The definition of the word pales in comparison to living with unresolved trauma. Trauma comes in many forms and from many sources. We cannot judge trauma in relationship to levels of the experience of it. Trauma is relative to the recipetant. A personal foundation of strong support from a close and balanced family does much to mitigate a traumatic experience in some cases, but no always. Those whose suffering is epic may have layers of traumas piled into one body/mind that crushes the soul and breaks the heart. Having been a person who experienced multiple traumas over many years I know all too well how challenging recovery can be. Trauma recovery is a journey of a lifetime. We never completely arrive, but we can come to enjoy our lives more, which is the goal of healing. Life is hard, joyful, aggravating, frustrating, blissful, filled with angst, we make forward progress and have backwards sliding...that's just it...LIFE. The most any of us can do is our best to get up every day and find a smile within ourselves. Traumatic experiences are a part of life and the intent of this article is to encourage the reader to understand that the body is equipped by design to resolve trauma It's time for some common sense advice and guidance with the prospect of finding our way through traumatic events. Whether you have one isolated event, layers of trauma or a loved one who suffers.. this information comes from my heart to my readers with a hope and prayer that you will find within it a better understanding of how to tap into your ability to move toward resolution and healing.  TRAUMA LIKE GRIEF IS SOMETHING WE ARE ABLE TO MOVE THROUGH NATURALLY. THE BODY IS BUILT TO HEAL ON ALL LEVELS PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY AND SPIRITUALLY! "Trauma healing" supports are BIG BUSINESS Offered primarily through the medical community in the form of therapies, medications, hospitalizations, and now even psychoactive plant medicines that are costing Americans... hold onto your seat, a whopping 232 billion dollars per year! That's a huge motivator to come up with treatment options to SELL to the public. This article is written from two perspectives:
I explained to this commentator that I do not treat trauma. I support people in the process of finding healing on any level including trauma and PTSD. This is a very different approach, a more oblique method than the variety of "therapies" out there. I believe the fundamental difference is that I don't see the traumatized as people who needs to be "fixed". They are having a normal human experience. As unpleasant as it is, it is nothing more than that. They are no different from someone who has a cranky gallbladder. They have a symptom that has gotten their attention. Symptoms are the call to healing which is a learnable process involving the evolution of consciousness through expansion of awareness. More on Healing Demystified I have seen hundreds of individuals over the 35 years I have been working with others in the healing process. Many of whom, in spite of multiple therapies and medications continue to suffer the ill effects of being stuck in TRAUMA/PTSD cycle.
If this is the expertise of the day why is success so elusive? My consistent experience with clients who have undergone these various therapies is that 1, 2, 5 years or more later they are still suffering from anxiety, sleep disorders, digestive disturbances, autoimmune disorders, chronic fatigue, malaise, depression. Neurotic difficulties with food, dysmorphia, OCD behaviors are often in play. These folks suffer with addiction issues to alcohol, drugs, work, sex, romance, shopping. They present often as hypervigilant, perfectionists, fears of success and failure along with a deep in need to be "in control"! Many have are entangled with medications that take over the production and management of neurotransmitters. This leads to a whole other layer of trauma as medications often produce deepening levels of disconnection from self (depersonalization) and an inability to know how one feels. The ability to feel is our primary guidance system*. Without it we are literally LOST. Medications that manipulate the microbiology of the endocrine system, neurotransmitters and hormones are straight from Pandora's box. They are designed to manage symptoms, but in most cases the end result is worsening levels of "symptoms". Anxiety meds classified as benzodiazepines are the most dangerous, posing physical addiction and are nearly impossible to withdraw from if taken for longer than 4 - 6 weeks. Engineered to require higher and higher dosages, these medication rank right up their with the wickedly engineered OXYcontin in terms of damage and addiction. Their cousins the "non" benzodiazepine groups such as common sleep aids like Lunesta and Ambien whose "non" category make them easier to prescribe are just as addicting! The side effects from meds create a cycle of MD's "upping doses" or "trying" something new when one drug fails. It is not uncommon for medications to be layered, further adding the disruption of the normal microbiology. This is a nightmare for patients who, if not suicidal before meds, is likely to become so as a result of being on them! When I finally see these folks they are not much further down the road to recovery than when they started. Many are worse for the meds and therapies! They have a sense of hopelessness, a feeling of failure and are deeply confused. Why is this so? The nervous system of a traumatized individual is fragile. It needs nourishing. It needs comfort. It needs sleep. Trauma turned into PTSD is a powerful energetic force running in the background of the body/mind complex. Despite memory loss and dissociation the trauma experience continues to reflect its presence through the endless variety of coping mechanisms and self damaging behaviours that seem to defy the finding of peace. In spite of the many therapies, these clients are often still tangled up with symptoms that indicate that the background grind of the trauma, PTSD and its effect on the nervous system is still in play. This ramped up energy is trapped in the body/mind. It is literally undigested information that no longer serves the individual which they cannot shed. The churning energy expresses in symptoms of every sort!  Support the body first. It is my belief that any successful support for those who suffer trauma is to work as one would with any physical symptom. Supporting the physical body is always the place to start no matter what the complaints are. Sufferers are depleted, overwrought and exhausted. This is a state know as enervation. It is physical and emotional exhaustion accompanied with higher than normal levels of adrenaline. The adrenaline acts as a stimulant to keep the person in a state of hyperarousal. This powerful hormone is anesthetizing. It reduces our capacity to feel our bodies thereby allowing you to rescue someone from a burning building or out run a predator and not feel what's happening in the moment! That's an effective system. Enervation is a state of being stuck in the fight / flight / freeze response. The brain along with the supporting microbiology literally can not come down and return to the ALPHA brainwave state...calm and alert. Rather, the brain is running on chaotic BETA waves and is unable to reset. Hence the need for anything to bring one down ...alcohol, pot, numbing out, depression. The mind will go for what it needs...even if it's not the best thing. It grasps for relief. Coping mechanisms and addictions develop out of the deep need for the body to find peace. This inability to reset was studied by Hans Selye a Canadian Endocrinologist who first identified the stress response. Maladaptation of chronic fight/flight response overwrites the healthy body/brain controls to return to the calmness. The unrelenting state of maladaptation creates a shift in the microbiology. Essentially calcium and magnesium, the calming minerals are shifted out of the system in order to accomodate the adrenaline surge to action. When the danger has passed these mineral would come back into solution in the blood and calm is achieved. In chronic fight/flight calcium gets stored in places we don't want it and magnesium gets wasted. The affected individual cannot feel calm, even if they wanted to...it is not within their reach. This outcome is known as Selye's Syndrome. This explains why so many people are magnesium deficient and have disorders relating to accumulated calcium, such as stenosis....the body is only observing what the mind is projecting...I am still running, fighting or hiding from danger. Hyperarousal...fear! Until the body microbiology can be restored to biological/mineral balance, no healing will happen. The derangement of sleep, constant hormonal activation, unresolved cortisol begins to make everything seem like a crisis which only compounds the plight of the traumatized individual. Sleep is our natural healing time. Too much adrenaline makes sleep challenged leaving us unable to heal.  In addition to supporting the reversal to Selye's Syndrome we must engage ourselves in the discussion of the wounded heart and soul. Experience has taught me that ultimately it is LOVE that truly heals. The multitudinous array of therapies for trauma tend to operate according to a formula, a "formatted" method, if you will. When recovery is not realized the format breaks down as it may not account for the nuances of the individual's symptoms affecting the mental, emotional and physical self. In other words these methods are not holistic and are unable in many cases to reach body, mind and soul. "Therapeutic" approaches... are often the result of studies focused on analyzing patterns of behavior in response to trauma. This is a clinical viewpoint with a blind spot. Medicine seeks to "fix a symptom" or in lieu of a cure offering palliative care when fixing symptoms fails. Consequently many "patients" are medicated with antidepressants, anxiety meds, antipsychotics and sleep meds. The medicated state does not lend itself to being able to feel and navigate the abstract world of the self, so essential to recovery is not accessible. Healing is by nature a response to awareness. The ability to connect with what your symptom is telling you is where we begin. Knowing what the symptoms message is allows us to evolve into an ability determine what we need and to give it to ourselves. This discussion would be incomplete if we fail to look at the general health of the average American whose diet and lifestyle choices make us one of the sickest nations of the world. Poor nutrition means poor brain function. Unhealthy foods and unrelenting reactivity to stressors affects gut health. The all important function of the gut is to produce beneficial neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin which help us to DIGEST our experiences. Gut related neurotransmitters and a well functioning endocrine system give us our spark. Addressing shifts in nutrition and self care equals a new level of self love, that evolves through encouragement and experience. Once we get a feel for something better than what we have had, we are drawn to it, because humans naturally love pleasure!
For all the resources of the affluent which allows them to choose from the array of "healing modalities", their recovery rates are not better than their lower income counterparts who has much fewer options. Regardless of economic resources and therapeutic options the only predictor of regaining one's balance after trauma of any sort is the determination of the individual to face what they feel about their experience and begin to find a confidence and trust in themselves to recover. This is a task that should be taken as it comes...not forced and focused upon. Reliving the trauma event only further engrains the experience in the psyche. Rather we can through education provide for ourselves and our communities the wisdom of understanding the injured person needs support and a sense of safety to begin to move out of the effects of their particular trauma experiences. Trauma is an inherent experience of all sentient beings. The energy of it "unwinds" as the body and brain are able to release the shock response to it. In the case of protracted trauma one must move gently into supporting the physical and emotional body until...all on its own when safety is achieved the reptilian brain will clear the energy out of the system. In closing, it is not my intention to negate therapeutic options as ineffective. It is my intention to debunk the commonly accepted understanding that a person cannot find relief, even healing on their own. I am taking exception with the continued victimization of the American public by the medical powers that be. This skewed perspective has developed to the advantage of the pharmaceutical and medical machines that need sick people as fodder for profits. People have come to accept premature aging, and are disconnected to the cause and effect of the metabolic syndrome disorders that lead to years of medication on its slippery slope. It seems as though the average person has lost their ability to not only think for themselves, but to apply common sense to the care of their bodies and minds. My message includes the need to that find one's connection to the source of the Divine mind within us. This is essential to the healing process. Studies on who recovers from chronic and life threatening illnesses demonstrate that a common denominator of those individuals is a belief in a power higher than themselves...a benevolent force and source of guidance that is available to them. They also believe they deserve to be healed and to enjoy their life. This source of FAITH will come to all of us as we reach out in the darkness and simply ask for help. Help will come in the form of others who will support you, in changes of circumstances that foster personal growth. I have seen it over and over again..clients who say..."I am so glad I found you", "Why didn't my doctor ever tell me this?", "I never imagined that I could ever feel better", "I didn't know it was this simple"! *Antonio Damasio - The Feeling of What Happens For all who suffer my prayers abide!
Utilizing focus on supporting the physical body combine with the practices of Yang Sheng..nourishing life! Join our community of “Bridge Crossers” today! Wellness Consultant and Educator provides support in the healing process through a variety of modalities and offers services remotely and locally in Scottsdale Arizona Renew & Restore Mini Retreats are available for a jump start toward a life filled with nourishment for body & soul! Wellness Support / About Vanessa I can help you find recovery... for more information feel free to email me at [email protected] Find us Instagram: @scottsdalebridge2health YouTube: @awakenandevolve Facebook: Bridge to Health and Awaken & Evolve Learning Center pages Sometime starting in 2024 I will be offering Learn to Heal online support group experiences as a way to empower others to find what they need within!
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