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Healing From Trauma
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
