#339 - Unpacking trauma: How early wounds shape behavior and the path toward healing | Jeff English

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic

Most of us think of “trauma” as psychological scars that require psychological intervention to heal. But what if the key to healing trauma doesn’t lie in your mind, but in your body? In Waking the Tiger, Peter A. Levine argues that trauma isn’t just a psychological disorder but a deep-rooted physiological one. Based on this understanding, Levine has developed a therapeutic approach called “Somatic Experiencing,” which he believes has the potential to reverse trauma symptoms and transform the lives of trauma survivors.

In this guide, you’ll learn the four ways in which the body’s immediate response to a traumatic event can continue indefinitely and turn into chronic symptoms. You’ll also learn, step-by-step, how to use the Somatic Experiencing method to process and heal your trauma. In our commentary, we’ll supplement Levine’s advice for trauma survivors with ideas from books like What Happened to You? and The Body Keeps the Score. Furthermore, we’ll consult modern research to determine the degree to which Levine’s understanding of trauma is currently supported by evidence.

In What Happened to You?, Oprah Winfrey and renowned psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry discuss how childhood trauma can have a severe and lasting impact on the brain—and thus our worldview, health, and behavior—sometimes without us even realizing it. They discuss why the developing brain is so susceptible to trauma, why trauma survivors often experience flashbacks, and why it’s so important to address your trauma to live a healthy and happy life. They also describe how to begin the healing process with compassion for yourself and others.

Throughout our guide, we’ll connect Perry and Winfrey’s ideas to those in other popular books on trauma, such as Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score. We’ll also elaborate on the authors’ main themes, such as trauma’s impact and the healing process. Finally, we’ll provide information and resources to help those struggling with trauma find high-quality care.

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic

In The Myth of Normal, physician and trauma expert Gabor Maté writes that much of what society labels as abnormal behavior, mental illness, or dysfunction actually represents normal responses to adverse life experiences. He contends that the conventional medical model pathologizes normal coping mechanisms like emotional numbing as “diseases” requiring pharmaceutical treatment. He instead advocates a trauma-informed perspective that addresses the root psychological and social causes of what we label as illness.

In this guide, we’ll explore Maté’s argument, focusing on:

• How what we define as “normal” health and behaviors are determined by social, economic, and cultural systems
• The role of trauma in determining our health
• How racism, misogyny, and capitalism instill and reinforce that trauma
• How the biopsychosocial model of health and nontraditional healing practices like yoga, meditation, and psychedelics can improve health outcomes

We’ll also supplement his analysis with insights from other experts on trauma, early childhood development, addiction, and more.

If you suffer from persistent anxiety, depression, or illness, you might be playing out trauma from your family’s past. In this case, the question to ask is not “What’s wrong with me?” but “Where did this come from?”

In It Didn’t Start With You, Mark Wolynn says the source of your suffering may lie hidden in your unconscious, where traumas from your past—and your family’s past—are stopping you from being truly happy and free. Wolynn shares the latest research to reveal how traumas get passed biologically from one generation to the next. He also describes how you can uncover and resolve deeply-rooted trauma by applying his unique therapeutic approach. By doing so, he says, you can reprogram your body, stop suffering, and start living a life you love.

In this guide, we’ll examine research that expands upon Wolynn’s claims. We’ll also consider viewpoints that challenge some of his arguments, such as the importance of reconciling with our parents and the limited effectiveness of talk therapy in treating trauma.

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic

In What Happened to You?, Oprah Winfrey and renowned psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry discuss how childhood trauma can have a severe and lasting impact on the brain—and thus our worldview, health, and behavior—sometimes without us even realizing it. They discuss why the developing brain is so susceptible to trauma, why trauma survivors often experience flashbacks, and why it’s so important to address your trauma to live a healthy and happy life. They also describe how to begin the healing process with compassion for yourself and others.

Throughout our guide, we’ll connect Perry and Winfrey’s ideas to those in other popular books on trauma, such as Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score. We’ll also elaborate on the authors’ main themes, such as trauma’s impact and the healing process. Finally, we’ll provide information and resources to help those struggling with trauma find high-quality care.

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic

If you suffer from persistent anxiety, depression, or illness, you might be playing out trauma from your family’s past. In this case, the question to ask is not “What’s wrong with me?” but “Where did this come from?”

In It Didn’t Start With You, Mark Wolynn says the source of your suffering may lie hidden in your unconscious, where traumas from your past—and your family’s past—are stopping you from being truly happy and free. Wolynn shares the latest research to reveal how traumas get passed biologically from one generation to the next. He also describes how you can uncover and resolve deeply-rooted trauma by applying his unique therapeutic approach. By doing so, he says, you can reprogram your body, stop suffering, and start living a life you love.

In this guide, we’ll examine research that expands upon Wolynn’s claims. We’ll also consider viewpoints that challenge some of his arguments, such as the importance of reconciling with our parents and the limited effectiveness of talk therapy in treating trauma.

Trauma can stem from abuse to a severe car accident to wartime combat—and cause a lifetime of flashbacks, nightmares, isolation, insomnia, hypervigilance, and rage. In The Body Keeps the Score, the author explores how diagnosing and treating trauma has evolved as new technologies, research, and fields of science emerged.

Trauma’s impact is not only mental, emotional, and neurological, but also physiological: Trauma rewires the brain to put people in a constant state of stress or numbness, leading to a host of physical problems.

In this summary, you’ll learn:

• Why trauma survivors feel like their trauma is never-ending
• How flashbacks make parts of the brain shut down and others to go into overdrive
• Why some trauma survivors can’t recognize themselves in the mirror
• How activities like choral singing, yoga, and theater can be therapeutic