Excerpted from the December 2007 NESTTD Newsletter
NESTTD’s 2007-08 year got off to a great start in September with Dr. Janina Fisher. Her presentation focused on introducing somatic interventions to clients experiencing trauma and dissociation. Janina described the process of teaching our clients a language of mindfulness, curiosity, and identifying parts of self to develop a whole, integrated self.
I found myself reflecting on the profound role the development of a language to describe trauma and dissociation has had on our ability as clinicians to open up client’s self-understanding. A person with traumatic events etched into their experience has become unable to see their whole self. The trauma is how they see themselves as a person at present and who they see themselves to be in the future.
Take a moment. Think about it. We give a person who has experienced traumatic events alone, in fear and disconnected from themselves and the world around them a language to describe their experience, both past and present. It goes beyond the details of the traumatic events of whom, what and when. A shared language between clinician and client opens up observation, reflection, self-inquiry, and new beliefs. In the course of therapy an emergence of self can be established in a way it has not before.
This is what happened for Mary. At 16 years old she began therapy following the loss of her father from a terminal illness and resurfaced memory of abuse by her paternal grandfather. Mary had turned to cutting as a way to manage the state of trauma she was experiencing. In session she would sit silently throwing a stress ball back and forth as an assertion of self-protection. As therapy progressed a language began to develop to describe her internal experience: fear, isolation, and unpredictability. She began to keep a journal and tell others when the impulse to self-harm arose. A shared language between family and other important figures in her life developed to communicate her sensory and emotional experience.
We are fortunate to have a wealth of clinical work and research to aid us in understanding the treatment of trauma and dissociation. There are many who in their contributions have expanded the language with which we are able to communicate with colleagues and clients alike. There are models that provide metaphor, structure, symbols, and other descriptions for clients to understand their experience from a varied perspective. In this case, the intention is to prevent the retraumatization of our clients, and to bring to consciousness the experience that has shaped their lives.
NESTTD quarterly meetings are an opportunity to share and expand our understanding of trauma and dissociation we share as a community. At our December 9th meeting Glen Saxe will present his work on Traumatic Systems Theory. He explains that traumatic experience results in a reliance on one’s “survival circuits” to manage daily life. In the process they miss the opportunity to develop alternative systems for processing stimulus, context, consciousness and responses. Therapy is to foster new pathways in which to engage in daily life and let go of the “survival circuits” as the map to live by.
I look forward to the December 9th meeting to come together as a community and expand our understanding of trauma and dissociation for our clients and ourselves.
Yours truly,
Norah Lewis, LICSW
NESTTD President