After experiencing trauma, many clients live in near-constant fear that it will happen again.
It’s not only the brain that goes into a vigilant state of bracing for danger – it’s the body and nervous system as well.
That’s why we created this illustration for you to share with your clients.
It’s one way to help them visualize how trauma can linger in the body . . .
. . . and keep them stuck in a state of “red alert” – even long after the danger has passed.
Click the image to enlarge
If you’d like to print a copy for yourself, just click here: Color or Print-friendly
(Please be sure to include copyright information. We put a lot of work into creating these resources for you. Thanks!)
For more strategies you can use to help clients who’ve experience trauma, please take a look at the Treating Trauma Master Series.
You’ll get insights from Bessel van der Kolk, MD; Dan Siegel, MD; Pat Ogden, PhD; Stephen Porges, PhD; Peter Levine, PhD; Allan Schore, PhD; and Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD.
Now we’d like to hear from you. How could this help you in your work? Please leave a comment below.
Very helpful and useful to see the impact of trauma stress on the body too, and become more aware to become capable to move forward by “detriggering” the tension in the body
This is true!
I suffer from PTSD depression and phycosis. And I’m hoping for something to help me. I Done CBT for 18 months and this explains why I get angry or scared. But it hasn’t cured me just told me why it happens.
When I was in my 20s I was hanging around with some drug dealers. They got paranoid and shot me in the face with a gun that fired blanks, but It still hurts
This is similar to what happen to me and I can relate. Only there was no conclusion about PTSD. CBT was used as a treatment and for depression. The pictures above is worth a million words and shows how paralyzing it can be and the work Peter Levine devotes his time to is a gift to follow. Wishing you the best from this “injury”
Thank you for the wealth of resources you share. I am a Trauma Centre Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator and am working on my Masters Degree with the intent of creating a Trauma Sensitive Curriculum for post secondary health care education in Canada (and beyond). Your webinars and newsletters are outstanding. The infographics are great for having on hand, I keep them in a binder in my treatment space, as reminders for myself and as an accessible reference point for talking with clients.
With gratitude,
Lori
I always called this:” waiting for the other shoe to drop.” It is true, having a fear that something bad is waiting to happen. Being vigilant gets exhausting.
Pat
Dealing with chronic pain has been an issue for me since 1951 when I was involved in a farming accident. Scores of medical visits and procedures have had little effect. Now age has made it worse. Am interested in Kelly McGonigal’s approach however could not find the link to become a gold member and receive more information. Already, mindfulness practice has been of some help in relieving the “add-ons” to the actual physical pain.
Hi Dave, here is the link where you can get the Gold Subscription! Please let me know if you have any other questions by emailing us at respond@nicabm.com
One of my clients had a traumaric expirience when he was a child and in one of our sessions he reported that he slept with his hands close and in the morning he had his nails printed in the palm of his hands.
After some therapy he has manage to sleep with his hands open, he has lerned to meditate practise and it has helped him a lot. I am still working with him and this course has given me tools to work with him with excellent results. Thank you and God bless you
Thank you. I will be using it with my next client.
thank you , excellent illustration!
Clear and powerful.
Karen Johnson
Thankyou for little bits i would live to see the whole series how to buy from Canada. I see it first hand with myself and my son retired nurse of 37 years
David Arnold pointed out about heritable trauma in utero and birth my son was a 28 week gestation hyline membrane disease wisked away by leered jet 350 miles away on a ventilator away from me
Many extensive agressive treatments to keep him alive. With no follow up after six months hospitalization. Husband was estranged through whole pregnancy and birth a psychiatric nurse. I agree the very human compassion practice has been removed
A great need if empathy has been remove d care reduced to 15 min Rx of a physical problem. Our systems need to come from more humanitarian approach to Rx only people with money get Rx while others suffer in the gutter
. What have we become?
Two significant issues that have not been adequately addressed in regard to trauma treatment in this series are the trauma arising from heritable trauma and from early traumata experienced in utero and in infancy prior to the development of conscious memory. These experiences affect the organization of all subsequent behavior. Presenters such as Bessel Van der Kolk and Pat Ogden have been strongly influenced by individuals such as Al Pesso and Ron Kurtz who were pioneers in using principles of mindfulness, body-focus, and touch in psychotherapy. The academic and medical community have not begun to adequately address these significant issues. The use of touch is currently considered beyond the scope of practice for counselors. This issue needs to be addressed if trauma treatment and the prevention of trauma. Much trauma is induced by medical and cultural practices that do not meet our basic and early biological needs and expectations. Methods of Kurtz (Hakomi) and Al and Diane Pesso (PBSP) would be very useful to practitioners but these methods require experiential training that goes beyond words. Some coverage of these methods and approaches might be a very useful as a introduction to important issues in this series.
Thank you.
I am not a therapist but one who has gone through what you are conveying. I, too, would like to know what I can do about what I cannot remember but is held in every cell of my body. Thanks for bringing this up. Sadly, I was going through horrible trauma while carrying one of my four daughters–I was trying to remember what had happened to me. However, the person and other family member were present. I was off the charts in anguish but could not vocalize until this person died. I tried to share with my sister the truth later as to what I had remembered–she betrayed me and I do not trust her as this subject is taboo for her. Ironically, I did remember some of the trauma when the same daughter I was carrying was age 8. It is complicated and layered. Been working on this for decades.
I’d like to speak with you about in utero trauma. When I started meditating, my throat would sense choking. A friend said stay with it, don’t judge, accept and I did. Recently, listening to a meditation, the question was raised, what is your wound. The choking resumed. A few days later in another meditation we were asked where in our body do we feel our woundedness. After a few minutes, I sensed a wreath like ring of tension and pain around my belly button. That was a 1st. Please contact me. Healthier than most, I am ready to shed this recurrent angst which trips me up into knotted depression for a short period of time where I feel like I am absorbing others pain because I can not shed my own. eeewat@gmail.com
I understand what this is trying to convey, but it really makes no sense just looking at it. It’s not a depiction of many ways trauma lingers in the body, nor does it show what story the body is telling or how/why. And I’m still not sure who “we” is. I feel more frustrated than aided by this image.
Thank you Ruth and the nicabm team. I really appreciate this image. However, because I work with trauma that is interpersonal, rather than a one-off like a car accident (as depicted in the cartoon), I would have appreciated it and would be able to use if more often if just that first image was split into 2 with one image showing a “car accident” (as is currently the case), the other half showing “interpersonal trauma”, e.g., child being hit by an attachment figure (e.g., a mother or father or perhaps a non-gender specific image). In this way, the concept of “trauma” would better fit into the client groups that I see, i.e., the unacknowledged trauma and grief of adults who were raised by parents with a serious mental illness. This being part of the research I’ve done (if people are interested in this research, they can just Google my name: Suzette Misrachi). Nevertheless, I guess I can still use this cartoon, after explaining a few things to the client beforehand, so thank you very much for making it freely available. I appreciate it.
Ruth
This is exactly what I have experienced working with trauma while in ministry at the hospital as well as my own experience with the death of my son through completing suicide almost five years ago now.
It has been a very difficult journey, and the sense of my reacting through
my nervous system and the whole body has just began to lessen .
I have been blessed to have a lot of support and guidance throughout my journey both in ministry as well as on a personal level. Thanks for sharing all the great information to help others either deal with people who have experience trauma and those caring for them. Peace and Love Judy.