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TRAUMA AND CONFLICT
Individual and Community Counselling Build the bridge to integration and find internal and external peace Trauma The impacts of Trauma can grip us from the inside and pummel life into a road of chaos, disconnection and riveting fear. Body Impact Highly charged and painful experiences cause our fear response to turn our most primitive survival mechanism on. The body quickly shifts to a state of active protection; increasing our heart rate, circulating stress hormones and super pumping the body to fight or flight in an attempt to remove ourselves from danger. We learn to not trust our ability to keep ourselves safe and disconnect from our own body. Mind Impact The brain turns off all ability to reason, empathize and connect with others. The ability to process experiences shuts down reducing the possibility of creating memories and images of an occurrence. Brain pathways become etched into a fear response and entrenches us in a threat arousal cycle; we become masters at detecting and recreating trauma within life. Negative thought patterns take over, life becomes highly chaotic or frighteningly stuck and rigid. Emotional Impact The emotional part of the brain, the limbic brain, either becomes the centre point of all responses causing intense anxiety, outbursts, anger and fear or shuts off completely leading to depression, numbing and disconnection. The roller coaster between these two cycles can also activate; quickly bouncing between highly emotional states to feelings of total numbness. Our emotional world becomes the ruler of life. Spirit Impact The body, mind and emotions teach the spirit that this is not a safe place to be. The spirit disconnects and an empty shell remains; operating from a state of functional freeze; seemingly okay, and yet the essence of who they are has disappeared. Conflict Conflict is the tension that exists when differences come into contact with each other; people, perceptions, beliefs, values, needs and wants. Destructive conflict can rip apart relationships, destroy families and create tremendous pain. Body Impact- during times of conflict the nervous system processes information from the external environment to determine if a threat is present. If a threat is detected the fight and flight response kicks in. The heart rate accelerates, muscles tense up, sweat begins to form, adrenaline and cortisol are released; the body becomes ready for action. Mind Impact- The perceived threat triggers the brain to shut down the cortex region (thinking and logic), this is also the area that gives the ability to understand and connect. Instead our emotional brain takes over and we are no longer able to listen. We become defensive and attacking. Conversations stop making sense and blame takes over. Emotional Impact- As we are no longer able to connect with others, we are also not able to understand what they are feeling, limiting chances for solutions to be found. Emotions become charged and not in balance with what is happening. All of the hurts from the past try to find an outlet in the scenario. Spirit Impact- Energy becomes dissonant and disconnected; the whole being is in a state of chaos. Safety and security is lost and the world becomes perceived as threatening. Relationships disintegrate and hurt abounds. The Bridge The mind, body, emotion and spirit similarities between destructive conflict and trauma are clear. Trauma impacts the individuals internal environment while destructive conflict is the manifestation of an unsettled and under resourced individual and how they interact with relationships in the external environment. It is possible to form a clear path towards integration of the body, mind, emotions and spirit through working with both the internal and external environments. Addressing both through supporting focused attention, safety, awareness and skill development will encourage the whole being to build the ability to stay connected, calm and engaged even in troubling and challenging times. Contact: Nataschaa Chatterton Phone: (867) 335-4460 E-mail: [email protected] Whitehorse, Yukon Territory |
