What is Trauma?

Through my many years of study and practice across a broad spectrum of emotional distress and mental “disorder” in NHS and private settings, I have come to hold a very broad concept of “trauma”. You can read more about my position, and the associated complexities here: https://thebodyinmind.co.uk/2023/01/26/can-i-call-it-trauma/ but to summarise, it is my belief that in fact, we all hold the imprint of traumatic and adverse events occurring perhaps years or moments prior to, during and/or post our births into this world. These events shape us into complex and interesting individuals. Navigating adversity is part of the human experience, and whilst often difficult and sometimes devastating, traumatic experience also offers up rich opportunity for growth, resilience and hope.

What do we know about how to heal?

  1. Trauma “symptoms” are messages from the body

    For decades, the field of psychotherapy has observed how traumatic experiences get locked into our nervous systems, and why, even when difficult times are long-over, we often continue to suffer the effects in repetitive and distressing ways. What is clear now is that the very symptoms and vulnerabilities that cause us distress are in fact functional attempts of the body-mind system to “bookmark” potential dangers, so that we are primed to spot them quickly should they reoccur. On this foundation, a trauma therapist uses these communications as guides to identify what material from the past may not be fully processed, and this directs to the healing work of trauma therapy.

    2. Our bodies have an inbuilt system for processing and healing trauma

    The Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model is the theory that underpins Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), a leading evidence-based therapy for resolving trauma symptoms. It seeks to explain how the brain processes and integrates memories. At its foundation, this influential model states that all humans are naturally equipped to process distressing experience over time, via thinking, talking with others, and dreaming. According to AIP, it is only when these natural processes are thwarted, or an individual has experienced extreme adversity with little to no safety or recovery, that their natural processing capacity is challenged, and they might need help to integrate difficult events. Trauma therapy provides this, specifically by changing the way memories are stored in our mind and body.

    3. Trauma is cyclical (and so is healing)

    Natural cycles like the cycle of night & day or the seasons, demonstrate the effortless value of flow from dark to light, sleep to wake, rest to growth. In balance, a cycle moves slowly and with ease from one point to the next, then repeats.  

    The field of psychology has long identified transitions in the life cycle as important. In my work with trauma, it has been of great interest to me that there is a pattern to when my clients are motivated to engage with therapy. It has often been many years since difficult events occurred. In the time since, they talk of how they coped: found their way to navigate the world, thought they had “pushed through”, only to find themselves unable to ignore these “symptoms” or messages anymore. This pain/vulnerability reaches an intensity, at a particular point cyclically:

    • In the 24-hour (circadian) cycle, in the evening and into night – a typical time for anxiety increasing and catastrophic thinking
    • In the longer (infradian) cycles, pre-menstrually or during peri-menopause – often a time for intensity or vulnerability in women and people who have menstrual cycles
    • In the annual/ seasonal cycle, during autumn into winter – commonly a time for escalating low mood & depression
    • In the life cycle, during adolescence into adulthood; the initiation of parenthood or in the transition from being of “working age” into retirement.

    Cycles offer a guide for how and when to heal

    In all of these cyclical examples, vulnerabilities/ symptoms are showing themselves as messages at a nexus point. Just like trauma theory tells us that we have a natural capacity to heal, cycles show us when and how the healing might take place.

    In all cycles, there is a time to DO: to work, move and produce. Naturally this is when we might draw on our “coping” resources, and prioritise ACTION over reflection and healing. Many of our social and cultural norms make this phase very easy for us. Modern life encourages and rewards this outward focus.

    However, according to cyclical wisdom, with every DO phase, there also comes the often-invisible work of BEING, requiring a slowing down: a time for rest and reflection. It is here, at this point that our bodies often begin to tell the story of what needs healing. And it is here, when ignored, that our pain intensifies.

    How might this apply to us all?                         

    Are you aware of challenging experiences or circumstances in your past which you navigated alone without ever fully processing?

    Perhaps you have coped by distracting or distancing yourself from the associated feelings – most of the time assuming that you are safer to move forward than go back.

    But cyclically, maybe in the dark of the night, in the premenstrual phase of your menstrual cycle, with the dark moon, in the depths of winter or in the transition to menopause you find yourself repeatedly destabilised, less able to defend those raw and tender feelings in the way you once were.

    Cyclical wisdom in the trauma field

    What if your cyclical body was working exactly as it was designed to do?

    What if you were to meet these communications in a safe and rested state, with compassion and curiosity?

    What if, with a re-frame of these experiences as messages from the highly evolved body-mind, and a new perspective towards your distress, you were able to create the ideal conditions for the deep healing opportunity your body is guiding you into?

    An opportunity to find new space and clarity with which to step into the next cycle, renewed as nature intended.

    If you have a hunch this could be where you are at – I dare you to trust your instincts. Your body holds a wisdom that mightn’t feel completely clear yet, but you are here for a reason.

    Contact me for a discussion about my cyclical approach to trauma therapy, or follow the blog for further writings about cycles and trauma.

    Learn more about my upcoming retreat with Dr Lara Owen, author of Her Blood Is Gold https://laraowen.com/trauma-and-the-menstrual-cycle/