Truly understanding trauma requires an understanding of what happens in the brain and body before, during, and after a traumatic experience. A basic understanding of the functions of the autonomic nervous system (ans) helps us to gain a perspective on what is happening in real time while experiencing a trauma response.  

This basic understanding lends us the opportunity to navigate trauma responses in a more conscious and effective manner. Additionally, a basic understanding of brain development and brain functions gives us even more insight into effectively navigating past and on-going traumatic experiences. 

After the traumatic experience is over, the body and brain are left with long-lasting effects. These effects lead to dysregulation in physiology, which in turn leads to symptoms that cause emotional dysregulation, behavioral reactions, cognitive difficulties, and poor relationships with self and others. ​

Patterns tend to present themselves when we narrow our focus to categories of behavioral/emotional and physical/physiological.  Patterns emerge such as fight, flight, freeze, and fawn trauma responses.  Narrowing even further, we identify those response patterns within the categories of adaptation or avoidance skills for navigating unsafe environments. 

Trauma comes in many forms.  It is not simply the huge, horrible experiences we immediately picture, like rape, combat, natural disasters, etc. 

Developmental trauma occurs when we experience trauma during our developmental phases, which impacts the way our brain physiology develops, making connections with other humans, ourselves, and the world increasingly difficult. 

This can show up as emotional neglect when a parent refuses to soothe and comfort a crying child after a dog nips at the child, instead telling him, "you’re fine, stop crying." Developmental trauma, in addition to emotional neglect, can entail physical abuse and/or neglect, sexual abuse, and religious abuse. 

​

The fantastic news is that  once we understand what is happening in our brain and body, and when we combine that  with what we know about regulation skills and building resilience, we begin to create a pathway towards recovery and trauma resolution. 

Self-regulation skills give us the ability to begin to heal our nervous system.  In turn, we find navigation manageable for emotional regulation and building and maintaining healthy and safe relationships. Those safe and healthy relationships then help the nervous system heal even further.