How to Ease the Pain of Trauma-Induced Shame
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with Bessel van der Kolk, MD;
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with Bessel van der Kolk, MD; Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD; Peter Levine, PhD; Thema Bryant-Davis, PhD; Richard Schwartz, PhD; Pat Ogden, PhD; Janina Fisher, PhD; Kathy Steele, MN, CS; Stephen Porges, PhD; Martha Sweezy, PhD, LICSW; Deb Dana, LCSW; Ruth Buczynski, PhD
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I am a counseling grad student and have an interest in working with clients that are trying to recover from trauma. A few things that stuck out while listening: when people who have had traumatic experiences start experiencing good feelings, they have trouble adjusting to them. This can be terrifying to them and can be destabilizing. Another was that the flashbacks were being used as a form of punishment. You can’t just tell someone going through this that they need to forgive themselves; that can be pretty devaluing. Sometimes when this happens, the best thing to do is examine what’s going on and work through their thought processes until they realize they are carrying all the weight and don’t have to.
The fact that as a practitioner we WANT to relieve suffering is really NOT enough to do so….good intentions can cause MORE suffering….leave been doing my own healing from a somatic perspective Ala TRE (Trauma Release Exercises/ Stephen Bercelli) and Co-Counseling, an offshoot of ReEvaluation Counseling for some time,both as private practice AND as a Teacher. The Somatic aspect of each practice jas been very helpful.Also today’s dive into SHAME is quite profound as a woman AND as someone brought up Catholic. Gentleness is quite helpfultin mitigating the Trauma. Have re cognized long ago the intergenerational aspect of shame with Trauma and done lots of ancestral work ritually to understand, forgive but NOT forget. Thank you for this work. it’s SO imp. Have taught some of polyvagal theory in group cohorts of Co Counselers. PeaceOut Rosie
My great take away is understanding how shame manifests in behaviour and relationships. I also find the concept of moral injury and helping create positive experiences. very helpful with my self healing, study and volunteer work for community based healing in our indigenous community
Every day has been fantastic!!!! a few things that should out….
-Shame as heroic in childhood was powerful intervention
-careful language around self forgiveness .. I like this.. I am usually mindful..but will be more vigilant
-coregulation plan vs safety plan is helpful frame and focus for clients
– parts work and somatic interventions around shame were really helpful too.. I will use these
I will incorporate the window of tolerance with children I work with to help teach their different levels of arousal and how it presents itself.
Love the use of somatic modalities in combination with IFS! Learned about the importance of helping patients gradually tolerate positive emotions.
I am finding these lectures amazing
Today, I began to understand MY shame; and how dangerous it was if I relaxed because something happened if.I am so scared by it because I know what i feels like..
I am a counsellor but I am doing a PhD at present..
This talk gave me the insight that both my parents were shame based and the terrible thing they did to me as an adolescent was a product of that. An interpersonal transference of shame. When I hit puberty I triggered their shame about their own sexuality simply by my natural development. Understanding this has helped me understand what until now has seemed like crazy irrational behaviour that many people would find incomprehensible.
Again such a big thank you! The biggest awareness moment today was definetly not only it is difficult to feel negative emotions but also positive emotions when it is attached a traumatic event to it.
Who said, “The mortal enemy of moral injury is love”? I was in listen-only mode but that line is profound and powerful.
I think it was the Marine MD
Yes, I just looked him up.
“William P. Nash
William P. Nash, MD, is Director of Psychological Health for the U.S. Marine Corps. While on active duty in the Navy, Dr. Nash was deployed to Iraq with Marines of the 1st Marine Division during the Second Battle of Fallujah. His current interests focus on the prevention, recognition, and treatment of combat and operational stress injuries, including moral injury. He is coeditor of Combat Stress Injuries: Theory, Research, and Management and founding chair of the Military Committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry.”
I believe it was William Nash, MD. He was speaking the most about moral injury. [Unfortunately I didn’t catch the specific line to which you refer. I missed parts of the video streaming with other things requiring my attention and my not being able to 100% tune in to both sessions I could attempt to watch today.]
P.S. I’m thankful you shared that line that I had missed. I found much of what he said to be very helpful. The whole program and all the professionals are, but I hadn’t yet heard about “moral injury” and it’s very empowering to gain this aspect of understanding.
Really appreciated the part about using a body based approach as most survivors are so apt at rumination