Silent Wounds: Trauma and the Nonverbal Healing Practice’s After the Holocaust
The topic of trauma is often deeply misunderstood as the notion that it only exists in memory of where distress only resides in someone’s mind. While the readings of this course ranging from Bessel van der Kolk’s the Body Keeps the Score to deeply disturbing literary accounts of Christopher Browning’s Ordinary Men and Elie Wiesel’s Night challenges this misconception. Throughout our course we understand that trauma becomes embedded deep in someone’s body and their state of mind. While across this text trauma can emerge such as an overwhelming force that can change someone’s behavior, identity, and how they perceive the world around them. The more we understand trauma the more we see that that trauma is not only a moment in time but it is an ongoing battle that influences how people move throughout life.
Bessel Van der Kolk, states how trauma is an “imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions.” (Van Der Kolk, 2014) While the body can become constantly struggling in a state of survival, it can display itself through physical sensations such as muscle tension, random hostile outburst triggering thoughts or actions, a constant sense of being frozen or stuck, and hyper vigilance in a state of constant worrying. This can be displayed through the stories of main characters in Night and Ordinary Men. While Wiesel in the book Night does not simply describe fear, he describes the physical breakdown of the body that was seen around him, shaking hands, a sense of speechlessness, emotional numbness and weeping. These are open signs of the mind being dysregulated and the nervous system becoming overwhelmed more than beyond its natural capacity. While trauma takes away from someone’s sense of safety it also takes away the ability to feel and properly express oneself fully. In comparison to Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning, members of the reserved police force during the occupation of Jozefow, Poland showed severe visible signs of trauma while carrying out orders of mass killings. Many officers vomit, shake, cry, or grew to be emotionally numb during this event. One account from the soldiers stated that it was “no longer possible for me to aim accurately. I suddenly nauseously and ran away from the shooting site.” (Browning, 1992) Shortly after the solider “ran into the woods vomited and sat down against a tree” (Browning, 1992) where he called out to his fellow soldiers to let him be alone, he later remained there for a couple hours. With several examples of soldiers acting in this behavior it challenges and complicates the understanding of perpetrators as purely sadistic or inherently violent. While the Browning highlights that many of these officers were as psychologically unprepared and physically not capable of carrying out superior orders as any average person placed into that position. In addition, some officers were forced into committing these actions that were in direct conflict with their moral and social values. This shows that trauma can come from a product of moral injury by combatting oneself’ s ethical and moral compass. However, this does not excuse or sympathize with their horrific actions but urges that trauma can not only enter from victimization but also can happen from perpetration.
The topic of trauma can be discussed and thought out on many different arrays of topics but what lies center of the topic is how can we treat it? While traditional talk therapy assumes that healing can occur through different sessions of verbal expression with a traditional therapist. Bessel Van der Kolk questions this idea, “nobody can ‘treat’ a war or abuse, molestation, or any other horrendous event.” (Van Der Kolk, 2014) so how do we expect patients to describe the events that they witness? How can you put life altering events in words? When Van der Kolk came into this line of questioning, he highlighted emphasis on that “trauma by nature drives us to the edge of comprehension, cutting us off from language based on common experience or an imaginable past.” (Van Der Kolk, 2014) If trauma can overwhelm the body then treatment and other healing practices must happen to the body as well. This ideology highlights how trauma impacted non-verbal services can be so important. A therapeutic design that is approached to reestablishing a sense of overall self-agency and safety through different mindful movements.
While through the stories like Night and Ordinary Men we understand that people who were impacted by the holocaust represent a unique population with profound lifelong consequences of extreme trauma. Impacted individuals may face sever struggling issues like PTSD, depression, or difficulties that affect regulation and trust. The question is how can individuals who have seen humanity at one of its darkest times be treated? A treatment that aligns with this mind and body ideology is trauma informed yoga and art therapy. Psychologists such as Bessel Van der Kolk have found that yoga can be a great way to help reduce PTSD. In study that was conducted by Van der Kolk during a 10-week period he found that a “yoga program compared with supportive therapy can significantly reduce PTSD.” (Van Der Kolk et al., 2014) While focusing on an older generation that endured a lifelong battle with deeply embedded trauma. Jewish Family Services of Central New Jersey implemented a trauma informed chair yoga program for Holocaust Survivors and their caregivers. The article highlights 16 survivors of the Holocaust and over 50 caregivers, throughout classes survivors were taught breathing meditation exercises and simple poses that provide both physical and mental benefits. While many participants faced many lifelong issues of PTSD and reporting they only manage to average 3 hours of sleep due to chronic symptoms of hyper arousal. Several Individuals reported after being introduced to this type of care that their body can enter a much more relaxed state and sleep because of this. Another patient named “Boris is a survivor from the soviet union at 91 years old he identifies as experiencing both social isolation and pervasive poverty. In home yoga therapy has been a way for him to decrease social isolation, and experience practical tips for managing his anxiety when it comes to paying bills.” (Kavod, 2020a) In addition to several reports of anxiety being decreased, a sense of empowerment and stress relief for caregivers were made due to this mind and body style of treatment. Authors of this article concluded that mind and body interventions such a trauma informed chair yoga are significantly promising and a person-centered approach for helping Holocaust Survivors. Another article that displays another holistic non-verbal trauma informed practice is Resilience Through Art: Art Therapy with Holocaust Survivors From the Former Soviet Union by Mariya Keselman. This article explores how art therapy supports trauma recovery and resilience. Art therapy is defined as “an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making, creative process, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship.” (Kavod, 2020b) This encourages participants to engage in the creative practice of expression to access unconscious material and integrate emotional experiences all while communicating beyond the limits of verbal language. This style of treatment is found to be especially effective against trauma because it helps crack the traumatic memories that are often nonverbal and deeply embedded inside the body. While also art therapy is found to have a common connection with other practices such as EMDR, it provides a way for processing trauma that “allows for bilateral stimulation of the brain” (Kavod, 2020b) through integrative and symbolic means. While initially program directors received some kickback from participants not wanting to engage with art therapy at first due to the old school thought of cultural stigma and perfectionistic tendencies that are formed under oppressive regimes. “study with groups of older adults, including Holocaust Survivors, suggests that engagement in art increases resilience and allows for “more positive coping with long-term effect of the Holocaust” (Kavod, 2020b) While the central project that this intervention highlights is personal digital family albums that participants created. This allowed individuals to reflect on their life stories, process grief trauma and memories, reconnect with family, and create a legacy for future generations. In addition, this allowed them to express their experiences through a visual sense instead using simple talking strategies. While case studies were conducted amongst the participants, during this practice researchers reported that survivors opened up emotionally and processed painful memories and most important recognized their own resilience.
Looking at the bigger picture, integrating these practices into effective trauma-based therapy takes time for people that spend a life span of carrying these burdens. Across all the stories from individuals that bear witness to everlasting atrocities, one theme stands out, trauma isolates. It can strip away one’s sense of safety, identity, and the willfulness to connect to others. Understanding trauma as both an attack to body and mind not only can help deepen our empathy as a society but also provides paths for further expansion of healing. While many trauma can provide an invisible wound to someone that cannot be expressed with words these strategies provide a safe alternative that can welcome healing into someone’s mind and body.
References
Browning, C. R. (1992). Ordinary men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. Harper Perennial.
Van Der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score : Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma by bessel van der kolk, MD | key takeaways, analysis & review. Idreambooks Inc.
Wiesel, E. (2006). Night. Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Original work published 1958)
Van Der Kolk, B., Stone, L., West, J., Rhodes, A., Emerson, D., Suvak, M., & Spinazzola, J. (2014). Original Research Yoga as an Adjunctive Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Clin Psychiatry, 75(6). https://doi.org/10.4088/JCP.13m08561)
Kavod. (2020, January 30). Person-Centered Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapy with Holocaust Survivors and their Family Caregivers – Kavod. Kavod. https://kavod.claimscon.org/2020/01/person-centered-trauma-informed-yoga-therapy-with-holocaust-survivors-and-their-family-caregivers/
Kavod. (2020b, January 30). Resilience through Art: Art Therapy with Holocaust Survivors from the Former Soviet Union. Kavod. https://kavod.claimscon.org/2020/01/resilience-through-art-art-therapy-with-holocaust-survivors-from-the-former-soviet-union/