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.
How to promote more understanding & empathy from family & friends of people with PTSD. It think it’s possibly as difficult as treating the patient because a lack of understanding & empathy from significant people in the patients life invaidates & cause more barn.
100% nailed it! Biggest problem with trauma is the belief that you should just suck it up and do what you need to do to get back up and fix things. Then the judgements that come when you don’t. Even if you are able to get understanding and empathy through discussion (endless!) it will not be long before a judgement will be made again as though there had never been a breakthrough in understanding. This goes in circles with everyone around you… With the exception of those who have experience with trauma in some way or extremely aware people.
I believe you to be correct that it is even more damaging than the trauma effects. It is like being paralyzed and in a wheelchair but the wheelchair is invisible and people keeping telling you to get up off your lazy ass and walk. They don’t or won’t believe you require any assistance and find many things nearly impossible to do. This is PTSD and CPTSD for those who don’t have knowledgeable people around them or acceptably defined reasons for trauma such as a life threatening event.
I want to know how to help someone having a flashback when they call me at the suicide hotline, thx!
That makes total sense with what can be done in occupational therapy as a treatment with child and adult! What do you think ?
What are the best meds to combat these triggers. All I know is I have a lot of them from a lifetime of abuse and at the age of almost 43 I feel like I have a psychotic episode daily. I received a speeding ticket the other day and almost went to jail I feel because of the lack of help and the fact that I’m now receiving a harsher punishment for a speeding ticket then the many men who physically and sexually assaulted me ever did.
Methods of treatment that are wholisitic in approach instead of medicinal.
Good tips. Please can you speak about gaslighting and the traumatic effect that has on the victim.
Please look up Dr. Karyl McBride. She is a renowned expert in this area.
She explains it from the DSMV-5 researched perspective as well as from examples from her own work. She is based in Arvada, CO and actively runs support groups for clients who have been traumatized by gas-lightening. She is real, she is active in her work, and continues to research.
When no 3 kicks in and self care becomes unknowable, as does happiness, how do we go about restoring this? It can become a generational thing where traumatised parent disallows or cannot teach the skills so emotions are denied and risks are avoided
I am a second year graduate student in Sustainable Peacebuilding. I have also enrolled in a trauma informed care graduate certificate program this semester. I hope to focus my peacebuilding efforts in the realm of vicarious and secondary trauma, helping non-therapeutic listeners to better be able to continue the direct contact work. I am curious about what credentials, licensure, and continuing education that you might recommend on this pathway. I am a licensed massage therapist, but do not have education in clinical counseling. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Im 63. Two massive head trauma and even a lightning strike. My brain has rewired and my “filter” is a bit altered with cptsd. I waited to long for therapy because I just didn’t know… things could be explained. My question … are tumors related to impacts after 40 years since the events
How does one put trauma out of your mind or on hold to enable to live a life without sadness?
When i was diagnost with breast cancer ,then my partner of six years left me ,then i had a fight with my son he has changed copleatly,and will not speak to me and will not let me contact my three grand children .my daughters husband has lost his job i aam so stressed i can not sleep.Help,,,
How do I make my brain heathy agin I had a brain injury and I don’t know how to deal with life now I have myself in a bad place and don’t know how to get better help me and my family please
How can I help my young adult child to repair some of the damage that has been done to him? He does not want to seek help through therapy. He avoids so many things, neglects himself, doesn’t lead a normal life. it is painful to witness. Also frustrating if I’m honest. And then I maybe try to push him a little too hard and it is counterproductive. But really hard to stand back and do nothing.
“The Body Keeps The Score” is a STELLAR book, every parent, teacher, political leader, police officer, judge should read it. They should incorporate it into mandatory high school curriculum and teach a required class on the many different types of Trauma and its many ramifications. Trauma is the epidemic behind all other epidemics…obesity, gun violence, poverty, drugs and all manner of addiction. To Van Der Kolk and also all those who helped him: thank you for devoting your life’s work to this peerless and invaluable contribution to the betterment of mankind…it is a pivotal, landmark work. I only wish I’d had this book 20 years ago, my life would be in a different place, now.
I just finished reading the Body Keeps The Score. Fabulous book. In reading Van De Kolk’s book, and others, on the way trauma affects the brain, I am struct by similarities in the affect of trauma, to the presentations of adhd and autism. I’d like to know about the transferability of treatment across diagnoses and the if there is increased susceptibility to trauma in adhd and autism. Many thanks.
All my recovery from childhood trauma- molested at young age 3 & 12 yrs became so real and overpowering it was ripping all my healing away. This was at about one year and is continuing to present after TBI. Why is this happening? I am past the two year mark. I am unable to hold a job
I was in an extremely abusive work environment with seriously vindictive punitive narscisistic PD’s – not to mention the workload itself and literally “felt” my brain change! I told my MD this. I know it sounds strange but it’s true. I have not felt the same since and I have been out of the position for almost a year! I’m not so young and have always been very personable healthy and happy no matter what was going on…..now? Not sooo much. Trauma stress on a daily basis will destroy your brain!!!!! For sure.
Why does my emotions and anger are so intent went in a relationship to point you seem to black out the auguement with a spouse moment later you seem to forget all you said and done
I believe I’ve never known what it feels like to not have complex PTSD because it started so early in my life. I’m going to say I was about 12 MONTHS OLD. I don’t believe I’ll ever be able to know what it feels like to not have it. I base this on what I’ve learned from my oldest sister (8 yrs older than me) and my foster parents who had me from age 18 mos. old to five years old. Although I don’t remember any of that time at all, I was able to find them when I was in my early 20’s and they also told me some things. Both of my real parents were really, really bad alcoholics all of their lives. Both are passed away now. I’m 55 years old and take a lot of medication. I’ve been to many counselors and psychiatrists since my early 20’s, but I wasn’t diagnosed with PTSD until I was 32-1/2 years old. I add the half year to my age because I can remember very clearly holding my 1-1/2 year-old-daughter and rocking her to sleep in a rocking chair in her bedroom and looking down at her as I began to cry thinking, “this is how little I was when I was put into a foster home”. I wish I could have stayed in that foster home. There is so much more I could add here, but I really can’t go further with it right now. If there is real help, please let me know. Thank you.
Hi friends looking for a career coaching I have some good idea i can deliver this idea to you .A Career Coaching is simply a guide in your own process. A great coach, Professor Terry Maltbia, said that a Coach can be described as someone who moves valuable people from where they are to where they want to be. Career Coaching purpose is to skillfully draw out the answers from within you and provide reflections that help you deepen your awareness and come to your own conclusions. These days, service providers who function as mentors, teachers, and experts refer to themselves as a “coach”.
I would like to learn more about how to reconnect the body with the brain when financial resources are extremely limited. And please go beyond yoga! Some of us can’t afford to participate in free programs because we can’t afford the transportation costs and/or we are not able to move our bodies in the presence of others. Chronic pain is also a limitation to quite a few people.
I agree with everything you just said!! Dawn Askey
I am very happy that this information is finally available to me and others. Thank you. I have spent my entire life trying to undo the carnage of my childhood. I have just discovered Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s work and am looking forward to reading more on his research. I agree that physical activity does help with the stress hormones released by our immune systems; however, could you please make a recommendation of a book to read (or a practice workbook) or release more on the mind, spirit issues people like myself struggle with daily.
I am experiencing these symptoms based upon a recent life event. It was the final life event that I couldn’t handle. All other events in life I could continue cope. How do I find an excellent trauma therapist so that I can work on brain and body? It would be nice to receive recommendations from you. Minnesota.
Hi I’m just looking for answers, like yourself. I question myself every day. Thank God, we are getting better, more, acquit, people in this field, of therapy. Reading the brain more and more. It needs to be done. As much medicine they give us, they are just masking the problems. How can we ask questions, if we are just medicated. Doesn’t make sense to me. The more Mental Health awareness, the better. To your question, where could I find a good therapist? My answer! Good therapy ? How many years have you been qualified? If it’s more than 5 years, no good, their old school, stuck in their ways, think they know better. Experience! Have they had the misfortune to experience life, with Mental Health, have they experienced trauma themselves. Have they? Have they ?. Don’t tell me how to cook a pie, if you haven’t experience, the taste, smell, feel, the sensation, of cooking it yourself . That’s my answer. Where do you find good therapy. Thanks for reading. x
Thankyou for the video. I am now starting to understand my actions, thoughts. Nobody understands me. And I don’t understand them. We need answers. That’s all we are looking forward. How can we put it away,in boxes, to store, Until the questions are answered. To me it’s like i’m a loss child. I live with Mental Health now. As I spoke to no one for 37 years. Our parents are meant, to protect us. Teach us, get us ready for life.What happens if it is them, the evil, in the house. How will we ever feel safe, in this world ???
Follow on. Trauma children/ adults etc etc hide in their own dark. That is our safety place. It’s ugly, cold, wet, horrible, damp place. It is also sAFE to us. When I door, example, opens up, puts abit of light, warm, nice smells,etc etc we want to run, at it, live that life, please, please. The problem is, as you get closer and closer, to the door, the heat, starts fading, it wasn’t as warm, as your thought. Ugly cracks appear. No I’m going back to the dark. I feel safer there. And I don’t want to think. Medicine, drugs, alcohol, dampened the pain and thoughts. But that’s not a life. I believe myself, only me. That’s why people, take there life’s, I know, I have done it myself, and I am religious, The lords light, is sooo bright, and it gets to attractive, sometimes, warm, everything, life on earth, Should be for every living creature, etc etc First way to help,is maybe a warm hand, a lot of touches. Amen x
Thank you. ….Trust in God and think of nothing else…..
Thankyou, and yourself, God bless xxxx
How to deal with trauma adult with autism would be a helpful topic for my situation. Thanks.
If the trauma started in the womb then is the traumatised baby stuck with the traumatised brain?
my 10 yr old Brother was Murdered I was 11yrs I watched him die laughing and geting him to describe the funny little people he said where coming to take him away. I did not, cant, wont, let myself believe it. I am almost 60 my trauma Is so active I have attaked people when I feel threatened I have complex needs Emotionaly Unstable BPD or its new name but high anxiety stress bi poler I tick all boxes .I have had many traumas before and after I disassociate. I dont belong in this world. Is it possible I have Kept Michael with me and therefore displey as him. I am riddled with guilt and cant cope with life. I am so tiered. I write music I feel I am exorsising my demons. I am a master of melancoly the princesses of Sorrow
I dont know if I am me.
Are there any studies I could be involved in that could help me Michael and others. I am terrified I jump and scream when someone appears near me by surprise even if I have heard them comming. I have tried to take my life manty times.
I misspelled my email in the info: rosiestories@ymail.com, storyteller
Gaila Mackenzie archetypal healer might help, maybe his soul is attached which is why you feel as you do
Can one ever return to their normal self prior to the trauma?
How long does it take?
How can what one is going through be explained to others?
I think I’ve suffered from many kinds of trauma my whole life. From a very young child up to my 50’s. From the loss of my mother at 4 to being molested and beaten at age 7 up to 14. All my adult years brang much trauma also, losing 2 granddaughters most recently. That was the straw that broke my spirit and left me afraid of losing my mind forever. I can’t seem to pull myself out of depression. I trust no one and have a hard time believing in myself. What can I do for myself!
How can you Best communicate w a Loved One whose behavior has changed because of the trauma, especially when you see others, whom they trusted before the trauma, now taking advantage of them financially?
How do we best help a victim of komplex trauma who has an a-typical brain combining special giftedness + broad giftedness + high sensitive personality type? The person in question easily gets re-traumatized when talking and thinkinh about the traumas and also tend to work with parallell thought processes at the same time automatically as the person has 4-6 thought tracks going most of the time.
How do we help integrating trauma memories without re-traumatizing a person?
How do we help healing the filtering system and the self-sensing system that Pr. Van der kolk talks about?
How do we help healing a destroyed sense of time where the person perceives time either faster or slower than reality?
Sincerely,
Dr. Tove Lindén, Stockholm, Sweden.
I am allways saying I have a bad relationship with time I dont fit in with man made time the worlds time rushes by and I’m in slow motion cant keep up.
I too, seem to live at a different pace to the majority. The world out there is scarry unsafe and exhausting. For every day I go out I seem to need two to recover. I can’t do the same things on the same days of the week. I think I function and manage joy and contentment in a ten – 15 day cycle. Trauma has left me with a supervisial sense of humour to make my inner prickly self. I be never been much liked, sought out. All relationships are distant and shallow. There’s no way out of the cellar of my mind but I’m happy looking at life through a chinque in the dark.
I have had a ruff childhood rape Melisse station physical mental abuse broken home I was also homeless at 14 and the state never was there to help me I did keep good grades stayed with friends and then college and was happy married got children had a career it was great and at age 34 I was shot in a home invasion your long, severe brain damage and then after I was on my feet again my children were taken because my husband became a drug addict the children and I were in a very dangerous situation he was disillusioned and we were literally in a very dangerous situation and there was no family to help us and no disability yet for me to be able to MoveOn it was the most dramatic part of my entire life and yet struggling with lawyers six years later I’m still having issues with disability and still have not been able to leave my husband with my children Because I have no money to provide for them I have a good 10 year gap in memory around 34 to 24 I also have major gaps in most of my childhood my question is how do I get fixed so that I can remember my children being born and remembering my children as babies again
So how do we ‘fix it’?
As a new counselor this information can be so overwhelming and sometimes i am not sure where to start. I often let the patient lead the session letting them talk about what is most on their minds. If i wanted to specialize in trauma and/or trauma informed care, where do i start? What type of certifications are out there? Thank you.
Can we talk about the benefits of massage therapy, reiki treatments, and other allied health treatments for a person with PTSD?
Can PTSD be curable? Can someone be more traumatized than they’re aware?
I offer that the brain CAN be re-hardwired and re-balanced.
Yes, many people have varying degrees of awareness when it comes to how trauma has effected them.
Having to deal with multiple complex PTSD I cannot get any real answers on how to clear the fact my response to trauma is the FREEZE… my body goes into paralysis and the only thing left is sight and hearing. The last time at the dentist this happened, it felt to me I was having a heart attack, once they left me in the room on my own, I just shook uncontrollably and this sound came out of me like a wounded animal and deep deep sobbing… I can imagine it is just like the mouse that gets away from the cat…. but it didn’t end there as obviously my body was shutting down to save the pain, but it has taken 10 months for me to have any useful energy, and now I need the dentist again I can hardly talk to them and the active trigger is overwhelming. I am English and after a year have had no help with the NHS they no nothing of how to deal with PTSD and can in there own words only offer me anti depressants and beta blockers
I know I am not depressed and do not take medication especially when it is to make the Dr feel better to have at least given me something, when questioning them as to how this was going to help me, she said what have you got to loose, I said maybe my life as the link between anti depressants and suicide are very high…
I would love to know who is focusing on freeze and once triggered how to reset the nervous system I worked with trying to regulate myself breathing outter focusing nature and as much peace as possiable but not easy in this world at the moment.
Please if anyone can help you would be saving a life as it is so hard to live like this. My email is susie@flowerlight.co.uk
Many thanks God Bless
Thank you for sharing.
I would offer to check out
Hardwiring Happiness by Rick Hanson.
The exercises in the book walk practitioners and persons dealing with trauma to H.E.A.L. the brain.
Setting intention, having a guide and purposefully “programming” over time changes the neuroplasticity in the brain over time, this reducing the brains AUTOMATIC response of freeze.
I have been anxious about the dentist ever since I was a little girl. Last time I went to the dentist, I actually thought I was having a mini-stroke. The dentist burst into tears….yet no-one thought to call an ambulance. I haven’t dared go back. In England there is inadequate help with dealing with trauma and mental/emotional difficulties.
Perhaps we need to unite and change the system.
Medication just blunts the trauma without dealing with the root cause; but worse, some medications can be addictive. Perhaps a glass of red wine is better.(but not the whole bottle!!)
Certainly we need to understand what the trauma did to us and learn to deal with the anxiety and pre-empt it when situations arise that will provoke anxious feelings. The alternative is avoidance which leads to social isolation, or other issues like comfort-eating.
Susie gave you heard of Marisa Peer? She does hypnotherapy and gets amazing results. Please google her. She is British.
How does one deal with a gut wrenching situation without using stimulants. I have tried for a year to find a reputable Psychologist but to no avail.
Exposure therapy can be a great tool.
CBT and NLP are also both very effective tools.
If trust is an underlying challenge … self guided books/tapes may be a good place to start.
I need to know most how to re train my brain and diminish the impact trauma has done
Hardwiring Happiness (Book) is a great resource and tool to retrain the brain.
My biggest trauma started at 9 years old, my dad he was my world died suddenly, my half brother 20 years my senior raped me same day dad died and right thru to 14 years old. After 9 I had many perpetrators but my half brother started that by making me vulnerable. I’m 46 now, been 6 years therapy, 3 years CBT, nearly 3 years ERM therapy but really only started to have success this year with processing. All my life I never knew I’d been abused, at 40 I just stopped functioning from a great career earning big money etc…to one day nothing. I have snap shots of my trauma and I’m so scared I will have memories again and it will take me down……a part of me wants to open the door to blocked past. If that happens will I cope remembering the details of all the abuse and will it be healthy for me for brighter future? Also I can’t have relationships, no more than 2-3 weeks, that’s been forever….do u believe opening Pandora’s box will allow me to be loved and for me to feel love?
Dearest Andrea, I am so sorry you have had such a awful and cruel experience and your childhood robbed… which has over flowed into your adult life.. I to am pretty desperate for healing myself. I just wanted to share that by chance I discovered a preacher called Joyce Myers on you tube, who from the age of 3 I believe was raped by her father and other awful things… the good news is she shares her story, and from that awful place and finding God she is one of the most powerful women for women..
What helped me is a passage
Beauty for ashes, meaning from your pain you can help others, and while we stay caught in our pain our abuser still has us… there is great hope, there is power in the name of Jesus Christ … I still have work needed on my nervous system but for the first time in years I am not depressed since giving my life to Him and studying the Word.
God Bless
With love Susie
Joyce Meyer is phenomenal. I don’t suffer from trauma per se, but I was in an emotionally abusive relationship with my son’s father for four years and continue having to deal with him. Joyce’s book Power Thoughts is what helped me through when I initially ended our relationship eight years ago.
I am sorry to hear of your experience. Thank you for sharing.
Yes I believe that sitting with those tough times can be the key to release. The brain works overtime to protect the threatened areas and this includes perceived threats.
JOYCE Meyer (the Battlefield of the mind book) is a great resource to provide opportunity to heal the pains and memories of the past. ??
How do you reel yourself in and not expect too much from them?
I have experienced severe PTSD thru a 23 years of an Abusive marriage & another 7 years of Marital Court abuse. I would love to be tested & diagnosed with what have. I am presently still in the Courts fighting for justice. I would love to fly up to Boston to be diagnosed & start treatment plan.
I can be reached at: 305-904-1462
“ Time is of the Essence” in my case as my case continuous thru the Courts. I would like this nightmare to end.
Sincerely,
Karen L. Wallace
Hello my name is Shane i would like to first know what trauma had i have had and learn how to and be able to control it so that i can live a happy life be healthy and know what my triggers are so i can learn how to control my anxiety and schizo effective bipolar disorder and be able to trust people in general especially my wife and to know finally that when i have a thought a memory from my distant past and memory day to day are real and not second guessing myself daily it seems like so that i can be a loving father to my children and whether we can fix our marriage or just be friends i want to know that me and my wife can be able to still have some kind of relationship where we trust each other and can talk about things without arguing with each other because i seriously don’t know what want whether it’s getting divorced and being friends or not getting divorced and building a stronger loving marriage then we have had since i don’t know when because to me it’s been a very hard road with her and a lot of emotional abuse from both sides and stop putting our girls in turmoil because they see and hear more than they should and shouldn’t be seeing or hearing anything but love and support for each other and them
How do you help someone who has gone through multiple traumas not internalize or dull their emotions.?
How to treat the body and mind
So informative and hopeful!! Thank you!
I don’t know how this appeared in my intake, but it was very npful.
Spot on about how it changes your brain…. Being on red alert all the time, being overwhelmed and not being able to focus on anything cause there’s to much going on in your brain and not being able to deal with normal/everyday life situarions like the average oerson… But I am trying to deal with my own as well as trying to deal with my 2 daughters trauma at the same time… When they’re also to young to understand…… Any tips at all would be great
Are there any exercises to help the brain become calm? When dealing with PTSD is it a situation where time helps heal or is there something a person can help relieve the pressure or mind state? Dealing with hostile reactions on simple situations and not being able to deal with society is hard for a partner, that has to watch what they say on any level. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you Martha jean
I tried Holosync meditation. It rewires the brain and helps calm the amygdala. I was having trouble w decision-making. It took about 4 days to kick in… so no results for the first 4 days. By day5 I felt significantly better. And now I try to meditate every week a few times a week. I am definitely making better decisions now and I feel calmer.
I find it harder now i have left my partner i have 2young children who are in my care i recently got diagnosed with complex ptsd and have suffered dispersion anxiety for a long time i was abducted for 2weeks but can only see the day i went away and the day i came back but during the experience i encountered an vision that i was in the 13th century and when i came out of the vision i had trashed the hole room i just need help
I perceive you could of had an ancestral memory, or an ancestral guardian spirit (aka, guardian angel). I tend to have a completely different outlook that comes from spirit to cradle me and keep me at some level of peace.
What types of treatments would be an accessible place to start for teens with childhood trauma?
Can head/brain trauma in later life increase the negative effects of an already traumatised (due to childhood abuse) brain? And if it can, how does one go about trying to heal this person, if the brain is also physically damaged?
The brain is “plastic”. Meaning it is pliable and has the ability to change its hardwiring.
CBT/NLP and mindful meditation are are powerful tools that can assist in creating new neuropathways.
Time and practice are what strengthen the new paths and over time the old pathways dissipate.
I couldn’t heal with no one around.i needed friends and not just someone throwing pills at me .if i had good friends then i wouldn’t have suffered and went thru what i did .