Trauma provides an opportunity, a re-direction from the path we were walking. Levine describes a portal, the trauma vortex, one needs to go through in order to attain the transformative influences that trauma can provide. “Trauma sufferers are so frightened of their bodily sensations that they recoil from feeling them. It is as though they… Read More »
Affects of Trauma What is affected by trauma? The whole organism! Merriam-Webster’s definition of organism is “a complex structure of interdependent and subordinate elements whose relations and properties are largely determined by their function in the whole.”4 It’s not just muscles, bones, ligaments, blood, or fascia. It includes brain tissue, thoughts, beliefs, ideation, self-image, attitudes,… Read More »
Trauma and Loss Trauma leads to loss. What do we lose? Firstly, we lose our instinct. Intuition has its seed in ancestral instincts for survival and adaptation. Our ancestors’ responses had to be instantaneous; original instincts (now identified as intuition) were based on a rapid-access fast-track system separate from conscious thought and unencumbered by hesitation… Read More »
Polyvagal Theory The polyvagal theory, born from the research and writings of Stephen Porges, Ph.D., is a new understanding of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). His groundbreaking work provides an elaborate mapping of the psychophysiological systems that govern the traumatic state and illuminate the pathways for recovery and integration from these deleterious states of mind… Read More »
What Causes Trauma? As Freud said, the cause of trauma is a breach in the protective barrier against stimulation. What is this protective barrier that Freud refers to? According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), all living bodies generate an external field of energy called wei chi, which translates as “protective energy.” The definition of wei… Read More »