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What is Trauma?
At one time or another
everyone seems to have heard the phrase, "...that
was traumatic.” Those words may have been said in
relation to a physical assault, accident, job loss,
death of a loved one, natural disaster, financial
ruin, abuse or other devastating event . So...what
is trauma and how does it impact us?
Symptoms
Trauma can result in a host
of physical, social, intellectual, and emotional
problems. These include:
Nightmares or night terrors
Flashbacks of the event
Profusive sweating
Heart palpitations
Rapid breathing
Isolation
Denial
Hopelessness
Emotional numbness
Insomnia
Loss of interest in life
Anger outbursts
Difficulty concentrating
Hypervigilance
Hyperarousal
Depression
Addictiveness
Spontaneous startle
response
Definition
Plain and simple, trauma is
damage to the brain. This damage produces a sunami
of symptoms
that puts ones very identity in
jeopardy. Therefore,
it is imperative that interventions are made to
restore the mind so that life is not a grim, white
knuckling affair, but
life’s fruits- pleasure, satisfaction, meaning, and
love- are present and available.
Trauma and the Brain
To understand trauma we
need to have some idea of how our brain works. Our
brains have an amazing ability to defend us -
physically, emotionally, and cognitively - against
threatening events. For
example, a car suddenly and unexpectedly veers
toward us as we are standing at a stop sign. Our
brain instantly perceives this event as danger. Our
mind shuts down our fear, slows down our sense of
time, and our body instinctively responds to take
corrective action. Our brain has helped us survive
this threat!
The ability to shut down
emotions, however, can come with a price.
Unfortunately, you can’t just eliminate the bad
feelings and keep the good. Everything gets shut
down. Over time, when traumatic events are NOT
processed, a “deadened emotional life” results, and
a disconnection from self and others occurs.
Understanding Memories
As we live life, all our
experiences are encoded in our memory. This occurs
when neurons in the brain are triggered. The more
neurons that “fire” in a group, the more vivid those
memories and the greater influence they have over
our actions and behaviors. This encoding process
occurs in the nucleus basalis (adjacent to the brain
stem) where the chemical “acetylcholine” is secreted
throughout the cortex. Each time this chemical
contacts other neurons, the connection is
strengthened and the data becomes more important.
This is a normal process.
Often people don’t realize that when we are talking about our past, it is not the actual past or the literal “truth,” but our biased representation of that event. Encoded in the memory is the mind’s assessment of the self. The brain actually rates our “self.” That is, it judges whether we are good, bad, to blame, innocent and so forth. This rating process allows us to draw meaning from the event. Therefore, if we re-examine a memory and add new information to it, we can create an entirely new meaning of that event. With that new information we can look at our past and readjust our rating. For example, if an individual misses their airline flight they are likely to view themselves harshly. But if that airplane crashes on the runway before takeoff, the person may now see this event as a blessing.
As we grow and develop, our
brains store more and more memories and we rely on
these as a way to see the world. Our memories guide
us in the present as the brain acts as an
anticipatory machine to help us prepare for the
future. These memories shape our present by creating
a filter through which we anticipate what will
happen next. In this way, our
memories create biases as we are “primed” for how to
interact in the world. For example, if
you were a straight A student, you would expect to
get A’s on the next test.
It is important to note
that many of our biases are unconscious; meaning
that we don’t even realize we are experiencing a
memory. Rather, we believe we are seeing things in
the present alone.
There are two kinds of memories, implicit and explicit. Implicit memories start at birth and encode life events. Implicit memories reside in our brain stem, the part of the brain that is linked with survival (fight, flight, freeze, appease). Implicit memories code information with no link to conscious awareness. When we experience trauma the implicit memories of that event can be re-activated without warning. Explicit memories begin around age two, but adults often can’t recall memories formed before the age of five. An example of this is riding a bike. From the moment you decide you are going to ride a bike, your body draws from implicit memories telling you how to sit, how to pedal, how to hold your hands and so forth. You have no awareness that these “instructions” are based on a memory. But if you saw an old style bike that reminded you of one you had when you were seven years old, this “picture” is an explicit memory. “Oh, that was just like the bike my dad taught me how to ride on and it was so scary to ride down that big hill by our house”. You know you are experiencing a memory and likely in your mind’s eye you have vivid pictures, feelings, and sensations linked to that specific memory.
Explicit memories are
formed in the hippocampus, the area in the brain
that categorizes experiences. The images you see in
your “mind’s eye” are explicit memories. These explicit
memories are linked to the facts of the event and to
a sense of yourself in that event. One may have
a memory of falling off the bike (factual) and an
interpretation of that event (I was clumsy, bad,
foolish). As life goes on, our memories accumulate
into a time line that creates an autobiographical
story or narrative of our self. In this “life-story”
resides our self-image and our understanding of the
world.
Understanding Trauma
When trauma occurs, the
hippocampus will temporarily stop functioning. At
the same time, the memories are being recorded out
of a state of flight/fight. The result is that
trauma gets coded in a fractured, disorganized way
rather than cohesively and organized. This process
is unconscious. Raw moment-to-moment fragments of
the experience are locked in the brain in
“free-floating implicit puzzle pieces” (Siegel). The
brain codes all of the information of the event,
including senses, perceptions, emotions, images in a
jumbled, disjointed fashion.
Let's look at an example. A
woman is raped. She is terrified, anxious, and
overwhelmed by feelings. Her hippocampus shuts down
her emotions and she dissociates (meaning that
she is no longer aware of her own body, feelings, or
thoughts). She
sees a yellow bird sitting near a window and focuses
all her attention on it. Because her brain has
closed down and she is numb to what is going on
around her, she becomes only conscious of the bird.
Then 20 years later she sees a similar bird, her
brain awakens all of those fragment images and
reactivates an “implicit-only memory reaction” which
psychologists call a “flashback.” The woman has no
way to make sense of what is triggering her feelings
of terror, pain, and powerlessness. All that she
knows today is that she is seeing a little yellow
bird and she feels terrified.
Healing Trauma: The Levang
Method
The Levang Method is a
cutting-edge therapeutic approach aimed at healing -
once and for all - past trauma. This method is drawn
from over 30 years of clinical experience and
training in psychology, brain research, and the
mind/body connection. The
Levang Method is NOT talk therapy. Rather, the
therapist assists the client in carefully revealing
the trauma incident and moving through it with the
aid of therapeutic antidotes and supportive
interventions. At the same time, new memories are
created by waking up the brain so that it forms a
functional memory of the trauma rather than the
disjointed images created at the time of the
incident.
The initial steps of the
Levang Method focus on helping the client identify
those negative feelings and internal messages
connected to the trauma. These
inner experiences are validated and acknowledged in
a safe and caring way. As the client feels a sense
of being accurately understood and “seen” in the
immediate moment, trust begins to be developed. The
client realizes that “...someone is finally seeing
ME, is wanting to hear my unspoken words and
feelings that I have been waiting so long to be
recognized.” As the process continues, the client
begins to share more and more of their “inner
self-map” – (inner story). As
what is inside becomes
understood on the outside,
both the client and the therapist work together to
re-engage the hippocampus and begin to heal the
implicit memories formed during the trauma. As these
memories are expressed and validated, the client is
able - often for the first time in their life - to
feel safe. This sense of safety allows them to
secure support,
empathy, and guidance to work through the trauma.
The new picture/memories
created shift the client from the past to a new life
of healing and healthy functioning. While processing
the trauma may be an emotional time, the client’s
new sense of being understood fuels hope and
possibilities -
emotional states that were not available at the time
the trauma occurred. A grief/relief response will be
felt in which the client will grieve over the hurt,
pain, and loss that occurred, yet also experience a
sense of relief for having survived without being
forever wounded. As the healing progresses, the
client is able to see that their life can be
radically different.
Key Learning Concepts
If we re-examine a memory
and add new information to it, we can create an
entirely new meaning of that event.
Our memories create biases
that prime us for how to interact in the world.
Implicit memories code
information without conscious awareness and can be
re-activated without warning.
Explicit memories are
linked to the facts of the event and to a sense of
yourself in that event.
Program Structure
The Levang Method begins with a comprehensive,
individualized assessment. This allows us to tailor the
program based on your unique needs and goals. The
program is 3 months in length, 2-3 sessions per week. Please
contact Levang and Associates to learn more about this
exciting recovery program.
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