Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE)
Copyright Copyr ight © 2005 David Berceli Alll rights reser ved. Al ISBN: 1-4196-0754-5
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Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) A Revolutionary New Method For Stress/trauma Recovery.
David Berceli
2005
Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE)
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: “Trauma recovery needs a new paradigm.” xi MAN MADE OF CLAY: “Help me to heal myself!” 1 LETTING GO OF TR AUMA: “I don’t want to forgive.” 5 IDENTIFYING TRAUMA: “Am I going crazy?” 7 TRAUMA’S RESIDUAL EFFECTS: “I don’t know why I can’t control myself.” 11 PSOAS MUSCLE DEFENSE: “My lower back pains are unbearable.” 13 TRAUMA RELEASE MECHANISM: “I trembled uncontrollably three days after.” 15 ADRENAL CHANGES: “My body is racing at 1000 RPMs.” 19 OPIOIDS AND THE OPIUM SENSATION: “It was like it was in slow motion.” 21 INTUITION AND THE ABDOMINAL-PELVIC BRAIN: “I knew something was wrong!”25 NEUROLOGY OF TRAUMA: “Why can’t I control my thinking?” 27 CHILDHOOD TRAUMA: “I can’t concentrate or remember.” 31 ENEMY IMAGE SY NDROME: “I distrusted everyone to the point of paranoia.” 33 35 IMAGIN ATION OF TRAUMA: “I was more terried and angry than my family!” SUICIDE: A SELF-SABOTAGE OF THE LIVING ORGANISM: “Even death was better than this inner numbness.” 37 DENIAL OF POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD): “Things like that don’t happen to us.” 41 TRAUMA—THE NEW EPIDEMIC OF THE CORPORATE WORLD: “Why aren’t our crisis management techniques working?” 45 FINANCIAL PROFITABILITY WITH A HUMANITARIAN FOCUS: “What can I do to help my staff recover?” 49 TRAUMATIZED LEADERSHIP: “His objectivity seems to be impaired.” 51 INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND TR AUMA: “Why can’t we achieve peace?” 53 TRAUMA AND THE HUMAN BELIEF SYSTEM: “I no longer believed in anything.” 57 TRAUMA IS A STEPPING STONE TO WISDOM: “I live every day to its fullest.” 59 TRAUMA RELEASING EXERCISES 61 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 81 REFERENCES 83 ***
Although this book needs to be dedicated to many individuals, it must rst of all be dedicated to all the traumatized people I have had the opportunity to journey with over the past 15 years. The wisdom, insight and growth I gained from accompanying them in their painful struggle of recovery is beyond words. The countries and cultures of traumatized individuals who have invited me into their homes and lives made my journey of trauma and recovery a remarkable one. The personal family and friends who have supported, encouraged and stuck with me during the most difcult times of my journeys in and out of war torn countries has truly been my saving grace. My mother and father, sisters Denise and Debi, brothers Frank and Mike, and my sister-in-law Kathy. My dear friends Michael, Kerry, Richard, Bob, Jim And Ricardo, have all provided me with such loving care, support and encouragement. I respectfully and humbly thank them all and owe much of my life’s amazing journey to them.
INTRODUCTION: “Trauma recovery needs a new paradigm.” During one of my visits to Ethiopia, I had the opportunity to attend several coffee rituals with the Ethiopian people. Every morning it is a common custom for several families who live close to each other to come together to have their coffee. They begin this process by roasting the beans, grinding them, then boiling them into a fresh pot of coffee. This process takes about two hours from start to nish. However, during those two hours, they talk about what happened the day before. Since they were living in the war zone, it was common for them to discuss the tragedies they experienced or heard about from others. As they shared their pain with each other, they also received encouragement and support to continue. Through this experience and many other similar experiences I had while working with traumatized people in family and community-based cultures of Africa and the Middle East I began to recognize that many war-torn countries have developed a natural method of trauma recovery right within their own traditions. They did not need individual psychotherapy sessions. They did not need to know about the ego or psychological principles. They did not need a “professional” to guide them through their healing processes. They simply knew about pain, suffering and the necessity of family support to help them through it. As a trauma recovery therapist working in war countries, I would often have a family member come to talk to me about a specic problem. However, they would come with either friends or other family members. They did not have the concept that they should come alone to the session. After all, I was told, “We are his friends, why wouldn’t we come to his therapy session? We are the ones who are going to help him heal.” Many experiences like these in numerous African and Middle Eastern cultures caused me to rethink my ideas of the healing process. I began to realize that trauma recovery can and does happen quite often without the aid of professional therapists. I also began to question the need and usefulness for individual sessions of private therapy as the primary method of trauma recovery. I then began to ask myself about trauma recovery in our own culture. Is it possible to develop a safe and effective method of trauma recovery that individuals can use with their family, friends, community or support groups? Do trauma survivors always need individual psychotherapy for healing or can some of their healing process be done on their own within the healing relationship of those who love them most? Another profound experience that came from a very unexpected place caused me to question the process of healing once again at a deeper level. One afternoon in the remote town of Dembidolo, Ethiopia, I took a break from the trauma workshop I was giving to visit a
Catholic Church across the dirt pathway. The simple mud church I was sitting in was lit only by the few rays of sun that managed to creep through the small door and windows. As I sat quietly, I was struck by a very old man who entered the church. He slowly walked past me holding on to one pew after the other to keep his balance. The pew he chose to sit on was just a few rows in front of me. He sat down then knelt down on the dirt oor. The cotton shirt he was wearing was worn so thin it was possible to see his bare skin beneath. When he knelt down with his back turned to me, the bottoms of his bare feet were exposed. Because of the red clay of the land and the dim lighting, I could not see where this man’s feet ended and the clay began. Immediately the image of God making humans out of the clay of the earth came to mind. This experience, coupled with the poor, uneducated and desperate war refugees to whom I was giving the workshop, forced me to think deeper about the trauma healing process. The questions that came to my mind at that moment were: How do we as individuals, as a people, as nations and as a global community, plan to care about and resolve traumatic experiences and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for large scale populations? Can a method of trauma healing be developed that is immediately effective, easily taught and can be used without the guidance of a professional therapist? As I continued to watch this humble man pray, I could not help but believe t hat if trauma can occur to every human being, then the trauma healing process must be inherent in every human being. I also came to believe that trauma healing can occur anywhere, even with whole populations in the most remote and destitute part s of the world. This is a clear departure from the training I had received that taught trauma recovery should be facilitated in the ofce of a therapist, under supervision and primar ily through the understandings of the ego and western psychology. What I was beginning to realize was that the eld of traumatology needs a new paradigm for trauma recovery that can address multi-cultural and national levels of trauma and PTSD. Traumatology is in need of alternative methods of trauma recovery that can be self-applied, used on large scale populations and is not restricted to ego and western psychological concepts. Since traumatic experiences are increasingly occurring on a national, international and even global scale, researchers are beginning to recognize the seriousness of this new phenomenon which has become known as “The Invisible Epidemic” (Bremmer 2002). With our increased awareness of human-made and natural disasters as well as the recent events of war and terrorism, work in trauma recovery is in great demand. Trauma research and recovery programs are urgently needed in a multitude of public, community and social venues. However, with this growing phenomenon of trauma and the increased knowledge of its damaging effects on the individual, mainstream health care providers are nding they are unprepared, ill equipped and lack the skills to deal adequately with this large scale problem. Additionally, there simply are not enough trained counselors, therapists and medical practitioners to attend to the overwhelming needs of trauma recovery. This process of questioning the eld of trauma recovery lasted for several years and took me through many war-torn countries of Africa and the Middle East. The end result has been the development of a revolutionary new process for trauma recovery called Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE). TRE is based on the premise that human beings possess an organic restorative capacity within the recesses of the human body so that they can heal themselves from many traumatic experiences. This book explains the theory behind this method and the way to use this new technique at home within your natural healing relationships of family, friends and community. ***
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MAN MADE OF CLAY “Help me to heal myself.” From my extensive experiences working in different countries with traumatized cultures i.e., Ethiopians and Eritreans, Northern and Southern Sudanese, Israelis and Palestinians and Muslims and Christians, I have learned that no matter what culture, language or psycho-social background, all humans have an innate capacity to heal from traumatic experiences. We as a species are genetically encoded with the capacity to heal ourselves. If we did not possess this ability, our species would have become extinct shortly after we were born. Not only can we heal from traumatic experiences, but trauma itself has been part of the natural evolutionary process of our species, and all traumatized individuals have access to this natural healing method that is genetically encoded within them. Many elds of science are continuously researching trauma, PTSD and the intense and overwhelming emotions that they cause. Over time, each of these scientic elds has cultivated and developed its own understanding of how emotions are experienced by the human species. Psychologists believe that emotions are controlled by the ego and the unconscious. Neurologists believe that emotions are controlled by certain parts of the brain. Physiologists believe that emotions are controlled by the nervous system. Psychobiologists believe that emotions are controlled by the neuropeptides (chemicals) being created and transmitted through various parts of the brain and body. What is being revealed is that trauma reactions and behaviors are a combination of the exquisite, mutual interdependency of these systems working together toward one goal—as survival mechanisms guaranteeing the evolution of our species. The insight that these elds of study have provided us is worthy of our admiration and gratitude. It is interesting however to note that although we have such difculty in studying and understanding how this mysterious body works, the human body itself works with its own precision and simplicity when protecting us from danger. Likewise, its recovery process from traumatic experiences, although complex to our scientic scrutiny is also an intricate and precise process for the human body. As these multiple scientic elds continue to share information, they are developing new tools and methods of research that provide us with greater insight into the body’s workings. In the meantime, the human body itself continues to go on working in its own perfect manner, as best it can, without much concern for our research and methodologies. It simply continues to use its own methods of recovery as it has for hundreds of thousands of years. Just as all roads used to lead to Rome, we are discovering that all the emotional roads eventually lead to the bodymind continuum. The bodymind continuum is the simple realization that what affects
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the body affects the mind and what affects the mind affects the body. There is no possibility to change one’s thinking without the body being affected. Likewise, there is no way that one’s body can be changed without it having a corresponding effect on one’s mind. This bodymind continuum is precisely what needs to be considered when dealing with the trauma recovery process. Just as this bodymind continuum is a natural mechanism that has protected humans during their evolution, these same natural mechanisms continue to restore us to health. What is important to remember in trauma recovery is that all our bodily systems are working together toward one goal. During trauma they protect us, after trauma they relieve and restore us. By studying the bodymind’s complexity we are eventually led to following this simple reality during the trauma healing process. The Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) ™ explained in this book are for the sole purpose of empowering individuals to take trauma recovery into their own hands. As a client once told me out of desperation, “For two hours a week I have your support during my healing process. For the remaining 166 hours in a week I have to heal myself. Please give me something that I can do to help myself when you are not around!” This trauma recovery method, although not intended to replace some people’s need for professional counseling, is a methodology designed to be used by self-help groups such as: rape recovery groups, battered women’s groups, other self-guided support groups, families, organizations, police, re, military, EMT and other trauma-inducing lifestyles or professions. The exercises explained in this book provide the reader with a methodology to use for life. They help keep a psychophysical balance that assists the individual deal with life’s difcult experiences. If this book achieves anything, it is my hope that it will cause people to change the way they view trauma and the trauma recovery process. As much as is possible, viable and safe, I would like to help individuals take the trauma recovery process out of the professional therapeutic domain and bring it right into the household. To this end, I have included some non-technical and uncomplicated explanations of the biological, psychological and neurological process of trauma and the recovery process. This book and the methodology included in it is still in the process of being researched. However, for the past fteen years I have developed and safely used this methodology. I have taught it to thousands of people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. It has often proven itself reassuring, self-empowering and most importantly, effective for those who were experiencing or recovering from trauma and its sometimes debilitating disorders. I was recently in the airport in Phoenix, Arizona and had a few minutes before my next ight to Africa. I visited a small aerospace museum there and was stunned when I read a quote from an astronaut. Paraphrasing, he said: On the rst day in space we were all pointing out our countries. On the second day in space we were all pointing out our continents. On the third day in space we were all pointing out our planet. How wonderful it would be if we could all have the experience of looking at our planet from a distance and seeing that all humans are a single species dependent on one another for our survival and continued evolution. *** • •
The Specic Benets of Using Trauma Releasing Exercises™ Easily learned: These exercises can be easily learned and in many cases are immediately effective. Natural deterrent: Under certain circumstances these exercises can be used as a natural deterrent from and reduction of PTSD symptoms, thereby reducing the effects of subsequent traumas.
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Self applied and self diagnostic: They can be used to self-diagnose the degree and severity of tension from traumatic episodes. Integrated into daily routine: They can be integrated into a daily exercise routine as a simple body-based prevention and recovery process. Restores healing faster: They help to restore a feeling of safety to the body more quickly, facilitating a faster and more integrated healing process. Addition to counseling: In certain circumstances this method can be an alternative and/ or supplement to psychological intervention. ***
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LETTING GO OF TRAUMA: “I don’t want to forgive.” “Letting go is not for the purpose of forgetting or forgiving the past , it is about releasing the energy of the past to give us back our lives in the present which is necessary to deliver us into a new future” (Holloway 2002). Trauma and life’s tragedies often nd their way into our lives despite our greatest attempts to protect ourselves from the suffering and pain they inict on us, our friends and our families. As living organisms, our bodies know we are capable of experiencing, enduring and recovering from even the most severe of tragedies. It is our egos that try to avoid, deny and refuse to forgive and let go of our past tragedies, thereby denying us the opportunity to move into a new future. What is being recognized in psychotherapy however is that it is precisely our inability to forgive and let go that contributes to the pain and tragedy of loss. This inability to forgive and let go leads us into an excruciating double bind. “Our refusal to forgive the past imprisons us in our own resistance to our natural, evolutionary instincts and thereby has the power to deny us a healthy movement into our future” (Arendt 2000). The question that haunts us is how do we get through this painful, egotistical refusal to let go and move on? Why is this so difcult? Once again we are faced with the paradoxical experience of being part “reective human” and part “instinctual animal.” On the one hand, the ego refuses to let go of the past because it is equivalent to a second injury or death experience. The primary blow to our existence came from the initial trauma and the second threat to our existence comes from our fear of re-experiencing the painful scars and memories left behind in order to heal. This therapeutic process of remembering forces us to face the residual reminders of trauma that belie our fragility, vulnerability and precarious place on this planet. This experience is often a shattering of one’s self-identity and can often damage one’s faith or belief system. On the other hand, humans, like all living organisms, are compelled biologically to rid themselves of anything that is obstructing their growth process. To exist and evolve we have an instinctual (nature-like) mechanism encoded in us so that we can complete our process of letting go of the past and beginning something new. (This mechanism wil l be explained in detail in the chapter on Trauma Releasing Exercises.) This process is nothing more than part of our unending cycle of evolution. This ability to let go only seems to happen when we diminish the ego’s resistance and increase the body’s natural biological instincts. Increasing our ability to feel our biological urge to heal allows the life-force to work in us with less constraint. In this respect, forgiving and letting go are like natural control mechanisms in us that assure our unending process of evolution. There is a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche in Untimely Meditations (1997)
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that says we possess “…the power to grow uniquely from within, to transform and incorporate the past and the unknown, to heal wounds, to replace what is lost, and to duplicate shattered structures from within.” Inevitably, whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not, our tr auma recovery process will force us deeper into our bodies and further into the reections of our minds than we would dare to go. As painful as this exploration may be, in the end we have to resign ourselves to the fact that “…this is the way things are and that they have been made that way by factors that are not in the person’s control” (Holloway 2002). Refusing to let go of the past can only force us into a neural feedback loop that causes the trauma to be replayed over and over in our minds in an endless cycle of madness. Eventually, the neurological process of our brains will transform this chaos into ideations of hate, revenge, shame, suicide or depression. Once we enter this arena we can be trapped forever into the compulsion and vengeance of victim-hood rat her than the freedom and forgiveness of survivorhood. Letting go of the past is, in the end, the individual responsibility of each trauma survivor. It is each person’s responsibility to guarantee that revenge does not steal their future from them. Only this radical experience of letting go can restore one’s natural biological process. This restoration of our natural instincts of survival and evolution are so powerful that we even give up the need for past ideations of hatred and revenge. With the recovery from each traumatic episode of our lives, we give into and accept more easily the way the universe has treated us. Paradoxically, the more we let go into life the more we discover that we can re-take control of our lives and participate once again in the precariousness of being human. Only by letting go can we unlock ourselves from the past, be delivered into the future and prepare ourselves for our next evolutionary and/or transformational experience. Trauma in this light becomes not only an integral part of our evolutionary process, but it is also our learning process towards a more mature and wise humanity. *** SUMMARY *** Paradox: Humans possess a biological imperative to let go! Human’s egotistical refusal to let go! Letting Go: is genetically encoded in us to complete one process and begin something new as a part of our unending cycle of evolution. Refusal: to let go of the past is a resistance to our natural evolutionary instinct. Resistance: to our natural evolutionary process constrains our life force and inhibits our: Ability to grow, mature and develop wisdom. Transform and incorporate the past into our present experiences. Replace shattered structures with healthy ones. ***
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IDENTIFYING TRAUMA: “Am I going crazy?” We dove through the doorway just before the mortar shell hit the very spot we were sitting just seconds before. Dirt, mud and stones splattered onto our backs. We scrambled frantically on our hands and knees down the short hallway and took cover around a bend in the hall. Protecting our heads with our hands and sitting in a fetal position, we waited until the shelling stopped. These fteen minutes seemed eternal. I would only come to realize t wo years later that multiple war experiences like these were creating traumatic reactions in me that would later manifest themselves as PTSD. It is unfortunate, but trauma and PTSD have forced themselves indelibly onto the global scene as well as into the lives and psyche of this generation. Due to an increase in a rmed conict, violence, terrorism, extreme poverty, natural and human made disasters, trauma and PTSD are terms that have begun to dominate this era of human history. As a result of the increased awareness of trauma and its damaging effects on the psyche of individuals, institutions and entire societies, medical science has begun to explore this phenomenon in a more thorough and pervasive manner then ever before. When I returned to the U.S., after having lived in Lebanon for a year during the height of its violence in the late seventies, I began to have severe physical and psychological reactions that appeared unexplainable at rst. I had constant gastrointestinal problems, severe fatigue, mild depression towards life, and bodily aches and pains that had no “medical” cause or cure. I felt like I was going crazy because these symptoms were very real to me but were not acknowledged or conrmed by medical professionals. All of this contributed to a constantly growing sense of impatience and uncontrollable irritability about all of life. A good example of this occurred one day when I went into a department store with my sister-in-law. Someone immediately greeted us with a shopping cart, welcoming us to the store. At the same time, I noticed that the return counter had a line with twelve people standing in it, and only one person helping them. Immediately I was enraged at the injustice of welcoming us to the store and then making us wait for their services. I started shouting to my sister-in-law about the injustices of the world. It felt as though an inner rage was unleashing itself over this simple experience that, at the time, possessed an intensity that was uncontrollable. My sister-in-law actually grabbed me by the hands and shouted “Dave! We’re just in a department store!” When I realized the depth of dangerous emotions I had tapped into, I left the store to retreat into the safety and seclusion of my home. In the seventies, PTSD was not a very well-known topic among therapists, so I felt very
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misunderstood and isolated in my quest to discover what was ‘wrong’ with me. Eventually, I found a therapist who knew the theory of PTSD but was not very experienced in any particular methodology to help resolve the symptoms or heal the causes. After several years of inner searching, I came to discover a number of issues that were plaguing me. These issues are not uncommon in society today, particularly among those who work in trauma-inducing professions such as; police, re ghters, emergency response teams, military, domestic violence counselors, doctors, nurses and emergency room personnel. Exploring the topic of trauma opened a Pandora’s Box of several other potentially debilitating experiences. I would like to identify some of these because many people who are recovering from trauma also endure other psycho-emotional complications along the way. Identifying these trauma symptoms in the beginning of this book will hopefully help individuals recognize and name their own experiences in their recovery process. Trauma is any experience that overwhelms one’s normal coping mechanisms. This is why trauma is so difcult to identify. An experience that might overwhelm one individual may not be experienced as overwhelming by another. Traumatic reactions therefore should never be judged as a weakness of the individual or an inability to cope. A traumatic reaction is simply the basic emergency response of the human organism being activated to promote survival. It is often predicated on a variety of circumstances such as the age, severity of threat to the individual, the possibility of escape or the degree of physical harm that may be inicted. Due to one’s life history, one soldier could experience a battle as severely traumatizing and another would only experience it as mildly traumatizing. One person in a car accident may be very disturbed for years afterwards while another person in the same car recovers in a few months. What is important to recognize is that our reactions are instinctual and therefore not under conscious control. It is not our conscious decision to experience and react to a situation as traumatizing. It is an animal instinct that forces us to respond in this manner. Examples of common traumas that are experienced by large populations are natural disasters such as: earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and oods. Human inicted traumas would be experiences such as: transportation accidents, sudden loss of life of a loved one, domestic and/or family violence, sexual or physical assault, explosions, and war. When people read through a list like this, they often nd they have numerous experiences in their lives that are identiable as traumatic, but they seldom give much attention to it because “everyone goes though these things.” What is happening in our society today is that people are beginning to realize that these experiences do affect the individual a great deal and may even alter the very course of their lives. People are now recognizing that they have experienced and survived traumatic episodes, but haven’t necessarily healed their injurious effects. This lack of attention to these experiences and the subsequent lack of healing is what gives rise to post traumatic symptoms, reactions and behaviors. These post traumatic symptoms are referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is any physical, psychological or emotional anxiety disorder following a distressing or overwhelming event. This anxiety can manifest itself in a multitude of ways. Individuals can experience ashbacks, disturbances in sleep, memory loss, lack of concentration, nightmares and symbolic avoidance. Since these experiences are not always obvious, many people suffer with PTSD symptoms in isolation and silence with family and friends wondering, “Why can’t they just get over it and move on with their lives?” An example of this was when I received an urgent call by the faculty of a school in Africa that had over 200 hundred boys who were refugees of war. The students’ extreme behaviors of uncontrollable outbursts of anger, hyperactivity, depression and endemic absenteeism were placing a severe strain on the faculty. My rst step was to gather the entire student body together and ask them questions. My rst question was, “How many of you sleep all night long?” Not one
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student raised a hand. When I asked why they were not sleeping well, many of them revealed that they suffered from chronic nightmares and/or intrusive memories. Not one student had slept through an entire night without waking up for one disturbing reason or another. And when they were sleeping, if they heard another student in the dormitory having nightmares, the boys sleeping closest to him would wake him up and help calm him down. After continued questioning of both the students and the faculty, we discovered that the children suffered from other PTSD symptoms such as lack of concentration and short term memory loss. The faculty was shocked. None of them were aware of the post traumatic stress these students had to endure which was causing them endless agony. These boys just could not “let it go.” They just could not “get over it” and move on w ith their lives. Even though they were safely out of the war zone, the inner psychological and emotional battle was still raging. Vicarious Traumatization is another psychosomatic experience that can be very disruptive. This is a change of one’s own thinking due to exposure to other people’s traumatic stories. This was rst studied among counselors, religious leaders and medical professionals working in war torn countries around the world. It was recognized that although a bombing, shooting or military attack may have happened once, professionals may listen to stories of the event numerous times during the week from their clients, patients or parishioners. Eventually, this can have an accumulative effect of causing fear, anger or emotional suffering in the individual, even though they may never have experienced the initial trauma themselves. Common examples of this in the U.S. culture are: witnessing a car accident, listening to someone’s survival story of a natural disaster or seeing horrifying events on TV. In none of these experiences is the listener in danger, and yet after hearing about or watching someone else’s traumatic experiences, they became frightened, have disturbing memories or nightmares about the event. A contemporary example for many Americans is the falling of the Twin Towers. Each of the towers only fell once, but many of us watched them fa ll over and over again on TV, thus compounding the vicarious impact of the trauma. In the end, an entire nation was experiencing fear and terror as though they were the next to be attacked and possibly annihilated. People all over the nation became afraid to y, many suffered from nightmares and reported having disturbing thoughts for days or weeks afterwards. Fear which fueled discrimination against “Arab-looking people” increased dramatically. “Arab-looking” people were suddenly seen as potentially dangerous even though they had nothing to do with the traumatic events of that day. Many Americans in even the most remote towns thousands of miles from New York and D.C. acted as though their lives were in eminent danger. This state of deep fear developed vicariously because of someone else’s traumatic experience, but not their own. Compassion fatigue is another common experience of people who work in trauma-inducing professions or live in violent environments. Compassion fatigue is any intense experience in which one’s emotions are suppressed or unacknowledged. The Columbine High School shooting is a perfect example. Many students were killed and the families of that school district attended funeral after funeral and made numerous hospital visits to either their own or their neighbors’ children. They visited the families and friends of the area to provide consolation. In their attempt to be supportive of others’ pain, they often found themselves holding back their own emotions and denying their own tears or trying to control the involuntary shaking that often occurs when the body is extremely tense and exhausted. A fter doing this for several weeks it is natural to begin to feel physically exhausted and emotionally drained. This is because our bodies actually contract the musculature in the face, neck and torso as a way of holding back tears and controlling its emotional expressions. If we do this for an entire day, week or month, our bodies actually become fatigued. What is necessary to relieve this fatigue is simply to allow ourselves to express the emotions that needed to pass through the body at the time of the
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emotional event. Once we have a good cry or prolonged period of rest, the body begi ns to slowly restore itself. With the occurrence of one traumatic event, it is possible to experience many psycho-emotional blockages that can exhaust the body; making the person feel depressed, lethargic and emotionally disconnected. *** SUMMARY *** STRESS: Any experience that requires changes in one’s normal coping mechanisms. TRAUMA: Any experience that overwhelms one’s normal coping mechanisms. POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER: Any uncontrollable anxiety following the traumatic experience. * daily function is impaired * irritability * exaggerated startle response * difculty sleeping * disturbing memories * lapse of memory * nightmares * detachment * ashbacks * difculty concentrating * symbolic avoidance *** VICARIOUS TR AUMATIZATION: An unconscious change in one’s thinking due to exposure of other people’s traumatic experiences. COMPASSION FATIGUE: Any intense experience in which one’s emotions are suppressed or unacknowledged. ***
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TRAUMA’S RESIDUAL EFFECTS: “I don’t know why I can’t control myself.” Until recently, most research programs on trauma and post traumatic stress disorder were conducted in the eld of psychology; so consequently, most of the recovery programs designed to help relieve symptoms of trauma and PTSD primarily addressed the psychological and emotional dimensions of the indiv idual. However, the most recent research in the eld of trauma studies is helping to expand and develop this limited view. The cross-fertilization of elds of study such as psycho-biology and neuro-physiology are revealing new levels of understanding of the effects of trauma on the body. This is bringing about an increased awareness of the critical interaction and mutual interdependency of autonomic body responses and neurological processes. Whether the trauma occurs in a psychological, physical, emotional or interpersonal form, it inevitably expresses itself in the body. Anecdotal evidence is revealing that the eld of trauma, more than any other eld of study, is demonstrating the undeniable link between body and mind. This shift in awareness is increasing the recognition that trauma is primarily an instinctual bodily reaction. The body’s neurology, biology and anatomy change during exposure to traumatic experiences. The personality of the individual simply readjusts itself to inhabit this new body. In other words, the body’s primary defensive reaction to trauma creates a secondary psychological adaptive response. An example of this is when soldiers return from a war zone. They can often be distracted by memories of the ghting, their adrenal responses can still be highly activated and their bodies are tense and contracted. Because the body is still energetically charged and prepared for danger, the personality of the individual can still be very volatile, defensive and emotionally distant. Their reactions to minor stressors can be exaggerated. This is possibly what contributes to soldiers who return from war and within months, get divorces or abuse their wives or children. These otherwise normal, caring men, who had been role models in the military, suddenly found their personalities hijacked by instinctual and uncontrollable reactions in their bodies. Their neurological, biological and anatomical changes have caused a dramatic change in their personalities. Acknowledging that the body has an automatic systematic set of instinctual responses that become activated during the time of trauma allows us to study these unconscious responses. When these primary instinctual responses are restored to normal, the secondary personality changes can be restored to normal. ***
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*** SUMMARY *** • Trauma is primarily an autonomic, unconscious and instinctual response of a living organism. • Neurological, biological and anatomical changes occur without the conscious decision of the individual. • Neurological + Biological + Anatomical = Psychological • This somatic reaction of protection creates a secondary physiological response to adapt and adjust to the new physiology. • Psychology = confronting the ego before the trauma is dealt with. • Body work = circumventing the ego to provide relief prior to insight. • By working directly with the primary responses, ego defenses can be minimized in the recovery process.
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PSOAS MUSCLE DEFENSE: “My lower back pains are unbearable.” In order to understand how the body protects itself from trauma, it is important to understand some basic anatomy of the body. The skeletal muscles in the body are designed to contract in times of danger and relax in times of safety. During danger the muscles contract in order to roll the body into a ball protecting the underbelly of the body from harm or possible death. (Koch, 1981). Once the danger has subsided, the body is designed to release the excessive muscular tension that was needed during the traumatic episode. One very important set of muscles that protects us during trauma are the psoas muscles.
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The psoas muscles are considered the ght/ight muscles of the human species. These primitive muscles stand guard like sentinels protecting the center of gravity of the human body located just in front of the 3rd vertebrae of the sacrum (S3). These muscles connect the back with the pelvis and the legs. During any traumatic experience, the psoas muscles contract. To heal from physical trauma contractions, this deep set of muscles must let go of their protective tension and return to a relaxed state. It has been generally accepted that after particularly tense, stressing or traumatic experiences, people could get a massage, take a hot bath or do some exercises, and that w ill resolve their trauma and restore their body back to a healthy state. However, this is not the case when it comes to traumatic tension in the psoas muscles. The body’s ability to let go of the tension in these muscles has been diminished due to our socialization process. (This will be explained more in the chapter on Trauma Releasing Exercises.) It is often the case that contracted and even damaged psoas muscles create tremendous lower back pains. This is very common among sexual abuse survivors. What is often overlooked is when the psoas muscles contract and pull the body forward, they cause secondary muscle contractions as the body tries to compensate for this forward pull. The erector spinae muscles will also pull the body backwards in an attempt to keep it upright. These two opposite tensions will actually begin to compress the lumbar spine as they pull the lower vertebrae together, creating a spinal compression that can be damaging over a prolonged period of time. If held long enough in this tension, this pull will eventually cause secondary shoulder and neck pain as well. The diaphragm muscle also adds to the tension in this area. The psoas muscle overlaps the iliacus and diaphragm muscles along the spine. Together, they form a linking system of the torso, pelvis and legs. Since this is such a strategic area of protection, the largest number of sympathetic nerves (ght or ight nerves) are also found in this area of the body.
***
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TRAUMA RELEASE MECHANISM “I trembled uncontrollably three days after.” As a society, we no longer nd it acceptable to demonstrate sig ns of fear. A quivering voice, shaking legs, knees and hands all reveal bodily fear which is interpreted as weakness. And weakness is unacceptable in our culture. However, this natural bodily experience of shaking or trembling during or after a terrifying event is completely common among humans. A friend of mine explained a traumatic event in his life that helps to demonstrate the common experience of shaking in our bodies. One day, he and some of his friends were sitting around a group of cars just off the highway. Cars were speeding by and one of them accidentally hit another car, ipped over and came careening towards them. They all scattered in different directions as this car came skidding towards them. The careening car had come to a stop upside down. All the guys went running towards the car to see if they could help the occupants inside. They managed to pull out the occupants and provided rst aid relief until medical professionals arrived. The scene was bloody, violent and chaotic. Afterwards, they talked about their different reactions. One of the guys went to a local bar and had numerous drink s to calm down his nerves because he was shaking so badly. Another went home and went to bed without talking about the incident; he said he took some sleeping pills to calm him down. Two others said they were shaking so badly at the scene that the police offered to drive them home. What was common among all of them is that they began to shake. One dealt with the shaking by drinking and numbing his body so it would stop. The other went to sleep, but two days later when he was alone in the house, he reported that he began to shake uncontrollably. The t wo who had to be driven home, continued to shake for several hours after the accident. We are all familiar with this experience of involuntary shaking that occurs when we are scared, nervous or even angry. We even have cultural expressions that reect this experience. “I was so angry I shook.” “I was so nervous my knees started knocking.” “I was so scared my teeth started chattering.” Even at happy occasions like weddings, we can become so nervous that our hands shake uncontrollably. So what is this shaking all about? Why does our body do it? Essentially, this shaking is the body’s natural method of discharging the high levels of tension and chemicals that overcharge the body at the time of an incident. Through the shaking process, the body discharges excess excitement and returns to a state of rest and relaxation. Actually, one of the most primitive responses in the human animal is its ability to shake away trauma. In order to understand a human’s natural need to shake, it is helpful to understand how all mammals deal with traumatic experiences. Animal species that are still living in their natural
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habitats often encounter trauma. They, unlike humans, still have not deadened or repressed their natural ability to discharge the excess energy generated during trauma. Animals still allow their bodies to shake out the tension of a traumatic experience and then move on unencumbered with their lives. If a gazelle gets attacked by a lion but manages to escape, when the gazelle is safe, its entire body will tremble until it has shaken out the excess charge; and it will return back to the herd drinking water from the pond as though nothing had happened. Even though our pets are more domesticated and now live in articial or constructed environments, we can still see this same type of trembling if they are afraid of thunder and lightening. They will often come close to us and tremble. This trembling is the natural process of the body discharging the excess energy simultaneously as it is being created in the body. As humans, we possess this same mechanism. However, to our detriment, we have inhibited or deadened it. As an example, when we get nervous or overexcited, we deliberately try not to shake so as not to appear weak or afraid. This ego control places the body and mind into a conict. The body wants to shake to discharge the excess energy, but the mind refuses to let it do so. The mind usually wins and the body must then nd another way of dealing with this hyper-aroused charge. The way it deals with it is by contracting the muscle and containing this excess charge. The muscles in the body contract and hold onto the excess charge until they are allowed to release it at a later time. If they do not get that opportunity, the contracted muscles then produce a chronic state of tension in the body. Herein lays one of the root causes of PTSD. If the muscles contracted during trauma do not release this high charge shortly after the trauma, they will continue to try to do so at a later date as a way of restoring the body to a restful state. Post trauma reactions are caused by the residual undischarged excitement generated at the time of the event. If this high state of aroused energy is prevented from being discharged in the body, it remains trapped in a bio-neural-physical loop that causes a repetition compulsion behavior. Until the body shakes out this tension, the body will continue to repeat this chronic tension pattern of protection and defense. A major component to a successful recovery from trauma is to activate the person’s natural release mechanism that signals the body to return to a state of rest and recuperation. For all humans, after the trauma is over, the nervous system should naturally activate itself and begin to shake out any residual chemicals or tension remaining from the trau matic episode. This shaking sends a signal to the brain informing it that the danger has subsided and it should turn off its alert status. If the nervous system does not activate itself, the body continues to remain in a kind of short circuit loop with the brain continuing to believe it is still in danger and therefore continuing to command the body to stay in a state of readiness and alert. The uniquely created Trauma R eleasing Exercises (TRE) ™ at the end of this book are specically designed to articially evoke this shaking mechanism. By evoking this mechanism through these simple and painless techniques, you can release the deep, chronic muscle contractions created by severe shock or trauma. They use nothing but the natura l mechanisms of the body. However, the key to the Trauma Releasing Exercises is that they evoke the shaking from the center of gravity of the body located in the pelvis. When the shaking response is evoked at this powerful center of the body, it reverberates throughout the entire body looking for deep chronic tension in its path and naturally dissolving it. By following the exercises at the end of this book, you can begi n to release the chronic tension in your body from the center of gravity outwards. Your body will begin to shake involuntarily searching for the areas of tension and slowly discharging and relaxing these muscles. They will initially begin in the upper thighs and work their way into the psoas muscles. The shaking will then travel through the pelvis into the lower back and nally up the spine into the shoulders, neck, arms and hands. This shaking can produce a feeling of exhaustion similar to the feeling
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of just having nished a long workout; or, it could produce a great deal of energy making you feel invigorated. Each time you do the exercises, the shaking pattern may change and various types of shaking can occur. Prior to doing these, or any other exercises, you should consult your primary health care provider such as a physician, therapist or counselor. Although simple and easy to do, these exercises can have a very immediate and deep effect on the person’s physical and/or psychoemotional state. They can quickly reduce blood pressure, cause strong trembling and a deep release of emotions. They can also elicit past traumas for which you may want professional guidance and/or personal support. As always, the key is to respect your own body, emotions and psyche. If for any reason you feel the need to stop the exercises or the shaking, simply do so by stretching your legs out at onto the oor and just relaxing on your back or curling up on your side. You can always return to them when you feel calm, safe and comfortable. This shaking can also be used simply for the purpose of relieving the tensions created from the daily stress of life. Although I include this caution, I also want to assure you that if you have no psychoemotional connection that does not mean there is anything wrong. Simply enjoy the vibration caused by the exercises and continue to repeat them. They have an accumulative effect of relaxing the body at deeper and deeper levels. Many people who have done extensive body work and trauma recovery simply nd these exercises and the shaking to be a profound integrating tool for the psychosomatic work they have already completed. For the purpose of learning the exercises it is best to do them as they are shown in this book. They begin from the toes and work their way up the feet, ankle, legs and nally the pelvis. Working from the ground upwards helps establish a strong connection w ith the legs prior to working on the upper areas of the body. The difference between these exercises and other forms of exercise like jogging, weight lifting, and aerobics is that is that most exercise routines are designed to release surface level tension in the body. This is insufcient however when dealing with the deep chronic tension created in a traumatic experience. Oftentimes when these milder forms of exercise are used to try and relieve the tension created during trauma, they fail to go deep enough into the muscle tissue to relieve the tension. This can leave the individual with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness if they don’t release the tension of the trauma.
***
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ADRENAL CHANGES: “My body is racing at 1000RPMs.” Domestic violence within families of soldiers who have recently returned from war zones is noticeably higher than the normal population. Numerous studies have already demonstrated that the chemical levels of adrenaline, cortisol and serotonin in the body are signicantly altered when individuals are exposed to prolonged or repeated experiences of trauma. One soldier put it quite well when he said: “It’s like I’m running 1000 rpms and everyone else around me is idling at 30 rpms. I feel all wound up inside and don’t have anywhere to discharge this energy.” He could not have been more accurate. He was in fact on a chemical high commonly known as the “adrenaline rush.” Although medical practitioners are very well aware of this adrenal rush that is created during traumatic experiences, very little attention is given to reducing the adrenal and cortisol levels of traumatized individuals. It is not only soldiers, but others such as police, re ghters, EMTs, victims of domestic violence and abused children who are livi ng and working in traumatizing environments. They are but a few of a growing list people who are in need of a methodology to stabilize these signicant biochemical changes in the body due to trauma-inducing environments and experiences. We have all experienced this adrenaline rush before. However, for most of us we return to our normal lives and calm ourselves down. Unfortunately, this is not the case with individuals who experience prolonged and repeated experiences of stress and trauma. After continuous and/ or repeated exposure to dangerous situations, the body becomes so accustomed to producing high levels of adrenaline and cortisol that it automatically raises the baseline production of these chemicals. In other words, we all have a natural baseline level of adrenaline in our bodies. If we continue to produce higher levels of adrenaline on a regular basis our bodies will adjust to producing adrenaline at these higher levels even when we no longer need them. Essential ly, we become addicted to our own chemicals. Accompanying this adrenaline production is a reduction in serotonin. Serotonin is the “feel good drug” in the body. It is the chemical that inhibits us from acting on our aggressive impulses. Decreases in serotonin in humans have repeatedly been correlated with impulsivity and aggression. In animals, a decrease in serotonin produces an exaggerated emotional arousal and/or aggressive display (van der Kolk 1994). The combination of increased adrenaline and decreased serotonin is precisely what causes an otherwise controlled and calm individual to act on his/her aggressive emotions. In times of war, danger or trauma we want high levels of adrenaline and low levels of serotonin. This combination of chemicals will guarantee that we will have aggressive reactions and we will act on them. It is precisely this behavior that keeps
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us alive in the face of danger. The difculty arises when the person leaves the dangerous environment and immediately returns to a normal environment. Their biochemical responses are still highly activated even though they are no longer necessary. This is what causes an individual to have an exaggerated reaction to normal everyday stressors.
*** SUMMARY *** • • • • • •
Trauma creates a new biological baseline of chemicals (adrenaline/opioids). The body is prevented from following its natural rhythm of excitement/rest. Adrenal glands become exhausted and the adrenals go into a forced state of recuperation. Everyday stressors begin to elicit an exaggerated reaction. Trauma/stress becomes a state of preoccupation instead of a passing experience. This chemical reaction leads to a vulnerability of hypertension or depression. ***
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OPIOIDS AND THE OPIUM SENSATION “It was like it was in slow motion.” Although we are familiar with the experience of an “adrenaline rush,” there are other signicant, although less familiar, chemical changes that can take place in the body during traumatic episodes. These chemicals belong to a group of chemicals referred to as opioids. During the attack of the Twin Towers many people who were within close proximity to ‘Ground Zero’ described their experiences like this: “I saw it happening but it was like it wasn’t real.” “It was like it was in slow motion.” “I ran but I didn’t feel like I was in my own body.” “It was like someone else was running.” “I heard screaming but it was surreal.” “Although I was badly cut, I didn’t feel any pain until it was all over and someone else had to tell me I was hurt.” All of these comments in any other circumstances would cause a suspicion that the individual was on drugs. “Slow motion, surreal, out of my body, feeling no pain…” comments such as these are commonly made by people who are on some kind of mind- altering medications. This is exactly true. The body has the ability to manufacture mind and sensory altering drugs during a time of trauma. This process is a very primitive response of the human animal. An example would be encountering a lion in the jungle and having no way to escape except to ght the lion. We would have a very high adrenaline rush for the sake of increasing our muscle tone and strength. However, if our arm is clawed in the process of ghting the lion our body would immediately pump opioids into the arm so we would not feel the pain. Only after the lion is dead or gone and our safety is assured would the body stop injecting opioids into our arm so we would then feel the pain and seek medical assistance. Another contemporary example of the activation of the opioid system is commonly experienced during physical abuse. Many individuals will claim that “…it was as though I was out of my body watching it happen.” “I screamed but it seemed like someone else screaming.” “I fought and fought but at some point my muscles gave in and my body just collapsed.” All of these experiences are opioid induced. It is helpful to realize that the body is not concerned about how you survive the trauma, it is only concerned that you survive the trauma. In other words, the body does not mind giving up and allowing itself to be abused. It is only concerned that it survives the abuse. If numbing or dissociating is deemed advantageous by the body’s system, it will stop pumping adrenaline that causes you to ght into your body and it will begin to pump opioids into your system that will produce more passive defenses. For the sake of a more accurate understanding of the chemical changes in the body,
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compare the adrenal response known as the “Hyperarousal Continuum” with the opioid response known as the “Dissociative Continuum” in the following summary. *** HYPERAROUSAL DISSOCIATIVE CONTINUUM CONTINUUM Alarm—vigilance numbing—compliant fear—terror dissociating Adrenal system is activated Opioid system is activated Excitement inducing Euphoria inducing Serotonin decreases Senses are altered (impulsivity & aggression are altered (place, time, reality with exaggerated emotions) Heart rate (increases) Heart rate (decreases) Blood pressure (increases) Blood pressure (decreases) Respiration (increases) Respiration (decreases) Muscle tone intensies Muscle tone becomes accid/numb Cognitive processing increases Cognitive processing decreases Aggressive response Passive response *** Another experience that is very common among traumatized people is called the bi-phasic or bi-modal experience. This is when both adrenaline and opioids are working simultaneously or in rapid succession of each other. Here is an example: A Kenyan man who was at the U.S. Embassy during the time of its bombing in Nairobi in 2000, reacted by going into a state of ght/ight and dissociation at the same time. He literally ran for one kilometer without knowing that he was doing it and without knowing where he was going. When people nally stopped him from running, he sat on the ground and asked: “Where am I?” What was also interesting was that this man had a huge gash in his upper leg that was bleeding severely. In normal circumstances, this type of injury would not allow a person to walk, let alone run, for one kilometer. When this gash was pointed out to him, he screamed out in pain. Until that moment, he had never felt the pain. His system pumped both adrenaline and opioids into his body simultaneously to save this man from possible death. A similar experience that is quite common among traumatized people is that they will swing back and forth from a dissociated or depressed state to a highly charged state of hyperarousal. Life can be going along ne and someone simply makes a slight criticism to the individual and they y off the handle, expressing emotions of anger and even rage while screaming about always being picked on and abused. Then a few minutes or hours later you can nd the same individual depressed and despondent to even the most positive of comments. This swinging back and forth between extremes is very common among traumatized individuals. Traumatized individuals have an imbalance of chemicals in their bodies that cause them to react in these unpredictable ways. This can often be mistaken as manic/depression, bipolar or attention decit disorder. It is in a non-clinical sense a bi-polar disorder. They are in fact swinging between one pole and another. This is a post trauma reaction rather than the disposition of the individual. Traumatized individuals are often overly reactive to negative comments or experiences. However, if they are feeling depressed they will be under-responsive to positive comments or experiences. They can become overly attached to people or causes becoming obsessed or
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excessively social. If they are feeling depressed, they will often isolate themselves socially and detach themselves from important and supportive relationships. They may often experience expressive emotions one moment and be emotionally numb the next. This rapid swing back and forth between these extreme personalities causes the individual to appear hyperactive and depressive. The following summary explains some of the behaviors that this swinging can cause in the individual’s personality. *** PERSONALITY OF TRAUMA Changes in the muscle tone, chemicals and thought processes will create attitudinal and personality changes in the individual. *** HYPERAERTNESS DEPRESSION Over responsive to negative Under-responsive comments to positive comments Over attachment Detachment (excessive socialization) (social isolation) Explosive emotions Reduced emotions (hostility/crying) (no feeling/numbness) Hyperactive behaviors Tiredness/insomnia *** In this summary you can see how an individual’s personality can swing from one extreme to another. With the chemical changes in the body, an individual can be social and engaging in the morning and by noon time feel depressed and isolate him/her self. Without knowing the person’s trauma history, one could easily suspect the individual has some kind of mood disorder. Since trauma behavior tends to embed itself in the person’s natural characteristics, an active individual may simply become more active and a quiet individual may simply become more secluded. What I normally hear from family members is that: “Johnny has always kept to himself, but since the accident he seems to be a bit more introspective.” This is a key insight in recognizing trauma—“a bit more.” I want to know why he is a bit more. If the “bit more” has manifested itself after a traumatic episode, there is a strong likelihood that it is a manifestation of PTSD. ***
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INTUITION AND THE ABDOMINAL-PELVIC BRAIN “I knew something was wrong.” Prior to talking about the brain and how it functions differently during trauma, it is important to give recognition to a less studied part of the human body called the AbdominalPelvic brain. A woman was walking down a dark street and she sensed that something was not right. There were no obvious signs, images or people to logically conrm her ‘intuition.’ In fact, everything seemed quite calm and quiet. However, an inner dialogue began to take place between the abdominal-pelvic brain which is activated by sensation and the cranial brain which is activated by obvious signs and images. Since our culture has discouraged and even diminished us from relying on our intuition rather than our logic, her internal struggle intensied. “I’m just making it up. There’s nothing wrong here. I don’t see anything dangerous. But I really feel I am not safe.” Just then she saw a shadow of a gure close beside her coming out of an alley. She was startled and screamed. Fortunately, this chased the ‘would be’ attacker away. After she arrived home she continued to argue within herself. “Why didn’t I listen to my intuition? My feelings were so strong, why didn’t I respect them?” The Abdominal-Pelvic brain is a plexus or bundle of nerves located in the lower abdomen and pelvis. They are directly connected to the autonomic nervous system. These nerve bundles contain more sympathetic nerves (ght/ight) than any other part of the body. During trauma, the body places a priority of the abdominal pelvic brain over the cranial brain. This is why people often begin to ‘intuit’ danger prior to ‘knowing’ that danger really does exist. What naturally occurs is that the abdominal-pelvic brain begins to sense that something is wrong and sends signals to the cranial brain to be on alert. Because we place such a high priority on the logic of the cranial brain, if there is no evidence to support the intuitive sensation of the abdominal-pelvic brain, the cranial brain will override its sensations. This physiological process is what produces the inner doubt and questioning that we experience when there is no ‘logical’ reason for our sensations, but we are clearly experiencing sensations of danger or alertness in our bodies. It is interesting that our society diminishes this sensory experience in everyday ordinary life. However, soldiers during a time of war are often encouraged to be alert to any sensations of danger they may have even if there is no logical data to conrm the danger. Once again, this trauma or danger activated mechanism has done well to help protect us during dangerous situations of life, but has been disregarded or diminished by our society causing us to prefer logic over intuition. ***
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*** SUMMARY *** Abdominal-Pelvic Brain Humans possess the capacity to communicate with and receive communication from our internal physiological systems. • A brain is an apparatus capable of: 1. Receiving information 2. Reorganizing that information 3. Emitting nerve impulses as a response. CRANIAL BR AIN: Presides over our mental processes. ABDOMINAL BRAIN: Presides over organic life. It is the autonomic reex center of the body. IN TRAUMA: The body places a priority of the abdominal brain over the cranial brain because of its signicant importance in the continuation of the vital forces of life. 1. The abdominal/pelvic brain is fully formed and functioning long before the cranial brain. 2. The abdominal/pelvic brain can live without the cranial brain but the cranial brain cannot survive without the abdominal brain. 3. There is an exquisite mutual dependency between the abdominal/pelvic brain and the cranial brain. ***
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NEUROLOGY OF TRAUMA “Why can’t I control my thinking?” Much of the material written on the neurology of trauma is understandably technical and sometimes confusing. However, since trauma affects the way individuals think and process information, it is important that this subject be explained in a non-technical language so that it is available to everyone. Therefore, I will present this subject in uncomplicated terminology and concepts in order to help the reader understand how and why traumatic memories are encoded differently than memories of ordinary events. The brain can be divided into three major sections. The rst is the Brain Stem which controls our basic human functions of breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. Second is the Limbic System that develops later in life and controls our ght/ight and action/reaction behaviors. This is a more emotionally guided part of our brain. And third is the neocortex which is the last part of the brain to fully mature. It controls our logic and reasoning.
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Under normal circumstances, our brain takes in information, processes it though the emotions of the limbic system and sends it to the neocortex for analysis, logic a nd a reasonable response. The process for this type of behavior is one of… *** ACTION
REFLECTION
RESPONSE
*** However, this process changes during a traumatic event. In trauma, the individual must act quickly and instinctively. In order to do this, the brain places more emphasis on the more primitive parts of the brain (brain stem & limbic system) so that the action will produce an immediate reaction without the laborious and potentially dangerous process of reection and a logical response. A good example of this is when soldiers are sitting around talking and suddenly a mortar shell hits close by and everyone jumps up and runs in different directions. Some dive for cover, others jump behind something and some simply just run. None of these soldiers made a conscious decision of what they would do. It was purely an instinctual response. Afterwards they may even criticize one another or joke or laugh about their responses, but all of them will say, “I don’t know why I reacted that way. I just did!” This sudden threat of death causes the brain to react according to its animal instinct rather than to think and respond logically. The process for this type of behavior is one of … *** ACTION
REACTION ***
This process of action and reaction occurs for the purpose of protecting us during a time of danger. However, if we live in repeated or prolonged experiences of danger, we can reinforce this thought pattern. The more we use this pattern the more our brain will default to this pattern even when we are no longer in danger. In other words, the more this neurological network is activated, the more this “temporary state” will develop as a “permanent trait.” What eventually happens is this neural network of action/reaction will be activated even by minor stresses and the individual begins to live life by using this traumatic neurological response. The trauma is no longer a passing state for this individual but has now become a pervasive reality in their lives. This has serious implications for people who live in situations of community or domestic violence, have experienced regular physical or sexual abuse or who witness or experience violent crimes or violent lifestyles. Another element of neurology is how the brain encodes and processes traumatic experiences differently than ordinary events. During ordinary events, the brain functions in the following manner. Certain areas of the brain (Somato-sensory areas) receive millions of bites of data or information from outside every day. Once they receive this information they send it to another area of the brain (Association area) where memories and emotions of similar past experiences are connected to these new sensations. Now this information is sent to the third section of the brain (Gnostic area) where a story is made about the experience. When this story is complete the brain is satised and it continues to process more data. A simple example of this is when you meet someone for the rst time. You shake hands and their handshake feels safe, they smile
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at you and make comfortable eye contact. Your somato-sensory brain takes in the sensation of the handshake, smile and eye contact and sends it to the association area that attaches past memories of these types of encounters as being safe and pleasant and then the Gnostic area puts together a story that this new individual you just encountered is a nice person. Traumatic experiences are processed very differently. The essential difference is that because traumatic experiences are taken in as an overwhelming and intrusive arousal of your system, they are taken in more as fragments of an experience rather than as the whole experience. Instead of being processed immediately, they are stored in the somato-sensory area of the brain until they can be processed at a later date. Essentially, the brain does not process all the sensations of trauma because they are physically and/or psycho-emotionally overwhelming. It now has billions of bites of data stored in the somato-sensory area that need to be processed. Until these pieces of information in this area of the brain are associated with feelings, memories and emotions and then sent to the Gnostic area to be told as a stor y, they will remain as unprocessed and therefore unhealed memories, only to surface later for the purpose of being fully processed. These stored and unprocessed sensations are precisely what cause ashbacks, disturbing memories and nightmares. Similar stimuli that closely match the traumatic event can often trigger these unintegrated memories. If you were recently in a car accident and there was a strong odor of leaking gas, you may not be aware of it during the accident. However, the next time you pull into a gas station and smell the gas, you could have a ashback to the accident and actually begin to tremble or become afraid even though you are simply pumping gas at a station. The odor of gas was being sent from the somato-sensory area to the association area where feelings and emotions were being connected to it. You may then go home and tell your spouse about the event, cry, feel their support and be able to heal this part of the traumatic memory. One of the miracles of brain functioning is that as we pass through the various maturation stages such as adolescence, mid-life and our later wisdom years, our brain will automatically try to rid itself of any unresolved somato-sensory memories. It will naturally activate itself to send these stored memories to the association area to begin being processed as a story. This is why many people begin to remember childhood traumatic experience, particularly sexual abuse, during these natural developmental stages of life. The brain is attempting to rid itself of unnecessary baggage so it can prepare itself for the new stimuli that it will experience as it passes from one stage of development to the next. ***
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CHILDHOOD TRAUMA “I can’t concentrate or remember.” “It is an ultimate irony that at the time when the human is most vulnerable to the effects of trauma—during infancy and childhood—adults generally presume the most resilient” (Perry 1996). Conservative estimates of the number of children in the United States exposed to traumatic events in a one year period exceed four million. These experiences include children who live in the fallout zone of domestic or community violence, have experienced physical or sexual abuse, have witnessed or experienced violent crime, or have been exposed to other sudden, unexpected human- induced violence such as car accidents, burn accidents, kidnappings, etc. At least half of all children exposed to traumatic experiences may develop a variety of signicant psychoemotional symptoms in adolescence and adulthood. Depending on the severity, frequency, nature and pattern of the traumatic event(s), these children are at a great risk for developing profound emotional, behavioral, physiological, cognitive and social problems. When an adult experiences a traumatic event, their maturely developed brain is capable of creating a temporary traumatic thought process to help it deal with the trauma. Once the trauma is healed, the adult can dissolve this trait and return to an integrated state within the mature brain. This is not the case with children. If children experience trauma while the brain is in its developmental stages, the temporary traumatic trait needed to survive the trauma will be built into the brain as a permanent trait. Therefore, if a child grows up in a traumatic environment, the more it is forced to use trauma thinking patterns, the more those patterns will be embedded into their natural thought processes. Traumatized children will now begin to process all unfamiliar and overwhelming events as though they had the potential of being dangerously traumatizing. Their reactions will naturally be over-reactive to normal events causing hyperarousal or dissociative symptoms and behaviors. Parents, along with school teachers, administrators, and other important people in the child’s life are often left alone to deal not only with the maladaptive behaviors of traumatized children, but with the vicarious traumatization they develop as a result of being exposed to the children’s PTSD symptoms on a daily basis. Given the daunting statistics of childhood trauma, parents, educators and school personnel should receive education on the symptoms and effects of trauma as well as methods for dealing with PTSD. I had the opportunity once to work with an entire school system after the children had a traumatic experience. Initially, I helped the faculty to reect on their own experiences of vicarious traumatization while dealing with the severe emotions of the children. When I
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explained that they too were victims of an overwhelming situation, the guilt, shame, anger and hurt they had experienced about their reactions to the children began to be replaced by a sense of renewal, understanding and self-acceptance. After several discussions, what we concluded conc luded was that t hat we would need to employ a two-fold two- fold process process of recovery. First we needed to resolve the vicarious trauma of the faculty in order to restore their healthy thought processes and relationships. Secondly, we decided decided to redesign the t he school’s school’s curriculum curr iculum and class cla ss schedule. We included specic exercises designed to release deep chronic tensions in their normal physical education classes. This would help them to discharge the high adrenal and cortisol levels created as a result of their traumatic experiences. We shortened the teaching segments of each class by introducing 5 minute breaks every 20 minutes. This allowed them to be able to concentrate for the entire segment. Eventually the classes would be lengthened until they could concentrate for the entire class period. We introduced small study groups that allowed the children to learn at their t heir own pace, which eventua eventually lly gave them more condence. condence. This gave the children a sense of unity and cohesion cohesion as they all struggled str uggled together to regai regain n their natural natura l cognitive processes. The nal change we made was to include a story telling class into the school curriculum specically designed to safely elicit the multitude of traumatic memories of these young children. These adjustments, over time, slowly reduced and even dismantled ma ny of the neurological, physiological and psychological defenses these children developed during their traumatic experience. Although these and many traumatized traumat ized children like li ke them have developed traum traumaa behavior patterns, they need not be debilitating and damaging to their lives. The sensitive and nely tuned trauma traits and behaviors once understood and integrated into the personality can be used in creative ways to encourage the unique development of these children. ***
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ENEMY IMAGE SYNDROME “I distrusted everyone to the point of paranoia.” Whi le I was living While li ving in i n Beirut, Lebanon Leba non in the late seventies and early eighties, I experienced a strange phenomenon. I was living in east Beirut which was predominately Christian. I had heard and seen rst hand the kind of damage inicted i nicted by those living li ving in the t he west side of of Beirut Beir ut who were were predominately Muslim. Muslim. I naturally natur ally developed an anger, anger, hatred, distrust distru st and loathing for ‘those Muslims.’ Although I did not want to think this way because I knew it was wrong, it inevitably got the best of me and I became as prejudiced as everyone else. Then, my house was bombed by a Muslim Musl im faction group and a nd I was forced to move to the west side of the t he city. cit y. I rented an apartment from a wonderful Muslim family and we became close friends. During my time with them, I began to experience the exact same bombing and shelling; only now it was coming from the Christians. Christia ns. I was now wit witnessing nessing the same horrors horrors of human degrad degradation ation and suffering among Muslims that I had seen among the Christians. It astonished me that I could gradually feel my prior anger, hatred, distrust and loathing for Muslims being projected onto the Christians. They were now my new enemy. I wondered how my mind could so easily transfer my feelings from one group to another. I had the same experiences when I personally encountered conicts between Palestinians and Israelis, Northern and Southern Sudanese and Eritreans and Ethiopians. This same discriminatory thought process would attach itself to whatever group I felt threatened by at the time. I began to reect on how and why the mind can so easily transfer prejudice and discriminating behaviors from one group of people to another. What I discovered d iscovered is that discrimi dis crimination nation is an a n animal-ba anima l-based sed instinctive inst inctive protective behavior. Alll anim Al animal al species posses possesss this insti instinct nct as a way of protecting and thereby preserv preserving ing the species. It works works like li ke this: As creatures creat ures of a more prim primitive itive time, when we saw a lion, we learned that this was a potentially life-threatening animal. In order for us not to have to learn this lesson through repeated experiences, the mind then took this discriminating fear and applied it to all animals of a similar nature like, tigers, panthers, cougars, etc. Now we have successfully learned to discriminate between whole categories of harmful and non-harmful animals. A common contemporary example of this is when female clients who are recovering from sexual assault assau lt come to my my ofce. Often, their initial in itial reaction is to say: “I hate all a ll men.” men.” or “No man can truly be trusted.” This is a perfectly normal reaction to just having had one’s life threatened by a male. The brain is simply applying its natural protective behavior and ideology to anyone who resembles the t he dangerous da ngerous person they just enco encountered—a untered—a man. As A s the t he client progresses progres ses in their recovery process, this belief slowly gives way to identifying certain males as potentially dangerous and others as safe.
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This whole process of discrimination can be recognized as the natural process of ‘selective enemy imaging.’ This neurological process establishes certain beliefs designed to help us discriminate for the sake of self-preservation. As a primit primitive ive species liv living ing in the dangers of the jungle, this was a great protective mechanism to possess and a nd utilize. It helped helped keep our species species alive. This same sa me neurological neurological system s ystem of exclusivity and discrimination is still very protective when soldiers must quickly identify the ‘enemy’ ‘en emy’ so they themselves are not killed. However, However, it is this same sa me primal mechanism mechani sm that, when unleashed onto and unchecked by society, produces discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, etc. These are not life threatening groups, but rather ego-threating categories of people. Our current atmosphere of anti-Arab sentiment is a current example. The American mind has taken many Arabs and assumed they are potential terrorist threats. It therefore discriminates against them under the guise of protecting the nation. Essentially, our more primitive brain is being used in a more sophisticated society where it is no longer appropriate. How ironic that a mechanism that once helped protect the human species and cultivated its survival, surviv al, is now actually dividing and destroying our species. species. This discrimanating mechanism is still sti ll useful usef ul and still sti ll continues to protect protect us when we are in real danger, such as in times of war, but it can be equally as damaging and harmful when the danger is only imagined and/or ego based. Returning to our picture of the brain, we can see how this works. Under normal circumstances, circumst ances, we use the logic of our neocortex to help us make ma ke decisions. However, However, whenever we feel endangered the logical neocortex gets hijacked by the insti instinctual nctual Limbic System to protect us from the danger. This, as we have seen, proved useful when the danger was real. However, in today’s society danger is more often imagined danger that simply threatens our ego rather than our lives. The following outline provides insight into the process of selective enemy imaging that is referred to as the Enemy Image Syndrome. *** SUMMARY *** 1. DISTRUST of everyt everything hing originating originat ing from the perceived perceived enemy enemy.. 2. Seeing the perceived perceived enemy enemy as GUILTY AND A ND RESPONSIBLE RESPONSIBL E for for all the pain and tension that exists in my life. li fe. 3. Belief that everything that the perceived enemy does is INTENDED TO DO ME HARM. 4. Sensing that you NEED TO DESTROY the perceived enemy before before they destroy you. 5. Assuming that anything that benets benets the perceiv perceived ed enemy enemy HARMS HAR MS ME and visa versa. 6. De-i De-individuaiton ndividuaiton = Anyone Anyone within the perceived enemy group IS THE SAME SAM E no no matter of their age, actions, beliefs, etc. 7. RE REFUSING FUSING EMPATH EMPATHY Y by denying that the two groups have have anything in common. common. ***
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IMAGINATION OF TRAUMA “I was more terried and angry than my family!” One time I was working with a group of Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. They had not been able to contact or visit their families for several months because of intense ghting. They had no idea if their family members were alive or in what conditions they may be living. These people were full of anxiety, anger, fear and despair. With each radio and TV broadcast they could only imagine the worst. Finally, the ghting ceased and they were able to go to visit their families. When they arrived they were astonished at the stories of hardship their families told and the numerous near death experiences they had during the intense ghting. However, the family members who had endured the ghting were less disturbed emotionally than the ones who only imagined what their families must have endured. The ones who experienced the war were more resigned to the fact that their belongings were destroyed, but they were also elated at successfully struggling through the ghting and surv iving as a family. What was the difference between these two groups that could explain why those who imagined the suffering were more bitter, resentful and less accepting than those who actually endured the suffering? Why were those who experienced the war more positive, less fatalistic and able to accept what had happened to them? The key difference between these two groups is that one group’s experience was based on reality and the other’s on illusion or imagination. The reality-based group had bodily sensations of aliveness, elation, comfort and safety of having survived the ordeal. These physical sensations helped temper the imagination and place their experience into a proper perspective. The other group’s imagination generated a horrifying illusion that was completely divorced from the body’s senses. Thus, it was only partially informed of reality and was lacking the bodily component of the feeling of survival to help place an appropriate perspective on the traumatic experience. It is very common for people who have not experienced the same trauma as their loved ones to be even more bitter, vengeful, angry and resentful than the person who endured and survived the traumatic experience. Imagination is a powerful thought process of the human species. It can however, be a dangerous and powerful weapon if it is not connected to the body’s experience of reality. This is why those who suffer can often forgive more easily than those who only imagined another’s suffering. Those who imagine the suffering of another are ofter more angry, bitter and vengeful than the victim. As a victim, it is oftentimes easier to forgive because one’s own suffering and sorrow are informed by the reality of the body’s survival. ***
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SUICIDE: A SELF-SABATOGE OF THE LIVING ORGANISM “Even death was better than this inner numbness.” One of the saddest and most emotionally painful experiences is to have a loved one commit suicide. The haunting questions of: “What could I have done to help? Why didn’t I see it coming? Why did this happen?” can last for years or even a lifetime. Suicide is a very sensitive and complicated subject. I don’t propose that I have a solution for such a difcult topic. However, after having worked and spoken with numerous people who contemplated suicide, I began to realize that suicidal individuals exhibit a common pattern of behavior in their body that is worth mentioning here. A young soldier I was working with had seen some horrible, inhuman sights during his time in battle. I met him about a year after he had left the military and he was suicidal. He just couldn’t stand living with the horrible memories. Even though he only saw these sights once (which is bad enough), he had replayed the scenarios relentlessly in his mind until, as he told me, “I have seen these sights over 1000 times.” When I asked him how his body was experiencing the memory, he provided me with some profoundly deep insight. He said: “I have just numbed out. I don’t feel anything inside. I don’t feel me and I don’t feel any connection to other people. I am completely alone both inside and out.” I asked him if he ever has any feelings, what they are and how he deals with them. His response to this was equally as enlightening. He told me point blank: “Oh yea, I have occasional feelings but they are always feelings of anger, sadness or rage.” “When I get any of these feelings, I numb out. If the feelings are too strong, I will take drugs or get drunk to guarantee I get rid of them.” It was this soldier’s insight that led me to question “How much of a function does the body play in suicidal ideation?” Coming from a body sensitive background, I have begun to given more credibility to the physiological sensations that seem to exacerbate suicide ideation. If the human organism is a reection of other living organisms on the planet, it stands to reason that the human body pulsates with a natural desire to live life to its fullest. The question one must naturally ask is: What happens when an individual deadens or numbs their ability to feel that natural impulse to live? The numbing of the body during the time of the traumatic event is a natural protective mechanism of the body. However, the continuation of that numbing after the trauma has ended is where the danger lies. If the individual continues to use substances to deliberately numb the body from psycho-emotional pain, they are also numbing their ability to feel the natural pulsation of life in the body. What occurs is that the ideation of the mind (ego) becomes stronger than the pulsation of the living organism and the mind can override
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the body’s encoding ‘to seek life.’ In other words, the increase in suicidal ideation may be directly connected to the decrease in physical sensation and the decrease in physical sensation contributes to the increase in suicidal ideation. Once again we nd ourselves in a vicious cycle of a bodymind conict. It is clear that the brain must receive an appropriate amount of stimulation from the body to function properly. If the brain lacks stimulus from the body, it actually creates its own. This has the potential of the mind making imagination real. If that imagination is terrifying, grotesque or horrifying, the body will continue to numb itself to escape this overwhelming ideation produced by the mind. With this understanding of the mind’s ability to disconnect from the body, I decided to begin including body work (including Trauma Releasing Exercises—TRE) with counseling of suicidal clients. What I discovered is that the deeper and more intense the body work, the more connected the clients felt to their bodies and subsequently to me. The connection as they described it was, “…a good feeling.” They often remarked that “…deep inside, under the pain and numbness, I am still alive.” They couldn’t believe that someone was able to connect with them despite their overwhelming feeling of aloneness. With each session, I would continue working deeply with the client’s body and I would give them post session activities designed to continue to stimulate positive bodily sensations. Gradually, the clients’ ability to feel their natural body’s genetic encoding “to live” became stronger than the ideation of the ego’s confusion “to die.” What I stumbled upon with the insight of this soldier was that when intense body work accompanied his counseling process, he seemed to be able to increase his body’s natural pulsation to live and decrease his ego’s imagination to want to die. This observation has been veried numerous times in my practice. Research has already demonstrated that individuals possess the unconscious capacity to communicate with and receive communication from our internal physiological systems. The unconscious mind actually has a physiological center which is an extension of our nervous system. I believe it is not only possible, but advantageous to capitalize on and use this psychophysical connection when working with suicidal ideation. The idea of a physical intervention coupled with psychological counseling offers a more holistic explanation and resolution for suicidal ideation than the traditional psychological concept. It incorporates the physiological as well as the psychological aspects of the human person. Greater exploration of this concept would certainly add to the growing body of knowledge concerning the possible psychophysiological bases underlying suicidal ideation. Identifying physiological correlates in suicidal ideation is another direction for researchers as t hey keep striving to develop greater insight into successful methods of suicide prevention. *** SUMMARY *** Muscles that do not move (experiences such as numbing, freezing or dissociation) are muscles that are not sensed. Numbing, freezing and dissociation disrupts our sensory/motor unity. The mind needs physical movement and concrete sensations that directly informs it. The absence or suppression of specic peripheral sensory input causes the mind to become anxious.
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Thought processes become confused and basic distinctions between internal thought and external reality become distorted. Imagination takes on as much palpable reality as anything else I am experiencing at the moment. ***
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DENIAL OF PTSD “Things like that don’t happen to us.” Thousands of soldiers were killed during the Vietnam War. However, thousands of others have committed suicide since the end of that war. This is an appalling and shameful reality that our society must eventually face. Even though Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has been rmly established and recognized in ex-war veterans for decades, our society still does not possess a healthy national awareness or recovery plan to adequately assist our soldiers in their recovery and reintegration process in the United States. Although the reasons for this are numerous and complex, it still leaves this nation with the daunting task of resolving the disturbing symptoms of PTSD on a national scale. In the United States, “…roughly 3.6 days of work impairment per month associated with PTSD translates into an annual productivity loss in excess of $3 billion” (Kessler 2000). If one considers all the potential traumatic events that befall the people of our country in just one year’s time: hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildres, car accidents, sudden deaths, social and domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse, poverty etc., it is astounding to realize that we have not developed and instituted a national awareness and recovery plan for PTSD. What could possibly be the resistance to offering such a plan to schools, hospitals, emergency services and national relief agencies? There are a number of assumptions that maintain a belief system that has been unconsciously accepted and perpetuated by humans for centuries. This belief system is a set of ‘positive illusions’ about life that we do not want disturbed. Essentially, most humans believe that ‘if they are good people, good things will happen to them.’ Thus, good people have no need to establish trauma recovery programs because they are not expecting traumatic experiences to befall them. This works ne until tragedy strikes and good people discover this positive illusion is false. After a traumatic episode, many people often nd themselves ill prepared to deal with the fact that bad things (trauma) happen to good people. The opposite illusion is also upheld by different belief systems. ‘People deserve what they get in life.’ If they are bad, they will have bad experiences. This also comforts many of us because we consider ‘others’ as bad and ourselves as ‘good.’ Therefore, bad things will only happen to ‘them.’ Trauma shatters these illusions. Trauma can happen to anyone. When trauma occurs, it shatters our positive illusions and replaces it with the terrible knowledge that the positive illusions are false. Since many of our Religious beliefs are based on this premise, people often lose faith in their religion and their God when trauma forces its way into their lives. Our positive
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illusions about life are harmless under normal circumstances, but they leave us completely unprepared to deal with the tragedies of life when they come our way. By refusing to accept the reality that trauma and tragedy can strike at any moment, we continue to perpetuate an unreal illusion of safety and indestructibility. Although we are seeing a signicant shift in global awareness regarding the possibility of large scale trauma, this secret adherence to these positive illusions is precisely what has historically prevented us from establishing and enacting plans to address this issue. We should search within ourselves to reveal our hidden fear of our precarious reality on this planet and learn to live with unpredictability rather than attempting to control the outcome of our lives. Until then, we will continue to avoid instituting plans of recovery for the traumatized segment of society that is in need of being healed. Until we recognize that the social cost of PTSD outweighs the nancial cost of healing our society, we are destined to continue to deny and avoid large scale trauma recovery programs. As trauma continues to affect this nation more and more, we are becoming acutely aware and informed about trauma both as a community and a nation. There are some encouraging signs that our schools, hospitals, police, re and emergency units are beginning to develop plans to support one another as they attempt to heal their local, national and even international experiences of trauma. *** SUMMARY *** Society does not want to acknowledge trauma because it forces us to explore the darkest corners of the mind and face the entire spectrum of human glory and degradation. In this process, trauma shatters some basic assumptions we have about ourselves, the world and our God. Society has established POSITIVE ILLUSIONS…. • The world is basically a good and just place. • People get what they deserve in life, and thus they deserve what they get. • We ourselves are good and deserving of good. • We are protected from serious harm by virtue of our goodness and God’s justice. *** These illusions are harm less in normal circum stances but leave us totally unprepared to face tragic misfortune.
*** Trauma victims are banished from society because…. • We are afraid to listen to their horrifying stories. • Trauma victims are the bearers of the TERRIBLE KNOWLEDGE that the positive illusions are false. ***
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Expressions of denial of PTSD…. 1. Reject the individual’s stories and blame them for their suffering. 2. There is a relatively low level of interest in the victim’s suffering. 3. There is a persistent lack of organizational planning to treat PTSD even when society, organizations, the military or the community knows it is happening. ***
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TRAUMA—THE NEW EPIDEMIC OF THE CORPORATE WORLD “Why aren’t our crisis management techniques working?” A new phenomenon is sweeping the corporate world. It is being called ‘organizational trauma.’ After September 11th, I spoke with a number of personnel whose companies were directly affected by this event. I asked them what type of debrieng and support they had received from their company. Although many were grateful for the support they received, many felt it was very inadequate. After the initial debrieng they were told that if they had additional problems they should seek private therapeutic help or read some books that were suggested to them. Although this is fairly standard procedure, what this type of advice and behavior effectively does is begin to divide the workforce and create a sense of isolation and lack of commitment to the organization. Let me explain. If individuals continue to have difculty with their PTSD symptoms after having received the “ofcial” help from the company’s “professionals,” they are reluctant to speak about any psycho-emotional difculties they continue to experience. They will begin to feel as though everyone else is healing and that they must be the only ones having additional problems. This will begin the isolation process. They will become more and more quiet about their inner psycho-emotional struggle and eventually start to withdraw from their colleagues and their commitment to the company. As the CEO of Trauma Recovery Assessment and Prevention Services (TR APS), I have been working fteen years with corporate, embassy and non-government organization (NGO) personnel who are living and working in trauma-inducing environments. What I have learned is that PTSD is a highly prevalent and debilitating condition that does not discriminate. Every person who experiences trauma suffers from some symptoms of PTSD—it is simply a matter of the degree that separates them. What I have recognized over the years is that trauma and its attenuating consequences affect all institutions that have personnel living and/or working in life threatening environments. Only now are we beginning to recognize the long-term, damaging effects trauma has on the institutional, structural and relational fabric of many corporations and organizations. Given the medically established severity and potentially debilitating effects of trauma and PTSD, the conventional range of crisis management techniques are revealing themselves as unsatisfactory and ineffective. Human Relations and Public Relations personnel are nding they lack the knowledge to adequately address the multifaceted dimensions of this rather
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severe and pervasive phenomenon. Corporate leadership needs to engage in a more thorough examination of the options available to corporations following traumatic events since the present methods are insufcient. To overlook or misunderstand this fundamental issue of large scale traumatization is to trivialize the psycho-emotional complexities facing many international corporations today. If left untreated, the long-term effects of unresolved PTSD symptoms will give rise to forms of dysfunctional behaviors and relationships that can seriously undermine any team, structure or partnership. The following example demonstrates the extensiveness and insidious nature of post trauma behaviors within an organization. In 2000, I was asked to work with the staff of one of the consulates in the Middle East. They have a multicultural staff consisting of Muslims, Christians and Jews. The external tension of the political situation was fragmenting the relationships of their otherwise cohesive staff. They had already tried traditional programs of crisis management, cross-cultural leadership and conict resolution as a way of resolving the strained relationships. However, all of them failed to rectify the intense divisions that were seriously fracturing their leadership team. Since it was apparent that all of the staff members had either experienced trauma directly or vicariously, I knew these techniques would be ineffective because they fail to take into account some unique characteristics of trauma- induced behavior. The behaviors, actions and reactions of the individual(s) during trauma are mostly instinctual and unconscious rather than calculated and conscious. So, traumatic reprocessing cannot always be dealt with via logical and systematic methods to achieve a resolution. It is precisely this conscious and logical resolution of a crisis versus the unconscious and illogical creation of trauma that prevents traditional crisis management models from working effectively. The ineffectiveness of present crisis management techniques and the subsequent need for new options has tremendous implications for corporations and organizations whose personnel are living/working in trauma-inducing environments. The most damaging effect of PTSD on this team was the breakdown in professional relationships and trust among the team members. There were increased signs of isolation, a sense of helplessness, hopelessness and powerlessness to the point that the team members found themselves losing their sense of caring and concern for one another. All of this can have devastating effects on intra and inter-corporate relationships. The rst of ve dysfunctions explained in Patrick Lencioni’s (2002) book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team is, “lack of trust.” This is a common experience in many corporations. Leadership teams have hired numerous consultants to design exercises to restore trust among their employees. However, traumatized individuals have a neural impediment to trusting that is tainted with a life or death fear. They are neurologically encoded not to trust for fear that their openness will expose them to a similar life/death possibility. Since this is unconscious and many people are unaware of this psychic mandate, they cannot trust even when they consciously want to do so. The second of ve team dysfunctions is “fear of conict.” Fear is natural and possible to overcome through various management techniques. Traumatized individuals often lack the gradations of feelings so that simple fear can immediately become translated as terror and their reactions will be overly defensive causing outbursts of anger, tears or collapse into isolation, withdraw or depression. Although each of these behaviors is desig ned to protect them from additional traumatic experiences, they now become an impediment to the building of team and corporate relationships. The additional three dysfunctions, “lack of commitment,” “avoidance of accountability” and the subsequent “inattention to results” are all inevitable consequences of traumatized individuals. Even the most clever strategies, insightful crisis management techniques and sharpest of business acumen will not be able to rectify the psycho-emotional damages incurred
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as a result of the unconscious infection of trauma within the corporate domain. However, sensitivity to the signs of trauma infection will not only help to sustain the bond of relationships within corporations, but if dealt with appropriately, will act as the nexus for rebuilding even deeper relationships in the future. Trauma can mercilessly fracture the cohesion of even the best of leadership teams and corporate relationships. Due to the unconscious and insidiously eroding effects that trauma has on interpersonal relationships, the corporations that will have the longest lasting and most sustaining relationships are those who recognize, respect and resolve the active trauma behaviors and relationships of their personnel. Some of the identifying behaviors of institutional trauma are: an excessive need to control, becoming less car ing about the company’s concerns, becoming perfectionistic through compulsive behaviors and isolating oneself from other employees. Any corporation that does not recognize and respect the potentially devastating effects of trauma on its personnel will have a great deal of difculty creating and sustaining long-term trusting relationships among their staff. Companies need to be more proactive in regards to trauma within the company. Not only should they offer information and education about trauma to their employees, but they should also provide them with effective techniques and practices to resolve their own trauma behaviors within the company. It is important to recognize that PTSD cannot be resolved though stress management programs or conict resolution seminars because they are instinctual reactions and non-logical patterns of thought. Recovery from PTSD can be an extremely complicated and intricately perplexing process. However, for a traumatologist it is also a fairly predictable and methodical process that possesses its own logical solution. A skilled trauma recovery therapist cannot only facilitate the resolution of institutional trauma but should be able to use the effects of trauma to help restore an even stronger cohesiveness among work colleagues, staff and team members. ***
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FINANCIAL PROFITABILITY WITH A HUMANITARIAN FOCUS “What can I do to help my staff recover?” Even though trauma and PTSD are just making their way into mainstream consciousness, they have been affecting us for many years. What is decidedly clear is that PTSD is a very real a nd unconsciously destructive process from which corporations should protect their employees and themselves. This unconscious behavior can, and often does, continue affecting the individual and the institution long after the traumatic event is over. Interventions that attempt to resolve trauma-induced behaviors cannot be rectied with the use of traditional crisis intervention techniques that depend on logical, cognitive processing because trauma behavior is an illogical, instinctual response not under control of the rational brain. On a ight from Phoenix to Detroit, I sat next to a man who was g iven the task by his company to design a process to help his employees heal from a devastating experience that affected the entire company. He told me, “After reading several books on trauma recovery, I understand the problem. But, none of these books proposed a methodology for recovery.” Having worked with this specic issue with international corporations, I shared with him a workable plan I developed that could be implemented by their own Human Resource Department. I explained that one of the most effective ways of successfully circumventing the damaging effects of trauma on a company is by providing short integrated seminars designed not only to educate personnel on trauma and its devastating effects, but to provide them with the specic techniques necessary for recovery. All organizations whose personnel are living and/or working in trauma-inducing environments would be well advised to follow a comprehensive approach of recovery. A comprehensive approach would include the following three components. PRE-ASSIGNMENT SEMINAR: If employees have been or are going to be exposed to traumatic situations, the employee, their senior staff and co-workers should all receive training in trauma awareness. The individuals being assigned should also be trained on how to use specic techniques designed to reduce the psycho-neuro-biological and physical effects of trauma. This educational workshop will assist the entire staff in recognizing the adverse effects of trauma at both the personal and institutional levels. Already, a common understanding and sense of cohesiveness is established around the issue of traumatic experiences. ON-SITE VISITATION: After a traumatic experience or during their assignment to a trauma environment, employees should be visited by their human resources manager and trauma consultant who can provide personal support and administer a mid-assignment assessment in an objective and professionally observing manner. In this way they will be able to assess
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the degree and manner in which the employee(s) are personally being affected by trauma. They can either devise a personal plan to sustain or even improve their health during their remaining time in the trauma zone, or recommend to their senior advisor that it is necessary to temporarily or permanently remove the individual from the trauma area. POST-ASSIGNMENT DEBRIEFING SEMINAR: When the employee(s) leave the trauma environment they should be provided with a thorough post-assignment assessment. The trauma consultant or human resource manager should administer tests that help to evaluate the degree of trauma they may be experiencing and then outline a thorough plan of recovery for the employee(s). If an effective plan is designed and followed, the employee(s) should only require minimal reviews by the trauma consultant during the course of recovery. This three step prevention and recovery process is not only effective for the health of the company’s personnel, but it is also cost effective for the corporation. Professional awareness seminars can help to sustain their employees during the time of traumat ic exposure and assure their healthy reintegration into the company afterwards. It is a wise and prudent investment considering the fact that the dysfunctional behavior of trauma can unconsciously infect and seriously disrupt even the strongest of teams. The cost effectiveness of providing tr auma recovery seminars far outweighs the cost of trying to repair the lower moral and confusion among team members and the eventual disruption of the team’s effectiveness and productivity. Aside from the personal and institutionally disruptive behaviors that are caused by traumatized personnel, there is a growing legal consideration. A legal precedent has already been set by several successful lawsuits for PTSD on the grounds that the neurological changes in the brain during trauma constitute a physical injury. International corporations that have personnel living or working in trauma-inducing environments are the most vulnerable to litigation. With the rapid scientic advancement in trauma studies, it is becoming more evident that trauma is the new epidemic of the international corporate world. Not only is it incumbent on corporations to offer trauma awareness programs as a part of their work ethics, but corporate employees who nd themselves in environments that are prone to violence are going to demand that their psycho-emotional physical health be attended to at the expense of the corporation. It will soon become standard practice for employees to le for medical benets to cover the cost of their recovery process from PTSD. In light of this, corporations should be more proactive in protecting their employees and themselves. If dealt with in a proactive rather than reactive manner, the traumatic experiences of employees can enhance rather than diminish their working relationships, providing a stronger and more united individual, team and corporation. In the end, this always translates into more dynamic working relationships, stronger and more sensitive staff management and ultimately nancial protability with a humanitarian focus. ***
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TRAUMATIZED LEADERSHIP “His objectivity seems to be impaired.” When I was working in a long term counseling center, I had a missionary come to work with me who was suffering from depression, anxiety and extreme guilt. She told me the story of how her inner struggle with these intense emotions began. She was a member of a missionary community. She was the superior of a missionary group of women who had been living and working in a North A frican country for years. Their presence among the local population was well known and respected. However, the political atmosphere had become strained and radical groups of extremists were springing up everywhere. There were numerous outbursts of violence including kidnappings, bombings and shootouts among the various factions. The superior had come from Europe to North Africa for a visitation. Her responsibility was to assess the severity of the situation and provide any support that might be necessary. Shortly after her arrival she was able to recognize the danger in which these women were living. She voiced her strong concern to the women who had assured her that they were safe and that they wanted to remain in the country to continue to work with the local people during this time of suffering the people were enduring. Against her instinct, the superior agreed that the missionaries could stay as long as they agreed to leave if the situation grew worse than it already was. The women agreed and the superior returned to Europe. Two weeks later, the entire group of women was killed. A rebel group of insurgents broke into their home, accused them of being spies and killed them. The psycho-emotional distress around this incident was overwhelming. The superior was devastated. She blamed herself for these deaths and was constantly wondering how this could have happened and if there was anything she could have done to prevent it from happening. After discussing the incident with her, I explained how the neurological effects of trauma can cause impaired judgment. The women living in this traumatic environment had been there long enough that their natural capacity for objectivity regarding their own safety and health had been obscured. Without knowing it, they actually needed external help in making a responsible decision regarding their safety. This is a very common experience of individuals who live in prolonged experiences of danger. They simply become accustomed to their environment and adjust to living in extreme danger. It is natural for the mind to make this adjustment in order to live under such circumstances, but this altered state of consciousness can also severely impair one’s rational thought processes. What happens under prolonged trauma is that the part of the brain that should normally use the logic of the neocortex (see picture of brain) to make responsible decisions becomes
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hijacked by the Limbic System of the brain that often makes irrational, emotionally-based decisions. The Limbic System, although protecting these women while living in violence, also obscured their ability to recognize when they had to leave the situation to assure their safety. What the superior didn’t realize was that her observations of the dangerousness of the situation was more accurate than the group of women whose logic had been obscured and impaired by living in the danger too long. Had the superior realized how trauma af fects neural functioning, she could have explained the difference between her assessment and their assessment of their safety, and possibly have changed t he decision of the group. A more common example of this is someone who is in a car accident. Although they were not injured in the accident, it is sometimes evident that this individual is still too shaken up and possibly disoriented to drive themselves home. Even though they may try to assure you they are physically OK—and they are—you are able to see that they are still too disturbed internally to safely drive themselves home. Their natural capacity to assess their own safety and health has become temporarily obscured and they need external intervention in their decision making process. ***
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INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND TRAUMA “Why can’t we achieve peace?’ Oftentimes the need for international conict resolution results from the inability of two groups to reconcile with each other because of long standing wars, political violence or sectarian armed conicts. Since all serious conict produces years of traumatic experiences, most, if not all of the participants engaged in the conict resolution process, will have experienced some form of trauma either directly or vicariously. It stands to reason then, that these participants may also be bringing a multitude of unconscious post traumatic stress behaviors and emotions to the negotiation process. These unacknowledged traumatic expressions could introduce numerous impediments to these negotiations or even pose serious threats that can undermine the entire reconciliatory process. In a workshop with Palestinian and Israeli participants that I conducted, I decided to explore how trauma thinking and behaviors affected their relations with one another. I divided the large group into pairs of equal numbers of Palestinians and Israelis. They were then given a series of tasks and questions to work through. They all did this with great ease, comfort and safety. I then divided the group into pairs of one Palestinian and one Israeli. The exact same questions and tasks were presented to them. As they tried to work through these same issues, they realized that it was excruciatingly difcult. The same words and phrases they had previously used with someone from their own group were no longer safe to use in the mixed group. A simple exercise of setting boundaries with one another erupted into arguments and intense emotions. These two groups, although very willing and even desirous of healthy dialogue and relationships, discovered that even their greatest of intentions could not override the divisive effects of trauma thinking. The group was then put through the Trauma Releasing Exercises and given a workshop on trauma behavior and thinking. Through the physical exercises and psycho-emotional understanding of the principles of trauma behavior, these two groups were able, with surprising ease, to feel connected, safe and even emotionally caring towards each other’s pain. The change was astounding. The two groups could not believe how much they were able to change their thinking, emotions and behaviors by addressing the issue of trauma recovery prior to attempting dialogue and resolution of their conicts. The reason for such a noticeable difference was that the Trauma Releasing Exercises helped to discharge the high levels of anxious energy that were activated in the body. Once the high energetic charge in the body was reduced, the logical and emotional parts of the brain no longer perceived the questions and tasks as dangerous.
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Broome (2002) tells us that: “To be effective, third parties must have extensive and accurate substantive knowledge of the context within which they will be working.” It stands to reason that, if third party negotiators are to provide the best assistance possible to individuals who have been living in cultures that have experienced prolonged war and violence, they should be familiar with the devastating and damaging effects trauma has on individuals as well as the society as a whole. Given the pervasive effects of trauma and the professional imperative to familiarize oneself with substantive contextual knowledge of the culture, educating oneself on the effects of trauma is not a luxury, but rather a necessity for conict resolution professionals. Oftentimes the participants in the negotiation process do not understand why they are experiencing symptoms of emotional outbursts or withdrawal. It can be very useful for the groups if this behavior is explained and acknowledged as a consequence of trauma. By publicly acknowledging this behavior the third party negotiator provides a framework for understanding and supporting individuals who are still experiencing a loss of emotional control. It also allows the group to assist one another in actively working with this behavior rather than viewing it (and the individual) as an obstacle to the group process. Each person’s trauma experience in the group may need some degree of individual consideration. Those whose family members may have been killed in a bombing for example, may need more time to resolve their psycho-emotional pain than someone whose distant acquaintances were wounded in the violence. All of these issues are better dealt with among the members of the groups so they can gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of the depth and diversity of painful experiences that each individual has experienced. Unless the individuals in the groups have dealt with these painful experiences, their participation in the group may be premature. Unless this is recognized, the conict resolution facilitator will spend many frustrating hours trying to sort out the multiplicity of psychoemotional problems that are layered beneath the group dynamics. If these emotional dynamics are dealt with rst, they can be used as a foundation for relationship building between the groups. Inevitably, the groups will discover they have many experiences in common and they are both in the process of healing deep pain and emotional memories. This can be a very humane and bonding experience for the individuals in the groups. This common identity can have a powerful impact on the individuals and help to dispel the image of the ‘other’ as the ‘enemy.’ Dispelling the image of the other group as the enemy is not only essential for healing, but can be the nexus for the creation of a collective vision. As a result of my work as a trauma therapist and third party negotiator, I found that it is safe to assume that the degree to which the participants of each group have experienced war or violence, there is a concomitant degree of post traumatic stress disorders that will need considerable attention in the negotiation and mediation process. Therefore, I have often found it useful to include some trauma awareness education and simple group recovery processes to assist the negotiating parties in understanding each other’s experiences. The combination of these two modalities has helped immeasurably to bring about a stronger sense of unity, understanding and identication of shared pain among the reconciling groups. It has often been the foundation of a mutual identication of the two groups as they begin to recognize and accept the human pain and suffering experienced by everyone during times of violent conict. It is important to consider that the ineffectiveness of some conict resolution programs and crisis management techniques is due in large part to the lack of awareness of traumainduced behaviors and reactions among the individuals involved in these processes. Having an awareness of trauma and PTSD can help the third party facilitator make more accurate calculated responses at pivotal times in the negotiation process. Traumatized people should not be excluded from negotiation processes, but should be assisted in recognizing these
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unconscious impediments so they can gain a greater awareness of how to deal with these traumatic symptoms when they arise. Given all these obstacles and impediments to peace and reconciliation, it may seem overwhelming or impossible to bring about resolution of decades old conicts. Continued research on trauma and the human species suggests that trauma has been and will remain a fact of human life. However, we also possess the capacity to heal even the most debilitating of traumatic experiences. As Lev ine (2002) suggests, “A person who has successfully renegotiated a traumatic event is transformed by the experience, and feels no need for revenge—shame and blame dissolve in the powerful wake of renewal and self-acceptance.” Because of this I have found that post traumatic stress reactions and behaviors can be used to build alliances across opposing sides rather than cause them to break down into additional contentious relationships. This should be the unremitting thought of every third party negotiator as they begin their process of skillfully and sensitively assisting others through the labyrinth of negotiation and mediation. ***
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TRAUMA AND THE HUMAN BELIEF SYSTEM “I no longer believed in anything.” Trauma is an overwhelming and seemingly unbearable experience. It is a reality that, until it happens, was outside our range of the life experiences. However, once trauma happens, our entire view of life can be forever changed. Our understanding of ourselves, our friends and family, our place in the universe and even our belief system can be radically altered. It doesn’t matter whether we are theists, atheists or agnostic, trauma causes us to question deeply our understanding of our place in the universe and the seemingly precariousness of our existence in the universe. This questioning process and deep inner search for meaning i s not simply a matter of one’s faith being tested. It is far more complex than that. There is a natural neurological process created by a traumatic experience that actually stimulates the reective part of the brain (neocortex) to help the individual reestablish their new belief system in light of this tragic event. Built right into our human developmental process is the ability to experience a traumatic event and restructure one’s thinking so as to be able to embrace the event, make sense of it and gradually be able to return to a deeper embrace of life and a richer more meaningful belief system. Anyone who has struggled to recover from a traumatic event knows that they processed the event over and over, intensely focusing on the trauma trying to nd some sense in this senselessness. Although logic never resolves the trauma, some kind of resolution eventually comes that, once again, helps the individual rebuild a new belief system that helps them accept life and incorporate this trauma into their history so they can move on in a new life direction. Many people refer to this process as a deepening of one’s spirituality or faith. Although I am not opposed to these terms, I have found that even people who do not embrace or espouse any particular faith possess some understanding, no matter how vague or undened, of how they and their life ts into the bigger scheme of the universe—a personal cosmology. This understanding is precisely what is undermined and often thrown into serious doubt under the weight of a traumatic experience. For example, a devoted Christian woman, whose daughter had been shot and killed, came to me shortly after the experience and told me it was important that she not give up her faith in God as a result of this experience. She said: “I am going to hold on deeply to my belief that Jesus is Lord and God had a reason for this to happen.” From having worked with so many people around trauma and their belief systems, I knew then that this woman was going to have a very difcult time holding onto this belief system. She was simply going to try and t this
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tragedy into her present day belief system without allowing trauma to shatter her belief system and rebuild a new one. It has been my experience that people who try to force trauma into an already established belief system inevitably become extremely rigid in their faith or leave their faith entirely. They try to pray harder, be better and follow the ‘rule’ more ardently. In my experience, this has never worked. Unhealed trauma usually produces two diametrically opposed positions. It either makes a bitter, angry and resentful individual whose suppressed rage and pain expresses itself though unbending doctrines, or it causes the individual to slide into an apathetic view of all faith systems and completely abandon the idea of an inner belief system. What people fail to realize is that because trauma is an experience outside one’s world view, what it demands of us is that we expand our world view that actually includes the traumatic experience as part of their new place in the universe. Because a traumatic experience is so far beyond our normal world view, if we allow it, the trauma recovery process will take us far beyond our previous view of the world and open up for us an entirely new way of seeing and being in the universe. It has the potential of opening up a place of deep inner wisdom about humanity that we would never have chosen to explore otherwise. Trauma and the deeper moral and ethical vision and behaviors that come from it are precisely what have the potential to lead the individual into a place of inner wisdom and maturity. If used correctly, traumatic experiences can help us to expand our vision of the world. They can help us deepen our empathy for other’s suffering. They ll us with gratitude for the life that we still have despite the damaging effects of the traumatic event. People who have healed from trauma often reengage in life with a richer appreciation of humanity on a personal as well as a global scale. This fact became very apparent after the Twin Towers collapsed. Many people moved out of New York and back to their home towns; not because t hey were afraid, but because they came to the realization that family, home, playing with their children and being around their extended family was more important than the riches they were accumulating in New York. The trauma of 9/11 opened their hearts to a deeper appreciation of life and a more important way to spend their few years on this planet together. ***
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TRAUMA IS A STEPPING STONE TO WISDOM “I live every day to its fullest.” “I do not wish tragedy on anyone, but ever since that accident, I never fail to tell my wife I love her. I kiss my children every day. Life is richer, fuller and deeper than I have ever experienced. It has more meaning and depth than it ever had before.” These kinds of statements and this type of transformation of life after surviving a traumatic experience are very common. The questions that beg to be asked are: “How and why does a traumatic experience cause us to live a more profound life than we previously had? Why don’t we simply choose to live life at its deepest level before a tragedy? Why do we need to have a traumatic experience to wake us up to appreciate life to its fullest?” The answer to these questions will not be found in traditional trauma studies, but rather through a deeper reective approach to traumatic experiences and the human species. Humans are no different from other living organisms on this planet. We are genetically encoded to let go of and recover from trauma as a way of ridding ourselves of any experience that obstructs or interferes with the natural evolutionary process of the human body. Trauma is not foreign to our species. It is in fact an integral part of our evolutionary process. We cannot and will not rid ourselves of traumatic experiences no matter how much we try to isolate and protect ourselves from these potentially painful and seemingly unbearable experiences of life. Through the unending cycle of trauma and recovery, the human species learns how to adapt to life threatening situations. This process of adaptation makes the species stronger and wiser to protect it from future traumatic episodes. Trauma recovery is as natural and common as trauma itself. Accepting trauma as part of life allows us to see trauma in a new light. With the recovery from each traumatic episode of our lives, we give into and accept more easily the way the universe has treated us. Paradoxically, the more we let go into life the more we discover that we can re-take control of our lives and participate once again in the precarious nature of being human. Only by letting go can we unlock ourselves from the past, be delivered into the future and prepare ourselves for our next evolutionary experience. When we experience one of life’s painful events, it initially feels overwhelming and unbearable. The experience often overwhelms our entire sense of self. Our emotions, logic and understanding of life can be shattered. We often wonder if we will ever recover from this depth of pain and disruption. However, what we fail to recognize is that it is precisely this shattering effect that forces us to think in new ways, feel emotions at deeper levels and relate to others more compassionately. People who have healed successfully from trauma discover that their life is richer, fuller and more caring than they had ever experienced before. This is what
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the evolution of the human species is about. The inner development of compassion, caring and sensitivity to the pain of humanity emerges as a result of recovering from one’s own painful experiences of life. This self-renewal that happens in the recovery process occurs because the individual was forced to explore the painful depths of humanity they would otherwise not have chosen to experience. This exploration creates a deeper sense of connectedness to life and stronger bonds of connectedness to others and even the universe. Once a trauma befalls us we are forced, whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not, to follow its life-altering path. At times, this process often leads us through episodes of helplessness and hopelessness. It can terrify us by unveiling the fragility, precariousness and vulnerability of our humanity. It exposes us to the rawness of life as a living species on this planet. It tears at the very fabric of our identity and radically redenes our view of life. However, it is precisely because this experience has burned the bridges of our past ways of thinking that we are forced into a new way of being in life. The old ways of thinking and relating no longer sufce and a new way of being begins to emerge. We discover that on the other side of this frightening journey we have the potential of emerging into a new life of maturity, compassion and wisdom. People who consciously journey through this life-altering experience seem to reintegrate and re-embody themselves in such a way that they are more receptive to a cosmic or expanded experience of life that was previously unavailable to them. Maybe trauma is the universe’s way of helping humanity to develop and mature as a wiser, more compassionate species. This era of human history is witnessing tremendous trauma on a global scale. It seems impossible to stop such tragedy despite our greatest desires to do so. In light of this unstoppable, irreversible and seemingly self-destructive era of our humanity, we need to ask: “What possible good can come of all this violence?” Once again, if we view trauma as a part of life, we must consider the possibility that the large scale trauma that we are experiencing has the potential of helping us evolve into a more ethical, moral and caring species. This global trauma can be viewed as the pain of the human species developing a greater wisdom which might possibly lead us into a new era of human consciousness. It is Einstein who rst recognized that with the splitting of the atom our technology had advanced further than our moral and ethical ability to handle it. Trauma, if used correctly, may be a way to help our species develop the moral and ethical dimensions necessary to responsibly handle our technological advancement. ***
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TRAUMA RELEASING EXERCISES Dear Reader, In most instances and for most people, Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) have proven themselves to be safe as a self-administered process for trauma recovery. However, the information and exercises presented in this book are not intended to be a substitute for trauma recovery. Individuals with a history of physical limitations, psychological or emotional stress should denitely consult their appropriate medical health professionals for specic guidance prior to using these exercises. The author is not a medical authority and is not qualied to diagnose or prescribe any therapy. The information in this book is the personal opinion of the author and should not be considered medical or psychological advice.Because of my sincere concern for your health and safety I am including several disclaimers about these exercises. Given this caution, the author and Trauma Recovery Assessment & Prevention Services (TR APS) shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, punitive, incidental, special or consequential damages arising out of or in any way connected with the use of the Trauma Releasing Exercises. Hopefully, this caution will help you to make an informed decision as to how you should proceed with the Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE). My primary concern is for your safe, expedient and healthy recovery process. Respectfully, David Berceli
NOTE: Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) draw from the experience and wisdom of other traditions such as: Bioenergetics, Tai Chi, Yoga and other martial arts and eastern practices. The neurogenic tremors however belong to and come naturally from the human body.
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*** Exercise # 1. Turn both feet up onto the sides in the same direction. This will cause you to stand on the outside of one foot and on the inside of the other foot. Hold this position for 30 seconds then sway the body in the opposite direction and invert your feet. Continue swaying back and forth like this very slowly ve times in each direction.
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*** Exercise #2. 1. Take off your shoes and socks for best results. 2. Place one foot on the seat of a chair. 3. With the standing foot—come up and down onto your toes, raising your heal as high as possible then lower your foot to the oor.
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4. Repeat coming up onto your toes and back down about 15-20 times. This may cause tightness, burning or pain in the calf muscle. This is normal, but you should stop if it is too painful. 5. Now, raise your heal 1 inch off the oor and hold it there for 30 to 60 seconds.. 6. Come to a standing position on both legs and vigorously shake the leg you just exercised to eliminate the pain, burning or discomfort. 7. Repeat this same exercise with the other foot. When nished, vigorously shake the leg to relax the muscles.
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*** Exercise #3. Hold one foot with your hand. Slowly bend down and touch the ground with your free hand. While touching the ground, bend your standing knee as deeply as you can and then straighten it. Repeat this process 10-15 times, depending on the strength of your legs. Although this exercise is a great leg stressor and very useful, many people may nd it too difcult or painful for their knees. This exercise can be modied by holding onto the back of the seat of
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a chair rather than bending down to the oor. When holding onto the chair, simply bend your standing knee as comfortably as possible and then straighten it. Repeat this about 5 times. If this exercise is too difcult even with using the chair, please consider it an optional exercise and move onto the next exercise.
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*** Exercise #4. Stand with your legs spread apart so that there is some tension on the inner leg muscles (1). Bend forward until you touch the ground (2). You should feel a stretch on the inner thigh (adductors) and the backs of the legs (hamstrings). Then slowly walk your hands over to one foot (3). Hold this position for three slow, deep breaths. Then, walk your hands over to the other foot (4). Again, hold this position for three deep breaths. Then, walk your hands back to the middle and reach between your legs behind you (5). Hold this position for three deep breaths. You might begin to feel some mild shaking in your legs. Allow this to happen. To complete the exercise slowly, come back into a standing position.
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*** Exercise #5. Make two sts and place them on the top of your buttocks. Push your pelvis slightly forward so that there is a gentle bow in your back. You should feel a stretch at the front of your thigh. Then, gently twist from the hips looking behind you in one direction. Turn again from the hips in the opposite direction looking behind you. To nish, come to a standing position.
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*** Exercise #6. Sit with your back against the wall as though there was a chair underneath you. This will put stress on the upper leg muscles (quadriceps muscles). After a few minutes, you might begin to feel some slight pain, burning, tightness or quivering in these muscles. When it becomes slightly painful, move up the wall about two more inches. The quivering may get slightly stronger and the pain will begin to subside. Once again, if this position becomes slightly painful, move your back up the wall two more inches. You should tr y to nd a position where your legs are
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quivering and there is no pain. A fter ve minutes of quivering, come off the wall and hang over forward. Keep your knees slightly bent while you touch the ground. The quivering will most likely increase. Stay there for about three to four minutes.
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*** Exercise #7. 1. Lay with your feet together and knees relaxed and open as far as possible. 2. Lift you pelvis off the ground for one minute being sure to keep your knees open. 3. Set your pelvis down on the oor and let your knees relax open for one minute. You may begin to feel some shaking or quivering in your legs. 4. Close your knees together about two inches. Lay in this position for two minutes. The quivering may get stronger. If you nd it pleasant and comfortable, allow the quivering to continue. 5. Close your knees again two more inches and allow the shaking to come into the legs. The quivering will become increasingly stronger. At any point if you are uncomfortable with it, straighten your legs and relax on the oor. 6. Close your knees again two more inches and allow the shaking to continue. At this point you can continue shaking until you feel it is time to stop. Do not shake more than 15 minutes, as your body can become fatigued. 7. To nish the exercise, turn the bottoms of your feet so they are at on the oor. Keep your knees slightly apart and the shaking will continue. Allow this movement to move into your pelvis and lower back. To end the exercise, simply let your feet slide down so that you are laying at on the oor. If you prefer, you can roll over onto your side and curl up to rest.
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Traum Tr aumaa Releasi Releasing ng Exer Exercise cisess (TRE) [8 [81 1]
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q: How often should should I do these t hese exercises? A: Since these exercises exercises are natural natur al to the body, body,
they can be practiced every day without harm. Some people nd them calming and therefore do them in the evening as a way of relaxing. Others nd them energizing and do them in the morning or afternoons after noons when they would would like a bit more energy. It is often useful to incorporate these exercises into your regular regu lar exercise routine. Simply add another a nother 15 15 minutes onto the end of your exercise routine so that you close with the shaking. This will relieve any stress created in the muscles as a s a result of your work out. However, However, the most important point to remember is to follow your body. When you become sensitive to your body, it will inform you of when you need to relieve stress. If you are just beginning the exercises and do not have any adverse physical, psychological or emotional reactions to them, you can practice them every other day for a month. It helps to orient your body to the shaking and allow you to gradually decrease the tension in your body. After that, you can reduce the number of times you do them to every three days or approximately twice a week. If you do them less than that, your body will once again begin to accumulate stress and tighten up. Q: Does the shaking ever stop? A: As long as you are inhabiting your body you should be able to shake. Remember that it is a natural mechanism designed to relieve deep chronic tension in the body. It should should always alw ays be available ava ilable to you in the t he event event that you need it. Once the deep tensions of the body are released and life’ l ife’ss traumas trau mas and tensions have subsided, your body will wi ll simply produce a very ne tremor that feels a bit like a mild m ild and pleasant pleasa nt purring. Q: What does the strong or gentle shaking mean? A: If the shaking is obviously very strong it is an indicator that the large muscles in the body are break ing up ‘iceberg-like’ tension in the muscles. These tension blockages create strong shaking until t hey break up and the energy energy can ca n ow more easily. You often can experience very strong shaking give way to milder shaking and then return to strong shaking again. This is simply the body’s way of systematically relieving the patterns of stress deeply embedded in the muscles. Just allow the body to shake the way it needs to. It fully understands what it must do next to soften and relax the patterns of tension that have been created over the years. Q: How should I be shaking? A: Since each person has a unique set of experiences in life, we have all developed our own own unique set of tension patterns. For this reason, there is no ‘on ‘one’ e’ correct way of shaking. There are as many ways as there are bodies. You can often observe similar patterns of shaking because the muscle structure of the human body is identical. It is
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simply a matter of following the shaking as it works its way through the body. The best advice regarding this question is: NEVER JUDGE YOUR BODY—JUST OBSERVE IT! I have many clients who say: “I wish I was shaking in a different way.” Or, “I wish my back would shake.” It is not a matter of wishing your body to be shaking in any a ny manner other than the t he way it is. It is the body simply shaking as it needs to. It knows exactly how and where it must shake next to relax itself. All the dialogue in the mind is simply ego interference and judgment. Try to avoid this as much as possible. Q: If I get more shaking in the standing position should I stay there? A: Different Di fferent people get shaking in different ways. This depends a lot on the tension patterns in the body and their ability to release. If you get shaking standing and that feels more comfortable for you then continue con tinue to stand sta nd and shake. Just remember remember that you may get the shaking in a dif d ifferen ferentt position each time you do the exercises. Eventua Eventually, lly, you should should be able to get the shaking in i n a variety var iety of positions. Each one has its own value for the body. ***
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REFERENCES
*** Arendt, H. (2000). The Portable Hannah Arendt. London, England: Penguin. *** Broome, B., Murray, J. (2002). Improving third-party decisions at choice points: A Cyprus case study. Negotiation Journal, 1, 75-98. *** Holloway, R. (2002). On Forgiveness. Edinburgh, Scotland: Canongate Books Ltd. *** Kessler, L. (2000).This report is from the Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 61(5), 4-12. *** Koch, L. (1981). The Psoas Book. Guinea Pig Publications. Felton, CA. *** Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. California: Jossey-Bass Pub. *** Levine, P. (2002). Trauma—The vortex of violence. Foundation for human enrichment. P.O. Box 1872 Lyons, Co. 80540. Retrieved from http://www.traumahealing.com *** Perry, B. (1996). Childhood Trauma, the Neurobiology of Adaptation and Use-Dependent Development of the Brain: How States Become Traits. Infant Mental Health Journal. Retrieved from http://www.trauma-pages.com/perry96.htm *** Van der Kolk, B. (1994) The body keeps the score: Memory and the emerging psychobiology of post traumatic stress. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 1, 253-265.
