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
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I’m finding these sessions very informative! I am not a clinician but a paraprofessional. This will certainly help me support those I work with in a variety of ways more effectively.
Thanks for all of this!
Such an interesting discussion about pre-verbal trauma. The understanding that emotional memory still exists even if it can’t be accessed.
If you can only look at the behaviors that are currently being manifested and If you can’t get to the source then your only choice is to work with the behaviors. Seems like very challenging idea when working with children.
It would be interesting to explore the strategies for this kind work.
As a psychotherapist and mindfulness teacher, I found this webinar very encouraging. I use mindfulness practices with clients to help them learn how to anchor themselves in present moment awareness particularly when dealing with trauma. Many thanks Ruth, to you and your colleagues for making this content available.
I have attended two of the webinars and the webinars are a God sent and so informative. I am so looking forward to the rest of the series and I will definitely avail of the generous offer of the discount for this series. As an Occupational Therapist working with children on the Autism Spectrum, I have found that ACE (adverse childhood experience) have the same impact as trauma and significantly impact the child’s innate ability to thrive. I plan to use the strategies that I have learnt today and the resources that I receive from the Gold Subscription to translate this knowledge to the parents, caregiver and educators that I work with collaboratively so that we can impact the lives of the most vulnerable in our society- the kids. Thank you again for this series and wisdom.
– Susan Cherian-Joseph OT Reg.Ont.
I am not a practitioner, but I am very interested in the effects of trauma on my life and those of others. In particular, I’m finding that this information is helping me understand some of the patterns that hinder my own life and likely my husband’s life as well. We are moving into retirement and a life far less focussed on our children and, obviously, our work, and I think this is a good time to find better patterns for ourselves and our marriage. I hope to return to the working world sometime in the relatively near future as a Patient Advocate specializing in palliative and end-of-life care. I think that this information will be very helpful in that practice.
As a clinician who treats various forms of traumatic experiences, I find that interpersonal trauma that occurs in the workplace is often ongoing. The client has been brutalized verbally, non-verbally, excluded, ostracized, career and peer relationship damaged. When clients access early in this process, before trauma sets in, clients are resourced and supported. However, if the exposure has been long term, chronic and the client either remains at work seeking justice or has left work and continues to seek justice a deep trauma ensues. I do use the strategies of grounding and resourcing discussed but this session has provided me with so many more strategies. I especially resonated with the discussion of memory impairments. My clients are often fired for such impairments and shame themselves. This provides so much more ways of making sense of what has happened to them, normalizes reactions an provides me with additional treatment option. Thank-you.
clients need to be cautious about disclosing impairments on the job. any disclosure might be written into their H.R. records. They can consult with a representative ir on-line about “Americans with Disabikities Act.” Job situations are often triggering and re-traumstizing. We live in a traumatized environment that has become normalized. Females tend to re-victimize themselves with self-blame. They need support to unlearn this behavior.
For me the greatest take away is to intently focus on how our clients process a particular memory through sensations in their body, with mindfulness practices and not so much on the content of their story if they have one as not to retaumatize them unwillingly.
Thank you for all these practical pieces of advice.
Really enjoyed the seminar. I will walk away thinking of how I can better incorporate patterns of thinking and the purpose of the thinking. I loved the exercise Dr. Ogden described of listing thoughts and then teasing out the purpose of these thoughts.
In light of the pandemic, I also walk away with a focus on retraining focal points/orientation. This has shifted for so many during these past two years.
Thank you very much for sharing so much knowledge and wisdom with also great sense of humor!
As a retired social worker I find this approach to trauma refreshing. Because I am on a limited income I cannot afford to be a gold member but thank you so much for allowing folks like me to easdrop on these wonderful teachers. I sure wish I had known about this earlier in my career. Thank you again.
imagination is key, what most dont understand is that ALL of it is imagination. The reality is made up of implicit and explicit, both together is neither real nor not real, it is a dream. Dreams can become nightmares, when we dont understand their function or purpose, and we forget our source in them.
I really like the idea of a grounding tool kit. That is something I will give my clients hence forth. I already worth with a resorcinol gift set so this goes very well.
Loving these sessions which I am going to learn more in depth and add to my growing skills and experience as a senior social worker assessing and support foster carers. Thank you as this work is vital and gives such insight and refined understanding which is helpful to incorporate into training.
Lots of helpful tips today. Thank you
Wonderful overall presentation. One problem: Dr. Ogden — the quality of her audio is really poor. Additionally, there is a little ‘fuzziness’ of her visual. Problems only for Pat’s transmission.
Looking forward to seeing more sessions tomorrow and on Friday.
I love the structure of these classes and the creative presentation of important points, thank you!
I am really gaining a lot from these sessions. I am not a mental health professional but am in a helping profession. I find the constant reference to “clients” and “cases” quite triggering. In my profession we are being taught not to refer to “cases” but more to refer to people by name if appropriate (not the “gall bladder in room 209”) or at least to refer to them as “people”. I notice that Ruth Lanius is good at this. As most therapists have also been clients at some point I’m surprised that this habit persists as I believe it promotes “othering”.
Good point.
The most difficult part as an adult processing pre-verbal trauma and multiple health issues has been the lack of understanding from close family and friends. So I have been constructing inter-disciplinary conceptual maps that I would have liked as a student or client to share with cooperative partners and parents. I imagine tools in the form of inter-active toys, game boards and colorful glossaries to explain the concepts in a playful way.
An artist, I think as if I were practitioner, not patient, and would not have been able to access recovery without social support, alternative modalities, scholarships, and free online seminars.
Thank you for making this information succinct and available.
I like the sound of this. As a therapist, I would love more colour tools and toys!
All the ideas from today and yesterdays session will help me. I will apply the somatic and mindfulness skills in the way that has been shared. The goal being to supporting the men I work alongside ‘get to self healing’. Thank you.
Also, I have suffered in utero, early childhood, childhood, teenaged and adult traumas. I have terrible short term memory. I thought I was getting early onset dementia and was tested by a neuropyschologist, receiving a diagnosis of CPTSD. I sooo badly want to find someone to treat me.
Hi,
I am not a therapist, etc. I would be considered a client. I’m gaining valuable info and am grateful for these free sessions. I have read Pete Levine’s Unattended Sorrow, and Waking the Tiger. I’ver also read van der kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score. My question: will y’all be doing anything like this for the lay person like me? More information on all of it… The brain, the autonomic system, the different memories, etc. I have yet to find a good therapist who gets all of this. Thank you so much!!!
Valerie from central Florida
Their website has tons of free stuff. they do classes like this several times a month.
Thank you again — I come to this not as a practitioner, but as a lifelong learning survivor of preverbal trauma, as well as TBI later in life. I agree with the earlier comment that the pandemic has exacerbated trauma. For me it has also been exacerbated by a remarkable confluence of major life changes. Thank you for these great resources.
As a lifelong sufferer of severe trauma starting from birth, I find these workshops quite beneficial. Each one gives me a wider understanding of why I’m wired the way I am and how I can maybe undo some of it enough to have some good years before I die
Learning a lot about the power of mindfulness to help us help clients reintegrate.
I am wondering if getting a credit or certification is possible for someone not in the categories listed for CE? I think it would be a valuable accreditation of having put in the time for many kinds of careers or consultants. Have you considered finding a way to do this? I really appreciate the opportunity to learn and it will benefit many as I dialogue about what I learn and put it in to practice. Thank you!
I have just become a CASA for abused children. I would simply like to use this course as a means to better identify children who have been the victims of pre-verbal trauma, so that they can receive appropriate therapy earlier than would be true otherwise. I also have just started work as a student health services physician at a local college, and want to be better aware of their emotional needs as well.
Thank you so much for this series. I have shared it on my Linkedin and FB pages.
Respectfully,
Rosanne
What a fantastic seminar, thank you. I especially connected to the end point that sometimes connecting to an inner memory or spiritual experience of loving Ness can be a trigger in itself, to other past memories or circumstances, so to be careful of only using that as a grounding tool. The other insight I found particularly helpful was the concept of procedural or body postural movements that might have formed in response to early developmental traumas. Having worked in ECE for 15 years, now a body therapist, and now just starting training as a dance therapist, it’s wonderful to hear this integrated for talk therapies as well as movement based clinics. Even the smallest everyday movements can be habituated to block early difficulties and I totally agree that learning to softne these can bring a huge amount of dynamism back I to people’s lives. Thank you so much!
I love the ice cube analogy ❗️
If I can get through holding the ice cube I can get through a flashback.
Thankyou
Diana North
I’m a retired health professional and what I would call a “functioning survivor” of a lot of childhood trauma. I’m really enjoying this content as it is presented, but I’m also very aware of how the Covid pandemic has triggered some of my own trauma experience. I’m wondering if others are experiencing this, too.
The biggest take away was learning about preverbal trauma. It made me wonder what happens if someone is unconscious during the trauma such as raped when drugged or drunk? I also liked learning about procedural memory and patterns. I have a client who developed a neurological speech disorder right after being raped while drunk. The disorder is spasmodic dysphonia. I wonder if this is a way her body reacted to the trauma?
I am a grad student, do you have a discount for the subscription?
Thank you.
Hi Cynthia,
Thanks for reaching out! We cannot offer any additional discounts as this course is already being sold at a discounted price.
Are nightmares of the traumatic event an attempt to integrate or simply a replay (stuck) of the retraumatizing event?
How do you address physical pain symptoms (directly related to the traumatic event) without triggering increased pain? Are nociceptors actually activated/stuck or is the memory looping above the nociceptor level?
Thank you so much for the opportunity to view this webinar at no cost. It has been an absolute honour to watch and I look forward to implementing the content into my practice.
Gosh, I found it hard to watch this one.
I was Being triggered every few moments by the content. The realisation. But I am grateful. The first step is awareness.
Thank you
Very thank you for your generosity to share free the processing of Trauma in the body and it’s treatment. The wisdom of speakers and experts give me powerful foundations and tools to still healing the world through my own self awareness, my clients, friends, family and all people I can see now with more Compassion. One takeaway is stabilized and make feel safe the client evoking his own resources before to enter into trauma responses, and work with titration
Grateful with you
I am a retired occupational therapist. So much of this would have been very helpful while I was practicing. However, I can use so much of the body positioning and habitual motion concepts to understand people around me better in relation to activities which are uncomfortable to them. I may be able to help them and even myself through such activities with reduced stress. I look forward to the coming sessions. I have also shared the link with my fellow therapists. Thank you!
I am an elementary ELL teacher and I have come across so many students who need much extra support in self regulating and working through whatever they’re going through. This one session alone I got to listen to (Part 3: How to Work with Traumatic Memory That Is Embedded in the Nervous System) helped me gain a few insights into what a student could be experiencing and tools on how to respond and help them work through their potential traumas as well. I wish our districts got much more training in things like this, thank you for the free access to some of these resources and I look forward to listening to more.
I am a practitioner with my own childhood trauma experience. I thought that was excellent information thank you all so much. My biggest takeaway was the freeze response and dissociation to the memory of where this response actually comes from. Not so much how but alot in the past I would visibly shake when someone was close and looking at me directly. It was very uncomfortable felt totally from within and out of my control, mindfulness and shifting my focus out of my head into my heart or light area helped me to relax. However what youve explained opens a whole new perspective for me and my clients. Thank you x
Hi, don’t know how to open up my gold membership or credit/units, and cannot seem to get in touch with you. I love the program and am hoping that I did indeed pay for it and am included. Have the charge on my credit care. Please advise! Thank you. jmh4kids@earthlink.net
Thank you
Thank you so much for these sessions! I really appreciate the clarity of the explanations and will pass on this information to my clients – I believe that giving such information to clients can really support their understanding and helps to build trust and rapport. I also like to use grounding kits as having practical supports that tangibly link to now are so valuable.
I am a patient who is addressing my own preverbal trauma. Although the afflictions that am working with are very familiar, the context of talking about them and working with them as traumatic experiences is relatively new <1 year. Learning about this area of study and the available treatment modalities helps me to better work with my therapist(s) and to develop a language that allows me to talk about my experiences. Thank you for offering this courses!
Very informative opens so many doors of understanding in depth I personally think for years people have suffered because of the lack of understanding now as we gain this valuable knowledge we can help ourself and others to live from a different premise this is incredible a new insight into trauma and how the brain works nervous system and physically very interesting about the man experiencing pain in back I have just qualified as Dare practitioner Dissolve and Resolve emotions with Joy Wisdom the story resonated so much with me thankyou
I am a consultant in education, who has worked with children who have autism. They are particularly vulnerable to trauma but everyday things, e.g., an unfamiliar food on their plate, non-preferred clothing, unscheduled activity. How might your work be helpful for them? I’m seeing some possibilities, but I’m an educator and have a different lens. This information is fascinating. Thank you so much!
I too am a consultant as well as a sister/mother of neuro-diverse people. I think the portion on sensory processing is what is particularly relevant while keeping in mind that the trauma of what happens when you are around misinformed people who are intolerant – creating additional challenges and further trauma. I think there are different issues here in that there are both trauma AND sensory processing issues and discovering what instance drives each is important and helps you to understand and figure out solutions and from this lecture, I learned the brain science of how many of the kinds of things in place with CBT make sense for helping to improve quality of life and learning.
From working and volunteering in the classroom, I have learned that the gift of presence has always been a powerful tool in helping.
I am very greatful for this series – thank you so, so much! 🙂 I work with kids in an elementary First Nations school. I had a few who would go into total collapse/freeze states – I then use small movements to help them come to the present. e.g. wiggle one finger, wiggle your toes in your socks, feel your socks on your feet. Then I look for the tiniest of movements, give them positive reinforcement and ask them to do something small for me again. Eventually we move to bigger things e.g. stand up, stomp feet on floor, walking, drawing a picture etc.
Wow. Thanks. A friend had a psychotic break. All I could do was clean her house & feed the family. We were close. These ideas might have helped.
Very accessible & modular. Well presented & so important especially right now! Thank you!
I loved this session. I’m really excited to support my clients (and Myself) in creating a groudning tooolkit. I have many practices that are coming to mind so I’m going to sit in meditation and allow the excited energy/sediment to settle and then see what top four come to Be after some time in integration. So grateful to be living and learning and healing in this time and space. Yay! xoxox Alison in Montreal.
Thank you so much. Offering such information without cost is a blessing for me.
Folks I’m a Biodynamic Cranio Sacral Therapist. This work helps me is in explaining to a client the “trauma landscape”. It demystifies their inner world and suffering through understanding. The sense of relief that gives them is enormous. Understanding the process of Trauma contains it and safety is felt. I then find this new found safety allows a curiosity to burgeon in them. It also brings their thinking brain online and creates an observed experience to their trauma. That little bit of extra distance between them and it, for them a relief. So thanks i love what you’re doing and please add all us bodyworkers to your outreach program.