How to Work with Traumatic Memory That Is Embedded in the Nervous System
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with Peter Levine, PhD ;
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with Peter Levine, PhD; Pat Ogden, PhD; Bessel van der Kolk, MD; and Ruth Buczynski, PhD
Sign up for a Gold Membership
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with Peter Levine, PhD ;
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Thank you for this resource. I’m not a practitioner yet, but I hope to become one. I also have two very special people in my life who experienced serious developmental trauma and struggle with DID/borderline-type symptoms as a result, so this information is going to be invaluable to me in my interactions with both of them. I’m especially impressed by the mention that feelings of love in themselves can be triggering for people who’ve experienced relational trauma. I’ve been aware of this, but it’s important to be reminded, because it explains so much of the behavior of these two people I care about and informs the approaches I take in showing them care. I think there could be no more important work than treating and raising awareness of trauma, so thank you again for the work that you do!
Thank You so much for these educational free talks. I have been a big fan of NICABM for years now. I appreciate your organization Very Much!
Hi,
I have a Gold Membership and love that you are sharing this knowledge internationally for free. As a Social Worker I thank you for sharing this knowledge, I have found it invaluable in my practice. Reflecting on the ‘bigger picture’ of the client is a key to Social Work practice regardless if it is in the psycho-social or psychological realm and my observation of situations has certainly improved with this knowledge especially in ‘causing no harm’. Once again thank you.
Cheers,
Helen
Very useful, interesting, and reaffirming. As a Human Givens Therapist much of today’s webinar was familiar to me, but presented slightly differently with some new angles and take away thoughts and nuggets of wisdom. The importance of ensuring that clients feel safe and have the resources to ground themselves before starting any kind of trauma work cannot be stressed enough. Thank you Ruth and NICAMB.
Great session and very informative! I enjoyed the understanding of how trauma impacts on different types of memories. Understanding the difference between explicit and implicit memories and how trauma memories can be stored in either. I have experience of a few client’s who present with trauma but have no specific memory of trauma. As highlighted this can be identified in how they interact and their body postures. One particular client I am working with experiences Non-epileptic seizures and we have worked together in identifying triggers and the changes in body posture. Adjusting the body posture and grounding techniques have been so helpful to this client. Observing this I notice it like the foetal position but we have not even touched on whether there are any trauma memories. I will certainly take Pat Ogen’s and Bessel Van der Kolt’s work into the sessions to further support as well as the learning that we can continue to work with the body without identifying any explicit trauma memories as these could be implicit. I also liked that it was highlighted that little by little is so important to ensuring the client is resourced and ready. You are all doing wonderful work and thank you for sharing this!
So much grace in your sharing… I was tapping (EFT) along many parts of today´s session. The neuro-biological trauma-informed background to “This too shall pass” (a quote I first heard from a personal sharing of Oprah about a difficult situation in her life) was a little nuance that I could grasp immediately. In a society, where so much value is placed on knowledge, this little nuance can add enormously to the feeling of safety that we wish to create. In this particular setting, it adds to the depth and profoudness of that statement rather than it being interpreted as some sloppy brush-over remark as if the experience wasn´t important or relevant. So, I will definitely transport this. I feel like my brain still feels like a bit shutdown in non-verbal deep processing right now and I really wish to thank you for the excellent work you all do from the place where there are no words <3
The little bit of the webinar I heard was great however I missed all of Van de Kolt and most of the Ogden. A type of Mindfulness was suggested however I’d like to understand are there other aspects to mindfulness that should not be used. I am very appreciative of the opportunity to hear this session. Living in Australia makes it a tad difficult time wise however I will need to be more organised next time.
Sorry I should clarify. Are there aspects of Mindfulness which shouldn’t be recommended when a person is showing signs of dissociation? And spellcheck van der Kolk! It was too early in the day for me I think. Thank you.
I, too, so appreciate the Gold Membership members for supporting this service for people you do not know at all. I am a teacher. Part of my responsibility, as I see it, is to be aware of the challenges my students face outside of learning English, and guiding them to the people that can help them. Our college has a great group of counselors and advisors, but I am the one who might identify the person who is struggling and, because they know me, they might trust the stranger I am sending them to.
“We are the World,” the world family. Gives me hope.
Thank you. So many aha moments during each segment that I can wait to rewatch the next airing.
The presenter who said that flashbacks if repeated and excessive can indicate the client is self-punishing is something I never considered. Helps me to understand a former client who, in fact, never continued therapy due to such intense and repeated flashbacks. She claimed, and I have no reason to think she made it up, that her adoptive father kidnapped and murdered teenagers, used her to entice them and actually made her participate in the murders. He was never caught nor was she even believed by police when she reported it. Also the danger felt by the client, who was never safe, considering the possibility of safety. I would use stronger terms like terror of feeling love if inextricably bound with danger and betrayal. This is a therapeutic conundrum and I would like to learn more about how to work with this type of client.
Once again, Thank you Ruth and all the people you gathered for this webinar, thanks for all the knowledge you are giving us through this space. I am following you since years ago and it is such a blessing!!!!
Ruth thank you for your combined wonderful input. As with the input of other listeners I have suffered abuse from an early age. In trying to understand the motives of the people who inflicted this on me I obtained my hours degree in psychology and counselled at Life Line in South Africa for 18 years. In each of your broadcasts so car I was able to take of the input and confirm what had happened to me in trying to become more whole after enduring repeated memories of this. One of the comments in a previous broadcast was association with animals. For me this was so true – I could not trust or associate with people easily before doing that. My association and love for animals
allowed me to move out and try to understand people and educate myself more to try to understand why people do the inhumane things they do to other humans. Even then one does not always have the answer. The work you are doing now helps people to come back to base and out of themselves, so as to reach out to others and show the compassion and empathy that is so sorely needed in our world. Thank you so much for your wonderful work.
I am a patient and am always searching for answers for the traumas that hurt me especially between the ages of 3 to 9 years old.. I listened to the broadcasts. I want to understand what happened in 2016 when I reached a tipping point and went into black holes and chaos.
I want to explain that talk therapy was a revelation. My therapist puts me in a semi hypnosis state each time he notices that it is the child speaking. He says how old are you. What are you feeling, etc. I put words on my pain that I never had the luxury of doing. I find out who I am really. These mini validations make me exist. Somebody is listening. And also I can pinpoint my adult automatic responses related to events that recall my traumas. Now I make a present acknowledgment of my needs and learn to express them to other people.
I am a therapist working with traumatised clients in Africa, mainly Kenya, and it is wonderful to be up to date with the latest findings in the field of trauma.
I love the way Ruth clearly and concisely summarises everything that is being shared during the session and really appreciate that we are being equipt with knowledge from experts is this area.
It gives me confidence in knowing that i am not missing important things and gives me new insights when i am.
Thank you so much for sharing!
It was very fruitful session. I’m sure all the rounding up about the different kinds of memory will help me center the selection of information when I collect field data. For the moment I keep on researching about familiar bias of healing gifts with Otomi indian people (Doctoral Mesoamerican Studies, UNAM), but even with my consultants (family constellations therapy) I explore and use this information. Thanks you all!
I was very touched by the story of Peter Levine working with Haim’s implicit memory encoded in tension, posture, and pain. I think this will help clients who obsess and over-think whether “the event actually happened or not” even while scoring high on dissociative scales. Of course the skepticism is a defense against affects so it’s utility as a strength that has helped them survive must also be affirmed.
My gratitude to everyone who contributed to this series both on the screen and behind the scenes. I love your creative new use of inserts.
It was very helpful learning about Procedural Memory and how it impacts the client’s body. Using mindfulness to help the client become aware of this physical response to trauma by exaggerating the movement or pattern is a technique I will try in my engagement with students. I also learned a lot about the preverbal client and ways to assist a young child through movement, tone of voice, and breathing patterns. I enjoyed this session because it also provided ways to help the client stabilize and build resources to tolerate trauma memory by building resources, focusing on client’s survival skills, retraining the client’s response to stimuli and using the power of imagination. I can use these concepts with my students.
I’m really enjoying these webinars. I am surrounded by trauma clients and it’s become a way of life. I notice you have somatic experiencing as part of the input. I’d love to hear more about touch and movement or stillness. I practice Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy and the body is such an amazing tool. I want to see touch & movement enter these conversations, as it’s all connected. Sometimes reclaiming their body is the magic link that sets my clients free. Sometimes it lets them feel the hurt that otherwise just taunts them in flashbacks or odd symptoms. We get to stop and embrace it, and then get to choose if we want to set it free or not. Thanks for reminding me every week to stop for a moment and really pay attention.
I am a Holistic Nurse Practitioner and have my own practice. I mostly treat people in their 40’s and 50’s who have diabetes, high BMI, and heart disease. Most of these people also have binge eating disorder, trauma and other issues. I purchased Bessel’s book several years ago, and I’ve been aware of the ACE study for quite some time, so I’ve known about the effects of trauma on the body. This series has helped me understand trauma at a much deeper level. Thank you!
I have a relative who has experienced trauma. First in a car accident, then his partner just moved out while he was at work.
He lives in Asia, so I’d like to get him here to see a clinician, but that may not happen.
So I’m glad to know what to do, and what not to do when I’m with him.
I find your program fascinating. It’s changed so much over the years, and is really current and innovative.
Thank you so much.
This trauma work is vital to helping SGA’s (Second Generation Adult) cult survivors deal with and heal from the complex trauma they have endured. Much of what they have experienced is before the age of three therefore there are no memories, but they often attach all their trauma to the memories the have. This can be confusing when they think they have “worked through” everything but still have these reactions they don’t know what to do with. Thank you for bringing these sessions to everyone.
Yes I agree. I assume you are a member of ICSA International Cultic Studies Association. https://www.icsahome.com/
I have a client who has a family history of mental illness and suicidal acts. Her perception of herself is as a bad person. Even with much evidence from others, she continues with this belief. I think the idea that trauma can be expressed as self punishment may be an underpinning in her difficulty giving up her negative perception. She has advanced psychology degrees, so I want to engage in exploring this idea with her further. I will also look for sensory or postural clues and share them with her. Today was very helpful for me, and I hope, for this patient.
Thank you very much for this….I am not only an Emergency Physician who cares for patients who have ben traumatized, but care for them during and after life altering traumas. In addition to this I am a public speaker who educates about Human Trafficking and this is so pertinent. I am also a member of ASCA, adult survivors of child abuse. I have shared these resources with some of our group members so we can understand our own selves better, to empower us to take care of ourselves. And yes…my goal amongst many is to break the cycle. Thank you for helping me to take care of my patients, survivors of HT, the members of my ASCA group, and myself.
Hello,
Great session! Missed the first 10 minutes but caught up. I have taught senior and kids yoga for 15 years and just starting to work with a small group of trafficked victims doing yoga and mindful meditation as part of their recovery treatment. I really connected to the talk at the end when discussing how to bring a client back to NOW if they are having a negative response to apart of the meditation or yoga session. Using the senses (“look at me, you are safe”), imagination, describing a positive happy time, and/or noticing pleasant details in heir environment.
Thank you for this! I haven’t needed to use these strats yet but I know they are coming.
I’ll be listening to the next one for sure!
Terri Rucker (San Diego)
Ruth does a wonderful job of putting these sessions together! It is so seamless and flows so well between segments/presenters! The material is very easy to follow! Thank you for taking the time to make this so useful!
My biggest takeaway from this session is the ways in which trauma can still be treated in cases in which the individual doesn’t have access tot he traumatic episodic memory. Following body tension, and looking at the ways in which the individual’s body and actions are already in reaction to the trauma is a powerful entry point.
hello Ruth and the nicabm team
I have a patient who has a repetitive gesture of rubbing her eyes with the backs of her hands. Until I saw your video I had no idea what this might mean to her, nor how to address it effectively without making her feel criticised. Now I have learned from yesterday’s lecture on procedural memory (as well as others) that practicing the action can help her calm down; that we can note joyful occasions from culture and nature; that she has strengths which have helped her survive (was rubbing her eyes one of them?) ; and that I can encourage her to use her formidable imagination to discover what she could do today for the small child she was in the past.
Thank you for a useful session.
Kind regards
What a blessing every one of you are! I am using this for myself and my traumatized family members. I took lots of notes and am using the exercise Pat Ogden suggested to write down thoughts and figure out what functions they have. Actually, I will read and re-read the notes, find the things I can do to help my family, find peace inside to be a support when needed, and remember the sense of hopefulness that trauma can be healed, slowly, yes, but healed. I will hold in my imagination an image of us all healthy, happy, fulfilled, at ease, bright again, connected and free. I will keep coming back to this sense in my body. I find my eyes tearing up as I feel the gratitude for your healing work that radiates out all over the world, truly, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know this is a kindness and a healing blessing coming from your minds and hearts, powerful and useful. May it help heal our troubled world.
Can you give clients some practical tools to self soothe. Ie get a pet, exercise, a weighted duvet. Etc. I am not a therapist but have been suffering for over 40years with the scars of early neglect. Seen many therapists. Currently seeing a psychologist. Doing EMDR. Exercise, do mindfulness etc. Neurofeedback very expensive in the UK. Still having disassociation. Am desperate.
I find it increasingly fascinating how Neuro Linguistic Programming techniques, developed in the 1970’s, are finding their way into therapeutic practice as “mindfulness” or other newly named approaches. Being a Hypnotherapist trained in NLP really makes it clear how we need to find a way to teach people at an early age a more holistic way of looking at themselves and the world so they can use their imagination and self awareness to better regulate themselves. I wish I had learned more as a child about how my memories are really “out of time” and I can reframe them using imagination and other creative means that then allow me to come fully back into the present, memory free. I wish also that John Grinder and Richard Bandler would also get their due for developing some of these NLP techniques long before clinical research caught up to validate their experiential research. If more people realized the power of their own minds to solve their own problems, more people would be self-empowered and less people would be medicated and in therapy.
Awesome content as a traumatized person seeking to heal myself, my kids, my ex-husband. Have read The Body Keeps the Score, and am now considering becoming a gold subscriber. Have been self-educating on trauma since discovering Heather Forbes’ books in 2016. Thank you for making this available widely for free! My trauma was from my childhood, growing up with an immigrant mom who was traumatized fleeing China as a child. Recently my boss and landlord’s abusive treatment of me has come to a head, and I’ve been fighting them in the legal arena, while getting trauma therapy. Such important work you’re doing and publishing. Thank you!!!!!!!
The material is amazing! I learned so much. Definitely looking forward to my Gold subscription and grateful for what I can access. Pacing is absolutely key. I will also seek to be more aware of the physical and what resources are being displayed. The grounding toolbox ideas are amazing. Reinforced the use of the imagination. Thank you!
What I took away from tonight’s discussion is a better understanding of how
damage to Episodic memory (in particular) inhibits or stops one from discovering their destiny-
purpose or direction– in my own self-work, our *connection to others*, or sense of efficacy in this life.
Concerning preverbal memories, I want to suggest that Shamanic Journeying and Hypnotic Regression
can help write out or organize a declarative memory. It is accessible. The problem with it, in my experience,
was it then became a prefrontal cognition while it *completed* NONE of the emotional disconnection which
occurred– clearly, in lower parts of the brain. It left a feeling of deep emotional vacancy.
Working with young adults in a residential education program, it is my first priority to help build a sense of safety in their new environment. I appreciated the affirmation that a sense of safety is the first step in healing. The explanations of different types of memory and how they interplay was also very helpful. I think I will add the “mountain through seasons” visualization tool into my classroom mindfulness lessons.
First of all, THANK you for offering this seminar to such a large audience. Easy to understand information, and a great way of providing useful examples. Even though I have been practicing as a Certified Clinical Trauma professional, listening to the presentations reminded me of the importance of building client resources and assisting them to become aware of those they already have developed. Tonight’s session of “How to work with traumatic memory that is embedded in the Nervous System” simply renewed my faith in focusing more on the body and non-verbal communication and less on the verbal content. I’m looking forward to next week’s episode.
Thank you for this informative session. I am not a practitioner helping clients. I am writing a memoir about trauma and mindfulness. My father had post traumatic stress caused by early childhood experiences and his wartime experiences during World War Two. His stress caused cardiovascular disease and other problems, and he used alcohol to assuage his torment. He died early, at age 50, in 1969, when I was aged 18. He never recovered from the disorder. I have had PTSD as well, and have recovered from it with hypnotherapy. I have been practising mindfulness for a long time now, and this has helped my recovery. Among a number of traumas, I was raped at age 21, and I then suffered dissociative amnesia for about 40 years. The memory of the trauma came back to me, but I dealt with it myself, using Peter Levine’s body therapy. I was holding on to a lot of tension in my muscles, and I released it. It was not a big problem for me. Now I want to help other people by telling the story about my father and about myself. I will have a chapter on how to use mindfulness to deal with post traumatic stress.
This was a fantastic session and very informative. The material has given me a much richer appreciation for the here-and-now experience which I use in my clinical work. It has helped me see the deeper connection that the clients physical reactions etc can have in the area of trauma. Looking forward to the next session. I love many things in this session and the one thing that stuck with me was, “track how they are trying to resource themselves” so many fantastic points.
makes sense to me. interesting to know where traumatisation following or during ect woudl fit in. presumably bit different to preverbal memory (as due to brina damage and dagmage of connections) but some similarities too. Has anyone got exerince of people traumatised from conscious ect?
I’m using whatever techniques you are teaching to help myself. I have been in therapy now 8.7 years and what I learn I take back to my therapist so she can helps me navigate what I’m learning. Using your own words, I consider myself to be resourcing information that better helps me to understand what happened to me, a survivor of a 24 year history of abuse.
Thank you for what you (NICABM) does to help therapists and clients on what has been a very long journey for me.
The free access seems to be a scam. Every time I attempt to find the schedule of when the free screenings will happen I get taken to a screen where the only option is to sign up for your paid package.
Jacky,
When I signed up with my email address, I got the times and a link to the free broadcasts. Now I get an email reminder on the scheduled mornings too. I watch them all and the rebroadcasts so it can really sink in. The broadcast times are Wednesday’s and Thursday’s eastern standard time 10am, noon, 3pm, 5pm, 6:30pm, 9pm, and 11pm you probably have to register via the free registration button like I did. Hope it works out for you.
In working with adults who have experienced the insults of living during the apartheid times in South Africa, i can see the value of these sessions. The trauma that that they have gone through which is still embedded in their nervous system , needs release. Whilst i have used similar techniques in the past, i will bo certainly be incorporating this information as well. Thank you.
Pacing…. so incredibly important. I have clients that want to “fix” the trauma symptoms quickly. To move forward without ensuring the safety net of support, resources risks retraumatizing the client. I am also using the word “tolerate” so much more in helping clients understand where the journey is headed. For clients to understand that the objective is to be able to tolerate the discomfort vs make it all go away, helps with more realistic expectations .
I have a question about the relationship between the trauma of parent (I’m mom with an ACEs score of 7) and the rate of diagnosis of ADHD, anxiety, social communication disorder, and dyspraxia among the children of mothers like myself.
I am a teacher, and I find these classes so fascinating in how I may apply an awareness of trauma to my communication and observation with my students.
Immeasurably helpful in multiples of ways. The pacing and grounding practices and positive reflecting of their resourcing in somatic/emotional responses previously unconscious, and being ready for integrating these in proactive approach was only one profound path amoung so many presented. The understanding that revisiting trauma when sufficiently prepared with their toleration recognition both somatically and neurologically can be so encouraging for the person who has had a lifetime of disassociation from early trauma. The flashback revisits being a self-abuse mechanism was another profound path.
Thank you team!!
Thank you for the clarification without losing the tremendous wisdom that is being shared here. The relationship, as always, is key. I love the way these teachers share their passion for the work they do. I am trying to imagine how these teachings can be incorporated in the treatment and care of patients, and their families and friends, whose lives have been touched by chronic illness.
Maddeningly, I logged in twice today right at the end of the video (and could not locate the later replay times).
I would like to ask someone who has seen D.I.D. in real time, to explain how you discover it.
I’m grateful to the presenters and their knowledge. Thank you Ruth for facilitating it. I appreciate the parts where you recap, and I enjoy your humor. I love that the live broadcast is free and accessible (different times of showing). I’m a social work graduate student, and I’m already using a lot of the things I’ve learned from these masters with clients. I share the information I learn with my partner, who is a therapist in private practice. She’s integrating this into her sessions. Also, I love learning more about trauma work for myself and my own healing. I work with a therapist that does Somatic Experiencing (SE), and it’s truly been life changing.
As an Occupational Therapist who works with children on the Autism Spectrum, I believe many of them have experienced trauma. Some of the traumas may be related to a sensitivity in their CNS to a stimulus. These may then have created a parental response that was also traumatizing. I am very interested to try some of these strategies within the work that I do. Thank-you.
The four strategies for helping clients to tolerate and integrate traumatic memories was very useful.
Ruth, it seems that you modified your speech today regarding Gold Subscribers. I often felt that Gold Subscribers were being elevated above other attendees for their monetary contribution. I appreciate that this time, you thanked all of us for attending. For those of us in survival mode emotionally & financially, we tune in for various reasons. In my case, I take notes furiously, with the intent to use info & treatment strategies to help myself and my son to heal from our past traumas (if this is possible) or at least manage them, so they are less intrusive. Intent is to put out to the world from our “lived experience.” I hope to develop trauma groups to share my life journey of handling trauma as best as I can. My son, who is a musician & was a childcare teacher at YMCA (now forced out, due to harassment by a Y director of child care), hopes to find a new healthy & safe venue to help children whose lives are disrupted by problematic dynamics on the home front. So, we are taking it on to heal ourselves within our family & also take it out to the community & the world, however that is meant to evolve!