In the previous post, I addressed the need for trauma-sensitive
mindfulness. One of the observations
of David Treleaven mentioned in the
post, was the need for meditation teachers to develop an awareness of, and
sensitivity to, the presence of people who are experiencing, or have
experienced, trauma. Failure to do this
could lead to mindfulness activity that generates trauma stimuli leading to
re-traumitisation. Being trauma-sensitive
means understanding the signs of post-traumatic stress as well as having the
presence of mind to modify mindfulness practices to take account of people’s
needs in this condition.
Recognising the signs of post-traumatic stress
Trauma
results where a person experiences an overwhelming amount of stress that
exceeds their ability to cope and deal with the emotional fallout from that
experience. The effects vary with each
individual and the nature of the traumatic event. Traumatic events can include
the loss of a sibling or parent through death, separation from a parent at a
young age, a life-threatening car accident or terrorist event, separation and
divorce, a house fire, physical or sexual abuse or a natural disaster.
This variability in the nature and impact of traumatic
events, and the individual’s reluctance to disclose through shame or the
need to comply with an authority figure, means that it is often very difficult
to ascertain whether a person has suffered from trauma and is experiencing
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to several reports, up to 20% of
people who experience a traumatic event together will experience post-traumatic
stress disorder.
Trauma can impact a person’s thoughts, emotions,
perceptions, level of arousal/reactivity and mood. It can be reflected in behavioural change
such as avoidance of a person or location, inability to sleep or sleeping too
much, reliving the trauma through nightmares or flashbacks or withdrawal from
social contacts or work colleagues. The
attendant emotions could be depression, anxiety
and feeling unsafe. Thoughts of suicide
can also be one of the signs
of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The role of memory and embodiment
Peter Levine, in an interview
with Serge Prengel, discussed the role of memory in trauma and post-traumatic
stress disorder. Peter is the author of
the book, Trauma
and Memory: Brain and Body in Search of the Past – A Practical Guide for
Working With Traumatic Memory. His
book is ground-breaking in that he highlighted the role of “implicit memory”
and showed how to treat trauma sufferers by accessing the “complex interplay of
past and present, mind and body”. He
termed his methodology, “somatic experiencing”.
In the interview, Peter stressed that we have several
different forms of memory and the ones that are particularly relevant to trauma
are episodic or autobiographical memories, emotional memories and procedural or
body memories. Episodic memory, also
termed “defining moments” by Serge the interviewer, though low in emotive
content are nonetheless impactful. For example, Peter describes a teacher who
acted as a mentor to him and instead of blaming him for poor judgement
encouraged him to learn and explore his curiosity. Other mentors in his life as he progressed
through his studies modelled similar behaviour.
This, in turn, led him to a career choice as a professional mentor – so
the episodic memory acted as a “trajectory” for his progress in life.
Emotional memories, on the other hand, “though further out
of the realm of awareness” are “very powerful and compelling” and shape how we
behave in our life. Some interaction
from the past is encoded with a very strong emotion such as sadness, anger or
fear. The emotional memory can interfere with a
current relationship when something or somebody acts as a reminder of the past
interaction so that we can be overwhelmed with either a very strong negative or
positive emotion.
While emotional memories operate at a deep level, body
memories are deeper still. At one level,
they have to do with the acquisition of motor learning and skills, e.g. riding
a bike. At another level, they are
determinants of our approach or avoidance behaviour. Peter gives the illustration of coming across
a former classmate more than 30 years after their schooling and finding that he
had a strong desire to approach and reconnect with him. The classmate had been his protector at
school when other children tried to bully him – hence his approach behaviour. An example of avoidance behaviour conditioned
by body memory is when someone who has previously experienced sexual abuse
actually freezes when touched by a loving partner.
David Treleaven reinforced the relationship between trauma
and body memory when he stated in his video presentation that “the
respiratory system is intimately connected to our sympathetic nervous system
which is totally tied to traumatic stress”.
He pointed to two books by Babette Rothschild that highlighted the close
connection between trauma and body memory, The
Body Remembers and Revolutionizing
Trauma Treatment. David also
explained further why meditation exercises such as mindful breathing can
activate trauma stimuli. He drew on the
differentiation between exteroception (body’s perception of external stimuli
received through the senses) and interoception (sensing conditions within the
body such as deep breathing or tightness of the chest). Normally exteroceptors and interoceptors integrate
(e.g. the external sensation of viewing a sunrise is matched with the internal
sensation of a warm feeling in your chest and a sense of looseness in your
hands and legs); with trauma sufferers, “the relationship between interoceptors
and exteroceptors can go awry”.
Peter Levine emphasised the need to recognise that we have a “fluid identity” – while our identity is shaped by the past, and the interplay of multiple events and interactions, it is possible to gently, but surely, release the embodied memories and progressively unearth the richness, power and sense of connection of an identity not locked into painful memories. He has dedicated his lifework to training individuals and professionals in understanding the role of the different memories and in learning to use his trauma treatment methodology, somatic experiencing. Other professionals, through an understanding of the mind-body connection, employ somatic meditation to assist trauma sufferers.
Reflection
We can grow in mindfulness as we develop an awareness of the role that memory plays in our own thoughts, emotions, moods and behaviour and learn to recognise the signs of post-traumatic stress in others. As we develop this heightened awareness, we can make appropriate modifications to our meditation teaching and deepen our own meditation practice and reflection.
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Image – Sunrise over the water, Wynnum, Brisbane
By Ron Passfield – Copyright (Creative Commons license, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives)
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