It's All
About Trauma
Some years ago, my colleague and friend Nicholas Cimorelli and
I were discussing our clients' common issues. Nicholas looked at me and said "Michael,
do you notice that it's all about trauma?" I intuitively answered "yes"
though I had never before made the correlation. Then I read Judith L. Herman's
book Trauma and Recovery and began to clearly understand the relationships
among trauma, addiction, neurosis, anxiety, depression, hyper-vigilance, and relational
discontent. As Nicholas said, it's all about trauma.
My understanding of trauma is first-hand knowledge -- I've experienced
and observed it in my own life and in the lives of countless clients. When I was
four years old my mother left my father, my two older brothers and me. TRAUMA.
EARTHQUAKE. I had to get through it, I had to survive. For years afterward my
dad was full of rage at what had happened. DAILY TRAUMA. DAILY EARTHQUAKES. He
threatened to put us in a home if we weren't good. TRAUMA. "Better be good no
matter what." Continuous uprooting (TRAUMA) with and without my brothers (MORE
TRAUMA) to live here and there; sexually molested by an older neighbor (SEX TRAUMA)
and having to be hospitalized as a result (YES, AGAIN TRAUMA). Nobody seemed to
care what happened. I think you get the point I'm making. It is not surprising
that I turned to alcohol and drugs at age fourteen to quell the confusion and
storms within. At the time these substances seemed like lifesavers.
My life has been formed and informed by trauma, and trauma healing
has become my central teaching. Not everyone has the kinds of early traumas I
did. But I've found that most of us suffer from more traumas and traumatic conflicts
than we're aware of. They are cultural and universal. Traumas can be dramatic
or subtle. We are traumatized whenever our life force, passion, curiosity or love
is stomped on. Traumas live repressed in our bodies--in our psyche, in our central
nervous system, in our sinews--either re-enacting themselves or restricting our
life force through visceral fear. Their effect on our entire organism is one of
the major causes of disease. They pose emotional and physical challenges to all
our relationships with others. Repressed trauma annihilates relationships.
Trauma
Transformation
As Peter Levine say in Waking The Tiger: Healing Trauma,
"Trauma is like a straightjacket that binds the mind and body in frozen fear
Pardoxically, it is also a portal that can lead us to awakening and freedom."
Transforming trauma requires fusing the energy frozen in the "trauma vortex" with
its polar opposite energy. This cannot be understood cerebrally--trauma transformation
must be experienced to be understood. I have learned most about this sort of transformation
by doing my own healing. I simultaneously began to engage in body and energy-oriented
therapies. First was Polarity Massage, then Rubenfeld Synergy, then Bio-Energetics
and Core-Energetics; then Wavework Integration, Healing Imagery, and Holotropic
Breathwork. To the average reader these may sound like "out of the norm" or new
age modalities. They are not--many draw on ancient traditions. The reality is
that most significant healing can only occur in what Stan Grof and Ken Wilbur
refer to as "non-ordinary" environments. When extraordinary things happened to
us, we must do extraordinary things to heal ourselves - things like learning how
to hear our bodies talk to us and guide us.
An extremely bright client of mine encouraged me to read Levine's
book. I was instantly captivated by his writing. In one little book he brought
together everything I had been learning, and provided me with an important language
for the physiology of trauma healing. I am presently enrolled in the three year
Somatic Experiencing (SE) training program that Levine developed from his decades
of research. SE provides an innovative and efficient method for transforming trauma's
frozen energies through the "felt senses" of our bodies. This experience impacts
the entire organism in a wonderful way.
Let me share the first few sentences of Levine's book:
If you are experiencing strange symptoms that no one seems able to
explain, they could be arising from a traumatic reaction to a past event that
you may not even remember. You are not alone. You are not crazy. There is a rational
explanation for what is happening to you. You have not been irreversibly damaged,
and it is possible to diminish or even eliminate your symptoms.
Levine goes on to add credence to my earlier discussion with Nicholas
on the concept that "it's all about trauma" and the transformation of energy.
This is a big shift for most people who are accustomed to talk therapy and allopathic
medicine--a shift we need to make.
Four Types
of Trauma
There are four basic types of trauma:
- Physical Trauma ~ accidents, surgery, anesthesia, assaults.
- Emotional Trauma ~ abandonment, neglect, ridicule, encroachment.
- Sexual Trauma ~ rape, molestation, unhealthy or premature exposure
to sexual energy or acts, cultural ignorance on sexual diversity.
- Endurance Trauma ~ a prolonged sense of feeling unsafe in one's world
during childhood.
Torture, war and other violent acts often thread together complex
threads of these four basic types of trauma. Both for old and new traumas we may
experience alarming flashbacks, sudden panic, or continuing feelings of sadness
and anxiety. In many cases, we may feel shame. We may look to drugs to ease our
pain. The good news is that the more progressive members of the healing community
are learning more effective ways of healing all forms of trauma. TheInstitute.org
is committed to expanding and disseminating this learning.
Moving
Forward with Trauma Healing
If you want to explore the area of trauma healing for yourself
or a loved one, look over the recommended reading and links. Read the interview
with Peter A. Levine. What's most important is that you keep an open mind and
heart. Be willing to experiment if something feels right in your body and mind,
and notice if there are palpable results. If you do not feel results for your
efforts, then this may not be the right method or practitioner for you. We are
all different and it is important that we honor this. If your experience is not
optimal, change practitioners or methods if necessary. Listen to your intuitive
sense. Check out the geographical listings to see what is available in your area.
In this form of healing, slow is fast. Trust yourself
to do what makes sense to you without overwhelming yourself. The first rule of
trauma healing is to move only as fast as your entire organism is prepared to
move without being overwhelmed. The experience of being overwhelmed circumvents
any effort to transform traumatic energies in your system.
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