage and endurance helped her to plough through these horrific circumstances and we are devastated to say she did not report them, being fearful of more. This same, if mis-placed, courage led her into wishing to support disturbed youths, but sadly her daily encounters with their own sometimes violent challenges, eventually led to acute, complex PTSD and within a short time span of 5 symptomatic weeks, once the new traumas collided with those previously absorbed, our beautiful, brave and talented daughter went into shut down. The connections between her left and right brain ‘broke’. Her logic deserted her, and she became stuck in a 24 hour cycle of endless, out of control flashbacks. She could not speak, read or write, eat without retching, sleep without nightmares or sometimes even attend to her personal care for 5 months. She shook constantly and regularly struggled to breathe. On one occasion when I asked if she would hang the washing out, she stood and cried by the washing line for over 10 minutes as she had no idea how to do it.
Her older sibling was by this time, in the stimulating care of an intentional supported living provider. She was the more functional of the two now and I wonder if anyone can understand how that felt.
God bless Francine Shapiro, who devised the relatively new therapy of Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprogramming. Somehow it seems to get to the root of the trauma and pull it right out in ways that cognitive therapies cannot reach. The ‘ice hub’ the trauma has resulted in, sitting uncompromisingly between left and right brain hemispheres and blocking their communications, gradually melts, the connections gradually reconnect. It is hard work. The sufferer has to work very hard to establish absolute faith in their therapist and to make huge efforts to regain control of their errant and disfunctional body responses – and to establish a safe place within all of this – before the ‘magical’ EMDR can begin. The moment it does, comfort returns, as the connections begin to re-establish themselves, logic starts to work again – our daughter found she could speak and read and write again.
The anger and social filters take longer to heal. Billions of connections are rewiring. It is mentally and physically exhausting – much as trying to rebuild muscular activity after physical trauma is, through endless months of physiotherapy.
Prof Gordon Turnbull’s book ‘Trauma’ is very informative. Having experienced PTSD sufferers’ plight first hand, I can well believe that some people can be stuck in physiological replays for the rest of their lives. That must be a living death and barely endurable.
Once more – thank you Francine Shapiro.
A personal experience:
Nearly 20 years ago I was working in an enclosed area of a crawl space at myMom’s home. It was about as tall as my body lying flat , face down, so I could only literally crawl. I reached a point where I had to turn over, but my left arm was positioned such that I had to turn before I could get it in front of me.
This did not go well, and I became stuck with my arm hyperextended, as if I were double jointed. I. Egan to prespire and to be quite anxious. Finally I decided that I could not go back, so I had to push on, so I forced the arm to extend even farther. The burn in my upper left chest was instant and deep. It was too high to be my heart, but it was the most intense pain I had ever felt.
After I go used to the pain, I realized that I had pushed through the stuck place, and was now able to bring my body flat onto my back. My life would likely be saved. Now I had to back-crawl, one armed, out of this death trap. It took a long time, and I imagine I looked like a turtle on his back, trying to regain control of his life, but I did make it out.
That burning pain lasted for two years. It turned out to be a rotator cuff tear. No lifting, limited range of motion, and sometimes slinged. I babied it for a long time, but the pain persisted. An orthopedic surgeon evaluated me, and was impressed with my strength and my range of motion. He advised against surgery.
He prescribed physical therapy to help reprogram my nerves, so they would “forget the pain”.
It took about 8 weeks of intense, concentrated therapy, but I’ll be darned if the pain, or the nerves’ aanticipation of the pain, didn’t disappear, never to return.
Inflict pain on yourself (I use jacks in the instep of my feet as it is discrete or make a hidden fist so nails dig into skin) so that the flight reaction is overcomed by the fight mode. When facing blockage exercise to exhaustion or sweat lodge sauna to exhaustion, hot and cold shower to regain control over the paralizing fear blockage and get back to functioning again
Art this does not seem to be very kind on your body or yourself emotionally. I have used saunas to exhaustion and it did not calm down my fear responses at all,( but did leave me with lovely skin). Self soothing which is the total opposite of what you suggest works better at encoding the brain to have a more calming response. Long term self soothing actually calms the nervous system down and if you add good deep breathing exercises than the effects are speeded up substantially.
I can’t believe this is “news.” Of course emotional trauma affects the body. Of course it remains in the muscles and other tissues indefinitely even if there were no direct physical impact and even if the events of the trauma are recalled. How on earth could anyone think otherwise? As far as clinical evidence is concerned, Dr. Wilhelm Reich established the connection decades ago. Reich talked about “muscle armor” being chronically contracted musculature that repressed emotion. He was the first to systematically de-armor patients manually, along with doing analysis. In a whole other field, NeuroKinetics Traumatology and Concussion Clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia has an 85% success rate of curing trauma and neurological disease using biophotonic light primarily. Trauma is essentially the inability of the CNS to accurately process incoming stimuli from the PNS or sensory nervous system. The messages to the brain from the eyes, ears, nose, tactile sensation, etc. are not being received by the brain accurately.This is what a trauma is fundamentally. But therapies for trauma use the PNS or sensory input. Psychoanalysis uses the ears basically and relies cognition. Manual therapies rely on the sensory system (skin). But the PNS is not working properly, so these therapies do not work properly. This is why trauma is so difficult to resolve. NeuroKinetics passes the PNS completely. It uses biophotonic light. Cells communicate by way of photons, i.e., light. As long as they are alive, cells send and receive light. Researchers have photographed this light emission. When biophotonic light enters the soles of the feet, it travels cell-by-cell to the brain. When the brain receives a clear, uninterfered message from the outside world, in this case via light, the brain “re-sets.” It begins to function normally again. Trauma recedes. NeuroKinetics developed this technique with astronauts. Astronautes are traumatized when they return to Earth. Not in space, but when they land safely back home. Their brains have begun to mutate in space when beyond the gravitational field. When they return to it, their brains are shocked, traumatized. Now this trauma treatment is available to “Earthlings”.
Hello, David. I’m so glad to hear someone on here speak of Wilhelm Reich and his work that seems so neglected these days. He does not get enough recognition for his work. Graduates of Barbara Brennan’s School of Healing learn all about Reich’s philosophy and learn to work with light, sound, and energy regulation along with various states of being to support and allow the body to heal through harmonic resonance. Funny enough, they start at the feet allowing the light transmissions to come through and work along the body working with the human bioplasmic energy field. So, like you, my first inclination was to say, “Of course”! I was unaware of the clinic in Vancouver, and am curious about it and how many treatments one might go through to be cured. Thank you for sharing.
wht distinguishes biophotonic light from optical light? from luninescent light? from sunlight? are we talking fractile crystal patterns in the dimensions of tensors? or are we talking simple filters on light bulbs as too often one sees on examining what turns out to be snake oil?
And no, reich wasn’t first, just perhaps first in our limited northern european literate line.
It is a matter of wavelength (or particle size). Simply apply the light of Reason and look with the mind’s eye.
“The light that I was, was the light that I saw by, and the Light that I saw by, was the Light that I was….One Light, though the lamps be many!
Can you post a link please. Your comment poses the question however as to what is the brain. For scientists do not agree on that. In the body, extending outside of the body into the universe – Daniel Siegel, 3 brains, or just braintissue everywhere, not limited to our skull. I have tried photontherapy for some time. With the option of this german device to put on theta brainwave, knowing that brought up trauma, i was able to use Mindfulness to move through that. Still suffering Insomnia though, although slightly improved, not remembering some times in between looking at my alarmclock or needing to pee. I stopped the photontherapy because of the therapist being ignorant in the field of trauma, although she was an extremely nice person. Being an extreme empath, she caused me to dissociate and start taking care of her insecurities instead of being the patient taken care of.
Seeing the traumatic experience as a gift has been a long, arduous process but I can say, after 70years of seeking the truth I’ve finally come to see the gift in it all! Keep the faith. It is possible be at peace with ourselves . Thank you all for sharing. Susan.
Immobilize without fear … never thought of it that way. It can happen then at the dentist and in all kinds of situations. In an aeroplane or anywhere where you HAVE to stay put you must “immobilize” yourself. How do you immobilize without fear? Just use breathing, relaxation, imagery?
A very interesting perspective! With my clientes (and with the mental health professionals that I train), we have frequently seen the phenomena that you mention. What I have done so far is to use certain mindfulness exercises and, especially in the disaster situations we work in, to reframe the reaction as a something normal, natural and sometimes even necessary to begin the grieving and psychosocial recovery cycle.