Very stressful, frightening, terrifying, distressing, traumatic experiences such as accidents, violence, sexual or physical assaults can cause long lasting effects physically, psychologically and emotionally.
A common symptom that arises from traumatic experiences is hyper-arousal (also called hyper-vigilance). Hyper-arousal is the body’s way of remaining prepared, watching out for danger and threats to our safety and easily stimulated by triggers we associate similar to the traumatic event, causing a startle response in our nervous system which can persist years after trauma occurs.
Other symptoms can be – heart rate goes up, sweaty palms, feeling sick to the stomach, shallow breathing, brain fog, shaky or trembling, muscle tension. These are all physical reactions to previous trauma because the body thinks it is still in danger.
When your brain is hijacked by emotional trauma, it can lead to cognitive issues, such as problems with memory and focus (concentration). In extreme cases, people are unable to function at school or work because of their inability to focus on the tasks at hand.
Trauma is associated with long-term physical health problems, too. Trauma survivors are about three times more likely to deal with irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Where does emotional trauma affect the body ?
Trauma sensitizes the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is the body’s central stress response system. This is the juncture of our central nervous system and endocrine system, which makes us more reactive to stress and more likely to increase the stress hormone cortisol leading us to feeling on edge much of the time.
Fight, flight, freeze !
When we have not fully processed an overwhelming experience, our amygdala — the part of our brain that activates the fight, flight, freeze respond becomes overactive.
Our brain is telling us, “don’t relax” you need to be prepared for anything. Even if we know logically that we are safe, our body is telling us otherwise.
It can be impossible to talk yourself out of it when our amygdala is activated and we are reacting from our reptilian survival instinct area of the brain.
The area of our brain called frontal lobe that handles executive functioning, rational thought and self-regulation is being over powered by the reptilian survival part of the brain.
Best therapies to help with trauma
Most talk therapies focus on our thoughts and engage with our frontal lobe in the brain. While that’s great, one challenge is that it can be difficult to engage your logical mind when the body is dys-regulated.
That’s where body-centred modalities come in, allowing the trauma symptoms in the body to be processed and the nervous system to be regulated.
Somatic Psychotherapy connects the body and mind.
In Greek, Soma means the body. Psyche means the mind.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) helps to desensitize and process trauma held in your body.
Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) helps release the emotional charge from the body associated with experience.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) helps with identifying, challenging and modifying automatic thoughts and unhelpful beliefs related to trauma.
Polyvagal Theory techniques to stimulate the Parasympathetic part of your nervous system. This is responsible for rest, digest and recovery. This facilitates the body into feeling safe and calm.
Contact me now to discuss how I can help you with your trauma and live your best life.