Joyce E Smith, MA, LMFT * 323 333-4462 * PTSD & Trauma Specialist
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The Neurobiology of Trauma
How EMDR* Havening Techniques & TRM** Can Help
*Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing
**Trauma Resiliency Model
When we are under perceived threat of danger, particularly when there’s something that may involve the possibility of death to ourselves and/or others, our bodies automatically respond with one of three responses: fight, flight or freeze. Most people are not aware of the freeze mechanism. Consequently, people who have experienced a freeze often have a tremendous amount of shame and guilt which is riddled with the thoughts “I should have...”, “Why didn’t I...” etc.
The reason they weren't able to is because they physiologically couldn’t!
Stored within our bodies are all the impulses of what we wanted to do at the time of the trauma and physically were not able to do. The part of our brain that stores information regarding these incomplete actions, the part that deals with inert survival, has no sense of time - there is only NOW. At the moment of the traumatic event, in an unconscious effort to never repeat that experience, our survival brain takes a snapshot photo. Because in that moment it's too overwhelming to comprehend, our brain breaks it down into hundreds of files, much like a sheet of shattered glass, and placed into the "to do later" section. The individual elements could be a red shirt, a place, an expression of someone’s face, a smell, a sound, etc. The only thing that ties all of these together is that they all represent "DANGER!"
When we sense or perceive any one of these elements from the original event, referred to as a trigger, our entire survival neuro-network and nervous system is activated. Our inherent physiological survival mechanism prepares us for defensive action, even though logically we know the threat is not currently in the room. Often when we know we are over reacting emotionally and/or physically to a particular situation, it’s because one of these triggers has unconsciously caused our body and emotions to re-experience the pain of the original trauma. Our rational brain, and the part that processes and stores information that has been “made sense of,” has a time line. It is able to file away the memory of the event, putting the past in the past. With a firm understanding that the tiger is no longer in the room, so to speak, nothing remains to trigger emotional and physical reactivity. Unfortunately until the part of our brain that is survival oriented and stores all information related to trauma, and the rational part of our brain that has a timeline are able to make sense out of the traumatic even, we continue to feel activated, producing stress and anxiety.
You may be asking yourself, is there hope? Absolutely! I have found in my own personal quest for healing from Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), and from what I have witnessed in my clients, that there is a way to physically create new neuro-pathways, greatly reducing and often stopping activation.The combination of EMDR, a bilateral stimulation process that helps connect the rational part of our brain with the trauma/survival part of our brain, combined with TRM a method which helps release the unconscious, physiological impulses that are still trapped in our bodies, are extremely effective in accomplishing this. Once the physiological connection has been made in our brain, our nervous system stops reacting as if the trauma is still occurring, enabling a fuller enjoyment of life in the present.
Please feel free to contact me to obtain more information and see if the process of using EMDR and TRM may be of help for what is currently troubling you.
Call 323 333-4462
Complimentary initial 20 minute phone consultation
JoyceESmithMFT@gmail.com
Complimentary initial 20 minute phone consultation
JoyceESmithMFT@gmail.com