I've posted several times now about Bessel van der Kolk's work. Below are some quotes from his book " The Body Keeps the Score," that Laura K. Kerr selected. She is currently reading the book. I look forward to her writing on her thoughts about the book when she completes it. She writes wonderful posts on... Continue Reading →
"Trauma really does confront you with the best and the worst. You see the horrendous things that people do to each other, but you also see resiliency, the power of love, the power of caring, the power of commitment, the power of commitment to oneself, the knowledge that there are things that are larger than our individual survival. And in some ways, I don’t think you can appreciate the glory of life unless you also know the dark side of life" … [click on title for the rest of the post]
The memory of the trauma is imprinted on the human organism. I don’t think you can overcome it unless you learn to have a friendly relationship with your body. The big question: How can you help people confront their internal sensations? … [click on title to read and view more]
I will be using the word trauma to mean any experience that causes the child unbearable psychic pain or anxiety. For an experience to be “unbearable” means that it overwhelms the usual defensive measures which Freud described as a “protective shield against stimuli.” Trauma of this magnitude varies from the acute, shattering experiences of child abuse so prominent in the literature today to the more “cumulative traumas” of unmet dependency-needs that mount up to devastating effect in some children’s development, including the more acute deprivations of infancy described by Winnicott as “primitive agonies,” the experience of which is “unthinkable.” The distinguishing feature of such trauma is what Heinz Kohut called “disintegration anxiety,” an unnameable dread associated with the threatened dissolution of a coherent self.” …
Breathing mindfully takes our mind back to our breath and, if we continue, to our whole body. We go back to our body and reconcile with it. We get to know what’s going on in our body, the wrongs we have done, the conflicts we’re having, and we’ll know what to do and what not to do in order to be on good terms with our body. With mindful breathing, we come to recognize our body as our home. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
As a social worker working with “the seriously mentally ill” for many years, I never came upon someone who didn’t have fairly severe traumas in their histories. Yes, I can say those who I encountered who were in that particular labeled segment had a solid 100% rate of trauma in their histories. That which gets labeled mental illness in large part is a reaction to trauma. It’s quite simple really. When we start listening to people’s stories of pain rather than numbing them out and effectively silencing them with neurotoxic drugs we will start healing them. ...
That trauma deeply impacts the body is something people are still just starting to understand.Those of us using yoga and other body/mind techniques to heal learn just how profound the body/mind connection is. Yoga has been a profoundly healing part of my journey for past traumas (both experiential and the iatrogenic trauma that psychiatric drugs imposed) and for rehabilitation after having been bedridden for a couple of years. The below information about yoga healing and integrating PTSD and past trauma is very important practice, news and research. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Two new studies show that providing parents with information that spanking can lead to short- and long-term child behavior problems may help to change parents’ opinion on this form of discipline.
Parents who spank their children often believe it’s an effective form of punishment. Research has found that parents who spank believe spanking can make children behave or respect them.
That belief drives parental behavior, more so than their level of anger, the seriousness of the child’s misbehavior or the parent’s perceived intent of the child’s misbehavior.
However, decades of research studies have found that spanking is linked to short- and long-term child behavior problems. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
A good friend of mine who is also a healer himself, works for Steve Andreas, the man in the video, so I'm assured this is a very effective method, though I'm not familiar with it by personal experience.
Below is a small sample of the nearly 9 hours of video where Steve Andreas worked with an Iraq Vet to resolve complex PTSD symptoms using effective methods from NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming).
This video program is designed for therapists, coaches, and other agents of change who want to more effectively help people to overcome terrifying past experiences. … [click on title for the rest of the post]
Without appropriate care and integration trauma changes both our bodies and minds for many years and sometimes for our entire lives. Right now the mental health system knows virtually nothing about how to care for people who have been traumatized and in fact often traumatizes them further. It’s downright dangerous to subject a traumatized person to most social services. This is a tragedy that has to end.
The woman in the above video is not alone in knowing how to approach those traumatized. We need this sort of empathic and loving care system wide...
You must be logged in to post a comment.