An Integrated Approach to Trauma Recovery
This is the last blog post in my 3-part series on collective trauma. We’ve talked about what collective trauma is and how it impacts you and the community, and some of the main terms that go along with it so you can put words to what you are feeling. This last piece will look at an integrated approach to trauma recovery.
Anyone working to recover from trauma would benefit from an integrated approach, because trauma affects all parts of our lives. We all know trauma can affect us emotionally and mentally, but it can also very much affect our physical body, relationships, and our spirit.
Some good places to start in our focus on collective trauma recovery are:
Calming the nervous system
Processing the trauma
Reframing beliefs about self, others, and the world
Re-establishing our routines and rhythms
1. Calming the Nervous System
To calm the nervous system, we want to look at our window of tolerance. Everyone reacts to stress differently, and this will help you understand your own personal nervous system reactions.
When you are inside you’re “window of tolerance” you are emotionally regulated. You are able to handle stressors efficiently, you feel calm, and regulated.
Being in the window of tolerance does not mean you have no stress, but just that you are in a space to be able to tolerate that stress.
The more trauma and stress we experience, the narrower our window gets. With a narrow window of tolerance, it feels as if life is throwing a million things at us at once, and we don’t have time to recover. You may find yourself feeling emotional high’s and low’s, and feeling very “triggered” with stressors you were once able to manage.
Without the necessary time, space, or tools to recover from stressors, we may get pushed outside our window of tolerance either to HYPER arousal or HYPO arousal.
Hyperarousal
Hyperarousal is when your body is in a state of alertness and heightened arousal as a result of some type of trigger. This is when your body and mind sense danger is coming and your nervous system goes on high alert. This is very helpful when there is a dangerous situation, but it can be difficult to return to a place of calm once activate. Further, as the window of tolerance narrows, events can trigger this response are not actually dangerous. It is like your foot is stuck on the gas pedal.
Having our foot stuck on the gas pedal in this way produces a lot of energy, cortisol, and stress hormones and not a lot of places for it to go. You may find yourself anxious, irritated, angry, impulsive, or panicky. You may find yourself struggling with insomnia, constipation/diarrhea, and lack of focus, or anger outbursts.
Most people who err on the side of anxiety may struggle with hyperarousal around stressful events.
Hypoarousal
Hypoarousal, on the contrary, is when your body is in a state of being frozen, shutting down, or compliance. This is the freeze or fawn response. Your senses don’t go on high alert, but rather, give up and surrender in order to not get hurt. This response often stems from abusive relationships or childhood trauma where one could not fight or get out of the dangerous situation. Once activated, this too, is hard to come out of. It can also be triggered when one actually can and should stand up for themselves, but gets stuck in shut down.
Having our foot stuck on the break pedal in this way leads to extreme fatigue, apathy, feeling numb, or disconnected. You may find yourself struggling with insomnia, lack of /overactive appetite, not speaking up for yourself, trouble expressing emotions, lack of focus, lack of motivation, oversleeping.
Most people who err on the side of depression. may struggle with hypoarousal around stressful events.
Knowing your own reaction to stress
It is important to understand which direction you go: hyper or hypo arousal so you can build your toolbox effectively. It is important to know that sometimes you can experience both. Often, those who jump to hyperarousal eventually get exhausted and may switch to hypo. Or it can be dependent on the stressor/trigger due to life experiences in that area.
Getting back into the window of tolerance
Once we have experienced trauma or a very stressful event, we do need to work to re-regulate ourselves so we don’t stay in a constant state of alertness or shut down. We are very lucky that our bodies have these amazing, helpful responses. However, we are not meant to stay in them. Here are some helpful tools to re-regulate back into the window of tolerance.
2. Processing the Trauma
Remember that trauma overwhelms our capacity to cope. The way we cope with emotions and make sense of experiences does not work. Our brains do not know how to make sense of, cope with, or move on from whatever it is that has occurred. This leaves the traumatic experience unprocessed. If events are left unprocessed, they are not filed in our long term memory, and instead, stay in our short term, present memory.
This is why you may hear professionals talking about your past trauma playing out in the present.
When we process traumatic experiences, we find a way to understand what happened, make sense of it, and learn how to move forward. Often, there are lessons in this too such as:
identifying red flags in relationships
finding ways to be safe (pepper spray, alarm system, etc)
finding new ways of being in relationships
knowing ourselves more
desensitizing ourself to certain fears
We have to be able to tell our story in a way that makes sense to us. Processing the trauma is often necessary to do with a therapist. There are many different therapeutic techniques for processing, desensitizing, and making sense of the trauma narrative such as:
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Accelerated Resolution Therapy
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Processing Therapy
Narrative Therapy
The Client plays an active role in therapy and I recommend doing some research on each of these modalities, and then getting on PsychologyToday.com and searching for a therapist that specializes in the modality that feels the best for you. Be sure to call a couple of therapists and have a consultation call to decide who feels like the best fit. As always, feel free to reach out if you would like a consultation call with me.
3. Reframing Beliefs about Self, Others and the World
After trauma, beliefs about oneself, others, and the world often become distorted and negative. An example of this would be seeing oneself as helpless, powerless, or unworthy; to view others as untrustworthy or dangerous, and to perceive the world as inherently unsafe. A crucial part of recovery from trauma includes reframing these beliefs because it helps individuals shift from a trauma-focused perspective to one of empowerment, safety, and connection.
When trauma teaches us that we are powerless, others are dangerous and the world is unsafe, it leads to isolation, and feeling stuck. In all actuality, depending on your experiences, you were powerless, others were dangerous, and the world did not keep you safe. But this isn’t the case all of the time. Reframing these beliefs brings you to a place of empowerment. Now you can figure out how to feel safe and secure within yourself, within your relationships, and in the world.
Tracking your Triggers
The first step towards reframing your thoughts is identifying what specific thoughts are keeping you stuck. You can do this by following a certain process in any of the therapies above. You can also start on your own by tracking times that you feel a strong emotional reaction throughout your day. This may be a quick rush of emotion such as overwhelm, fear, danger, being trapped, etc. Start to pay attention to the experiences that have emotional reactions that might (to others) seem out of proportion to the stressor that triggered them.
You can do this in a notebook, or a note on your phone (be sure to password protect the note!) To start, just track the trigger, and the self talk (AKA- “if I had a thought bubble above my head, what would it be saying right now?”).
Be patient with yourself, because this can take some time to be able to identify what is going on in your mind when triggered. It can be extremely hard to focus when your mind believes danger is happening.
Stay calm, and sit with yourself- focusing is like a muscle- the more you use it, the stronger and easier it gets!
If this is too difficult, please work with a trained professional.
Identifying and Reframing Distorted Beliefs
Once you’ve tracked your triggers for about a week, you will probably see a recurring theme, and you’ll probably be able to see the belief associated with them. Remember, these beliefs are likely about yourself (I’m powerless, not good enough, helpless, worthless, etc) about others (no one is trustworthy, men are all dangerous, all partner’s will cheat, etc) and about the world (the world is an unsafe place, there is no hope in humanity, etc).
After you have identified your distorted beliefs (there may be more than one and that is normal! Pick one to start with) you may want to use the help of a thought record to work on noticing, weighing the evidence, and reframing.
If thought records aren’t your thing, you could focus on resourcing to increase the alternative belief, the thing you would like to believe instead.
Further, tools such as meditation, grounding, walking, etc can be helpful as your awareness of the role of this belief emerges.
4. Re-Establishing Routines and Rhythms
Trauma disrupts our rhythms and routines. Trauma disrupts:
our sleep (circadian & ultradian rhythm)
the flow of hormones in our body
the flow of our relationships
the flow of our breathing
Sometimes we have to do extra effort to re-balance these routines after trauma. Working with an Integrated Therapist who understands the connection between trauma and hormones, nutrition, blood sugar, and relationships would be the most beneficial. Further, the book Rhythms of Recovery, by Leslie Korn (founder of integrated therapy) is highly recommended.
A Note on Collective Recovery
Every individual who has been through collective trauma will have to re-regulate somehow. The tools on this post are more focused on the individual. Everyone responds to trauma differently, and everyone’s recovery will look different. Some of the extra pieces for the collective to focus on are:
Community events- re-establishing connection and safety within the community by having positive, community-wide experiences. Now would be the time to look up local parades, events, races, etc to be more involved and connected with the community.
Increased group offerings in the community- whether it’s yoga, meditation, group therapy or hiking, offering community classes is a great way to re-establish connection and safety and to process what has happened.