Articles
Quotes and Definitions of Trauma
"Trauma again is not what happened to you. It is what happened inside you as a result of what happened to you. And that's the good news, because if trauma was what happened to you, that somebody sexually abused you or that your parents died in a war, if that was the trauma, there's nothing you can do to change that. That happened. It was never not going to have happened. But if trauma was the wound that you occurred inwardly, you can heal that wound at any time. So actually the recognizing what trauma is as an internal psychological wound with manifestations in your body actually allows you to heal it."
- Gabor Mate
“Preventing people from moving when something terrible happens is what makes trauma a trauma.”
- Bessel Van der Kolk
The 5 Steps in the Body's Trauma Response
from Peter Levine's Waking the Tiger
(1) Startle Response
a state of hypervigilance, sensing a potential threat
(ex. hearing a tiger walking in nearby brush)
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(2) Stress Response
a state of a high energy and action
(ex. thinking "What do I do? I got to get out of here!" and vigilantly looking for an immediate way to protect yourself or get away)
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(3) Thwarted Movement
a moment where self-defense is useless
(ex. seeing that there is no opening to run away, and no branch to climb a tree fast enough)
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(4) Freeze Response
a state of panic quickly met by powerlessness and immobilization
(ex. feeling stuck, perhaps wide-eyed and staring in the tiger's direction)
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(5) Shut-Down
a state of heaviness and hopelessness
(ex. feeling like there is no way to survive, nothing to be done but surrender to the inevitable suffering)
Wordens Tasks of Mourning
Task I: To accept the reality of the loss
Task II: To process the pain of grief
Task III: To adjust to a world without the deceased
External: How has the death affected everyday life?
Internal: How has the death affected feelings about self and abilities?
Spiritual: How has the death affected spiritual beliefs and views of the world?
Task IV: To find an enduring connection with the deceased in the midst of embarking on a new life.
Caroline Leaf's Possibility Mindset for Uncomfortable Emotion(s)
Embrace: Gather awareness and allow yourself to feel whatever is there
Process: Reflect and Write
Recheck: Look at what you've written and worked through, see how it can be looked at differently. What is the solution? What did you learn? How can you move forward?
Action