Coming into connection;

the neurobiology of

trauma repair

Silvana Izzo Somatic Experiencing™Practitioner Occupational Therapist and Educator

We are wired for connection

Between the stimulus and the response exists potential……..

How do we know

what we know about

ourselves…?

We use our minds not to discover facts

but to hide them. One of the things the

screen hides most effectively is the body,

our own body, by which I mean, the ins

and outs of it, its interiors. Like a veil

thrown over the skin to secure its

modesty, the screen partially removes

from the mind the inner states of the

body… (p.28)

Antonio R. Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens:

Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness

Body - Mind

Sympathetic

Sensory Motor

NS

Central NS

Peripheral NS

Parasympathetic

Autonomic NS

The triune brain

• Paul D. MacLean

Three distinct Languages

• Neocortex – Thinking Brain - Words

I make meaning here

• Limbic System - Social Brain - Feelings

I feel emotions here

• Sensations - Instinctual Survival brain - Sensations

My experience enters here

The Amygdala – the smoke detector “on guard"

The Autonomic Nervous System

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V87VXA6gPuE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUaeqKCoPeQ Waves

Pendulum Rhythm

A resilient nervous system

Response to manage

the threat

Sensing danger in the nervous system

(Entroception)

Reach - Fight – Flight - Freeze

Collapse

Automatic

Amygdala & ANS

Self protective

Survival focus

Lower (sensation) brain circuits

Sensory

Information Sensory

Information

Belo

w c

onscio

us a

ware

ness

Belo

w c

onscio

us a

ware

ness

What then is trauma…

Str

ess

Re

spo

nse

Sensing danger

Feeling Danger

Thinking Danger

Internal or External

Trigger

Prolonged stress response

Primed to sense for danger…..

What is trauma

• A disruption in the nervous system creating many other symptoms

• Being ‘stuck’ in past survival modes after the danger is over, making it difficult to feel safe and focus in present time

• Incomplete self protective and defensive responses

• Sensations of constriction, hyper-arousal, overwhelm and disconnection/dissociation

• Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, rage,shame

Trauma is encoded in the

brain stem, the thalamus, the

limbic system and the

hypothalamus…and the

language of that part of the

brain is bodily sensation

Peter Levine Founder Somatic Experiencing ™

Trauma Physiology • is meant to be heard

• is an alarm system still identifying danger

• has hijacked ones ability to be in the here and now and identify signals of safety (and actual threat)

• reinforces trauma patterns – impacts on awareness/witness

• primed - stimulus response - compresses time and choice

• Neuroception (Porges) – a subconscious system for detecting threats and safety - a feeling of what is (and is not)

• “AM I NOT SAFE -THERE IS A THREAT”

Top Down

Thinking

Talking

Bottom Up

Sensing

Embodiment 80% Afferent

Sensory Input from Environment

Previous Experience

Cultural Factors

Social Environment

Expectations about consequences

Beliefs, Knowledge, Logic

How dangerous is

this really?

Outputs to

Protect

• ANS

• Motor

• Endocrine

• Immune

• Pain

Meaning

Making

Expectation

(Reach)*- Fight - Flight - Freeze - Collapse

• Some traits may only be evident in some states - state dependent traits e.g. in fight state have traits of aggression, rigidity, decrease - flexibility, playfulness, curiosity and social engagement

• Trauma when beyond ‘window of tolerance’ - constant stress and/or threat beyond perception of what system can cope with - move towards trauma

• Trauma becomes locked in this threat-survival response pattern of our nervous systems - stored in our bodies and influences our experience of ourselves ‘the sense of us’ in the here and now

• Can trigger confusion, shame, frustration, sense of hopelessness and helplessness (to responses)

• Moving towards greater ease and sense of safety is achieved not via words but rather via sensations – noticing, mindfulness, sensing, embodiment, grounding, rhythm, connection

(Reach)*- Fight - Flight Response

• Person is sensing a threat in nervous system (lower brain structures)

• ‘Wired for survival’ – functional (self) protective response to threat

• Below conscious (thinking) level of awareness – it is a biological

response with a survival focus

• Interpretation of sensory information both internal and external (via

amygdala) – “am I safe or is there a threat” Neuroception (Porges)

• Individual’s response is influenced by life experience (biology and

biography) – use dependent patterns & state dependent traits

• Can become stuck in a response pattern to sensing threat/danger that

is no longer helpful; ongoing after threat has gone or not adaptive to the

current situation i.e. sensing danger – terrified – activation – fight mode

Freeze - Collapse Response • Unable to fight or flee – person freezes – into shutdown

• Not a conscious choice but a nervous system (automatic and

below consciousness) level response to perception that

situation is inescapable

• System is overwhelmed; physiological state stores great

bound energy

• May increase or decrease chance of survival

• Can move from here to collapse (tonic immobility) vaso vagal

• Linked to shame response

Impacts of trauma

• Takes you out of your senses

• Takes you out of your body

• Takes you out of engagement

• Takes you out of connection

• Ruptures relationships

• Shatters safety and trust

• Creates incoherence – affects concepts of time and space

• Affects memory and perception

• Stored at implicit levels

Provides opportunities for

resilience and post traumatic

growth

Identity Individual and collective

Trauma

• Developmental Trauma

• Situational - Episode

Trauma

• Medical Trauma

• Complex Trauma

• Intergenerational Trauma

• Ancestral Trauma

• Collective Trauma

• Cultural Trauma

How can we restore*

a sense of safety…?

Heart Brain Connection

Creating Safety

Safety The Poly Vagal Theory

Dorsal and Ventral

Ventral –

Social Engagement Safety, empathy,

attachment and

attunement

Neuroception and the Social

Engagement System

Soothing the alarm state

threat response

Porges Polyvagal theory

The Ventral Vagal – the ‘smart vagus’ (part of the parasympathetic nervous system)

• An invitation to:

• social engagement

• attunement

• attachment

• co regulation

“The vagus is

functionally an inhibitory

nerve that slows our

heart up and enables us

to calm down.”

BUT “...there is a very primitive

defensive system still embedded

within our mammalian nervous

system...”

The Dorsal Vagal System

“Mammals have two vagal circuits, an unmyelinated...and a uniquely Mammalian circuit that is myelinated.”

"Trauma is much more than a story about the past that

explains why people are frightened, angry or out of control.

Trauma is re-experienced in the present, not as a story, but

as profoundly disturbing physical sensations and emotions

that may not be consciously associated with memories of

past trauma. Terror, rage and helplessness are manifested

as bodily reactions, like a pounding heart, nausea, gut-

wrenching sensations and characteristic body movements

that signify collapse, rigidity or rage…. The challenge in

recovering from trauma is to learn to tolerate feeling what

you feel and knowing what you know without becoming

overwhelmed. There are many ways to achieve this, but all

involve establishing a sense of safety and the regulation of

physiological arousal.“

Bessel van der Kolk

Trauma and Memory:

One of the key functions of

nervous tissue is to store

information

Body memory – implicit

procedural memory of

trauma “trauma locked in the

body”

“There is a mistaken notion

that trauma is primarily about

memory—the story of what has

happened.” Bessel van der Kolk

We are not meant to

go it alone…where

does attachment

fit?

The roots of resilience are to be

found in the sense of being

understood by and existing in the

mind and heart of a loving, attuned

and self possessed other

Bowlby

We learn to self regulate by co regulation

Creating Connected Safety

• Social engagement – prosody of voice, posture, (soft) eye contact,

contained touch*

• Relationship within window of tolerance

• Creating time and choice

• Creating (connected) space

• Rhythm and movement

• Voice, humming, chanting

• Breath and embodiment

Co regulation - a shared process

• Safety, protection, containment and escape paths

• Noticing internal and external environment - sensory ‘goggles’ on

• Slowing it down - stretching time - taking a pause

• Attunement and attachment within window of tolerance

• Building in choice

• Scaffolding for success

• Vertical integration – ‘soothing the amygdala’

What else helps –

from the frontiers of

neuroscience…

Melodic Voice

Singing

Prosody

Dance and Movement

Rhythm

Music

Contact

Connection

(safe)Touch*

Play (sensory motor)

Mindfulness

Yoga

Embodying Nature

Self and collective

care for trauma

informed practice…

Rituals and belonging

River of life

A sense of coherence

Connectedness

Being Reflection

….to make our heartbeat match the beat of the universe Joseph Campbell