i once worked with a client who i'll
call mary mary grew up in an abusive
home her biological father was
imprisoned for molesting her when she
was little and her stepfather had
sexually abused her for years and from
her perspective her mother's abuse was
the worst her mother was emotionally
abusive calling her names and degrading
her and telling her she was a [ __ ]
so her childhood was difficult to say
the least
in her 20s she came to therapy to work
on anxiety self-esteem and to process
through all the old trauma in this video
we're going to talk about how trauma
showed up in her body and some of the
things we worked on to resolve it
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to be honest i really don't like most of
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learn these seven principles today and
turn things around trauma is very common
but despite how common it is trauma
treatment is complicated and complex
trauma stemming from years of abuse
really impacts the brain in long lasting
ways so i'm not going to pretend that i
can just teach you how to fix it in one
short video
but we can break trauma treatment down
into practical steps it's not that hard
to learn how to release trauma in the
body so let's talk about that
but first just take a few slow breaths
now just like that you send a message to
your body that it can turn on the
parasympathetic response
now in my previous video i talked about
how trauma gets trapped in the body the
fight flight freeze response get gets
kicked on over and over again and it
doesn't get resolved and eventually it
becomes habitual essentially a muscle
memory that turns on that physiological
response adrenaline and cortisol flow
into the body the pupils narrow the
muscles tense the heart and lungs pump
faster the immune system and digestion
turn off
when it comes to trauma our body is not
only reacting to the present moment
sense of danger or safety but the memory
of past danger that has basically been
stored in our nervous system
this activated stressed out hyper
vigilant response becomes habitual and
when it's chronic the toxic stress harms
your body and makes it difficult to
function mentally and emotionally
but your beautiful brilliant body is not
designed to just leave you trapped there
it's designed to heal to repair to
connect and to restore its sense of
safety
according to the polyvagal theory there
are three states of the nervous system
our default mode is this safety and
connection state but when faced with a
perceived threat our nervous system
kicks on the fight-or-flight response
and this activates you to fight off
danger or escape it but when a threat
seems impossible to escape and there's
no hope in fighting it off your nervous
system enters the freeze state shutdown
mode you numb out and freeze up
when treating trauma our goal is to
transition the nervous system from being
stuck in fight or flight or shut down to
a calm state of safety and connection
the more time we spend in that state the
more we train the body to return to a
sense of calm and security
the healthiest people can actually
transition between that activated
response and the safety response quite
quickly we don't have to suppress the
fight flight freeze response we just
need to add an additional skill to our
tool belt and there's actually a way to
measure your nervous system flexibility
it's called vagal tone and you can
measure it with heart rate variability
so you can learn a lot more about that
in another video i made but you don't
need a machine to tell you what state
you're in your body has a built-in
monitor it's called neuroseption your
brain is constantly monitoring what
state you're in you can you can learn to
become more aware of the state you're in
and when you do you can consciously
choose action that helps release this
tension so this is why therapy is really
helpful because an observant therapist
can help you notice what state you're in
and then help you transition back to
safety
and it's easier to calm the mind by
calming the body first so when i do
trauma work i always start with the body
okay so let's start by talking about the
shutdown response
okay so the oldest most primitive
response is the dorsal vagal response
this is the freeze and immobilization
response when we perceive an
overwhelming threat that we can't fight
off or escape this is what we default
into so an example of this is how
animals play dead or freeze when they
can't escape
when it's chronic in in humans it looks
like feeling exhausted detached numb
disconnected or mentally foggy this
looks a lot like depression too so in
one session with my client mary she was
going through the process of the trial
of her stepfather and she was sitting on
my couch and she was just saying over
and over i'm so angry at him i'm just so
mad but her face was completely flat her
eyes were down cast her body was tense
and frozen and rigid
she said she was feeling anger but her
body was responding with immobilization
and you'll see this a lot with trauma
survivors they get locked up they shut
down they get overwhelmed they they
collapse into a feeling of helplessness
that sometimes gets diagnosed as
depression
so with mary i asked her to start
patting her hands on her legs
then i asked her to start stomping her
feet
pretty soon she started loosening up and
as she started to notice her
surroundings i reminded her that she was
safe in this room
her face became more expressive she
started smiling and laughing a little
bit but then she was also able to
actually feel her anger and she was
actually mad
by moving her body around we were able
to shift her from shut down mode into a
more activated state
we also really bugged the therapist in
the office next to me she barged into my
session and she's like is there a
therapist in here
and um me and my client kind of laughed
our heads off about it later so
anyways
you may need to find a quieter place to
do that kind of activity
right to get out of that freeze response
but movement and just even like shaking
your hands out
patting tapping touching or just getting
back into connection with your body can
help you get out of that freeze and shut
down response so the second level of
trauma is being stuck in the fight or
flight state or the sympathetic state
and this can look like anxiety
hyperactivity hyper vigilance
oversensitivity so
your body is mobilized to manage threads
so most of the time when mary came into
the office she was stuck in this mode
her hands jiggled her legs jiggled her
hands never stopped moving she had a
hard time concentrating she was jumpy
she didn't sleep well so in this stage
we worked on soothing her nervous system
we practiced tapping slow breathing
yawning stretching
sometimes we danced or yelled and when
she was triggered she learned to calm
down and get centered in her body
sometimes she would use a grounding
skill or she would hold a heavy object
but each of these activities gradually
helped her feel a sense of calm okay the
third state is the ventral vagal state
this is the safety and connection state
some people call it rest and digest
others call it feed and breed but this
is a state it's where your body rests it
heals but it also gets excited and
engaged you experience joy right your
blood pressure drops your body relaxes
this is the most flexible state it can
be playful adaptive curious you can
connect to others it's both active and
restful
as therapy with mary progressed she
spent more and more time in this state
and she was able to process through
and resolve some of her painful memories
we also started doing some work with
mary and her husband so he would come in
and they would talk about trauma or some
problem in her family and then if she
got upset mike would soothe her he would
look her in the eyes and tell her it's
going to be okay and he would hold her
hand or he would hug her
now eye contact and hugs actually change
brain chemistry they release oxytocin
which is one of the attachment hormones
and they send a message to your nervous
system that you are safe mary and mike
would cry together and they would laugh
together but they were safe together he
treated her well and they worked that
healing process
together so you really can learn to
release trauma from your body by
retraining the nervous system to spend
more time in that state of safety and
just to overview some of the body-based
treatments for each state here are seven
ways to restore a sense of safety to
your body and i've got videos on each of
these if you want to learn and practice
each exercise
so
first one is perceived safety you say in
the present moment i am actually safe
the exercises are all about reorienting
to the present and grounding with the
five senses
number two is connecting with your body
patting your legs
patting your hands tapping right
just reconnecting with your body
movement
number three is taking the body through
its cycles
shaking dancing exercise yoga laughter
right so if you're feeling tense let
yourself tense if you're feeling shaky
exaggerate those shakes your body's
trying to tell you something and have
you work through and resolve something
inside of it the next level is to soothe
the body so to go from an activated
state to a calming state you can use
your five senses you can use gentle
breathing you can use progressive muscle
relaxation or paste breathing
and then you can learn to turn on the
parasympathetic response you can try
exercises like the yawn softening your
gaze pelvic floor relaxation and deep
breaths and basically any activity that
regulates breathing like swimming or
playing a wind instrument each of these
can help
turn on that parasympathetic response as
well
and then connect with others who make
you feel safe eye contact hugs listening
to the human voice looking at an
expressive face emotional intimacy
sexual intimacy these all trigger a
chemical change in your body
and then after we soothe the body we can
engage in cognitive reprocessing of
trauma drawing talking writing when your
body's in a state of calm you can work
through the old painful memories and
sensations and essentially reinterpret
them from your new sense of safety so
for example that hurt really bad when i
was little it wasn't my fault and now
i'm an adult and i'm safe etc
okay i hope this was helpful thank you
for watching and take care
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you