How therapy can keep us traumatized

Stop focusing on the problem and start focusing on the solution instead.

If talk therapy didn’t work for you or left you feeling worse, you’re not alone. There are good reasons rooted in our brain and body that this format can sometimes have the opposite effect than what’s intended.

Trauma is a disruption in our brain’s natural mechanisms of action, leading to a feeling of collapse and helplessness . The root of resolving trauma lies in moving out of the shutdown response and into empowered action. So let’s take a deeper look at how traditional talk therapy sometimes interacts with that:

1. Sitting on a soft couch or chair tends to collapse our spine and prompt a shutdown response in our brain

2. Sitting face to face with someone can be overwhelming. Side by side interaction is easier for the brain to process.

3. Verbally recalling traumatic events while actively in a shutdown response is not helpful. We need to shift our physiology and then have the opportunity to share our experience with someone who cares about us

4. When we’re placed in a collapsed, overwhelmed and triggered state, and then we feel obligated by social norms to stay there, it can reinforce feelings of helplessness rather than empowerment

Bottom line: Resolving trauma is about stepping into a leadership role with your brain and your body, and then from that platform learning to work directly with your nervous system to shift your physiology. There are core mental, emotional and spiritual muscles that we need to develop in order to effectively move through trauma, and these are muscles that anyone can learn to develop on their own.

In resilience,
Caitlin