Strategies to Treat Patients Trapped in the Freeze Response
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with Bessel van der Kolk, MD;
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with Bessel van der Kolk, MD; Stephen Porges, PhD; Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD; Pat Ogden, PhD; Thema Bryant-Davis, PhD; Bethany Brand, PhD; Deb Dana, LCSW; Janina Fisher, PhD; Kathy Steele, MN, CS; Ruth Buczynski, PhD
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Although I’m not a ‘practitioner’, I’ve recently started reading up about the new developments in trauma therapy, as I recently discovered that I’m autistic and also appear to have suffered some trauma; this session confirmed some of my responses as trauma-linked, as the insights so accurately describe what happens to me … – thank you so much!
I’m also autistic…I’m probably going to invest in this series while it’s on sale today. I want to listen to the repeat broadcast and use the study guide on the second hearing before finally deciding since even on sale it’s a lot of money. But I think it could really help my therapist and me to do some significant inner healing
Thank you very much. All is so helpful.
I am grateful for NICABM’s offering and presentation of the Treatment of Trauma program.
The gathering of Professionals – Sharing their experience and wisdom, is greatly appreciated.
The Information presented re Freeze recognition, Suggestions to assist the nervous system to feel safe again, and Re-framing are all valuable tips that can be utilized in the workplace as well as home.
Reading other viewer’s comments also gave further beneficial takeaways.
Thank you.
This was such a wonderful training filled with so much needed information. What an awesome choice of speakers to learn from. With my clients, I will make sure that I am more attentive to any tension and explore what the body actually wanted to do. I really need to purchase the gold package to listen over and over again because it is not easy just listening one time.
This is another wonderful training by NICABM. I really appreciate the expertise of the presenters and the integration of the current understanding and applications on the freeze response. Ihope that this information reaches and is included in the NIMH studies and other research for long COVID, and by extension, ME/Chronic Fatigue,and other chronic health conditions, to more effectively release the body’s capacity for healing.
Also, two specific comments I have are the following: 1) Janine Fisher’s intervention to have the client look as far right as possible reminded me of Rosenberg’s basic vagus nerve exercise that promotes a ventral vagal activation; 2) The interventions to help clients out of a freeze response are helpful for clients with autism and I wonder about the nervous system similarities between autism and trauma, which I know are being considered now.
Thanks for making this training available!
I do group therapy for chronic pain syndrome.So Group acts as a co-regulated ,wise Brain after meditation ,visualization and breath work, plus autogenic training) to help patients recognize at the body ‘s nervous system level( Vagal Paradox) their Triggers and ‘It’ starts to happen almost spontaneously . The therapist has to stay out of the way and cue into his or her own body response.
I will now start using Pulse Oximeter too during the session In my CPS Patients in addition to De- Pressuring. Thanks.
Clinic patients receive at least 4 Bio-feed back sessions as well as Active Rehabilitation of 12 sessions plus many Psycho education lectures by O.Ts Physiotherapist, Individual Psycholgists and assessment and medication management by specialist Physicians.
Excellent Exploration of “Mysterious Freeze response.” Dr Stephen Porgess Research is Amazing.
Always have paper and a pen ready with people likely to be in Freeze. It is terrifying, when still able to write, but not walk and get it yourself, to have to direct others, make them understand you need a pen and paper to protect yourself, to let others know what is going on. As for weightblankets watch out for the cheap ones. One needs a specific weight according to one’s bodyweight. I suffered all these symptoms, mostly in the past. I sense it coming on now. Warn others never to call an ambulance and to get me a chair were i to get paralyzed. I remember this dentist specialist getting extremely angry with me and not believing me when i wrote I cannot speak. It is good to bring this more into the world. My doctor did not even know the term Freeze, when i asked her about it. Bessel van der Kolk mentioned in ones of his YT vids that when you make certain movements the body cannot feel as it does. F.e. rising arms you cannot stay angry. He mentioned a person doing this therapy of movements. But listening to the YT vid many times i did not catch the name and could not find her. So if anyone knows, please let me know. I read in another comment. What can a survivor of CPTSD/DID do in the moment FREEZE occurs, when a therapist is not around. The session mentioned several options i will certainly try out. Here in the Netherlands Psychological’/Psychiatric care is failing. Especially for those with the worst cases. More money can be made on easy cases. Those available are often in the private field and for many not affordable. Many are their own therapists and many are struggling to survive. We need more tools.
Hello, I am interested in this because I have an educational though not professional background in psychology, and am in a neurodiverse relationship with a partner and coparent who is on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum. We have met in the past with therapists who have a hard time recognizing the dynamics that our neurodiversity brings into the picture, but it strikes me that the lived experience of a person has an autistic spectrum personality shares much in common with that of someone who has experienced trauma. These commonalities include: an experience of perceived threats that have repeatedly caused shutdown and dissociation, inability to recognize signs that might predict those threats, inability to access language/social connection during a threatening situation as a strategy to reduce threat, or to modify one’s prosody to ameliorate a situation, and inability to make sense of where the other person is coming from… leading over time to the perception that most others with whom one is in relationship becoming a source of threat. So even though the person’s lived experiences might not meet the conventional test of an experience that can be traumatic, everything NICABM’s trauma courses address feels 100% relevant to me in my partner’s case.
Unfortunately, because my partner’s lived experiences don’t make the list of what are understood to be “traumatic experiences” (physical abuse, neglect, or a literal threat to one’s life), our therapist doesn’t acknowledge this. As such, I am taking your courses to apply as best I can in my own life and relationship with my partner. I am grateful to you for spreading this valuable information widely and making it accessible to someone like me.
Thank you for describing so well the commonalities between trauma and autism. I am hoping that as a profession we start moving toward the neurological similarities and what is helpful clinically.
I have given my patients much information about fight, flight or freeze, but freeze has always been more difficult to recognize and treat. I knew movement was the answer, but this session gave me a better understanding and the reasons why movement works.I will use the micro movements in the future. I appreciated the idea that I should trust my nervous system to know when a client is in freeze, I often know and can feel it before they can. Thank you, looking forward to more information, especially dissociation.
I am grateful for the wisdom of Deb Dana and her application of Polyvagal theory in the traumatic stress response. Being able to acknowledge the body’s inherent freeze response as a positive response and resource lessens the feelings of shame and guilt that one often experiences after traumas. I look forward to learning more in the following sessions.
Thank you for sharing this important information! As a Registered Nurse, with experience in Critical Care, I appreciate the expertise and depth of knowledge offered.It feels applicable to daily life. I look forward to learning more.
So grateful to you all for this opportunity. I will be using many of these strategies TODAY with my clients, family and myself. I have a few police officers in the family and in my practice. The right brain to right brain will better inform staying in the moment in one’s body. Not expecting people to be anywhere except where they are will be a focus for those specific clients. Being able to identify some ‘non’ responses differently will benefit many. Thank you so much.
I listen to people online through text, and one person was feeling unreal recently and didn’t think I was real. I was struggling with what to do since we weren’t physically together. In the future, I will ask them to take a deep breath, move their eyes slightly to look around the room, focus on a pretty picture, etc.
Thank you! This was helpful and informative!
Hi
thank you ,this was most helpful for my clients-all the practical knowledge how to detect clients state in freeze respons and how to help them ,reframe the response as an asset . Thank you all.
All the best
Mirja Svartengren
This was brilliant – a true master class indeed! I feel truly grateful for this opportunity.
Hi!
This webinar was my first entry into real life trauma experiences. The experiences of the patient, what they are feeling, how to be wary of what not to do, and what yes to do and how. And even what the therapist may experience and how to view those experiences. I’m very grateful for this. Thank you!
Excellent organization and practical information that I can use with a patient with PTSD. I will recognize her freeze state more readily and apply the techniques recommended.
Thank you so much for this incredibly valuable information. I am a novel psychotherapist in Mexico and right now I cannot access expensive courses and training opportunities.
I don’t have a lot of clients who freeze but I do have patients that dissociate and fight when stressed, so the next two sessions will be very helpful.
Thank you for these webinars.
Very practical & useable which is so very critical to help another.
THANK YOU! Such wonderful information and actions I will take, starting with my next session! Just what I was looking for.
Thank you so much for making this imperative training available to those of us who can’t afford to pay for it, yet. I really appreciate your wisdom and will to help us become better.
-Cynthia Girard
Graduate Student of Mental Health Counseling
Love those practical strategies and understand so much more the mastery of these very helpful skills.
I appreciate the opportunity to be present for this training. I will definitely incorporate some of this into my practice, especially the grounding techniques when a client appear in a frozen state.
I am in the middle of a potential shift in careers and watching this workshop has been very inspiring for me to want to continue down this road to gain the skills and experiences to help others. Thank you
Thank you very much for this opportunity to expand and understand more efficiently and compassionate our clients and ourselves.
Wonderful thank you!
Will use the method of having the client rewind the narrative to just before the freeze response of their story to draw awareness to what their body wants to do and then act on that response.
Thank You for offering this series. Very informative in learning and applying the freeze strategies. Looking forward to the upcoming sessions.
Very well organized and articulated
Thankyou
Thank you for today’s session. I have a question though: What if the freeze reaction occurs in relation to the therapist? Working to unlock the freeze would be contraindicative.
Very helpful and grateful for this opportunity. God bless you all Becky xxx
Very helpful for my practice
Thank you
Thank you so much
Thank you very much for this amazing presentation! Very helpful in the field of somatic trauma processing.
Every Homeless Service Agency needs this training & accountability metrics for their leadership/management teams who serve BIPOC clients but are not in that community themselves.
Hello Ruth and all the contributors here..
this episode of this course is invaluable , I am a trauma informed therapist through my work as a Craniosacral Therapist and the therapeutic wisdom of yoga and come from a background in nursing. These trauma responses are very common in my field of work and over the past 10 years I have been trying to get in out there how to recognizes when we are being activated and also shutting down and what to do and not to do!. We have an approach called Somato Emotional Release or SER, which can be pretty powerful ‘if’ done correctly along with some of the neural exercise you mentioned here. It is so important that we learn how to help ourselves and clients. Know when ‘not to touch’ and just be present as a resonating nervous system and to move at our clients pace and not ours. I look forward to the next one , thank you for building this awareness and for providing these skills. I myself experienced been mishandled by teachers and therapists, all though they had the best intentions and are wonderful people, they were unfortunately lacking these vital skills, they may seem simple but they are very important and most of all effective.
Very useful perspective and practical tools to be aware of freeze response and work more effectively with my clients… my take away are don’t appear intrusive, prosody and micro movements. Also support to complete consciously the defense response and savor the effect.
It’s so important to heal society you are promoting that this knowledge is very helpful not only for clinicians, coaches or psychotherapy, but also for parents, teachers, policeman, physicians and care givers
Thank you so much 🙏🏼
This was a wonderful session. So full of useful techniques, tools, concepts and positive ways to re-frame coping mechanisms.
I will continue to inform other therapists and colleagues who I think would be interested beyond the 3 with whom I’ve already shared this program link.
Thank you very much for this opportunity and making it available to those who currently won’t do the entire gold package.
Currently I am working as a volunteer with a group of volunteers, and I noticed a lot of trauma response behavior (which in recent years I self-educated myself about out of necessity for my own life) and am planning to use the tools to hopefully help the individuals and as a result the group, so everyone can work and be together in a new, more evolved and mature way. Very grateful to all that this has been made available for viewing and am keeping lots of notes. Thank you
Nicely structured overview on how to’s when addressing the body’s response to threat triggers. Examples of interventions were concrete. The emphasis on timing the engagement and co-regulating were very helpful. The micro movements are something that will help me in future situations.
Thank you.
Really great presentation with useful techniques to apply. Also encouraging to note that some of my intuitive responses in sessions are in alignment with these practices. Looking forward to the upcoming sessions. Thank you.
Thank you very much for specific strategies. Excellent training. I really loved learning how important co-regulation is. The point made regarding the fact that a client cannot take in explanations while in active freeze, helps me to understand that an unregulated body does not allow for this and is a survival mechanism. I loved the strength-based approach regarding psychoeducation with a client when not in an active freeze, and helping them understand that this response protected them during the traumatic event. The actual strategies really helped me synthesize the information-in particular when helping a client identify what triggered the stress response and going back to when flight was still possible. The somatic work regarding what a client’s body wanted to do was so very helpful. So much wonderful information. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this Master program. It was refreshing listening to everyone & masterfully bringing theory & practical strategies together, which I find is often missing.
Kind regards & stay blessed
As new chosen parents of a 38 year old woman, we have been dealing with some of these issues on a daily basis. Our daughter has developed full DID following EMDR. We don’t imagine that we are therapists, but there are no DID therapists around here. While we search for telehealth services, we are doing our best to learn ways to help our daughter that are at least consistent with future therapy. We also forwarded info on this class to her therapists and physicians assistant. Thank you so much. This is so helpful.
These videos are literally life-changing, I use the learning in my work in community art therapy, and have been amazed at the beneficial effects on the people I work with when they are triggered.. encouraging movement, small small movements… pacing.. not rushing anyone out of their response, whatever form it takes. I have no idea how I would cope in a time limited therapy session though, when there’s another client waiting. Would love to hear peoples experiences and strategies with this.
This is my 2nd time doing a NICABM training. I am not a practitioner, in the traditional sense. Thus, I am so happy that you all have recognized the non-practitioner folks who can utilize your expertise (and they diversity of images in slides). I will use what I have learned today not only for myself and my husband, but also for my many family members & friends who are experiencing alot of trauma and feel numb (at best) to all the personal and societal tragedies and uncertainity in today’s reality. I will also use this to inform and refine my trainings in dialogue, equity and justice. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I look forward to next week. Blessings to all.
I will use today’s session to further understand and help my clients to understand their freeze responses, and to realise that the freeze response is a survival response that has positively helped them; as often my clients view this response in a negative way and feel ashamed of how their bodies have responded to trauma.
Thank you so much for todays session. I am an Adoptive parent with three adopted children with complex needs having endured severe childhood trauma. In all the adoption sessions I have been to and all the talks that I have listened to I have never been taught about dealing with the freeze response. I wish that more adoptive parents, teachers and those supporting adopters understood what was discussed today. I just wish there was a way to communicate todays message to all those involved with adopted children and for those who have been put into care.
Thank you- this was an excellent first session! I’m wondering why the “fight” reaction in/to trauma is not being addressed? Just because it is a more “active” reaction than others does not mean it’s always constructive nor safest response. Would love if that is touched on in perhaps session 3…
Thank you for the opportunity to stay in the loop, especially living in South Africa where unfortunately so many people are subjected to armed highjackings, armed robberies, home invasions and rape. Johannesburg seems to be particularly violent .