Sublime

clinicians realized after evaluating survivors of trauma that the neurobiological expression of their trauma is not always along a continuum of a highly mobilized defensiveness that we categorize as fight or flight reactions but often is expressed along a continuum of immobilization.

Our feelings and our bodies are like water flowing into water. We learn to swim within the energies of the (body) senses. Tarthang Tulku

Sufi teacher Idries Shah

Perry, B. Interview with Guy Macpherson, PhD. Trauma Therapist Podcast Episode 94. https://www.thetraumatherapistproject.com/blog/bruce-perry-md-phd-on-the-trauma-therapist-podcast/ (accessed 6 October 2017).

The collection of parts that these traditions call the ego are protectors who are simply trying to keep us safe and are reacting to and containing other parts that carry emotions and memories from past traumas that we have locked away inside.

When we respect our body’s responses, we move from this more evaluative state, we become more respectful of ourselves, and this functionally contributes to the healing process.

Porges coined the word “neuroception” to describe the capacity to evaluate relative danger and safety in one’s environment.

Traumatized people have a deep distrust of the arousal cycle, usually for good reason. This is because to a trauma victim, arousal has become coupled with the overwhelming experience of being immobilized by fear.

When people are traumatized, our internal systems remain aroused. We become hypervigilant but are unable to locate the source of this pervasive threat. This situation causes fear and reactivity to escalate, amplifying the need to identify the source of the threat. The result: we become likely candidates for re-enactmentin search of an enemy.