Episode 68: What Even Is Trauma?

I’ve had a couple conversations with people recently in which I suggested what they were experiencing came from trauma, and they both said, “I’ve never thought of it that way, but I can see what you mean.” 

We need more education around trauma and how it’s affecting us as seasoned adults, even when the inciting events are far in the past.

So today I am defining trauma and talking about our nervous systems. 

I invite you to listen in and then go to the contact form here on the site if you have any questions. (It’s a new site- hooray!) Let’s continue the conversation. 

Full Show Notes

Last week I talked about my journey to realizing how trauma was still affecting me at 40 years old. And how I felt the Spirit saying to work in the trauma sphere. Today I want to talk about what trauma even is. This will probably be a series on trauma a few episodes long, but I just take these episodes one at a time, so I don’t know for sure.

I’ve been learning from several sources about what trauma is and what to do about it.

1. Your nervous system.
2. Gabor Mate– trauma is what happens on the inside of you when something happens on the outside of you.
3. Sarah Peyton– Speaks about alarmed aloneness when big, confusing emotions happen to us
4. Peter Levine in Waking the Tiger – any unresolved autonomic nervous system response

“Trauma can be defined as any unresolved autonomic nervous system response. It’s about the nervous system’s response to an event, not necessarily the event itself. Events can affect each of us very differently.”

In a normal response to a trauma, the body is able to reestablish its equilibrium as a person moves through a process where they can recover their lost power and recognize that the stressful event is in the past. Through the normal physiological responses by the body of shaking and trembling, traumatic energy is released and the autonomic nervous system is able to return to a normal state. Author Mulson quotes Avadhan Larson, a certified somatic experiencing practitioner and craniosacral therapy provider: “What can make people susceptible to trauma is a previous history of trauma that has been unresolved. It’s not the only thing, but one of the main things we see over and over. Traumas tend to stack on one another. And just like any other compensation pattern, we can compensate until we can’t.”

1. What Happened to You by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry— didn’t really define trauma. Also Bessel van der Kolk, doesn’t define trauma.
2. Shyla Cash – podcast and coaching

If this episode made you think about yourself or others in a new way, would you please give it a rating and a review or share it with a friend? And if you’re ready to overcome your internal obstacles and show up to this human experience as your highest self, schedule a free session with me.

Denita