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Healing From
Trauma - 2
Two individuals are
robbed at gunpoint. One experiences overwhelming helplessness and has a
hard month. But by the end of that time, he has pretty much resolved and
integrated the incident into his life. The other person experiences
intense rage. Years later, she is still struggling with the negative,
life-changing aftermath of the trauma.
As seen in the above
example, not everyone reacts to trauma in the same way. Just as pain
thresholds differ, so do trauma thresholds. But as William Shakespeare
wrote in his play Othello, "What wound did ever heal but by degrees?"
Having studied trauma
intensively over the past couple of decades, researchers now know that a
traumatic event's impact depends on the perception of it. Perception is
influenced by a number of factors including age, physical characteristics,
level of support, etc. Thus, emotional trauma can result from a single
extreme and deeply felt experience or from a series of low-intensity
events. Even everyday happenings—falls, difficult births, betrayals,
medical/dental procedures—can cause the same lingering traumatic effects
as extreme or violent events, such as physical abuse, combat or serious
accidents.
Fortunately, even
traumatic effects that linger for years can be resolved, and the result
can be a new present-day reality that includes, but is not dominated by, a
traumatic past.
"The same immense
energies that create the symptoms of trauma, when properly engaged and
mobilized, can transform the trauma and propel us into new heights of
healing, mastery and even wisdom," writes Peter Levine, author of
Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
