After trauma, our clients are often left with many painful sensations and emotions . . .
. . . including shame and guilt.
And that’s especially true if they weren’t able to protect themselves or escape.
That’s why it can be so useful to help our clients understand how their brain and body did work to protect them during the traumatic event.
Because when people find out that their response was an adaptive reaction that helped them survive, that can open the door to healing.
So we thought it would be helpful for you to have a way to illustrate this for your clients. (Please feel free to share a copy with them.)
Click the image to enlarge
If you’d like to print a copy to share with your clients, just click here: Color or Print-friendly
(Please be sure to include the copyright information. We put a lot of work into creating these resources for you. Thanks!)
Now we’d like to hear from you. How will you use this in your work with clients? Please leave a comment below.
People suffering from the effects of dissociation constantly doubt the validity of their memories. It may be helpful that the very fact that they suffer from an over-sensitive freeze response can point to the validity of their experience. Information about the severity of experience that causes this response, and the connection with its manifestation in therapy on triggering those memories, can be validating, to a mind that has been taught to doubt its own experience. Here is objective proof.