The treatment of trauma can be some of the most complex work practitioners face.
And for years, this challenge was complicated by not having a clear picture of the impact that trauma has on the brain.
But scientific advances within just the past few years have opened the eyes of practitioners to what actually happens in the brain of someone who has experienced trauma.
And according to Bessel van der Kolk, MD, there are three major ways that the brain changes in response to trauma.
To find out what they are (and their impact on the body), take a look at the video below – it’s just 3 minutes.
Bessel is one of the world’s leading experts in trauma and PTSD. Because of his research, we have a deeper understanding of how trauma impacts both body and brain.
And this is crucial – it can help us target our interventions more effectively.
So now, we’d like to hear from you . . .
When it comes to the treatment of trauma, what do you want to know most? Please leave your comment below.
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Has there been research on the effects of physical traumatic brain injury, in comparison with other physical traumas?
Thank you.
Hi . Thankyou. My daughter is currently undergoing her 3rd Breakdown in less than 5 years. The last one was 2 years ago. It was particularly traumatic, both leading up to and spending 4 weeks in hospital. This time I’m looking after her at home . She is on medication -Sertraline, Diazepan and Quietapine. She has been in and out of psychosis for a month now. The house has been full of manic aggressive energies due to my bipolar mother waging war during the process due to the shock.
I’m trying my best to help my girl ( 25 years old) now my mother has gone away for 2 weeks.
The fear through psychosis has been extreme. As has the anger . Over the past week or so, Cassie has begun to grieve …wail…shout n scream at times. So much deep heartfelt crying. She hates herself, and me, and my mother but also loves and needs. Unhealthy codependent relationships have led to this. Way too much depression and isolation for her young years. She graduated at Uni last Summerin English Literature and Spanish Studies.
She is spending at least an hour or more in nature for a sense of grounding.
She is attending compassion based CBT with an NHS Psychologist and has weekly NHS support from her assigned support worker, Adam.
I’ve arranged weekly body energy week with a female healer ( deep tissue massage) which started last weekend and was very effective. Regular foot massage Art therapy too.
The trauma of the last breakdown bolted into this because wasnt dealt with.
My question is this : What can I do to help her at this stage, other than cook nutritious loving food , rose and lemon balm tea, marigold , marshmallow and chamomile tea, lots of water ? Before the breakdown she was sleeping in til 2 in the afternoon. Depression. Low self esteem. Little purpose… motivation. The pandemic messed everything up.
Her favourite family members – 2 aunts and a gentle kind uncle visit regularly.
I’ve signed up to Peter Levine and Co’s Trauma therapy course plus masterclass. I have very little time to myself and am exhausted and devastated. In trauma myself due to experience way too much abusive behaviour from my Mother and also my daughter . Mostly verbal/ emotional. My PTSD was up already in the weeks leading up to this. Ive started taking St John’s wort and herbal teas – Valerian and a special blend.
I’m also looking for a home to rent whilst all this is going on.
Please help .
With Deep Gratitude
Julia
Ps I’ve signed up to Tara Brach a current Radical Self Acceptance online course
Where are the therapy groups?
What repercussions can occur if one doesn’t have treatment for p.t.s.d soon as well as does p.t.s.d. affect speech and language impairment(stuttering) as well as short term memory and thyroid.etc Also lack of interest in activities and imbalances of the torso
Can a person recover from severe PTSD especially if they arnt really recognising what is happening to them
How does self medicating with drugs or alcohol complicate trauma and how can a person stop. What should they replace it with. Gwen
I would like to know what your expertise and research tell you about the best ways to integrate and let go of various traumas.
I had read an article prior to this one featuring you and Peter Levine explaining that reliving the trauma isn’t the best way to move forward and heal. I have been in many many types of therapies spanning 30+ years, as well as, a plethora of psychotropics. I always felt shame that I could never quite get the CBT or DBT back 15-20 years ago. At that time, research hadn’t make the connection that the primal portion of hypervigilance trumps anything on the frontal cortex and that had a devastating impact on my therapies and mental health, as blame was placed on me as if to say I had a choice and must be getting something out of staying the way I was “secondary gain”. I was thankful to know 2 years ago about a therapy modeled off the aforementioned types of therapies called ACT.
I have complex PTSD from repeated abuses as a child and teen and now have medical PTSD from having an neurological autoimmune illness that has leveled my autonomic nervous system.
I am receiving nutrition in my blood and a host of other crappy health issues.
I would love a response. Thank you
I was punched in my face by my father and my face swelled for a long time / now I am older I have a problem with the same area and it has similar sensations it did when I was younger with no Pain ?
Hi,
I enjoyed the video.
I like that you’re asking for comments.
But I am concerned about the way the question was asked “when it comes to the treatment of trauma, what do you most want to know”
I was hoping it would be “what do you most want to share any what has helped or harmed you when seeking support to overcome trauma”
There continues to be a concern over the application of the word “expertise”.
While I recognise that, Bessell Vanderkolk has genuinely amassed some insight and research and it would be very reasonable to say he has expert knowledge on his own theories and frameworks that he uses to direct and interpret research findings, I would see that as him being and expert on his *field of research* and that this field of research belongs to a *school of thought*. In my understanding, that makes Bessell an expert on his particular way at looking at life, distress and trauma: the school of thought and discipline to which he belongs.
While this is a very meaningful thing, it’s also very important to realise that it is absolutely not the same as being a comprehensive understanding of life, emotions, altered states of consciousness or trauma – or most importantly, of the individual experiences that people go through or what they find helpful or harmful as diverse indivuals in terms of worldview, theory, framework, interpretation or healing.
There is quite a bit of social neuroscience, for example, that shows how brains can “synchronise” as people interact. How stories and relationships and confidence and being heard can help some people calm down and feel safe. How everyone is different. How the person has a brain and interacts with their brain and all its processes very differently, depending on their Individual circumstances and nature.
Bessel should be open to *listening* to what others found helpful and harmful or how he might have inadvertently misinterpreted some of their experience. Particularly when the interaction starts and ends with him being an “expert” who confused the area of his expertise from a school of thought to discuss and offer to be taken, left or used in conjunction with other perspectives – to representation of himself as an “expert” on the “best interests” or the lived experience of the person sitting in front of him. Something impossible.
It sets up a situation where practioners don’t think they have anything to learn from their Individual and diverse clients or from the wider Psychosocial Disability community in general. Their school of thought becomes the whole world to them. Their interpretation of research the simplified world view with which they interact.
All conversation takes place in these terms. The idea that the person has agency to explore and reflect and may see things a different way or find different things helpful or harmful is not allowed. The school of thought becomes an encompassing ideology. A hegemony.
Hegemony, unsurprisingly, is not very good for being safe.
An important issue Van der Kolk misses: many of those who appear to be fearful in situations where there “is” easy resolution -are not. It is often an illusion. Quite often the person is terrified because there is genuine danger and the situation is not safe.
But it’s an issue of social power. So those who are in hegemonic control of others can’t understand why such hegemony could possibly be terrifying.
Yet it is. It takes a very long time to be able to learn how to look it in the face and get it to listen.
I’m still trying to learn. If this message meets with denial or even defensiveness, that is a clear indication of just how *not easy* this situation is to resolve.
If it was easy to resolve then your organisation would just say “golly, she’s right” and we would all start discussing how to rearrange our structures & epistemology to make room for genuine mutual respect and equality. With nobody trying to claim they are an “expert” on someone else’s mind, life, circumstances or reactions or the inner workings of their mind – just because they are leading researchers or practioners in a particular school of thought, interpretation, conceptualisation, observation or practice.
Whatever we think we know, there is always something more to learn and every chance we are at least partially or completely mistaken. The mind of other remains a mystery, the world remains a mystery. Importantly: the minds of others remain their own – their expertise belongs to them and then alone both by fact and right.
I understand that is very hard for people to understand given the lack of discussion and development around Disability rights discourse in this arena.
But that’s exactly why it’s so important. It’s so difficult because generations of hegemony had reduced complex diverse human beings and human experience into ideological objects and constructs.
While Van der kolk offers more complex frameworks, they are not, nor could they ever be, complex enough to supplant individual diversity.
However, entrenched ideology can make the world around look very solid and real. If only I had the time, the funding, the reputation and the resources to study how different brain processes play into entrenched ideology.
If only I could convince the world with all my colleagues how dangerous it is. How much well founded fear and trauma it causes via the mechanism of resulting hegemony, voicelessness, being reduced to ideological constructs into nothing more than the subjects of others’ “expertise” with no credibility about your *own* life and mind.
Then my life would be much less difficult. I learn to cope with the constant stream of information letting me know about dangers. They come thick and fast because not just me but my whole community is constantly living on a knife edge due to the voicelessness and the way we are treated as second class citizens in our own life with the narratives set by self proclaimed “experts”. People who are interested in what a frightened brain looks like but not interested in the social dynamics leading to real and persistent danger: social threat that robs autonomy and wears a person down that is not infrequently backed up by physical and psychological torture wherein persons are forced to internalise the ideology of self proclaimed “experts”.
I would not impose hegemony on the entrenched persons of this world even if I did have the community enthralled with genuine findings about the neuroscience of what is going in in the brain of those entrenched in ideology, who have lost the ability to distinguish between findings and context. Who have forgotten to treat people as fellow humans. To whom humility is an anathema. Who done understand the value of support rather than control. Or his it affects the brain.
But I *would* and I *am* working hard to ensure that we can bring in legal safeguarding to ensure that such persons *do* receive human rights training. That there *are* legal safeguards put in place to ensure all persons can get access to support in full respect of their autonomy, diversity, will and preferences with no undue pressure or influence. That those who practice anything restrain themselves to being experts on what they practice, not on their client. And that they must *always* provide the disclaimer thT everything they offer in terms of frameworks are just framework, theory, model – they are very simplified ideas about reality based on assumptions – that no scientific model can *ever* be sufficiently complex to fully encapsulate real life and that there are other schools of thought that some may find more helpful or harmful, that everyone is different.
People need access to supported Decision making to choose support or outlook they find hey of harmful with no undue pressure or influence.
My question to your organisation, is that with such a strongly developed theory and framework from which it operates, that might be genuine helpful to a lot of people, how do you make room for diversity?
How would you?
How should you?
Thanks in advance for your response.
I’d be very interested to hear more about how can we move to recognise diversity and draw the boundaries of expertise where they belong to give people full options, full autonomy and start to get discussions going that open up topics instead of restrict them to factions or fractured, competing schools of thought. There is no limit to the diversity of life – of new things to learn about it or different perspectives within which to situate & interpret the same findings, or related or contrasting ones.
Look for to reading your reply.
My trauma event/injury took place in March 1973.
I recovered from that in almost 2 years, by which time I had suppressed memory of the actual event and the months of fallout that followed.
Then, late in 1976 I found I had inexplicable problems concerning a relationship and I could not understand myself or know what was wrong with me or the source of my inexpliccable problems.
The following 19 years were very painful and empty and unenjoyable even though I acted as if I was normal and everything okay until, 1995 I recognised whilst watching a TV programme that I was suffering from PTSD.
Another 22 years on and, after thinking that my PTSD must have evaporated since 1984, I undexpectedly had a strong and disruptive recurrence (October 2018).
I discovered after speaking to a friend who happens to be a psychiatric nurse exactly what the cause of my trauma was and that it occurred in March 1973. This was a huge revellation.
Then in 2019 I discovered Dr Bessel’s book, ‘The Body Keeps The Score’ and as I read it I understood and recognised often in great detail from my own experinece the mechanisms that Dr Bessel describes.
But now I have a dilemna in that, whilst the injury caused by my experience ruined my life in a way that it is now irretrievable, I wonder if it is too late for me to at least normalise.
I wonder if it would be worth going through whatever it may take to repair the damage?
I also wonder if it may be too long since the event in March 1973 for repair or correction to be possible?
I wonder what nature or kind of actions would treatment be likely to consist of?
My life is filled with trauma. Reactive attachment disorder Brain surgery And horse crushing injury. I survive. But i want to feel. And live
Is this method referred to as targeted therapy? Is it related to somatic experiencing? Can you please recommend qualified practitioners in the San Diego, CA area?
I need to talk to an expert about PTSD and what it has done to my husband. My story is long and I would not want to waste your time by trying to explain it here. Is there a forum that I can join where I would be able to tell my story and hopefully get some understanding of where the experts got it wrong or even, right?
This does interest me but once the brain structures have been altered and the social system compounds and creates continual retriggering of the trauma, how do we improve this.
Hi…my name Joy..I was sexually abused at age 8-16 I have had
Shock treatments when I was 25 years old..and still dealing with
It…I have been written about what happen to me..it has helping
Me!
I have had 6 psychotic episodes,over 44 years from my bipolar 1 with psychotic features. I have long felt the first 2, at ages 20 and 22, caused permanent changes in my brain and personality and ultimately the course of my life. I think all the episodes left permanet changes in the neural nelwork of my brain.
I found this email and the video very effective.
As I understood our brain changes after trauma. I have experienced the suffering after trauma to the point that the suffering after trauma, seems to be much harder and more torturing in terms of emotional pain than the actual trauma.
I want to know or kind of get a confirmation that can I change this situation and help my brain to come back to its normal state and not have the suffering like that any more? And how?
I know I must work hard and get professional help. But I will appreciate any advice, and helpful material such as videos and articles.
Thanks.
Jasmine
I found this email and the video very effective.
As I understood our brain changes after trauma. I have experienced the suffering after trauma to the point that the suffering after trauma, seems to be much harder and more torturing in terms of emotional pain than the actual trauma.
I want to know or kind of get a confirmation that can I change this situation and help my brain to come back to its normal state and not have the suffering like that any more? And how?
I know I must work hard and get professional help. But I will appreciate any advice, and helpful material such as videos and articles.
Thanks.
Jasmine
I’ve had a basal ganglia bleed. In hospital for 5 weeks. Physio for 4 months after. Affected left side. I can walk slow with a stick but left arm not really functioning properly. It’s been 8 months since the stroke. Can’t drive. I want a honest opinion on my chances of getting better and the appropriate time scale. I know everyone’s different but I need just some idea please.
please look into Feldenkrais therapy- powerful. Anat Baniel or Michelle Turner on youtube to point to what’s possible. the brain/body has amazing power to heal. Also Joe Dispenza about healing body/mind through the quantum field- faster than theough traditional medicine. Sadghuru a mystic also has tools for inner engineering and maximizing potential! SO many good things and possibilities lay ahead where the traditional medical model has no room for these methods! much luck & aloha!
I’m afraid of night terror dreams coming when I’m stressed out. Not sure how to handle this.
I’ve lost a daughter to suicide and other traumas. Right NIW I’m going through a VERY traumatic and difficult divorce. I’ve always been able to cope and bounce back…but this time is different. I’m NOT doung so well.
What types of treatment are effective and how do you know which is best for you?
Hi why I can’t seem to sleep and would PTSD have anything to do with it . King regards Caroline
Can trauma be dealt with neuropsychological therapy and without medication since I have drug damage due to psychotropic drugs years ago and my husband has suffered much trauma in past and avoids doctors because of what happened to me.We both need help and I am in Burlington Ontario Canada and my husband lives in Poland now.I suffer from much dystonia which in itself can be traumatic each day and I think my husband has post traumatic stress disorder from what I am researching. You response is appreciated thanks
I am suffering with PTSD and I’m using meditation at a Buddist centre to help me with it. I am finding it very relaxing and very helpful as I’m not so much on edge as I was without mediation. But I am also awaiting cognitive therapy as well.
I get either a flight or freeze reaction to certain events now that prevent me from doing certain things that I need to do.
I have had so many trama things when I was a kid I don’t know were to start…..I feel like I’m still in it every day can you help me ? Thank you … Dan
I have had so many trama things when I was a kid I don’t know were to start…..I feel like I’m still in it every day can you help me ? Thank you … Dan
What is the best way to support and live with someone who has suffered trauma. What ( if any) concessions should one make in a relationship
I’m in trouble! I come from a home of much abuse as a child. I’ve been abused mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually. I am bipolar, I’m on meds. My mom abused me and in January she passed away. I’m lost, confused, angry I’m a mess.
How not to be extremely sensitive
From age 14-18 my son progressed through mental health changes, with episodic psychosis. As you can imagine, those years were chaotic as we moved from one crisis to the next. I have autoimmune thyroid disease (hashimoto’s) and an underactive adrenal gland. I deal with crisis calmly, as a problem solver, and don’t tend to dwell on the past, so I thought that we had weathered this well. One day I woke up with a tremor in my arm. That night when I went to bed I had full body seizure, jerking, etc and was eventually diagnosed with PNES because no evidence of abnormal brain activity could be detected. That was 2016 and I continue to have episodes daily, although tempered with klonopin and CBD. My neurologist is certain trauma/PTSD are the cause, although mentally I don’t experience depression or emotional trauma. My son was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia and is now well medicated with injections of invega. It has been almost a year without a psychotic episode. The PNES is still unabated. I would love to go back to a life without benzodiazepines, which have worsened fatigue and exercise intolerance. My question is, how to rid myself of the seizures?
How do I work with teenagers who have trauma?
Why besides counseling self help books etc. Do I still recall those traumatic instances. I would like to forget forever.
Do these ideas also apply to OCD?
Thank you
S. Riley
I don’t even know the questions to ask. All I know is that I found my husband, after suicide, and now it is hard to discern who I am. My behavior is frenetic, and I can no longer discern its appropriateness.