A single moment can last forever in the memory . . .
Now when the memory is of something special, a time or an event that we hold dear, reliving the experience can feel almost as good as the actual moment did.
But when someone is remembering a traumatic experience, that memory can trigger a painful cycle of fear, anger, helplessness, and shame . . .
. . . and this, in turn, can slow the healing process for patients recovering from trauma.
So can traumatic memories be changed?
In the video below, Peter Levine, PhD shares some key insights.
Check it out – it’s about three and a half minutes.
If you want to learn more about working through trauma, check out our Treating Trauma Master Series.
What techniques have you found effective in helping clients work with traumatic memories? Please leave a comment below.
Peter is such a master understanding the complexity and intricacies of how the body holds trauma memory with arousal bound in symptoms and unpacking the procedural memory to evoke and complete self protective responses. Was A game changer for me professionally and a life changer for me personally so I know his genius inside and out! We all have so much to learn from Peter Levine’s mastery as well as how to excavate implicit memory to process it explicitly for much more efficient healing for so many of our clients. Thanks Peter and Ruth for highlighting this valuable info. Diane
I question if a person has to actually revisit the specific memory of the trauma in order to be healed as it is often times escalated and not of “true” events, but rather the subjective experience…. Feeling safe is the core emotion, and that can be dealt with in different ways. The way I have been trained is to guide, honor, and allow the unconscious wisdom of the client’s body to speak (and it always does gladly) its personal journey to that vulnerable place of feeling “unsafe.” Sound is used as a personal tool to unwind the emotions and empower the client. The place that Dr. Levine speaks of where a new memory is possible is reached consciously in Sound Therapy. Dr. Levine has done wonderful research with the Trauma Body and thus brought to the public’s attention necessary information about mental and emotional health and well-being, but his way is one way. Every Body is different, and as the old adage says, “There are many pathways home.” Thank you for holding this forum, Ruth Buczynski PhD. Whole Body-Mind Health and Wellness is a quickly expanding field of medicine and consciousness. The chance to share ideas is essential for positive growth. Take care.
Oh, obviously guided imagery helps too in that the patient should be able to consciously recall such a person who could help them in that circumstance. Severely traumatized kids may not be able to. (Yes, there are such desperate situations out there in the real world).
I figured out that you only remember dreams when you wake up (whether they were nightmares or even pleasant dreams) because your brain is not finished with the repairs and needs your fully conscious brain to think of other associations with the event, even if the event is entirely made up by the brain and is not a remembered event. The associations are all stored in other areas, so the brain wants to check for damage to pathways responsible for all things you consciously associate with what happened in the dream. Just realizing all these things about dreams made it so that I never had the same dream again, since. The perspective of the conscious brain is extremely helpful to the unconscious brainstem, even if you haven’t been training it to integrate more fully with the neocortex, as happens with using mindfulness, guided imagery (visualization) and MRT.
I found a much better way to handle this problem. Since most of my severely traumatic memories were from infancy, they could not be recalled to the conscious brain, only unconsciously, and thus affecting physiological responses to parts of the original memory stored in the brainstem. I learned how to use mindfulness and muscle reflex/response testing (applied kinesiology of sorts) to ask questions about all symptoms, and this worked to train the brain to do the same in the background.
However, an important step came when I realized that dreams were the brain’s way of testing circuitry that it had repaired in earlier phases of sleep. You don’t need to be well-trained in mindfulness and MRT to do it. Dreaming brings the circuitry being tested to a slightly higher level of consciousness during REM sleep, so that the brainstem can use the analytical skills of the neocortex to test all levels of circuitry up to the final effector stage (or last neurons in the circuit before leaving the brain), e.g. movement, which is suppressed during sleep. You can tell the brain to change things in the memory, by changing some of the circuitry involved. E.g. tell the brain to replace the abusive mother with a person who has treated the patient well in the past, and replace what actually happened with what that new person would have done in the circumstances. In the case of a fearful incident where the patient was alone, tell the brain to have one of the good people in the past step into that dream to keep the patient safe.
Since “a” memory is actually made of many parts, there are many different parts in the brain involved in recall. This technique uses the successful outcome of this dreamed memory to generate all the “side effects” of better outcomes, but doesn’t change the old memory in conscious details. Thus, it allows “satiety” as a result of the event to build the circuitry the brain couldn’t when the outcome was bad, but the patient still remembers the event and that it was fearful. The big difference is the strong fear is gone whenever any part of that original event is being recalled, either consciously or unconsciously. The physiological changes are especially important for those memories whose details cannot be recalled consciously.
EMDR therapy is a strong and efficient tool to allow these memories or pieces of memory to be revisited along with the felt sense of the body as well as the emotions attached to the memory with a sense of safety and very quickly allows the brain to reprocess the events to reduce and calm the reactions of the client. I have used EMDR therapy since 2008 with children of sexual abuse, victims of domestic violence, adults with severe childhood abuse and neglect and currently with military members and veterans for events causing PTSD.
The Bonny Methid of Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) allows us to tap into our inner resources through music and imagery and empower us with traumatic memories.
I have gotten therapy for over 25 years for childhood abuse and PTSD. I am now 60. I was never able to recall many details of a key traumatic event at 14 years of age but I had the PTSD in a terrible way. Psychotherapy never got me closer to the truth. Recently because of health problems I was working with a Medical Intuitive who had some skill in retrieving past experience information. What she perceived about the event in question did not go against what I had intuitively felt. But it was her psychological presence that allowed me to tolerate revisiting the event with all the attached anxiety and terror. But crucially her perceptions worked where a therapist’s did not, because it was like she was actually there with me in time. Subsequently I have had spontaneous fantasies and imaginings about this particular traumatic memory where I see Dr. Phil and 2 police officers come into the house at the time of the abuse and take away the abusive parent and then Dr. Phil ushers myself and my mother out of the house also and to a place of safety never to return. After these reimaginings of the event I have felt increased energy and hope. It was like a release from a cage. The imaginal character of Dr. Phil, a strong, trustworthy, capable adult acting to provide the necessary protection for a child and battered woman released me from the frozen state of terror. This imagined intervention saved the child who could not possibly save herself at that time. I hope that this info is useful. Thank you.
I’ve been using EFT Tapping with great success.
I am sort of starting from the seedling here. With memory just begun for these little ones. Lots of avoidance and lots of it pre-verbal experiences are hard to uncover. Some models work but not all the parts -so much for “fidelity”! Narrative, expressive and play therapy works with them as they build trust, self resilience, internal strength and giving the story and face.. Some trauma psycho education to help understand the experience in child appropriate terms and to validate and accept who they are. Some trauma focused cognitive-behavioral parts and mindfulness to help them practice and work their body, heart and mind as they respond to the hurts, the fears, the sadness of this happening to them. Then change….one eenncey, weency bit at a time, back up the water spout –so much for quick fixes in managed care! ….Loads of support from adults, who have worked their own trauma histories to change their own memory tapes and responses, is what makes it stick and makes it work. Oh! And not to forget the RELATIONSHIP as the door to that key… Otherwise its just a hope and whisper to the ‘angels in the nursery’.
As a screenwriter (still struggling to sell a latest porject btw), I have to deal w/ some painful memories all the time when writing or ‘recalling- so I am iinterested in Peter Levine’s work or upcoming book when it released?, in more infos on this ’empowering process’ of de-constructing the pain of original incident & how to build empowerment from there, as this would be especially useful & beneficial to many writers, actors, & especially professions that have to deal w/ ’emotional recall’ a great deal! Thx much!
The most effective technique I use is changing compulsion to compassion. It sounds similar to what Peter Levine talked about. Instead of letting compulsion and obsession take over to reduce the effect of the trauma, I try to induce feelings of compassion and empowerment in the surviver of trauma – instilling compassion for themselves and admiration of their own strength to survive and go on with their lives.
Quite frankly this is an area that I need to learn more about. Our clients’ in the mental health system have multiple issues going on and that is just one piece of being able to provide treatment. So these videos are very helpful in a practical sense.
It is my experience that when you add a simple mindfulness practice response to a traumatic memory when it arises that it accomplished two things: 1) it calms down the polyvagal response, 2) it embeds mindfulness principles and practice into the trauma memory so that the power of mindfulness becomes part of the memory and lessens the trauma memory over time. Metta practice, a form of mindfulness practice, is especially self beneficial and can in time also be applied to those associated with the traumatic memory.
A daily practice will strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system and thus, make natural calming hormones available once again.
I have incorporated the bi-lateral stimulation of EMDR into all the work I do, respecting the fact that the body s well as the mind remembers trauma – big and small. Interweaves during the bi-lateral stimulation are powerful and restore a sense of agency in the present. There is no question that the EMDR transforms my clients so that they live unencumbered by the past. I am an integrative therapist using everything I’ve learned through 34 years, using EMDR with all of the modalities.
I thank you and all our colleagues devoted to aleviating pain and instilling personal agency.
The video was very helpful in reminding me of some of the benefits of EMDR. In the process of this technique the clinician asks the client about the negative cognition about themselves and then what positive cognition they would like to see themselves in regards to the traumatic memory. It seems this approach would couple very nicely with what Dr. Leine is discussing in creating new memories. Definitely some good food for thought as I look further in my work with trauma survivors. Thanks for sharing.
For me, most frightening or disabling details of my Traumatic Memories, surfaced very slowly. I’ve always been frightened to set limits (with potential saviors who often were perpetrators of sorts) feeling like a wrong move or incorrect decision related to how I will financially or emotionally survive could put me into this abyss. I recently found out, about 40 years later, that this abyss represents the unknown… a fall off a cliff, an endless drop to death. The threat of being stabbed if I was noncompliant or in another event being strangled to death. I’ve often had the inclination to “jump off” to encounter a more familiar known danger to make the terror quit. Over years, I’ve learned to hold tight & feel my strength. I’m now can reach out to resources who love & care about me who have my back for me & for them. They empower me to respond back as best as possible so my choice goes beyond visiting the abyss if perpetrators are angered with me or if I make incorrect decisions.
Where I identify that clients present with dissociative language, I engage clients in ego-state therapy so that they can identify and engage with the conflicting ego-states and also utilise the resources of the different ego-states to deal with the traumatic experience. Having done the first level of somatic training, I am now vigilant for body sensations and this I address through creative expressive arts – specifically using movement and voice with visualisation – once safety and stabilisation has been established.
I happen to believe that most everything that happens in our lives has meaning. I also believe there is good that comes from each event, even if we can’t see it at the time. I look for the meaning, question, observe and also know that traumatic events can happen in everyone’s life. It helps to know if others go through it and come out the other side, I can also. Helping clients find the good as time goes by, and knowing they have the capacity to recover.
Still trying to discern and internalize the various takes on traumatic memory and trauma recovery. Looking for the intersections from multiple viewpoints. Would love to see some sort of chart or visual.
I was turned onto a device used by Dr. George Lindenfeld called the BAUD (Bio-Accoustical-Utilization-Device) Dr. Lindendeld is currently writing a book about utilizing the BAUD with PTSD. He has used it with countless of vets and swears it is as effective, if not more than EMDR. He calls his therapy RESET, Re consolidation Enhancement by Stimulating Emotional Triggers. I have used it on myself and have found it to be incredibly effective. You might want to contact him.
In spiritual healing, we visualize those things we believe to be true from a Scriptural perspective.
We picture ourselves in the traumatic situation with Jesus Christ Himself, and rely on the truth of
Scripture that He is with us always, in everything, and that He is the true Healer, and with Him now in the picture, our fear and terror subsides. Remember…. Daniel in the lion’s den?
Daniel in the lion’s den – that’s a powerful visual. Thanks.
Another great visual is “He (God) will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land…. you will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
One way to reframe my traumatic memories of child abuse is to visualize the adult me traveling back to rescue my child self at various ages.
You can ask Marianne Bentzen or Susan Hart from Danmark how she deals with this problem. She does it differently according to me.
She is a good friend from Peter Levine.
Carolien Entrop
Dear Ruth and friends. Being no longer in the practice of Rehabilitation Medicine, I still periodically meet some souls in need of help. I think your articles are a gift from Higher Sources. Thank you. What works for me at this time in helping myself and others is PRAYER. However, I have learned to cease asking for specifics in prayer. I think the Higher Sources can read my mind. So I leave it up to the WILL of the Father. And then I just sit back and totally accept what comes through, if anything. That works for me. Stay in the Light, always, and continue your great work. Many thanks and much love, pro
I use EMDR to work with trauma usually following techniques for calming and stabilisation learned from Babette Rothschild’s training in London. I find EMDR the most effective for transforming traumatic memories but many times my traumatised patients take a lot of typical therapy for some months in order to be able to then manage the exposure element of EMDR successfully.
THanks Peter. you consolidate recent research and experience giving a common language to continue the conversation. While we all find various methods and and therapies to resolve trauma, it seems most important to continue to understand how the brain is working or not working and compliment the body and brain toward restoration and health. The neurological system is an intriguing and complex part of the body, and the body only wants to heal itself and maintain a homeostasis as you have made mention. While a simplification, I have found when we get out of our own way and let all the parts of the body function, there is improvement. THanks again for your work and sharing your thoughts.
Releasing the “fight” energy that comes with the trauma and that was held back at the time of the trauma (and comes back when reliving the trauma) is very important. There is no “one therapy fits all” solution. Sometimens EFT, BSP, Gentle Rewind Technique etc. can help. Sometimes the energy and “bottled up” movements of the body have to be released physically. Bodywork must be done, It takes a lot of knowledge, experiece and skill to choose the right path.
Thanks Peter with sharing the information about how memories are formed. I found it very helpful.
Letting the body release the flight or flight sensations is a good start. I have also had good success with introducing some “redo” elements even if these are “magical.” (i.e., “a force field came down around me,” “my guardian angel got behind the wheel and drove the car out of there,” “my guardian angel caught me as I fell”). Another useful technique is “Memory reconsolidation.” This lets one call up OTHER real contradictory life experiences to help dissolve the negative emotional learning derived from the initial traumatic experience. Then, during the window that Levine mentions (5 hours), the person switches back and forth from the “I am trapped and helpless” feeling (conclusion), to simultaneously, recall, with feeling, a different moment where they were free to escape. This contradictory felt sense can be even a very small situation, but, wonderfully, will still help dissolve the imprinted negative learning! For example, the feelings surrounding “Once I was bound by a kidnapper and there was no way to escape” can be contrasted with: “The other day in a restaurant I asked the waiter to change my seat because the first one was too noisy, and he did!” The person flips back and forth between the two feelings (conclusions), and the first learning DOES indeed quickly modify.
I have found a combination of Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, Heart Math, Hand Mirroring (see Ernest Rossi of the Erickson Institute) along with idiopathic hypnosis. Depending on the specific clients presentation and all this is pulled together with Postmodern Narrative process. I have been working with trauma for 25 years and each of these modalities has been added as I experienced them and received the training and saw opportunities to use them in combination.
Totally agree with Peter Levine. The key to updating a traumatic memory is to juxtapose the original memory against an empowering, uplifting EXPERIENCE that changes the meaning of the event and how the client perceives themselves, others, and the world. It has to be an EXPERIENCE, not just a thought process, because the emotional brain learns through experience, not words or logic driven analysis.
Moreover, the experience you create has to contradict what the brain would expect when recalling the memory. This creates a “prediction error” that makes the memory malleable. Then, you have between 10 minutes and 5 hours to update the memory.
Any effective trauma therapy is triggering memory reconsolidation, but just doing it via different experiences. Peter Levine and Pat Ogden do it through the body, EMDR does it by helping the client access their own contrasting experiences. Coherence Therapy does a similar thing without the eye movements. EFT does it. And, I use a combination of these, hypnosis, and creative modalities like imagery, music, storytelling, and play to create new experiences with my clients and they love it!
Looking forward to Peter Levine’s book, but for more info on memory reconsolidation see Ecker, Ticic, and Hulley’s “Unlocking the Emotional Brain” (Routledge, 2012) and a recent book I wrote that discusses creative ways to reconsolidate memories , “The Therapeutic ‘Aha!’: 10 Strategies for Getting Your Clients Unstuck (W. W. Norton, 2015).
Sorry for the long comment, but I’m passionate about this topic! It’s very exciting that we are discovering what effective therapies have in common and how we can create transformation for our clients in a variety of ways.
I learned of Dr. Connolley’s RRT by “chance”, which led me to you, Courtney, as I was looking for such a practiomer in Chattanooga. I learned it is hard to get it to see you as you are involved in much! I was hoping to find someone for my sister. We all scattered after Katrina. Exactly 10 years ago, almost to the month, in a Rolfing session preceded by a short hypnosis over one of my mother’s suicide attempts, 30 min into my session, my entire body shook all at one time for a full 30 minutes. It was so life altering b/c I lived in a perfect peace upon this earth, part of it, yet apart from it. I wasn’t in judgement of anything, just in total acceptance and Love of all around me. I remained this way until Katrina when we lost almost all: family dispersion (still ongoing), huge finance al loss, ill health and more. So since that time I have been fascinated with the advances of methods freeing people’s of their pain, be it physical, mental, emotional. Two sessions with Joan Scanlan, as well as JFB Myofascial work, is bringing me back to that perfect place, if such can be said on this physical plane. You are a blessing in this work. Bless you!
Once that incredible Rolfing session was over my roofer handed me Levine’s book, “Waking the Tiger…” And What a journey it has been since then! If only this would get to the masses! There are too many wounded who need this help.
Hello Courtney,
I’m body oriented psychotherapist and Somatic Experiencing practitioner.
There is no doubt that a positive Experience can neutralise or lessen a traumatic memory .
The problem is still without solution when the patient cannot find this memory/experience
Because it is a péri natal trauma and such a positive experience is not available in the conscious mind !
Is it possible To construct this experience in the present, for instance a secure and safe relationship in the “now”? But in this case, the patient would become dependent on this new person instead to find a personal and inner ressource associated to this early traumatic memory!
So what s your advice in this situation?
Thanks and warm rgds ,
Eric
Thank you for this. I would be really interested to hear how one deals with trauma that is not remembered, specifically one’s birth trauma. Thank you.
Wow! I had these same thoughts just today. I tried to re-enact my own birth trauma and felt dizzy and nauseous but wasn’t quite resolved that I actually came out of the womb! Then I thought I would never want to go through that again; but then I thought wait-my nervous system was not developed then so I wouldn’t feel what I feel now….confusing….no way to rescue except maybe pretend I am there helping the baby come out.
Anxious to hear more about reprocessing the birth process in our memories….
Finding meaning
“Gratituding”
I am trained in Pat Ogden’s Sensorimotor Psychotherapy and find the bottom up approach very effective. Teaching stabilization skills before processing traumatic memories is crucial. Memories are processed by helping client observe and be mindful of current somatic responses to memories. Allowing the body to respond (fight or flight ) in a very mindful and slow manner, while at the same time maintaining a dual awareness of reliving the past and being in the present with the therapist. This allows the client to release the pent up body tensions from trauma and at the same time feel safe in the here and now.
Ok. So I’m open but how does one establish a new reframed empowered memory, this time building into it empowerment if they actually are powerless at the most brutal level. These are women who were quietly minding their own business in their homes when large groups of soldiers came and did the most horrible things and now the families of these women are largely dead, they are homeless, physically brutalized often now needing surgery and hey are shamed by their culture for having been raped. They are alive but there was nothing they could do in actuality or in the memory to give them power. Running wasn’t an option. Words would not have mattered. The government in this country offers no protection as it is corrupt. It is evil on steroids. I’d love any help anyone has to offer. thanks.
Kim, what a terrible tragedy for these women. You obviously have enormous compassion for them and are validating their experience. Do not underestimate this. Just you believing in these women and not shaming them like their culture begins to create a contrasting, empowering experience for them.
Second, while they could not overpower their attackers at that moment, they did survive, which is to their credit and says something powerful about them. Compassionately connect them to feeling that they are resilient, that even in the midst of that horror, they made it.
This kind of brutal situation that leaves others dead and the women homeless will take longer to heal because there is nothing immediate they can grab onto to feel hope about the future. But, if you can help them find 1 ounce of hope and begin to move them in that direction, it will help. Think Victor Frankl and how he survived the concentration camps by visualizing a different future for himself.
I know these ladies don’t have many resources, so it may be hard for them to imagine any kind of safe or satisfying future. But, even if it is that they bond together and protect each other against the oppression, that is something. Wishing you and them healing and hope.
I would add that rescripting that changes the culture and that has a friendly group of citizen vigilantes arrest and imprison the perpetrators is important. Then actual or imagined being rocked, sung to, caressed , and pampered by loving allies completes the new emotional consequences of the events. All five senses need to be included and activated for best results. Love is always the answer. It must be real. It is not a technique to be learned.
I have found a tool box of methods works best depepending lso on th eclient. I have sat more or less silently as a holding witness as a client follows her own body sensations to release her own trauma memories. I work with EFT and TAT and EMDR. IFS. My experience is no one method is right all the time. . Even when I am using a protocol , I vary it if it feels right to do so
I have had incredible results using Access ‘BARS’ therapy and the ‘AC’ clearing statement philosophy. I also combine a little EFT work.
I have helped clients with traumatic memories using EFT and found it to be both gentle and effective.
Movement definitely helps to get out of the hell hole of unpleasant and traumatic feelings, body sensations etc.
Disperse the stress hormones. Feel good.
I love this simple approach.
The client gets to take charge and reframe, so that less shame is internalised.
EMDR is effective. So is working with the body, like SI, sensory-motor integration. The notion of bottom-up vs top-down is interesting here. We truly seem to reformulate and heal trauma by bottom-up strategies, “starting from scratch”, from the parts and details in fragmented trauma memories. I think though, that the top-down processing starts quite quickly after some bottom-up work, creating new narratives and thus empowerment, peace and hope.
I would use IEMT (Integral Eye Movement Therapy) because this deal specifically with memories that have negative emotions attached. The beauty of this modality is that the client doesn’t have to verbalise the trauma, as long as the memory is vivid we can work with it.
If the client is diagnosed PTSD we also have PTSD protocol for dealing with these particular traumatic
events. Upon establishing the client’s ‘lynch pin’ we then apply IEMT as normal.
I have been trained to level 3 in EFT and am also an NLP Master Practitioner but find nothing compares to IEMT for memory based traumas and emotions.
Matrix Reimprinting developed by Karl Dawson form EFT is my go to technique every time with these memories. I trained in this technique five years ago with Karl it’s a wonderful tool. Just as Peter said it is about transforming the overall limiting belief that these memories have established by embedding the new empowered version. I find that staying as close to the original memory as possible but allowing the patient add the elements that were missing to empower or establish safety gives the patient the best results and lasting freedom from the repetition of these painful traumatic memories.
The most effective strategies, I’ve found, for dealing with traumatic memories are prayer (informal & formal), meditation & Emotional Freedom Technique.
I am still to learn about Dr. Peter Levine’s approach, to dealing with trauma, but am eager to learn more.
Thank you Ruth & Peter, for this informative video.
I use a lot of emdr therapy once a patient is ready to handle its intensity.
But i am keen to know how to go about creating empowering and success memories when a person is gripped and controlled by his/her trauma and the body sensations and felt emotions are involuntary.
Dear Dr. Levine
We have read your book more than any other author.
This trauma uniquely strips us of the ability to pay for anything, therapy included. Is there a way we can more effectively try your approach without a therapist?
If not, well shoot! – please pray for us. We are all soooo without hope that two of us have killed ourselves. One went back to work and jumped off the building and the other took pills.
Even if we could get everything back, we have lost ourselves. I went from being a gregarious and athletic “life-of-the-party” type (I even built a 2000 sq ft dance floor in my home where I had free dances) to a sick, fat, suicidal introvert. I’m jerked awake throughout the night, biting my tongue. I cry each day. I wish I had died. Most of us have complex trauma due to childhood events. Workplace bullies often pick on the vulnerable. It’s a sport to these people and they LOVE it!
That guy in Amsterdam put bullies on fMRI and EEG and showed them video of people hurting other people. IT LIT UP THEIR PLEASURE CENTERS. I’m not kidding.
We read WAKING THE TIGER + tried to “shake” off the trauma. (120 members support group all targeted at work for expulsion + mistreatment.) In civil service it takes years to fire someone so we all spent a long time in the abusive environment NOT KNOWING how sick we would become.
We lost EVERYTHING:- first physical health. Then income, career, health insurance, home, car, friends, family (unbelievable stressors on a marriage!!) I hope Peter Levine addresses workplace bullying in his lecture. This trauma uniquely strips financial and emotional resources.
(one woman stood up for me, then the bully made her the next Target. She lost her job 6 weeks after I lost mine and proceeded to lose her house, marriage, etc. She lost her mental health therapist too. She couldn’t pay for it. She had been sexually abused as a child and that therapist was important to her).
So when we finally figure out how to heal ourselves (without a therapist) what kind of life will we emerge into? It looks so bleak anyway – two of us committed suicide. Please ask Peter Levine to say something that gives us some hope.
Dr. Levine,
Just reading what Elena says below – ADOPTEES are bullied out of their jobs at a higher rate.
Martha Woods
if anybody wants to know more about us, our website is:
http://stopthebullies.home.comcast.net
We are not a company or registered charity – just a grass roots group that doesn’t deal with money at all.
Dr. Levine, Do you know how to address traumas that happened AT BIRTH…Would you be asking the Adult stuck in an infant dissociation to IMAGINE having the ability to run or scream or fight or put on a superman uniform and fly away? So far this restorying technique has done zip for me.
When the doctor used nitric oxide on my mother after my head had crested, the gas, as it is wont to do, built-up pressure in her internal cavities and caused me to catapult right out of her womb, and slam to the floor, damaging my soft cartilaginous cranium beyond recognition…developmental delay, maternal rejection, no attachment/bonding etc. I was in both parasympathetic(freeze) and sympathetic (pain) states simultaneously.
How do you address this kind of preverbal shock?
Seems like a case where the “talking cure” is at a disadvantage.
fortunately the body remembers even if the mind has repressed a memory.
Pat Ogden, in her book “Trauma and the body”
has a lot to say about this.
I’ve supported NICABM from the beginning. Thank you for the work you are doing to educate people around important psychological and health issues. I do not have the money to sign up and appreciate your offering these free interviews. They have been affirming and helpful for my own issues. — Meryl
Our support group has read some of Dr. Levine’s books.
We wish we could have therapy for our trauma.
Some of us are so sick we can’t get out of bed.
We’ve had two suicides! It’s only a short jump from killing yourself to taking someone else with you.
Isn’t it a pity these folk cannot get help with their trauma?
How can they, when the very trauma also costs them their ability to pay for therapy?
YES I Know this works. The Fear of reliving the trauma keeps one stuck in the trauma…until it’s possible to feel SAFE and work thru the trauma with the understanding that it’s time to let go of the feelings in a conscious manner.
That is, if you can remember the actual trauma. Trauma happened to me when I was three years old and it took until I was 75 years old to remember and work thru the horror that I had buried as a young child because it was “too awful” and painful to look at.
Ronnie
Please please tell me how you accomplished this. Relate to your story as had early childhood trams for several years. EMDR only retramaized me. Working with therapist, doing tapping
Any insight greatly appreciated
Laraine
Dr. Levine’s remarks in this clip match what I’ve found my way to in assisting survivors of events such as bank robberies. Their reviews of events often include a remark about “I didn’t do anything,” or “I couldn’t do anything,” “I should have done something.” At the same time, they are telling me about what they did, they signaled to an associate, or they purposely did something which kept the attention of the robber on themselves so as to keep the robber from bothering their associates, or they just backed up and cried. Those were actions, and usually quite helpful ones given the situation. But only after living with the person in their sense of helplessness do I then direct our attention to the fact that they felt helpless, and yet they actually did somethihng, perhaps many things. They were functioning. This seems to be a great relief to them, as shown by their breathing, body tension, and all the indicators we sense in themselves and in us when such turns occur.
This is my understanding of the reconstruction of memory, or reinterpretation of events and of one’s behavior. The process of reinterpretation which we have gone through may itself become a memory. That it is possible to move from recalling only the feeling of helplessness to recalling that feeling and recalling the acts one did undertake and attempt, seems to have great value.