When someone is stressed out & irrational it makes sense
to explore negative thinking and to help that person to return to rational
thinking (CBT). In Trauma however
the frontal cortex (our rational thinking
brain) is not connected to the rest of our brain and areas in our brain like
the Broca’s (responsible for reasoning
and articulation/ finding the right words) break down.
This means that we need to develop a new language beyond words that our brain
can actually understand when we are working with trauma.
The question is, how can we bypass language in therapy and reach the parts of the brain, where
the trauma is actually stored?
To make it very simple: our brain can be divided into three
parts that coincide with our evolution. We share our oldest part of the brain
with reptilians, it is responsible
for all our instinctual responses,
helping us with breathing, swallowing, heartbeat, digestion, circulation,
sleep, sexuality, action and survival. And it is in our reptilian brain that trauma is stored!
Next up is our mammal
brain, it makes us into emotional human beings and has the herd instinct
wired into us (we need one another, we are “herd animals”). To reach this part of the brain a client needs to
feel comfortable with the therapist they see and be met with an empathetic,
accepting and non judgmental approach and soothing sounds (that’s why when someone is upset it works for us parents to simply nod
and say “hm...” in an feeling empathetic way).
Only human beings have the third part of the brain, it
allows us to think rationally and
have use of our words. It is a wonderful brain and enables us to be clever,
clear and smart, come up with wonderful inventions and solutions. We can
express how we feel and share our inner world with others. Without it
communication via words wouldn’t be possible. As mentioned before though, the rational brain isn’t online when a
person is in trauma. (“Use your words!”
command doesn’t work with angry, upset people old or young, neither does advice
giving – that part of the brain then simply isn’t switched on)
Coming back to the reptilian
brain where trauma resides: It can be accessed only via the language of sensations. “When you feel
the sadness, where does it sit in your body and how does it feel? Soft, tight,
tingly, knotted, hot, cold, heavy light....?” Gently and with a lot of
mindfulness the bodily felt sense is
being explored via a trained Somatic Experiencing practitioner. The
reptilian brain now finally receives the information it needs to register that
parts of the body are actually tense and hold trauma memory. This means you are
on the road to recovery.
It
is such a relief that there are now trauma approaches (Somatic Experiencing, EMDR, MATES and Brain
spotting) available
that have developed a language the reptilian brain can actually understand. It
works - once the reptilian brain is on board, it no longer will sabotage your
emotions and rational thinking and can now concentrate on its important job of
instinctual responses.
If you like these
posts, please share them.
Information on trauma is something that needs
to go viral. Everything I have written is copy righted and I am requesting to give me credit
for information passed on and copied. Thanks.
Should you miss a
post, just check out my Facebook page
“Barbara Schmidt Counselling Somatic” or have a look under the blog section on
my web site www.counsellingsomatic.com.au where
you can subscribe to my newsletters so you won’t miss any future ones.
So far I covered “What is trauma?” and “Freeze state that follows fight flight
survival mechanism”
Next week I will write about: “How the self soothing Parasympathetic
Nerve develops and how patterns of worrying and over-thinking can be set up in
childhood”
Have a great day,
Barbara
Barbara SchmidtMental Health Social Worker, EMDR, Somatic
Experiencing Practitioner
Barbara Schmidt
Mental Health
Social Worker
EMDR, Somatic
Experiencing Practitioner
144 Stirling
Terrace, Albany &
3/55 Strickland
Street, Denmark
e:
barbara@counsellingsomatic.com.au
m: 0458 234 410
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