The treatment of trauma can be some of the most complex work practitioners face.
And for years, this challenge was complicated by not having a clear picture of the impact that trauma has on the brain.
But scientific advances within just the past few years have opened the eyes of practitioners to what actually happens in the brain of someone who has experienced trauma.
And according to Bessel van der Kolk, MD, there are three major ways that the brain changes in response to trauma.
To find out what they are (and their impact on the body), take a look at the video below – it’s just 3 minutes.
Bessel is one of the world’s leading experts in trauma and PTSD. Because of his research, we have a deeper understanding of how trauma impacts both body and brain.
And this is crucial – it can help us target our interventions more effectively.
So now, we’d like to hear from you . . .
When it comes to the treatment of trauma, what do you want to know most? Please leave your comment below.
My question revolves around how best to deal with physical symptoms of trauma when there is no active memory of a traumatic event. While many people with PTSD struggle with emotional symptoms post trauma, I am thinking of a car accident victim who has severe physical injuries (including brain injury) and presents with trauma-like behaviour post accident (hyper-vigilance, hyper-arousal, deadening of physical sensation/awareness) but on an emotional level is coping very well.
Hi, I’d like to learn more about how to work somatically with trauma: helping clients reconnect with their bodies in a positive way
I lost my home to the Sonoma fires a year + ago, and am now experiencing a traumatic issue at work. As well, I am moving my mom out near me into an assisted care facility. I’m on the edge…
Would meditation help more or less than a therapist? I imagine a combination of the two would be best. Are there any medications that would help the brain areas the video talks about?
Hi Lawrence. I have been thru some trauma too, and I use meditiation, guided meditation for relaxation, I see a therapist (psychologist) and also see a psychiatrist for medication. It has taken all of those to manage my situation. So dont be afraid of a combination, therapist and meditation are helpful. The other thing that is helpful is exercise. I took up tai chi and qigong, and they move energy that is stagnant and also bring peace. Yoga is also good. You could try bringing those into your life. Hope that helps.
Could you speak to the ways that trauma can affect the body? For instance, I was fired from a job and within three days, my psoas seized up such that I could not get out of bed without excruciating pain. This went on for over a week. Muscle relaxants didn’t help, but chiropractic intervention did. While I was in bed, I needed to apply for unemployment benefits as well as sign a legal document in order to be able to receive separation pay from my former employer. Both tasks were extremely stressful for me as they were time sensitive and I did not want to sign a legal document without finding a lawyer. Thank you.
Hello Ruth, I had a major car accident that made me semi-conscious for three months and my right side of the body was paralyzed. I had to learn how to walk and write again, etc.
I recovered 70% physically but my emotional/limbic system is still affected. I still have crying episodes for no reason, get stressed easily sometimes and are anxious on and off. I don’t have flashbacks of the accident becuase I don’t remember it and didn’t have memory for three months after the accident.
I take medication for anxiety and depression but the episodes still happen. WHAT CAN I DO to treat this?? Please help me.
Cinzia
I am trying to help my daughter who also experienced similar injuries but included a Traumatic Brain Injury. Treatments have focussed on cognitive issues but not the trauma… I believe her living with the TBI is in itself a traumatic experience. Opinion/Advice?
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to help with the stress produce by physical sensation. Somatic interventions like those use by Janina Fisher and Pat Ogden. Even though the mind can’t be retrieve as an image, the body still keep the physical memory and need to be process.
What is known about treating sexual trauma that occurred under
sedation?
What is the impact of age on how the trauma impacts the brain?
What is the impact on the brain of a near death experience related to the trauma?
How does the attachment system the client has developed affect the impact of trauma?
Is there anything known about the impact on brain development when the parents want vs do not want a child that they have conceived?
Read some Primal Therapy books by Arthur Janov..
Give me a list of targeted interventions please. Thanks.
That would be very nice indeed 🙂
I have been getting stuck in a hypo-aroused state, where I find it extremely difficult to move my body, I know I need to get up and move, but its like my body just wont move. I feel sick in my body and get feelings of nausia and anxiety. I know it is related to the abuse and trauma I went through in my last relationship and that things now trigger those past emotions and reactions. Yet I still cant move, I feel like I get into a freeze state and even deep breathing is not enough to first initially get my body to move. I can feel sick in my chest or stomache and my body feels limp. When I feel like this moving feels impossible and it really shouldnt be. My mind wants to move my body just wont. What can i do to initiate change in my bodys behaviour? What are the best ways to stimulate the vagus nerve here?
You may take on a psychodrama where the body talks directly to the brain, expressing more about the ambivalence to move. Is it forward, back or right side, left side that the lack of urge is strongest or most resistant possibly to some change that may begin if you divide that change into smaller steps. Hope this is helpful.
We have students who run out of the classroom or get verbally aggressive. Staff will say it’s due to trama (sometimes we know there was, other times they are just saying it) Students years ago weren’t doing this, if it is trama, why the differences in behavior?
My parents generation (Baby Boomers) clearly endured trama but they would have never acted this way.
As someone at the border of those two generations, I have an answer that works for me. I am the last of the pre-birth control era children. What is different is before, kids were understood as happening because sex, so unwanted children happened and weren’t necessarily abused, but they were ignored/neglected, which often results in overly self reliant adults. Kids happened, had to be fed and schooled, but not necessarily loved. Today, children are seen as choices and society expects mom to act as if all children are special (instead of merely inevitable as before) so the misattunement is more active, either verbally abusive or smothering.
I’d like to know techniques to rewire the fear-driven Brain.
Yes me too and what test can we do to confirm we have been traumatised.
Hi Sandra, have you heard of Human Givens Psychotherapy and the Rewind Technique? I feel that it may be of interest to you.
What are the chemical changes in the brain and what hormonal cascades are triggered with trauma ?
How to reduce the negative effects of trauma; example how to increase ability to sleep soundly without sleep aids.
These are true and what I have experienced and still do! What is treatment and is it effective after years of being left untreated? How do I talk to someone when I don’t even have memory of what happened to me, although I do have some understanding. How do I find someone that will believe and understand my situation?
How are children affected when they are traumatised by sudden parental loss and bereavement? Any advice available for others such as kinship carers and school support staff? Does this also relate to attachment disorder?
I lost my mother to metastatic cancer when i was fourteen. Nobody told me what was going on. I used to watch Marcus Welby MD hoping to find a clue to her actual diagnosis. My father asked me if I had any dark clothes and then said, “ I don’t want a lot of crying but your mother’s dead.”
I’m 61. I’m sure my brain was traumatized and I’ve lived most of my life with PTSD. When I was 52 I had sepsis from a burst diverticula. I was on morphine every 4 hours for three weeks. This further “changed” my brain. I thought ayahuasca might help me but there is a problem with the integration of tribal medicine and Western medicine and irresponsibly i was told to refrain from taking my thyroid meds.
I wish I could live my life without all this baggage. Now I’ve got arthritis and am in constant pain… the end result (i believe) of a life of emotional pain.
Brettha, have you considered Art Therapy? I’ve had many traumatic experiences that I’ve been able to face and gently come to terms with, through meeting a fabulous soul who works with the modality.
Sending you love and light for your journey forward.
I’d like to know how to heal and live presently.
Does the brain’s plasticity enable it to completely recover from trauma? Which interventions are best for recovery?
What is a first step in increasing awareness of distorted perception, including arousal states and ‘bluntin’?
Do yo think that negative thinking triggers negative thoughts of childhood memories,thus adding to the already traumatic outlook creating a negative snowball that could eventually trigger clinical depression ?
Interested to hear how severe attachment trauma can be treated after multiple negative experiences so that a healthy relationship can be maintained? Can one achieve a place of secure attachment with out ever having experienced it and in fact had the opposite many times?
Would specifically like to know more about people who have experienced a health trauma, a significant illness and continue to feel changed by this experience.
Me too! This seems to get missed out all the time of mainstream trauma work
How do you help someone who has experienced trauma, but their perception is that the issues are all your fault and they have out distance in the relationship.
My name is Courtney and I’ve had PTSD diagnosed for at least 15 years I’ve tried going in Sarah p when we start working back at the beginning from my childhood I do okay when it comes to me leaving home at 13 and to an abusive relationship cuz I didn’t feel safe home is when I shut down and isolate I’ve also been in a domestic relationship for the last 14 years since the last one anytime I contain alcohol and I’m putting a violent situation I blacked out I’ve gone from the victim to the perpetrator I’m terrified I don’t know what I’m doing or what’s going on I don’t know where to reach out for help I stopped self-medicating years ago had a relapse on New year’s Eve can’t remember anything I became very hostile screaming for help feeling like I was being attacked and hurt when told that I wasn’t not really sure what’s to can’t remember what happened back in February there was a domestic in the house between me and my spouse my mouth was cut open I didn’t even know until the officer told me I had a very aggressive officer antagonizing me trying to reach out and grab me threatening to arrest me threatening to hurt me it put me back at ground zero racers isolate became very aggressive another officer removed him from my house my breathing went down I felt more safe the officer causing the anxiety returned in my house putting me back in Spanish mode I don’t even know where to begin to get help and with your treatment for years don’t feel like it does much whenever I’m put back in a traumatic experience I don’t go I slay I’m too scared
try to find “From Grief to Grace” retrat in or mear your area in the USA
Hi there,
Having seen the short clip of Basel Van Der Kolk, I am interested to know more about childhood emotional abuse, and how this affects people’s memory in adulthood.
I am treating a client with Childhood trauma and my client has reported that very often she forgets to carry out some tasks, particularly tasks relating to social events and meeting up with her friends. These are some of the things my client was strongly disallowed to do when my client was growing up in her family environment, as she has had of an abusive father who would ‘stop’ my client take part in these activities in her childhood.
I would really appreciate your help and comments on this and affects of childhood emotional abuse on the brain in adukthood.
Thank you.
Read “complex ptsd from surviving to thriving” by pete walker..all about childhood trauma…best book ever. He mentions the 4f’s fight/flight/freeze and fawn. Sounds like your client is either having the freeze response. Like her brain is in shock and then survival mode. Or I think the term is dissociation. The book highlights a 13 step process for dealing with an “emotional flashback”. So the anxiety/excitement/invitation of going out can be the trigger..then there’s the anticipation/disappointment/being let down/lied to (you can go, no you cant)/isolated/deprived etc…which is the emotional flashback..sounds like the survival mode is blocking out the pain of dealing with the emotions that were caused in childhood. The thing is if your client goes through the process in this book..every instinct will kick in to soothe (drink/drugs/sex/shopping/cleaning) they must go through the process in this book. What I found is once I stopped running away from the feeling..acknowledged it…resisted the urge to self soothe/avoid the painful emotion…accepted it..accepted what caused it..and do the process in this book, things that used to trigger you simply don’t anymore. I spent 30 years running away from some emotions..that with this book I was able to “work through” in 10 minutes.
It’s a life changer
Hi y’all…
I say “retraining the brain” too. The clinical term is ‘hyperplasticity’… or so I believe. I did swimming, cycling, journalling and a lots and lot of group work. My thinking is much less cloudy than it was- sooo… numbing.
I would like to know whether an experience of present-day traume tends to trigger historic trauma. Whether out ability to deal with present trauma is inhibited/constrained by past experience. If so, how we can work with that?
Hoe Vegal nerve plays a part with mid line brain structures to cause body to feel bad after trauma. Interventions on vegal nerve to decrease the bad feeling in body
Based on his book “The Body Keeps The Score” Dr Bessel merely touches on autoimmune disease. Pp 291-292.
He refers to a study on rheumatoid arthritis by Dr Nancy Shadick.
Has Dr Bessel researched a link between the post traumatised self-sensing system and autoimmunity?
Does time have any impact on how to treat trauma, for example a recent trauma or a trauma from years ago
What is the best way to take a person down from this heightened state of fear and arousal?
Read “complex ptsd from surviving to thriving” specifically chapter 8..dealing with an emotional flashback if you’ve been triggered. This is life changing.
Is EMDR a good treatment for trauma? If so, would you explain why? Also, if someone has had many multiple traumatic events, is it cumulative and how do you process this? Should it be individually dealt with? How?
Thank you
Darcy,
Have a chat with your shrink about if there is a method that is less ‘Confronting” perhaps. EMDR may be OK for a handful of shocks to the psych. When you’re talking multiple trauma over decades though, then that EMDR routine is hitting you in every cell of your body at the same time. YMMV, I don’t find it particularly comfortable! I feel there’s got to be a mellower way of treating Severe (Complex/Multiple) PTSD.
Yes, it is ( can be ?) cumulative, depending on personal resilliance…etc. Eventually you absorb the trauma physically into your cells ( Rather than radiate the horror show that’s going on in your head; having the poor person you’re with ending up in a sobbing mess on the floor) , you suck all the agitated energy back into you before it can escape the first couple of inches of your aura. It’s physically part of you, (well duh,Doc, I’d sorta assumed de-regulated brain chemistry was physical).
Each instance of trauma is treated as a unit, You may find the Doc is trying to cram 2-3 units into a visit ( Bl%^$y slave driver Doc!). Initially 6-8 visits have given me back a whole lot of Focus, I’m even doing some of that Functioning stuff! Fairly regularly!
Keep a sense of humour mate ( albeit dark ) and know that we’ll all end up fixed, or close as, eventually.
Best luck.
It is a very useful and helpful website. Thanks for such a good website.
What is the most effective treatment for trauma?
Now we know what happens to brain after trauma, what could be the possible ways to overcome all that is happening in the brain so that mind and body relax ?
Harmeet
I’ve found Cognitive Processing Therapy to be a highly effective modality
With the brief therapy we are supposed to be doing with clients these days how can we best help them to move forward?
I would like to know how to help those experiencing trauma and suffering PTSD as a result and also how the brain is effected by Electric Shock Treatment and how to help those affected by the trauma of that experience
I’d like to read any responses to your question about electroshock treatment.
Both my parents had this done to them. Their memories were badly effected.
Their consciousness seemed somewhat “vacant” from before the treatment.
I work with adolescents and teens who have experienced trauma and (often) disorganized attachments. They seem to routinely mistake these three distorted lenses (and their resulting theories) as the the markers of who they are; as aspects of their identity. In essence, they take them on AS their identity. Any suggestions on how to work with them on this at this particular developmental level? Thanks.
Hi, I’ve observed the same among this population, including in myself, as a teen. what helped me was to see the world from my therapists lenses, anb base this on the trust that was built in. Teens are rebelious and have desire to change the world, feel powerful enought to cause a revolution of their own, their youth is their asset. I got invovled in community and volunteering work and felt that I connected with the causes and integation happened. My sense of what i wanted for me in life revealed it self and with success from day to day,
have you thougth about finding mentors, teaching of boundaries, and using the DBT or CBT for the most anxious, and educating these skills.
I live listening to how people cope and , David, yours sounds great and makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
I’d like to understand more about the long term changes in the brain and how to treat symptoms old trauma long after a “recovery” from PTSD.
The brain part of trauma is more complicated than the quick visit Dr. van der Kolk made in this very short video, of course, with issues like connectivity, the regulatory circuitry in the forebrain, default network compromise, anterior cingulate involvement, posterior alpha inhibition, etc., well-known sequelae of trauma. Neurofeedback training does address these issues directly and well. As Dr. vdK has reported. We can be grateful for neuroplasticity. Nevertheless, I suspect that the integration of NFB with other modalities will work best, and this is the territory I have questions about. Integration. Building an approach that is flexible enough to help the largest number of possible traumatic situations. Addressing the brain: NFB. The mind, the soul, identity, interpersonal functioning: a complex approach is needed.
thank you.
Taking “action” or “fighting back” instead of freezing helps move the “stuck trauma” & all those trapped energies/emotions in the body. People with PTSD need to become empowered again. They NEED to take BACK their power from whatever situation that took it away.
Terry, I agree with your findings about helping people with PTSD become empowered again. Helping them to accept what occurred and forgive themselves and others I have found is very important. I worked with men in prison. Many of them had guilt and shame related to trauma (often witnessing or experiencing the death or near death of a loved one). The “woulda, coulda, shoulda” syndrome once discovered and openly discussed can often lead to healing.
I Julia,
I agree with what you are saying about forgiving oneself.
I recently saw an event from my past that I preceived as being used and taken advantage of
as a child.
I saw it in a different way yesterday .
I realized that I had never spoken up and shared how I was feeling with that person. I realized I had feared to speak up… and I allowed myself to be treated in the way I was.
When I realized that, I moved to forgiving the person that took advantage of me,
and I also forgave myself, for not standing up for myself and for allowing myself to be treated in that way. Now there is a shift that has taken place in me where I am now free to quietly state my needs in current relationships in a new way without feeling threatened.
I have also being saying to myself…I am not longer that child.
I can make different choices now, and it is starting to happen.
Karen
My daughter is adopted and suffered developmental trauma, we and her therapist have found that writing and drawing helps tremendously. Talking can put her in an overwhelmed state far to quickly. The act of writing her feelings seems to keep her in the present. We have shifted her therapy to less face to face, obviously that has to be done first to build trust, to more email exchanges.
As a therapist and individual that has complex trauma, I have observed the great benefit from journaling, drawing, and other artistic mediums. Drawing pictures, painting or just doodling gives children a non-threatening avenue to express themselves and release the emotions. I am not a registered art therapist, but as a play therapist, I found this was the way to go for children under the age of 10. Offering a non-judgmental, but affirming response increases a child’s self-esteem and improves feelings of confidence.
Lucy,
I used Art Therapy to depict a traumatic scene from my childhood.
It was the last time I saw my birth mother before I was placed for adoption.
This was a deeply suppressed memory.
When the memory first surfaced it was like seeing a movie with the sound off.
When I drew the picture using stick figures, as I am no artist.
As I looked at the scene, for the first time I wept over losing my mom.
This simple picture put me in touch with my feelings like other else
had done.
Play therapy can also be used to depict scenes from childhood.
This also helps bring up suppressed feelings.
Karen
Speaking of becoming empowered again, I was encouraged by a therapist I know one time to “exercise the will.” I had never thought about this before. As a Christian and believer in Jesus Christ I used to just resign myself to God’s will and not perceive or fully understand my need to ‘exercise my will’. As I began to practice willfully making decisions and taking action, my power increased. I now know that God does give us the freedom to exercise our will and to not just depend on Him and his actions.
I have been working with these concepts with clients for some time since my training shifted to a more neuroscience focus and I find clients love this stuff. What I would like is info on things that we can do, get clients to do, that integrate the various parts. I keep in mind Bruce Perry’s concept of working bottom up with Rhythm, Regulate, Relate however feel I lack info on a wide range of things that integrate bottom up, top down and also horizontally. Really enjoy the sessions – thank you
I love the videos you share and am fascinated by the impacts of trauma on the brain. I am wondering if there have been any studies regarding childhood onset schizophrenia and trauma.
I am a clinical social worker who experienced the effectiveness of Somatic Experiencing Therapy after a traumatic robbery. I used to startle every time a man approached my car, even a pedestrian crossing the road. The therapy completely neutralised this.
I would most like to know how to target interventions to address specifically those three areas.
Also check out something called Ask & Receive
Terry, i have been curious about E. Gentry work. His clinical training speaks to me well. Thank you.
I was diagnosed twenty something years ago with a history of PTSD and stress. I have lots of anger inside. Being in therapy has not help to let everything go. My anger is towards my caregivers who abandoned the “ship” too early. I think anger can keep a person in the past for a long time. It is just something I am living with.
Karen, I too carried a lot of anger for over 25 years, against 2 thugs who savagely beat me within an inch of my life, leaving me with PTSD. It took 25 years to lay down that anger. I HAD to find a way to forgive & let go, so I could “take back my own power” and stop giving it to the 2 thugs that shattered my life, marriage & family. The only way I found to overcome the anger is to “forgive” often & all those who hurt us in this life. Asking “why” any person did this or that, doesn’t help. The human condition is fraught with pain, loss & suffering. We can choose to let it make us stronger & more resilient, or let it take us down & disempower us forever. It’s each individuals choice & decision whether or not they want to rise above, or become dismantled. Still PTSD is a “beast” that must be recognized for what it is…an overstimulation of all senses & a place we must not “stay in” for long periods of time. PTSD left untreated can lead to major illnesses because the body/mind is not meant to be constantly on “high alert”.
I enjoyed reading your comment. Proud of you for forgiving your perpetrator. Forgiveness is not necessarily forgetting, but it does take the poison out of our lives and allows us to be free again.
I would like to know how to help those with PTSD and traumatised brains, train their brains to recognize that the trauma has passed.
Thank you for the educational material. I’d want to know if there is any hope that biofeedback will help with ptsd recovery in any way.