Background to Trauma
Most of us have been traumatized
at one stage in our lives. It is not only soldiers or victims of abuse or
attack that are traumatized. Both the sources and consequences of trauma are
wide-ranging and often hidden from our awareness. These include natural
disasters (e.g., earthquakes, floods, and fires), exposure to violence,
accidents, serious illness, loss of a loved one, surgical procedures,
divorce, loss of your job, difficult births, and high levels of continued stress.
What most people don’t know is that many seemingly benign situations can be
traumatic. Some people, however, simply rename trauma as something
frightening or upsetting.
The Effect of Trauma
Traumatic
effects are not always apparent immediately following the incidents that caused
them. Symptoms can remain dormant and accumulate over years or even decades.
Then, during a stressful period or as a result of another incident, they can
show up without warning. The effect of trauma is long-lasting and
widespread, even if you don’t think consciously of the trauma-event; it always
leaves an imprint on the mind, brain, and body. This imprint and the impact of
trauma may not be fully conscious, but it certainly is fully active and affects
the way we think and behave.
Sometimes we have traumatic symptoms that go unrecognized as symptoms of
trauma. For example: anger issues, fear, panic attacks, unexplained anxiety,
helplessness or phobias may all be symptoms of trauma that occurred in the
past.
The phrase “time heals all wounds” simply does not apply to trauma. That is why a traumatic experience may be reactivated long after it is over. The rational, thinking brain (the neocortex) might be able to
help you understand where feelings or sensations come from, but it cannot
abolish sensations, emotions or thoughts.
Healing from Trauma
The question is: How can I gain control over the residues of past trauma and return to be the master of my own ship? Just as there are physical laws that affect the healing of our bodies, there are laws that affect the healing of our minds. To fully resolve trauma, we must learn to distinguish between sensations of the Central Nervous System, emotions, and rational thought from the Neocortex. When these three parts of the brain are in harmony, our organisms function as they were designed to, and we can operate at a level of optimal functioning. At this level you can cope with the normal stresses of life and process thoughts and emotions positively.
Unfortunately, in the last couple of years, we have tended to identify so much
with the rational, thinking part of the brain (the neocortex) that the wider role
of instinctive, bodily responses in shaping and influencing behavior and
consciousness has been largely ignored. However, the neo-cortex is not powerful
enough to override the instinctual impulses that is caught up in the deep brain and in the central nervous system. Freud correctly pointed out “The mind
has forgotten, but the body has not.”
Most people find thoughts, ideas, opinions and emotions a far more interesting
topic of investigation that mere sensations of the body. Furthermore, we are
not encouraged to listen to our bodies. We are encouraged to be tough, push
through, just move on and get “over it”. However, if you want to learn to
recognize the physiological sensations of your body that underlie your
emotional reactions, the opportunity for healing becomes so much greater.
Multi-Level Neuro-Processing (MLNP) is a brain-body (neuro-physiological)
facilitation process that helps the brain to process and integrate both
uncomfortable and positive information. It is both a top-down and bottom-up approach
and it is as effective for complex trauma as it is for performance enhancement.
The bottom-up process is also called somatic processing, because we work with
the body.
The body needs to be allowed to learn that the danger (or the
experience of uncomfortable impulses) has passed and that it is safe to live in the
reality of the present. Being anchored in a safe present environment while revisiting unpleasant past experiences opens the possibility of knowing and feeling
that the unpleasant events belong to the past. As an accredited MLNP coach, I
facilitate this somatic process, and I have seen many people being healed from
traumatic events that used to haunt them for years.
For more information, you can e-mail me at:
Disclaimer
This article is not intended to take the place of
medical advice from your personal physician.
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