Trauma healing work has to be gentle and titrated

Your body is designed perfectly.
It automatically activates to fight or flight mode when it perceives a threat.
When these two responses are not appropriate nor possible for the situation it goes into a freeze, then shutdown response. All these are natural responses designed to keep you safe.

Many of us have a mixture of these responses that are ‘stuck’ in the autonomic nervous system in an incomplete cycle. This causes the body to keep itself in high alert, in a state of self protection, in situations that such responses are unwarranted. This is what we call a dysregulated nervous system.

Overwhelm, anxiety, low energy, low mood and many other undesirable effects, including physical issues, can be a sign of a dysregulated autonomic nervous system.

Regulation has to be achieved slowly because a nervous system in high alert can very easily go into fight/flight/freeze/appease/dissociation/shutdown. So as soon as an activation/trigger comes in and is maintained for longer than the person can handle, they are likely to fall into their default pattern.

That’s why exposure methods can be retraumatizing and are very likely to fail long term, because as soon as the person is exposed to the stressor they will, for instance, dissociate. The most familiar survival strategy is always what feels the safest.

Trauma integration work has to be gentle and titrated, so that you can slowly build up resilience in your nervous system, by tolerating the activation little by little without defaulting into your self-protective patterns.

Be aware of any trauma informed work that promise quick fixes, energy healing and fast results.

Trauma integration work is deeply honouring and done fully in the body.

It doesn’t just build resilience in your system and discharge incomplete survival responses; but it also involves psychoeducation.
It equips you with tools to recognise your states of activation, to practice self-regulation, to be able to navigate life in a state of wellbeing, feeling at home in your own body.