Developing Healthy Responses to Stress and Trauma

Trauma is a neuro-biological process. It is in the body and affects the regulation and balance of the autonomic nervous system. However, just as we can strengthen physical muscles with exercise, we can strengthen our nervous system resilience by developing and practicing healthy responses to threat and trauma.

An innovative and cutting-edge technique called Somatic Experiencing® (SE®) heals trauma by facilitating the integration of the three levels of the brain. It uses awareness, “the felt sense” and the innate self-regulatory mechanisms to regulate the nervous system (the reptilian brain), to integrate emotions (the limbic brain), and restore control to the neo-cortex (thinking brain).

Stigma of Trauma

Despite all the research and information available on trauma, due to the impact of the 9/11 tragedy, the tsunamis and earthquakes, and the Iraq War, there is still a stigma attached to being affected not only by first but also by secondhand trauma. We still need to overcome this taboo and learn to talk openly about trauma and treat it as any other disorder.
Due to this stigma, many people still don’t know where to go for help or are afraid to ask. There are, however, many new tools avail¬able to heal trauma. Our book: Beyond the Trauma Vortex into the Healing Vortex helps you heal firsthand trauma and secondhand trauma as well. It also offers you more resources online in Appendix A.