Trauma Recovery

Trauma Recovery

What is Trauma?

Trauma is the unique individual experience of a single event, a series of events, or a set of enduring conditions, in which:

-The individual's ability to integrate his or her emotional experience is overwhelmed (i.e. the ability to stay present, understand what is happening, tolerate the feelings, or comprehend the horror) or;

-The individual experiences (subjectively), a threat to life, bodily integrity, or sanity.

The 2 main jobs as a trauma therapist are:

1) to establish safety, connection and trust in the therapeutic relationship, including listening to, and empowering the survivor. 

2) to facilitate the healing process which our bodies are going to do all on their own, once in a space of safety and with a therapist using the correct approaches to enable the true processing and integration of unresolved traumas. What the late Francine Shapiro, PhD, creator of EMDR, referred to as the "Adaptive Information Processing Model" or AIP.

The AIP model posits the existence of an information processing system that assimilates new experiences into already existing memory networks: Shapiro writes in her book "Getting Past Your Past" (2012): "Awareness of anything in the outside world comes through our senses (sight, smell, touch, hearing, taste) into working memory. This automatically links into a wide range of memory networks in the brain to help us understand what we are perceiving. This process is happening for all of us, all the time. Everybody you see, everyone you interact with, all of the experiences that you have in the present and your perceptions of those present experiences link up to your memory networks in order for you to make sense of them. Those memory networks have all of your other already stored experiences within them. They become the basis for how you are feeling, thinking and behaving in the moment.  So how you respond to the people in your life, and how they respond to you, is based just as much on past experiences as it is on whatever either of you does or says in the present."

The brain is a part of the body.... We have millions of memory networks made up of all our experiences. Shapiro writes, "In addition to the millions of memory networks... we all have hardwired into our brains a mechanism, an information processing system- for healing. It is geared to take any sort of emotional turmoil to a level of mental health or what I call a level of adaptive resolution. This means a resolution that includes the useful information that allows us to be more fit for survival in our lives. The information processing system is meant to make connections to what is useful, and let go of the rest...." This is why we can have a difficult everyday experience (i.e. at work, with our spouse, getting in a fender bender, etc.), and despite being upset by it, we can think it through, learn from it, talk about it, sleep, and move past it, as it digests and integrates into our systems; it feels like something that is not happening any longer- it is in the past, and so we can move on with our lives and daily tasks. This is what our brains and bodies are set up to do.

Shapiro continues: "Sadly, disturbing experiences, whether major traumas or other kinds of upsetting events, can overwhelm the system.  When that happens, the intense emotional and physical disturbance caused by the situation prevents the information processing system from making the internal connections needed to take it to a resolution. Instead, the memory of the situation becomes stored in the brain as you experienced it. What you saw and felt, the image, the emotions, the physical sensations and the thoughts become encoded in memory in their original, unprocessed form. So, then whenever you encounter an internal or external reminder of the event, the related emotions...." (i.e  anger , fear, shame, shut down, terror, helplessness)...  "come flooding back. You may try to manage your feelings out of self-preservation, but whenever the reminder appears, your distress goes up."

"When reactions such as these refuse to go away in the present, it's often because they are also linking into unprocessed memories from the past. The unconscious connections occur automatically... The disrupted information processing system has stored the memory in isolation-unintegrated within the more general memory networks. It can't change since it is unable to link up with anything more useful and adaptive. That's why time doesn't heal all wounds, and you may still feel anger, resentment, pain, sorrow or a number of other emotions about events that took place years ago. They are frozen in time, and the unprocessed memories can become the foundation for emotional, and sometimes physical, problems. Even though you might not have had a major trauma in your life, research has shown that other kinds of life experiences can cause the same types of problems. And since the memory connections happen automatically, below conscious level, you may have no idea what's really running your show."

"We would say that [an] experience has been fully processed [when it no longer] contains the negative emotions, physical responses and beliefs that you had at the time. You can remember that you were upset back then, but you don't feel that now. The processed memory has been integrated into the rest of your memory networks." No longer will you be triggered by reminders of the past events, or reliving them repeatedly through high physical and/or emotional activation, or freezing up, constricting, collapsing or numbing. Or, vacillating between these 2 common trauma-based survival states, as many survivors experience: moving from high levels of arousal, activation, emotional charge, anxiety, panic, fear, rage, or anger to feeling emotionally detached, depressed, dissociated, spiritually dead, tuned out, or disconnected.

Many survivors only know what it is like to feel like that- it's their normality. While simultaneously able to do all they need to get through daily life, in an intellectualized and/or often disconnected way. It's a myth that people with Complex Trauma or PTSD, or even "Mental Illness" are all "disabled" and unable to go to work, have a social life, etc. Most of my clients are very "successful" and accomplishing wonderful things in their lives. However, when triggered, or not distracted by work and daily life responsibilities, they feel totally incapacitated, overwhelmed, and/or detached; most are very good at hiding these internal feelings, and even close people to them, may have no idea of the turmoil and dysregulation occurring within- physically and/or emotionally.

Even if you are successful and doing well in life overall, it gets exhausting to manage all of these feelings, feelings that are typically surrounded by feelings of shame and kept secret from others. In trauma therapy you can have a safe place to break the secrecy, and move through the shame; shame and secrecy block our ability to heal. This idea of talking to someone and breaking the silence can feel frightening; taking the step to do this work takes an enormous amount of courage. However, it's worth it. Most trauma survivors feel like they are surviving, not living. With healing you can stop just surviving day to day, and start actually living! 

Trauma Therapy:

Processing trauma does not mean "talking," it means activating our bodies' innate processing systems through a combination of safety with the therapist, and the different protocols used in modalities like EMDR and Body-Based Psychotherapies. In my experience and practice, EMDR combined with other modalities of therapy help to set our bodies up to heal, to move into an adaptive and regulated space- a space of release, freedom, empowerment and transformation.

The therapist facilitates the healing with various techniques, partners with the client in the innate healing process, and contains the processing to help the client feel safe and not get re-traumatized or overwhelmed. However, it is ultimately the client's own body that is doing the work of processing, integrating and healing. Our bodies are incredible and wise! I get to see recovery and healing every day in my office, and it is SUCH an incredible thing to bear witness to. It really does feel like magic.

All of the modalities of therapy that I use for facilitating trauma recovery, including EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, The Hakomi Method and Somatic Experiencing, are based in this understanding that in order to heal, we have to get into the wisdom of the body, in the moment, in a non-judgmental way.

We can only do this work successfully when feeling safety and trust with a therapist who is able to show up with love and compassion, without fear of any of the symptoms or memories that arise in this process. In fact, we cannot heal in isolation, thus having a therapist partner in this healing enables that healing and true processing, along with repairing deep attachment wounds through the power of the therapeutic relationship.

When we have unresolved traumas or adverse life experiences, we can feel like we are reliving and/or avoiding them repeatedly, for years even, after the event has passed. Most people with "symptoms" caused by trauma are unaware that their symptoms and the traumas are connected. This is why EMDR, along with the other modalities I use, helps many people coming to therapy for seemingly non-trauma related issues (i.e. relationship problems, depression, lack of focus, decreased motivation, social anxiety, anger issues, perfectionism, phobias, sexual issues, addictions, eating disorders, low self-esteem, sleep problems, physical pain, etc.). It has been recognized that the majority of our issues are connected to trauma, insecure attachment, and/or adverse life experiences. Unfortunately, most of us have gone through some type of trauma or toxic event. We need to treat the problem, not just the symptom, which is what trauma therapy is. 

EMDR processing along with Somatic-Based Psychotherapies enable us to learn from these adverse or traumatic experiences, become curious about them, and even feel empowered by them. The trauma that we avoided and/or relived constantly, begins to feel like it's settled into our systems, no longer bringing up feelings of numbing, fear, terror, helplessness, danger, dissociation, and/or shame. For example, an incest survivor will move from believing/feeling "It was my fault and I'm in danger," to believing at a deep core level that "I did the best I could under the circumstances, and I'm safe now." The survivor will have a felt sense of that transformation. Horrible traumas, once processed and integrated, feel like other memories, in the past, becoming less vivid. The physical and emotional symptoms are also discarded or released. So we feel better emotionally and physically. 

Crazy right? Sounds "WooWoo." But it's not.  Please watch the videos I included here and on the EMDR page. We all have the capacity for healing and transformation!

The Treatment Process and Complex Trauma:

The actual process of treatment looks different with each individual. The more complex the trauma is, the longer the recovery process will take. Also, throughout our journey, we will be repairing your attachment system- moving towards "Earned Secure Attachment." This work will result from a combination of Attachment-Focused Treatment Modalities, and the sacred healing space of the therapy office/ the therapeutic relationship. The therapeutic relationship is often the first safe place for survivors of complex or developmental/early trauma, where there is no silencing or judgment. Where the survivor doesn't feel like they are "too much." Where nothing is seen as pathological, and where everything is seen through compassion, understanding and empathy. Our emotions, physical postures, body sensations and behaviors are all ways we have protected ourselves when unsafe at some point in our lives. Because of unresolved traumas, many of you are still living and feeling as if you are in danger. Thus your behaviors, emotions, words and sensations are still in a self-protective mode. 

Approaching that from a place of understanding and compassion is necessary for any healing to occur. The more complex the trauma, as well as the earlier it started, the longer the recovery process, as safety and trust are commonly difficult to feel, due to the traumas and attachment wounds. Survivors commonly blame themselves for the abuse and traumas they have endured, just as society blames the victim.

Compassion, safety, and trust, are all necessary for healing. And everyone can heal! I've been doing this long enough to say that without any hesitancy. If you are not willing, motivated, or ready, or just do not go through with the process, then you will not heal until you have the motivation needed, and at least a large amount of trust in the process. It's not uncommon for clients with complex trauma to make huge strides forward, and then several back- making progress, and even trusting someone, or feeling cared for, can be frightening. I will be with you with love and compassion throughout those ups and downs. The only way out is through! And we DO have a way out.

With the combination of the modalities I practice (EMDR, Attachment-Focused EMDR (AF-EMDR), the Therapeutic Relationship itself, The Hakomi Method, Mindfulness-work, Somatic Experiencing, and Sensorimotor), Trauma Recovery is possible for anyone with the resources, the willingness, motivation, and a therapist with the right experience, training and skill-set, who is able to individualize your care, and include the body in your healing. As Laurel Parnell, the creator of AF-EMDR, asserts "All good therapy is an art, not a technique."

I am confident in my skills, and in the remarkable ability of survivors to recover, and good therapy is indeed an art!