What happens to your brain when experiencing trauma?
Lessons from Bessel Van Der Kolk
Trauma origins in the Greek and translates into “Wound” and the American psychology association defines it as an emotional response to a stressful or threatening event. Recently trauma has been used as a buzzword and is often misunderstood or misused. When I use the word trauma, I am talking about the often debilitating symptoms that many suffer from after a perceived life-threatening or overwhelming experience. An event that shifts the nervous system out of the window of tolerance, and we feel overwhelmed and out of control resulting into our body responding with either fight, flight or freeze. Peter Levine states that trauma is a loss of connection- to ourselves, to our bodies and the world around us.
The impact on our brain and body
Trauma changes your brain, and it changes how you relate to the present. When you’re feeling good, you brain has a fully functioning filter system which allows you to focus on what matters and you can filter out distractions. But after experiencing trauma, that filter system doesn’t work properly. You are fixating on little things that don’t really matter and our brain becomes hyperalert constantly on the look out of danger. The key takeaway from the conference with Bessel van Der Kolk in 2023 for me was, that after a traumatic incident different parts of the brain don’t work together as well anymore. He called it an ‘internal desynchronisation’. The past is keeping alive inside of us through emotional memories. These memories create a visceral experience in the body. These feelings are often debilitating, we start engaging in behaviours to avoid or escape from danger. This keeps us stuck in the pattern. Our choices become limited as we avoid certain situations, people, places. The result of is a loss of vitality. We don’t grow and we start to lose our way of agency.
Our job as therapists is to create a safe space, so the client can visit these places, and we need to stitch these fragments back together, so the experience can be integrated, and the brain eventually allows it to become a memory of the past, without the visceral experience.
What this means for the client
Clients don’t need new ideas- they need new experiences, and this includes the body feeling safe and releasing suppressed emotions that have been held down for years, sometime generations. Giving people an experience that they never had (warmth, safety..), allows the brain to make new connections and focus on new non-traumatic experiences.
What we all can learn
For us to get better, we have to notice our body and feel our feelings. Our job is to help people get in touch with themselves. I work a lot with my clients on increasing the awareness of the body. Slowly we can start to understand how the trauma continues to affect us, helping to understand the connection from the past to the present.
Asking someone about moments when they feel most alive can activate a sense of pleasure and agency. Curiosity—a trait often suppressed in those who’ve experienced trauma—can be nurtured through activities that foster synchronicity and connection. Hobbies like dance or yoga, where participants move together in harmony, can be powerful tools for rebuilding this sense of connection.
Navigating through this can be daunting, but you don’t have to do it alone. I specialise in helping individuals integrating their past experiences and learning somatic tools and techniques that will help you to reconnect to the body and instil a sense of safety. It doesn’t even need to be therapy you can simply start by implementing a mindbody practice like yoga, dance or mindfulness. If you like to learn more or you’d like to work with me reach out anytime. I am here to support you so you can flourish and fully participate in life.
