Tina and Dennis continue their talk on trauma, starting off by recognising that emotional trauma has only been recognised by medical researchers and the medical establishment as having biopsychosocial effects in the last few decades.
Dennis talks us a little through a new research paper about developmental trauma, the physical and mental effects and the benefits of a "multimodal" treatment approach and Big D does a great job of summarising the research for us so we don't have read it ourselves.
Tina points out how important research papers like these are because it demonstrates medically how chronic trauma can be a real cause of addictions, chronic illnesses and mental illnesses - the more recent understanding of "psychosomatic illness" is recognising the deep brain/body connection, rather than the outdated meaning which implied that people were "making up" their illnesses. Dennis expands on that to describe how our brain is physically changed by trauma, but luckily due to neuroplasticity, it can be changed. One of the conclusions is that we are contextual beings.
Tina talks about the pioneering ACE Study - the first large, long term study demonstrating the long terms effects of childhood trauma, and the famous book, The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van der Kolk and his work around trauma and its effects on brain, behaviour and body. Dennis talks about our childhoods or past experiences don't need to be talked about extensively, but the knowing of various symptoms and history can help us repattern.
T & D discuss the many symptoms of trauma on body and mind, including dissociation and relationship difficulties and behavioural patterns like people pleasing or perfectionism. They talk about the many sleep interruptions that can occur due to trauma and a disturbed autonomic nervous system.
They discuss how the somatic approach can gently and effectively help the body and mind after trauma, interrupting the neuroplastic patterns. Dennis makes the link between the holistic approach and the multimodal approach recommended in the research paper.
They then get into specific approaches and practices they use with people who have trauma...then they get rudely interrupted by Tina's dog Lila who is the adorable trouble maker and Tina's perimenopause brain gets easily lost in it's train of thought.
They answer the listener question as best they can and Tina guides us through a Havening practice which is one very effective somatic body practice for trauma.
You’ll find the mentioned study on: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352289525000311
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