By Melissa New, LCSW
In order to treat trauma, one needs to be able to define it. This is something professionals continue to struggle with. For those in the field of treating trauma, trauma is looked at as a continuum or spectrum to make sense of what is commonly described as little and big ‘T’ trauma. From a medical perspective to diagnose trauma the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5) defines trauma and stressor related disorders to only include disorders in which there has been exposure to a traumatic or stressful event that is listed explicitly as one of the diagnostic criteria. This includes the diagnoses of reactive attachment disorder, disinhibited social engagement disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), acute stress disorder, and adjustment disorders. However, those in field of treating trauma feel that this doesn’t address the broad spectrum of symptoms that trauma victims may experience, some of which occur over the course of many years.
Robert Scaer, author of, The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Woudls and Human Resiliency, (2005) suggests a different theoretical concept to explain trauma;
“the brain, mind, and body exist on a continuum, wherein sensory input from the body shapes and changes the structure and function of the brain, which concurrently shapes and alters the body in all of its parts, particularly those that provided this sensory input to the brain. The mind is basically a receptacle for perceptual experience, including body sensations or feelings, and the positive or negative emotions that are related to that information. If we accept the idea that the mind, brain, and body exist on a continuum, then we must also consider the ways in which trauma affects the brain/body. Ideally, the brain/mind/body uses what it learns form a traumatic event to develop resiliency and fortify the individual against future similar occurrences. However, depending on the individual’s prior experience and the nature and outcome of the event, the trauma may actually lead to dysfunctional physiological changes in both the brain and body. The dynamic interaction of the brain/body in turn sends cues to the mind affecting what it senses, feels, and perceives. If the brain/body has been overly conditioned and sensitized to react to life threats, the mind will perceive threats in situations where none may exist.”
To simplify this: the mind, body, and brain all communicate together to give meaning to everything we experience; therefore, one person may experience “trauma” where another may not. Bessel Van der Kolk (2014) postulates that trauma can be a result of an experience of extreme stress or pain where an individual is unable to take action in response to that experience that leaves them feeling helpless, overwhelmed, and unable to cope with the adversity. Van der Kolk suggests that traumatic experiences are stored in the body and therefore argues that in order to treat trauma that the whole person body, mind, and brain needs to be treated. To explain this, researchers have drawn from the experience of watching animals and correlating this to the human experience. One example is the response of polar bears who are tranquilized for medical and tracking purposes in the wild. The polar bear once shot with a tranquilizer will initially respond by running in fear until it collapses in response to the medication. As the polar bear awakens slowly it initially is moving its legs as if it were continuing to run while laying on its side. Once it has enough strength to get up it will preform a full body shake and then slowly amble off. It is believed that the polar bear is therefore moving and shaking out the traumatic experience from its body, processing its fear so it can move on.
Healing from trauma means altering the meaning of memories by changing conscious and unconscious somatic perceptions and untangling the learned associations from past and present. If we only address the verbal and visual context of a traumatic event the unconscious combination of body-based memories will continue to intrude and bring up the trauma. There have been a multitude of treatment modalities developed to address trauma. Research has shown that treatment models that incorporate body, mind, and brain have been the most effective in treating trauma.
One method of treating trauma is Brainspotting (BSP), which was developed by David Grand, Ph.D. Grand (2013) describes; “The motto of Brainspotting is, ‘Where you look affects how you feel.’ If something is bothering you, how you feel about it will literally change depending on whether you look off to your right or to your left. Our eyes and brains are intricately woven together, and vision is the primary way that we, as humans, orient ourselves to our environment. Signals sent from our eyes are deeply processed in the brain. The brain then reflexively and intuitively redirects where we look, moment to moment. The brain is an incredible processing machine that digests and organizes everything that we experience. But trauma can overwhelm the brain’s processing capacity, leaving behind pieces of trauma, frozen in an unprocessed state.”
The BSP model draws from EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) and Somatic experiencing (SE). BSP hypothesizes that the field of vision can be used to locate eye positions that correlate to inner neural and emotional experience, which is where we are holding the trauma in our brain. Once these eye positions are located, by maintaining eye fixation in those positions, it is possible to heal and find resolution regarding issues that have been held deeply in the non-verbal, non-cognitive areas of the neurophysiology, [and the rest of the body]. BSP utilizes focused activation and focused mindfulness as its mechanisms of operation. Grand postulates that as the eyes can scan the external environment, they can also be used to scan the internal environment – the brain and body. This allows the focus to be on the specific internal spot that the trauma is stored promoting deep processing and the release of trauma creating resolution. BSP “is uniquely designed to be integrated into other [therapeutic] approaches. The human brain-body system is vast and complex and needs to be perceived and responded to in its individuality. No one technique, including BSP, can address every client situation in its entirety.”(Grand, 2013)
BSP is used in trauma treatment but it has also been effective in the treatment of injury, stress, attention levels, and motivation. It is a preferred method of treatment for the following:
• Chronic fatigue and chronic pain
• PTSD
• ASD
• Complex Trauma
• Developmental Trauma
• Substance abuse
• Phobias
• Sports performance issues
• Anxiety
• Attention issues (ADHD)
• Anger issues
• Impulse control issues
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American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association. (2013).
Grand, David. (2013). Brainspotting: The Revolutionary New Therapy for Rapid and Effective Change. Boulder. CO: Sounds True.
Scaer, Robert. (2005). The Trauma Spectrum: Hidden Wounds and Human Resiliency. New York, NY: WW Norton & Co.
Van der Kolk, Bessel A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York, NY: Peguin Books