You CAN Get It Back On Track!
Traumas come in many forms both physical and psychological/emotional – and they all affect the Limbic part of our brain where we process emotions and record our experiences as an ongoing story about ourselves.
Trauma can ‘turn-up-the-dial’ and result in an over-active, hyper-alert and emotionally super-charged brain.
Emotional traumas may take the form of rejection by a primary attachment person (PAP); or loss of something or someone that has great value and significance to us. It may involve ongoing ridicule or bullying by peers or family members.
More obvious physical traumas range from assaults, bullying, combat situations, accidents, car/train/aeroplane crashes. In fact anything that could threaten our continued well-being or our existence.
We are all adversely affected by the cascade of stress hormones which accompany any traumatic event whether sudden or prolonged. These can damage our immune system and an important part of our brain (the Hippocampus).
Some people seem more ‘resilient’ to trauma than others. Our reactions and responses are individual. Some may have had a traumatic childhood and learnt to ‘shut-off’ emotional processing and reactions.
Others may have had similar past experiences and yet have a much more heightened sensitivity to any new traumas that occur in their lives.
After experiencing trauma, we can live our lives on ‘as-if’ mode – and interact with people and new events ‘as-if’ there was some harmful intention, meaning or ulterior motive involved. We become hyper-aroused and vigilant for anything that could potentially repeat the trauma.
This of course has a protective quality to it. To avoid something bad seems like a good way to save ourselves further pain. However, this can get out-of-balance, and we then live our lives in terror and dread of further trauma.
For some people this may mean condemning themselves to an isolated life – maybe not even leaving the safety of the home, or not meeting new people. A seemingly safer life, but not a full and enriching one!
A cycle of despair can set in and for some the ‘remedy’ comes in the illusion that alcohol/drugs/addictions can cover up and numb their pain – but this only brings more problems.
The brain is already struggling to rebalance itself and to ‘turn-down-the-dial’ of hyper-arousal of the Amygdala (in the emotional area of the brain).
It will need help in the form of interventions which calm and soothe the body/mind so that a sense of safety can be perceived and re-enforced.
Research studies have shown the benefits of certain sounds that harmonise with the brainwave frequencies and slow them down into a calmer state. This is know as Brainwave Entrainment and is a fundamental and important part of Quantum Psyche Process, or QPP.
Further research shows that the brain can also be restored to its pre-trauma state by the use of such ‘entrainment’ – particularly when repeated regularly.
So, trauma can indeed de-rail us, but there is now a way to get our lives ‘back-on-track’ with the psychotherapeutic support, guidance and scientifically validated methods which QPP brings.
By Maxine Harley (MSc Integrative Psychotherapy) MIND HEALER & MENTOR
