Trauma
What is trauma and why is an understanding of it important?
Trauma is stored in the body. The memories about traumatic experiences can be recalled in the mind but to release trauma it needs to be done through the body.
Just like the animal in the wild who shakes after running for their life and escaping danger, us modern domesticated animals also need to release trauma from our bodies otherwise it becomes stuck there and inhibits our ability to be present in life and debilitates us mentally, physically and emotionally.
Much of our current understanding of trauma has come from the observation of animals in the wild and the natural freeze, fight, flight, and shake responses that are employed to survive attacks from predators and release the impact of those attacks on the nervous system, body, and brain.
This is the crux of the understanding of trauma as it is not what happens to someone that means they will become traumatised, it is how they respond. It’s important to be clear that this is not a reason to undermine people’s experiences that lead them to become traumatised, such as illness, war, rape, or everyday experiences such as shock and fear. What is clear from trauma research, is that two people will not necessarily become traumatised by the same event.
In the modern world, us humans are rarely at risk of attack in the same way as a wild animal or our distant ancestors, but there are many threats and dangers that can literally lurk around the corner in our modern concrete jungle of cities, virtual worlds, and pervasive mental illness.
However, in our modern lives because of high levels of disembodiment, we are often cut off from our natural animal responses and do not complete the movement through the trauma response and instead of it being released from the body it becomes stored in the body.
When they are not released, the disturbing experiences remain frozen and unprocessed in the limbic system of the brain in a raw emotional form rather than a verbal narrative as with most memories. These unprocessed raw emotions can then be triggered when similar events are experienced. This can be anything from loud noises, loss, abandonment, fear, anxiety or anything that connects one to the original event that has not yet been processed and released. The key here is that these feelings are felt in the present as if the event were happening now, even if the trigger was minor in comparison.
This is where the various modalities explored in this project, and of course, many more, come into play. For if used correctly, they are healing gateways that can complete the cycle and allow trauma to be released.
Many theories and techniques have been developed, some of which require specialist help and others that can be learned and practiced without professional support once the techniques have been well taught and understood.
“In many ways, healing trauma is akin to creating a poem. Both require the right timing, the right words, and the right image. When these elements align, something meaningful is set into motion that can be felt in the body. To heal, our pacing must be in tune. If we arrive too quickly at an image, it might not take root. If the words that comfort us arrive too early, we might not be ready to take them in. If the words aren’t precise, we might not hear them or resonate with them at all.” - It didn’t start with you, by Mark Wolynn.
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