Facing Trauma

1. Facing Trauma Southern TA Conference Salisbury November 2013 Michael Gavin Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

2. OPUS CONTRA NATURAM a work against nature Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

3. The triune brain • Reptilian brain • Old mammalian brain • Neocortex - primate/human brain The brain has a triune structure: it is “like an old farmhouse, a crude patchwork of lean-tos and other extensions that conceal entirely the amphibian-reptilian toolshed at its core.” Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

4. stages of arousal 4 Mobilising for fight or flight -> focus -> preparatory movements Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

5. stages of arousal 5 Fight -> focus -> intense purposeful action Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

6. stages of arousal 5 Flight -> focus -> intense purposeful action Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

7. the brain in the hand Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

8. Nervous system activation Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

9. It takes two minds… • It takes two minds to think one’s disturbing thoughts. Thomas Ogden - quoting Bion Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

10. Trauma: a challenging subject The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable. Judith Herman Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

11. The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

12. Winnicott Playing and Reality Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

13. According to Winnicott, the encounter with trauma means that people “carry around with them the knowledge from experience of having been mad. Madness here means the break-up of a personal continuity of existence.” Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

14. The impact of trauma in the psyche Trauma implies that the baby has experienced a break in life’s continuity so that primitive defences now become organized to defend against a repetition of “unthinkable anxiety” or a return of the acute confusional state that belongs to the disintegration of the nascent ego structure. Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

15. In the face of trauma My hope is that this [work] will help us to relax our gaze. ...we ought not walk around it as if [the horrific] were not there, no more than we should become one with it. This [work] is a bearing witness, a probing. Its value lies in whether it helps us become a little less afraid of ourselves in ways that are not destructive, enriching the quality of our experiencing capacity. Eigen, M.(1986) The Psychotic Core. Aaronson NJ Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

16. And why do we turn away? Our subtle and pervasive capacity for somatic resonance - the ground for empathy- enables, even compels us to empathize with and therefore embody - “‘dreaded states’ charged with intense affects that can potentially traumatically disorganize the self system.” Allan Schore Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self.

17. But isn’t it our calling to look into the face of trauma?

18. And what is Facing? According to David Boadella, it is one of three basic functions arising from our earliest embryological structure: Grounding, Centring, Facing.

19. Germ layers ectoderm Endoderm mesoderm

20. Germ layers Ectoderm skin brain Nerves FACING endoderm guts internal organs CENTRING mesoderm bones muscles blood vessels GROUNDING

21. Embodiment: germ layers 3CENTRING GROUNDING FACING

22. The capacity for Facing rests on the foundation of solid, resilient Grounding, a lively, robust and interactive connection to one’s Centre. Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

23. What is it that we have to face? When we look into the core of traumatic experience words fail. Words strain,Crack and sometimes break, under the burden, Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,Will not stay still. T.S.Eliot Four Quartets

24. We enter the realm of the unspeakable, but also perhaps (in a more profound sense) the ineffable- that which not only cannot but should not be spoken. The Tao that can be spoken is not the true Tao.

25. As explanation falters image, metaphor and myth come into play. Images from Nature: Volcanoes, earthquakes, typhoons and hurricanoes

26. “hurricanoes” ? This is how Shakespeare represents Lear’s madness: Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!

27. volcano

28. The reactor’s core

31. Persus and Medusa

33. Can the gods help us? • We certainly will benefit from all the wisdom and understanding we can get, and all the foreknowledge of the habits and powers of the monsters we have to confront. • The ability to look reflectively at the faces of people affected by trauma whom we meet, will help us to avoid being frozen in our tracks. • We need some familiarity with the Underworld, the realm of Hades.

34. Descend lower, descend onlyInto the world of perpetual solitude,World not world, but that which is not world,Internal darkness, deprivationAnd destitution of all property,Dessication of the world of sense,Evacuation of the world of fancy,Inoperancy of the world of spirit;This is the one way, and the otherIs the same, not in movementBut abstention from movement; T.S.Eliot Four Quartets

35. I said to my soul, be still, and let the dark come upon youWhich shall be the darkness of God. I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hopeFor hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faithBut the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: T.S.Eliot Four Quartets

36. In order to arrive there,To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,       You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.In order to arrive at what you do not know       You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.In order to possess what you do not possess       You must go by the way of dispossession.In order to arrive at what you are not       You must go through the way in which you are not.And what you do not know is the only thing you knowAnd what you own is what you do not ownAnd where you are is where you are not.

37. We certainly need a sharp sword at times winged sandals can be a blessing when nimble foot work is called for, and let us not forget that crane skin bag, the necessary container.

38. Back to our world We are accepting the challenge, and making the attempt to be fully present, embodied, alive, affectively available and reflectively aware for ourselves and for our clients. For most of us, this is the aimNever here to be realised;Who are only undefeatedBecause we have gone on trying; T.S.Eliot Four Quartets

39. What else do we need? • We need the right support.

40. The dialectic of trauma constantly challenges the therapist's emotional balance. Ideally, the therapist's support system should include a safe, structured, and regular forum for reviewing her clinical work. This might be a supervisory relationship or a peer support group, preferably both. The setting must offer permission to express emotional reactions as well as technical or intellectual concerns related to the treatment of patients with histories of trauma. Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

41. The therapist who commits herself to working with survivors commits herself to an ongoing contention with herself, in which she must rely on the help of others and call upon her most mature coping abilities. Sublimation, cultural wisdom, and humour are the therapist's saving graces. The reward of engagement is the sense of an enriched life. Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

42. By constantly fostering the capacity for integration, in themselves and their patients, engaged therapists deepen their own integrity. Just as basic trust is the developmental achievement of the earliest life, integrity is the developmental achievement of maturity. Integrity is the capacity to affirm the value of life in the face of death, to be reconciled with the finite limits of one's own life and tragic limitations of the human condition, and to accept these realities without despair. Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

43. Integrity is the foundation upon which trust and relationships is originally formed, and upon which shattered trust may be restored. The interlocking of integrity and trust in caretaking relationships completes the cycle of generations and regenerates the sense of human continuity which destroys trauma. Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

44. Self Remembering 101 Feet on the floor press Rise to your full stature (lengthen spine) Breathe (5 out 3 in) Look around (name objects colours) Become aware of belly and warmth inside Smile downwards and inwards Remember something or someone that makes you feel good, and generally OK Let your awareness expand Watch the movements of your mind Remember your Self. Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

45. for a PDF of this presentation and other relevant in formation go to www.embodiedtherapy.net Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net

46. for information about supervision and training with Michael Gavin www.embodiedtherapy.netembodied.therapy@btinternet.com01202 237 712 Michael Gavin embodiedtherapy.net