12/31/2023 0 Comments Trauma responses fight flight ze fawn![]() Trauma that is preverbal (ie, related to attachment trauma and early life events) is also not necessarily helped that well by talking therapies. ![]() While talking therapies are obviously of great benefit to people who are dealing with trauma and PTSD, these tend to largely ignore the nervous system and the realities that go with an overly activated nervous system or one frozen in fear. This mind–body re-education is what the Alexander technique can help with. Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk says that with trauma, “The mind needs to be reeducated to feel physical sensations, and the body needs to be helped to tolerate and enjoy the comforts of touch”. This alienation from our bodies can also be expressed in different forms of body hatred and just not being as kind and loving towards our bodies as they truly deserve. Sadly, in doing so, we may deaden our capacity to feel fully alive. Those of us who have been through traumatic experiences can also disassociate ourselves from our bodies and the way our emotions are felt in our bodies in an effort to shut off terrifying sensations. People can also be left with heightened startle responses and intensely physically uncomfortable extreme emotions and emotional triggers, flashbacks, and repetition compulsions around the repetition of past events. The experience of trauma can also keep people stuck in the past in many ways as they continue to experience chronic biological hyperarousal of the sympathetic nervous system, bodily tension, and hypervigilance. ![]() Biological fight–flight and freeze and fawn responses are more exaggerated in those who have been through traumatic experiences. Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk notes the experience of trauma changes the nervous system and that trauma is held and stored in the body and in tension in bodily tissues and that this tension held in people’s bodies makes them uncoordinated. Post-traumatic stress symptoms have their origin in the entire body’s response to the original trauma. Working with the Alexander technique has much to offer those of us who have been through traumatic experiences of various kinds and who have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), hypervigilance (being extremely alert for potential danger), and/or an overly activated nervous system, with high levels of resulting stress and anxiety.
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