A Self-Care Framework to Maximize Resiliency and Mitigate Trauma

Trauma is any type or series of event(s) that triggers a chronic stress response in your body. While an acute stress response is beneficial for accomplishing goals, like meeting a deadline at work or protecting yourself by initiating a fight/flight response, you become harmed psychologically and physically when the stress becomes chronic in nature (Rousseau, 2022). Trauma can include anything from witnessing a terrorist attack (direct trauma), to listening to a friend or stranger as they share about their experience being raped (vicarious trauma). An example of how a series of events could become traumatic, would be when a corrections officer feels manipulated by inmates, feels unsupported by her fellow officers, and feels highly scrutinized by management. In the short-term, the officer may be resilient and feel determined to succeed, but over months or even years, going to work can slowly become a traumatic experience as resiliency fades and chronic stress develops.

Resiliency in the face of trauma, is the ability to relieve stress through self-regulation (physical and emotional) and self-care (Rousseau, 2022). By combining what I have learned from Dr. Rousseau and Dr. van der Kolk, I propose the following framework as a guide for developing a self-care plan that maximizes resiliency and mitigates trauma:

1. Breath & Mindfulness – You need to be able to “feel what you feel and know what you know” without becoming overwhelmed (van der Kolk, 2014). Learning breathing and mindfulness techniques will lay the foundation for being able to emotionally handle the thoughts and feelings that have been suppressed.
2. Rhythmic Interactions – Dancing, singing, playing an instrument, and other non-musical rhythmic actions like tossing a ball back and forth, increase pleasure and connection, while decreasing stress (van der Kolk, 2014).
3. Feel Your Body – Numbness is a common symptom of trauma, but people have a need to feel their body. Exercise and hugs provide physical sensations that can calm us down (van der Kolk, 2014). On the other end of the spectrum can be body tension that prevents the feeling of calming physical sensations. Massages and floating in a pool can help to ease physical tension in the body.
4. Feel What You Feel – Do not try to suppress tears or ignore emotions. Let yourself feel what you feel and think what you think.
5. Feel Heard – Find ways to verbally express your thoughts and emotions. This could be done through close friends, a therapist, or even journaling. Finding the words to describe your deepest thoughts and feelings, without fear of criticism or broken confidentiality, is a powerful stress reliever.
6. Self-Compassion – It is impossible to heal the self when you hate yourself. Know that you are enough and thrive in that realization. Know that you are worthy of the good in your life, and that your actions and thoughts are reasonable for your circumstances.
7. Friends & Family – Surround yourself with people who will accept you as you are and be your true self around them. They should make you feel normal, not like a burden or a rare breed of stupid. They should also make you feel safe.

By ensuring that each of these aspects are thoroughly applied to your life, via a list of activities that are your self-care plan, you will maximize your resiliency and mitigate the potential effects of trauma. This is not a perfect solution for healing from trauma, but it is a great way to become chronic stress resistant.

References

Rousseau, D. (2022, March). Module 1: Introduction to Trauma [Online lecture materials]. Boston University.

van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin.

The Value of Journaling in a Self-Care Regimen

“Paper is more patient than man.” – Anne Frank

The use of words to express the thoughts of man marked the seminal invention of civilization.  The process of journaling has a history as old as mankind, and its use in the recollection and confrontation of trauma is one of the great art forms of our collective enterprise.  Whether the musings of a Roman emperor like Marcus Aurelius, the mundane and brilliant daily thoughts of luminaries like Da Vinci, Curie, or Darwin, or the heartsick memoirs of those whom the world only ever met through their words like Anne Frank, the journal has been a daily outlet by which folks vent their daily stress and personal traumas throughout history.

The beauty of the process of journaling is that it has no innate structure or demands.  Although journaling does not work for everyone, for some it is a transformational experience – one which helps them to cope with the struggles around them as they seek balance.  For some like Thomas Jefferson, the journal contained observations of the world around them.  Others, like Thomas Edison recorded quite humanizing elements in their journal – battles to avoid tobacco addiction, struggles with dandruff, and complaints of indigestion (Edison, 1885).  Marcus Aurelius waged philosophical battles with himself, speaking about the difficulties of being the person in charge of the western world on one page of his Meditations, yet personalizing a battle against the desire to curl up under the covers instead of meeting the challenges of the day just pages later.  There is no structure – there is no form.  For some, days are skipped.  Others, whole years passed between the needs to spill their guts out on the pages.  Nevertheless, many find the process illuminating, restorative, and constructive enough to continue.

On Valentine’s Day in 1884, the daily journal of future President Theodore Roosevelt recorded the sudden deaths of both his mother and wife with a simple and poignant line: “The light has gone out of my life.”  Roosevelt continued to write in his daily diary and several days later he recorded his feelings on the day of the double funeral, stating “For joy or for sorrow my life has now been lived out” (Gerald R. Ford Library, 2022).  This low point in Roosevelt’s life, confessed to the pages of his diary, marked the commencement of a five (5) year personal journey through trauma recovery.  Roosevelt gave up on his life in the east, turned his daughter over to his sister’s care, and uprooted his entire life – headed to the wide-open spaces of the American West to seek quiet and mindfulness to save his fragmented soul.  Roosevelt’s wanderlust, so fraught with self-doubt, personal loathing, and mental resurrection, gave rise to the concept of the National Park – protected spaces where others could go to heal from the ashes of their own life.  History tells us that Roosevelt’s life was certainly not “lived out” – but he did not know that story at the time of his sorrow.  Journaling was not the miracle cure for Roosevelt, but it was a piece of the puzzle, a place where he could confide in himself, trusting his thoughts to a page when he could trust them to nobody else – and Teddy does not stand alone in the annals of history.  We are learning that the use of written thought as a cathartic tool for healing is being revealed by modern research to be a powerful tool in the quest for self-care.

Studies into the efficacy of journaling during times of stress have indicated reductions in depression, reduced long-term physical health problems, and improve social supports (Riddell et al, 2020).  It has also been suggested that journaling may help restore self-efficacy and mastery and add meaning to trauma (Ullrich & Lutgendorf, 2002).  Mindfulness as a concept, which takes many forms to include meditation, yoga, journaling, expression of gratitude, and other introspective tools – have been shown to help to control emotions (Rousseau et al, 2019), lead to improved post-traumatic growth (Ekström, 2020), have positive impacts on psychiatric symptoms (Van der Kolk, 2014), and mitigate stress levels (Jaco, 2021).  For many practitioners, journaling helps to develop consciousness over their surroundings and provide a snapshot of their life to put the events of life in focus against the backdrop of their world.  Struggles, both large and small, can be confronted in bite-sized chunks.  Figurative dragons can be slain, as the journaler uses the pages to work out their thoughts or to provide introspection to a problem at hand or a traumatic event.

Abraham Lincoln would regularly write vitriolic letters to people vexing him in his life, channeling his feelings onto the page in a way that his political reality would never allow.  Relieved from the stress by committing the concept to paper, Lincoln would often file the letters away, simply writing ‘Never Sent; Never Signed’ on the envelopes (Lincoln, 1863).  Journaling can form an erstwhile ally in the quest to provide meaningful self-care, helping to keep every trauma in perspective, being available to peruse to see how much the journaler has grown, or to vent off the stress of the day or prepare for the battles to yet come.  Most of all, it serves as an outlet, it allows the journaler to be honest with themselves, to admit weakness, self-doubt, and loathing.  It allows the practitioner to confront their own weaknesses and vent – developing skills in communications, emotional growth, and trauma recovery that are a worthwhile addition to any self-care regimen which has found success in mindfulness.

“One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer and which in a general way are naturally believed, surmised, and admitted by you, but which you’ll unconsciously deny when it comes to the point of gaining hope or peace from such an admission. In the diary you find proof that in situations which today would seem unbearable, you lived, looked around and wrote down observations, that this right hand moved then as it does today, when we may be wiser because we are able to look back upon our former condition, and for that very reason have got to admit the courage of our earlier striving in which we persisted even in sheer ignorance.” - Franz Kafka

References

Aurelius, M., Haines, C.R. (trans.) (161-180 AD) Meditations.  Harvard University Press.  Cambridge, MA.

Edison, T.A., (1885) The Diary of Thomas Alva Edison.  Retrieved on 23 April 2022 from:  http://ariwatch.com/VS/TheDiaryOfThomasEdison.htm

Ekström, C. (June 22, 2020) Comparing the Effects of Positive Psychology Interventions: Using Gratitude Journaling and Personality Strengths Interventions.  Retrieved on 23 April 2022 from:  https://www.proquest.com/docview/2436439170?parentSessionId=Z2ugIyraIEFHKNoIIVUxY0AtP0sF%2FyL810sYV8bVO%2B8%3D&pq-origsite=primo&accountid=9676

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library (2022). The Light Has Gone Out of My Life.  Retrieved on 23 April 2022 from: https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/museum/exhibits/TR/light.htm

Jaco, B. (2021) Art Journaling as a Stress Reduction Technique for School-aged Children.  Retrieved on 23 April 2022 from: https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.bu.edu/docview/2593201544?pq-origsite=primo

Kafka, F. (1948) The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910-1913.  Secker & Warburg Publishing, London, UK.

Lincoln, A. (July 14, 1863) Lincoln’s Unsent Letter to George Meade.  American Battlefield Trust.    Retrieved on 23 April 2022 from: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/lincolns-unsent-letter-george-meade

Riddell, T., Nassif, J., Hategan, A., Jarecki, J. (June 25, 2020). Healthy Habits: Positive Psychology, Journaling, Meditation, and Nature Therapy.  Humanism and Resilience in Residency Training, pgs. 439-472.  Retrieved on 22 April 2022 from: https://link-springer-      com.ezproxy.bu.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-45627-6_14

Rousseau, D., Long, N., Jackson, E., Jurgensen, J., Rosenbaum, J. (September 2019) Empowering Through     Embodied Awareness: Evaluation of a Peer-Facilitated Trauma-Informed Mindfulness    Curriculum in a Woman’s Prison.  The Prison Journal.  Vol. 99, pgs. 14S-37S.

Ullrich, P., Lutgendorf, S. (August 2002) Journaling About Stressful Events: Effects of Cognitive Processing and Emotional Expression.  Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Vol 24, pgs. 244-250.

Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking Publishing.  New York, NY. USA

A Deeper Understanding of Restorative Justice

In our brief reading in this course on Restorative Justice (RJ), we received a surface-level definition appropriate to the scope of the course itself. It is the purpose of this blog post to provide a greater level of understanding of the principles and practices of RJ, highlighting two key points: origins (relating to principles) and process (relating to practices). I will also bring in my own experience practicing RJ where appropriate.

First, the origins of RJ. It is paramount to recognize that RJ is a fundamentally indigenous practice. Howard Zehr (a white man), referenced in our reading, is certainly aware of this, himself trained by indigenous peoples in Canada. He is additionally attuned to the difficulties this creates in attempting to practice RJ. He states that a primary concern of RJ is "whether in articulating and practicing restorative justice we are replicating patterns of racial and economic disparities that are prevalent in society" (Zehr, 2015, 11). In the circles we practice in the federal RJ program, this is a point we frequently touch on. One of our circle leaders is a federal prosecutor (AUSA James Herbert), who could likely be perceived as the "bad guy" by our participants. Each of them has been prosecuted by one of his colleagues; for each of them, someone like him is responsible for how much time they are spending in prison. There is a power dynamic at play there, no matter how hard we try to remove it. This power dynamic has the potential to exert undue influence on our participants, just as the power dynamic inherent in the criminal legal system has the potential to completely erase the roots of RJ, or worse, to use it for its benefit. Yet in our circles, we attempt to subvert those power structures by two affirmations: 1. Affirming that all members of the circle are equal, and in group decisions (if they arise) nobody's vote means less than another; and 2. Affirming that we do not own the practices, as they are indigenous in nature, we simply practice them and thank the indigenous cultures in which they originated. A recent publication, Colorizing Restorative Justice, is an excellent work that explores what heeding the indigenous roots and practicing RJ in a trauma-informed and racially-sensitive manner might look like.

Second, the process. In an optional NYT article for our class, we read about the story of the parents of Conor McBride and his girlfriend Ann, whose parents (Conor's and Ann's) came together in the aftermath of Conor fatally shooting Ann in the head, that the five of them might undergo a kind of RJ process. While it is an incredibly powerful story, this is certainly an anomaly within the RJ world. It also included a story of forgiveness that is not typical of every RJ process. Ann's mother, Kate, said, "Conor owed us a debt he could never repay. And releasing him from that debt would release us from expecting that anything in this world could satisfy us" (Tullis, 2013). This is, again, an anomaly, though the anomalous nature here is perhaps due in part to the fact that it was a murder case. An important part of RJ is for the victim to define what they need from the offender in order to right the wrong that was done. RJ emphasizes that harms create needs, and needs create obligations on behalf of the offender. In this case, Kate did not feel as though there was anything that Conor could do in order to right the loss of the death of her daughter - aside from, perhaps, seeing Conor show remorse and initiative as well as being able to tell him, to his face, how she was effected by the loss of her daughter.

Conversely, in the federal RJ program, most of the people we work with have been convicted of drug charges, not murder charges. Often, we set up victim-offender conferences between former drug dealers and former drug addicts. This commonplace occurrence in our program differs from Conor's situation in two ways. First, there is no loss of life involved, and thus reparations are perhaps more quantifiable. One of the men formerly convicted of drug distribution in particular, after meeting with former drug addicts in the setting of a restorative conference (we call these people "surrogate victims;" people who were not directly harmed by the offender but who have suffered harm similar to the kind the offender inflicted), decided that the way in which he could right the wrongs of his past was to become a social worker, and work with drug addicts. This kind of concrete change is a more typical outcome of the RJ process. Second, we as a program team need to seek people out to participate in our victim-offender conferences - in Conor's case, it was the other way around, as Ann's parents reached out first to his parents and then directly to him. This process involves lengthy one-on-one discussions between us (the facilitators) and both the victims (surrogate or actual) and offenders we seek to involve. The hours of prep-work outnumber the hours of actual conferencing by a significant margin. In other words, it is a long process.

What the NYT article was helpful in outlining, however, is that ideally, RJ is an ongoing practice that is applied not just to the circumstances of a particular harm but to one's entire view of the world. In this way, RJ becomes not just a trauma response, but a preventative measure. While it is not an outright goal of our program, those who participate in our program have a significantly lower recidivism rate than the national average. Overall, RJ invites us to consider that we are more fundamentally communal creatures than our individualistic society might have us believe. It is my hope that this post furthered not just knowledge, but also interest, in restorative justice.

Works Cited

Tullis, P. (2013, January 6). Can Forgiveness Play a Role in Criminal Justice? New York Times.

Valandra, E. C., Ed. (2020). Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities. Living Justice Press.

Zehr, H. (2015). The Little Book of Restorative Justice: Revised and Updated. In H. Zehr, L. S. Amstutz, A. MacRae, & K. Pranis (Eds.), The Big Book of Restorative Justice (pp. 1-108). Good Books.

Trauma-Informed Martial Arts

Yoga, meditation, qigong, expressive arts, and many other lifestyle practices have been shown to have a positive effect on trauma processing and the treatment of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Practices that stress breath awareness and connection, movement of the physical body, and intentional focus on somatic sensation have consistently generated results in allowing the survivors of trauma to access their physical selves, and reintegrate their somatic knowledge to themselves as a whole. Extending these principles and criteria outward, there are a number of other physical practices that should, in theory, provide similar benefits: dance, weight-lifting, running, the martial arts, and others (Van der Kolk, 2014). But with regard to the martial arts specifically, open calls for research and study have only been met by a handful of pilot programs and small-sample studies. As of yet, no comprehensive, well-developed studies have examined the utility of martial arts practice for the treatment of traumatic stress, and no clinically validated programs have attempted to develop a trauma-informed system of martial arts instruction.

However, small independent trauma-informed martial arts programs do exist, including a Tanzanian program developed by Brazilian Jiujitsu instructor Claire Hayes. Hayes’ program, oriented specifically toward sexual assault survivors, emphasizes re-establishing control and autonomy within one’s own body. While martial arts, especially more modern styles like jiujitsu, prioritize heavy contact and imposition of physical force, Hayes modifies her own program to take a graduated approach to the art. The program is oriented toward a discussion of sport jiujitsu, rather than drawing explicit parallels between the art and situations of self-defense and assault, and moves through a series of less-to-more-invasive techniques from wrist grabs to standing grapples to takedowns and full grappling. Hayes has begin to assemble a course framework for use in other studios. Similarly, Australian kickboxing instructor and Muay Thai fighter Georgia Verry adapted an online trauma-informed kickboxing class during the COVID-19 pandemic. Verry’s program blends shadow-boxing and pad-focused kickboxing techniques with meditation, stretching, and somatic processing of stimuli, which Verry conceptualizes as the accessing of traumatic stored emotion as it is brought up during the class (Valentish, 2020).

These pilot programs are small, do not collect efficacy data, and are not focused on building an empirically validated system of clinical intervention around post-traumatic experiences. But they nonetheless show valuable proof-of-concept that trauma-informed martial arts can exist, can draw a student base who may benefit from that specific service, and can be organized and carried out in a way that is responsible and avoids retraumatization. As these pilot programs hopefully become more common, they should ideally be paired with some form of basic participant data collection to measure program efficacy, symptom reduction, somatic reintegration, and other goals of trauma-informed movement therapies. Further, the onus is now on clinicians and researchers to begin to explore the integration of martial arts into formalized trauma-focused therapy, and explore whether martial arts can be efficacious in that manner.

References:

Valentish, J. (2020). ‘You feel like you’re getting your power back’: How martial arts helps recovery from trauma. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/08/you-feel-like-youre-getting-your-power-back-how-martial-arts-helps-recovery-from-trauma.

Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.

Farewell to Lin Yihan, Hope There is No Pain in Heaven

In May of 2017, Lin Yihan, a 26-year-old female author, said goodbye to the world in the form by taking her own life. Her death swiftly went viral in China. And the root cause of her death is her miserable experience in adolescence during which she had been raped by her Chinese teacher for nearly 6 years since her 13 years old (Catherine Lai, 2020). She wrote her real-life into a novel, namely Fang Siqi’s First Love Paradise. Despite the strong support from her parents and husband—she married a year before her death, she couldn’t escape from the traumatic sufferings. I, therefore, think severe childhood trauma may be among the hardest ones to get rid of.

In module 1 of this class, we talked about the reasons why trauma and stress suffers could go onto a completely different life path after experiencing trauma—some may be stronger and more resilient while some may suffer from different kinds of mental illnesses. I mentioned that the severity of trauma is a major factor. According to Van Der Kolk (2014), people with histories of severe, chronic childhood abuse lose the ability to pay attention to themselves because their brain is unable to be activated to create a sense of “self.” They are too painful to receive signals from the outside world. Therefore, they shut down the brain areas that transmit feelings and emotions. On the contrary, such stress reactions are rare among mild trauma sufferers. For example, modern office ladies encounter stress from their work. But such stress cannot be paralleled with that brought by an abnormal original family or child sexual abuse.

In addition to the degree of trauma, I believe that the time a trauma occurred may also be attributed to the results of PTSD or post-traumatic growth. Li Yihan was seduced at the age of 13 until she became an adult. As the book, Fang Siqi’s First Love Paradise describes, Lin’s mental condition was still normal in the first few years, because the man who raped her told her that "this atrocity is love". At that time, that man in her eyes was indeed a "respectable teacher who teaches Chinese, is knowledgeable and has literary talents", because she loved literature since childhood. When did things start to get sour? According to the novel, it was when Fang Siqi, the protagonist of the book, entered high school. She is beautiful, and there are boys to pursue her. These boys would use the “adolescent boys’ way” to court her: they have a crush on her first, secretly look at her every day, and then make appointments, secretly want to hold her hands but dare not do that, let alone other body contacts. For young boys and girls, engaging in intercourse is something that will happen a long time. At this moment, Fang Siqi's view of “normal love” began to collapse. Is what her teacher said right? Or are these young boys right? When she was about 17 years old, she began to experience “dissociation”, that is, she suddenly couldn't remember what she had done, and when she woke up, she seemed to be in a new place and doing new things. That's because she began to understand that the teenagers around her who liked and respected her might be the true love of youth. In other words, she had to admit that the things that she has suffered in the past do not love but boundless pain and torture. The truth was too painful and cruel to make her directly confront. Then she chose to split herself… If she was raped in adulthood, she could at least immediately know what that man did was rape rather than love.

What we learned from Lin’s blooding story is to realize the importance of early sexual education. According to Lisa S. Panisch and her colleagues (2020), a trauma in childhood is prevalent in the U.S. with over 63% of Americans, both men and women, undergoing at least one adverse event when they are young. Given the prominence of this problem, efforts need to be made to implement adolescent sexual health interventions which can help to address trauma. In their study, Dr. Panisch and her team put forward that trauma-informed content needs to be integrated into school curricula so as to give early education on sex. Yet I think we rely on school education to address child trauma is far from enough. At least the other two parties should also do their parts: the government and parents. The rapist in Lin’s case is still teaching Chinese at school. His “unguilty” is also a reason for pushing Lin to end her life because evil isn’t rewarded with evil. The government and authorities, therefore, should formulate related regulations to restrict evils behavior, making them know a crime is too costly to be committed. On the other hand, parents should be more tolerant of and kind to their wounded children and take them to resort to professional therapies. And as a reader and commentators, we should have the very basic conscience of human beings not to accuse and exact the victims.

References:

1. Catherine, Lai. (2020). Suicide of 26-year-old writer sparks public debate on rape and cram schools in Taiwan. Retrieved from https://hongkongfp.com/2017/05/21/suicide-26-year-old-writer-sparks-public-debate-rape-cram-schools-taiwan/
2. Van Der Kolk. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma New York: Penguin.
3. Panisch, lisa S., Faulkner, M., Fernandez, S. b., & Fava, N. M. (2020). Exploring How Trauma Is Addressed in Sexual Education Interventions for Youth: A Scoping Review. Health Education & Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198120954398

Volunteerism as Trauma Therapy

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Gandhi

Trauma not only affects the brain, body and outlook, but also annihilates the perception of agency over one’s life. The abused child, the veteran struggling with memories of wartime horrors and the woman who dares not speak of what she experienced are often left feeling alone and impotent, vulnerable to the world’s ills. Mental health counseling is a time-honored technique for regaining a feeling of ownership over life, but supplements to these traditional therapies have been proven to help increase the efficacy of other methods and speed healing. When it comes to mental health, the more you give, the more you get.

Volunteerism is an alternative approach that researchers have discovered to be both personally empowering and socially productive. Studies have shown the practice to lower symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression while increasing life satisfaction and overall health. And frequency correlates with degree – the more hours, weeks and years devoted to service, the better the mental health outcome.

But why does an activity that focuses on others help the Self? Several theories have been floated about the power of volunteerism, but the correct one may be the sum of many, and personal accounts support that. Iraq war veteran Tim Smith credited his improved PTSD to being part of a team (Lett, 2018); Wisconsin Army National Guard veteran John Stuhlmacher appreciated his renewed sense of purpose and commitment to something “greater” than himself (Silver, 2019); meanwhile, Ricky Lawton, associate director at Simetrica Research Consultancy believes that social connection combined with the “warm glow” intrinsic to volunteering is what benefits the volunteers (Hopper, 2020). Ironic, but whether sorting cans at a food bank, walking animals at a shelter, reading to the elderly or tutoring a child, it is precisely the “escaping one’s own brain” that helps heal it.

The brain itself may play a part, as well, as the often-strenuous charitable activities (think painting houses and planting trees) relate to improved physical and, therefore, mental well-being. Research has yielded positive findings when studying the impact of healthy bodies on healthy minds, whether from the neurotransmitter dopamine released during exercise or merely the conscious satisfaction of a muscle burn.

But can volunteers absorb negative feelings from the people they help? A study out of Spain examined compassion fatigue which occurs when the compassion necessary to helping exceeds the capacity to regenerate, or “bounce back,” leaving caretakers feeling helpless (Gonzalez-Mendez & Diaz, 2021), akin to contagious sadness. The researchers explained that this arises from a “blurred self-other distinction” (Gonzelez-Mendez & Diaz, p.2); that is, the helper becomes compelled to withdraw from the situation in an effort to protect themselves from negative emotions. The answer: self-care. Altruism is admirable but going down with the proverbial ship is counter-productive, unhelpful to both the volunteer and the population in need. It is a delicate dance, deciding when to concentrate on the self or on others when overcoming trauma; self-awareness is key in finding the balance.

References:

Adams, R. E., & Boscarino, J. A. (2015, March 13). Volunteerism and well-being in the context of the World Trade Center Terrorist Attacks. International journal of emergency mental health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4358158/

Gonzalez-Mendez, R., & Díaz, M. (2021, September 1). Volunteers' compassion fatigue, compassion satisfaction, and post-traumatic growth during the SARS-COV-2 lockdown in Spain: Self-compassion and self-determination as predictors. PloS one. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8409613/pdf/pone.0256854.pdf

Hopper, E. (2020, July 3). How volunteering can help your mental health. Greater Good. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_volunteering_can_help_your_mental_health

Lett, B. (2018, April 15). Study shows volunteering improves mental health in veterans. DAV. https://dav.org/learn-more/news/2018/study-shows-volunteering-improves-mental-health-veterans/

Ohrnberger, J., Fichera, E., & Sutton, M. (2017, December). The relationship between physical and mental health: A mediation analysis. Social science & medicine (1982). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617306639?via%3Dihub

Silver, M. (2019, November 4). Veterans and PTSD: How volunteering can bring healing. WUWM 89.7 FM - Milwaukee's NPR. https://www.wuwm.com/news/2018-07-12/veterans-and-ptsd-how-volunteering-can-bring-healing

Van der Kolk, B. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Reprint ed.). Penguin Publishing Group.

Utilizing Yoga as Treatment for PTSD

In this post, I will further the discussion that emphasizes the success of yoga as a treatment approach for individuals with PTSD. To start, I would like to express how I have personally seen yoga ease the tension that PTSD brings. As I have mentioned in many of my discussion posts, my parents are Bosnian genocide victims, and my mom still suffers from PTSD almost daily. She goes to yoga at least twice a week because she has really seen an improvement on her mental state. It allows her to disconnect from the world for an hour and focus on calming down her brain. Yoga is a powerful tool for all, but it is especially essential in treating PTSD.

For centuries, yoga has been used as a practice for the mind as well as the body (Rousseau, 2022). The process of directing your breath and energy to certain parts of your body is a beneficial skill to possess. In our book The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (2014) discusses how yoga was more effective in treating PTSD than medicine (p. 209). This was my favorite part of the book to read. I consider myself more “holistic”. I will try every natural remedy for a headache before I take a Tylenol. I truly believe there are natural and holistic ways of healing what ails our bodies. Obviously, this is very dependent on the individual, and medicine is oftentimes needed. However, yoga can be used in combination with other treatments since it is a physical practice.

References

Rousseau, D. (2022). Module 4: Pathways to recovery: Understanding approaches to trauma treatment. Blackboard, https://onlinecampus.bu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-9960461-dt-content-rid-63971458_1/courses/22sprgmetcj720_o2/course/module4/allpages.htm

van der Kolk, B. A., MD. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin.

Embodiment and Breath Work as form of Therapy?

Embodiment and Breathwork as form of Therapy?

By Sarah Haas- April 16, 2022 CJ720

Although I certainly didn’t have a horrible childhood, as an adult, I can certainly look back and can say there were things of concern going on throughout my life. My parents were divorced and remarried and while there was undoubtedly love in the home there was also dysfunction. My mother was an alcoholic and Lord knows I love her (God rest her soul) the older she got, it seemed the meaner she got when she tied one on. She was intelligent, and a jack of all trades, there is literally nothing couldn’t fix, paint, decorate, refurbish etc... She went back to school in her 20’s and got her CNA but could never hold a job because of the alcoholism despite many of the Dr’s for whom she had worked, attempts to get her help because they believed in her and thought her work ethic (when not hungover) was impeccable. My stepfather, a man who liked to be in control of all things, ran the home with military structure, discipline (which I actually appreciate because it taught me to be structured and organized in my own life)  and was the bread winner  for our large blended family, he was very hard working in and out of the home. My father, a gentle man and gentle soul, has always been opinionated and hardworking but would never raise a hand to a woman, thus allowing himself to be walked all over by my mother and later in life, his (now ex) wife, my hateful stepmother, Kelly. Kelly was clinically diagnosed with Bipolar, which I did not learn until I was eighteen. I’ll spare the details and long-drawn-out story, but will just say this, when she was on her meds, she was one of the most generous, thoughtful and loving people in the world. When she was not on her meds, she had constant up and downs with manic and depression and I just remember always walking on eggshells not knowing what to expect each day; would she be in a good mood today, or would she be angry and hateful to one of us? It wasn’t until I was eighteen when my father kicked her out and filed for divorce that he confided in me that she was clinically diagnosed with bipolar and that he never told my brother or I out of respect for her; he tried to protect us from it as best as possible. I know now, that even though he tried his best, the constant need to walk on eggshells as a young girl has affected me into adulthood. I grew up a habitual nail biter, I also grew a tendency to be constantly nervous or anxious which bled into my 20’s and 30’s and affected many relationships both romantically and with friends/family. In 6^th grade, my stepmom convinced my dad that I should go to a counselor because I was depressed, always had an upset stomach and was anxious often. This was all fine and dandy and I was willing to participate until she started showing up to my meetings and was in the room with me the first few appointments. In what world or who’s rational mind would a child be honest with their therapist about what was going on inside her head when the very person that was was responsible for manipulating her to say all her problems were about their alcoholic mother was sitting right next to her inside the therapist’s office? Even when she stopped coming into my meetings, I feared being honest because I thought my therapist would tell her or my dad. Kelly was 100% the very reason for my anxiety and depression, but if I’m being honest and humble, my mom and stepdad were also at fault for my anxiety and depression. There was physical and verbal altercations taking place more and more as we aged in their home, and they often intentionally were spiteful to my father regarding custody of us because once again, it was a way my stepfather had control over him and also they enjoyed hurting my father. I wasn’t the only child in either home, in my mom’s home, there were 5 kids, in my dad’s 3, so at times, when things were calm/normal for me, I would witness as they not so calm/normal for others.

Fast forwarding through a very long story because you by now get the point of the type of dysfunction in the home, I developed habits that weren’t healthy or safe. I became the child that constantly said thank you or sorry to everyone, out of fear that I would piss off the people in my life I loved (I still do it today, I’m a work in progress). As a young woman, I constantly felt self-conscious and responsible when I could sense tension in someone. I also habitually chewed my nails and cuticles, so bad to the point that my fingers would often be red, swollen and bleeding; ouch talk about sore! I began sleeping around looking for comfort and attention in all the wrong places. And sadly, somewhere around 17, I began to take the path towards bulimia, although it didn’t become an everyday occurrence or serious problem until I was in my early 20’s, thank you Army (the breeding of eating disorders in the military is a whole other topic in and of itself so I digress). Bulimia ruled my life for many years, and so many people had no idea, although there were a few who tried to talk to me about it and I told them they were wrong. I would binge and purge up to three sometimes four times daily and even though I knew it was unhealthy, dangerous and disgusting, I-JUST-COULDN’T-STOP! That is, until I found an embodiment coach and breath work!

At 36, I have only just begun to get a real grasp of my struggles with bulimia or my anixety within the last fifteen months. I have spent the last six years of my life trying to apply self-love habits and techniques to my life because I knew I was worthy and deserved nothing more than to see myself the way that so many others do, but nothing had really stuck consistently until my friend Chrystal Rose began her business and practice of embodiment through a group program called Pendulum at “The Self Love for Breakfast Club.” Although I am a huge advocate of embodiment, I would be remiss if I didn’t say age and maturity has something to do with my healing as well, because had I been introduced to this in my early 20’s I probably would have scoffed at it and laughed thinking how juvenile or weird because only “hippies” or “pot heads” practice that foo foo stuff (note, not my current thoughts, just what I know 20 something year old me would have said). Though I started the practice of self-love about 5 years ago, it wasn’t until this last year that I realized the true impact of my childhood into adulthood in such a negative way and really dove in and invested in true healing and self-love. I have a past riddled with anxiety and depression, yet I also learned to be resilient at a very young age because life goes on and I wasn’t just going to curl up in a ball and let life pass me by as a teenager or as a young woman in the Army. I’m very driven, I’m a perfectionist and, I would consider myself highly resilient because I have and will always want to be successful. I would also say though, that determination to just push through and be resilient can be a double edged sword, in fact, it fueled the fire for anxiety and depression that much more (though I didn’t realize that until my 30’s).

What is embodiment? Embodiment is just another name for being mindful, meditating, feeling and being in tune with yourself, etc.… whatever you want to coin it. It’s merely learning the ability to connect with the sensations inside your body and be fully aware and present (Madeson, 2022). This practice is not easy to learn immediately when our whole lives, we have been taught to just push through to meet the demands of life. In reality, that's the worst thing we could do,  because as we know from our textbook, the body keeps the score and the body is constantly telling us something if we just stop long enough to listen to or feel it. Embodiment is unique, it’s quirky, it’s philosophical and it’s about feeling and learning things deep within our bodies that sometimes make us uncomfortable to realize. When practiced, it is one of the greatest things you can learn to practice for healing and inner peace which will open up doorways you never thought possible regarding trauma, anxiety, depression and in my case,  an eating disorder. Embodiment, when practiced consistently and correctly, allows you to recognize the things (triggers) that elevate your energy and allow you regulate the emotions or responses to those triggers so YOU CAN HAVE BETTER CONTROL OF YOU RATHER THAN AN OUTSIDE FORCE. Now, by no means am I saying that people should discount psychological or psychiatric assistance altogether, I’m not a Dr. and this is something you should deeply research and consider before giving up therapy with a psychologist or psychiatrist vs. an embodiment coach. What I am saying, is that embodiment is just another tool that you can learn and add to your “tool belt” of life to be self-sufficient and independent with; learning to be aware, and to connect with your body to regulate your energy and feelings, it allows you to find balance and self-acceptance, it is a form of somatic psychology (Madeson, 2022). EVERY-SINGLE-THING we go through or witness in life, even if we do not think it is a big deal at the time, sits with us and can impact our physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual selves (Madeson, 2022). The practice of embodiment often uses movement such as dance or yoga, and breath work is an extension of it that. Once again, it allows us to release energy that we are holding in that can affect us negatively or positively. There are three type of sensory feedback systems that embodiment taps into: exteroception, proprioception, and interoception. Exteroception is sensing external environment through our senses of smell, sight, taste and touch. A great example of this would be meditating and practicing mindfulness. Proprioception is “sensory feedback of the body in relation to gravity” and “happens when neurons bring sensory information to the joints of the body and inner ear to the brain” (Madeson, 2022). A great example of this is yoga or dance.  Interoception is our internal body sensory such as hunger thirst, pain or tension and provides “feedback about emotional experiences facilitated by sensory neurons that bring information to the muscles, organs and connective tissue to the brain" (Madeson, 2022).  An example of this is being mindful of how much you eat.

I have sporadically been incorporating yoga in my life for the last 10 years but have only really begun incorporating it in my life three times a week since finding and investing in embodiment a year ago. I can personally speak to the healing it’s brought me physically with my body and emotionally how it’s improved my life. I'm becoming more in tune and comfortable with my true self, and now, I can acknowledge that the bulimia and nail biting were major signs of anxiety in my life (so if you see me as an adult with chewed off, swollen, red nails and/or a swollen face from bulimia, you will know these are telltale signs and a result of my anxiety spiking). I've made so much progress, I can regulate my emotions and responses and the things that used to stress me out or make me feel anxious, no longer bother me and physically (minus my torn rotator) my body is in such a great place; I've lost fifteen pounds and have kept it off and my joint and muscles feel so much better and healthier. Although I've made tremendous progress, I have so much work to do. Admittedly, I have shied away from some things/topics/feelings because they are uncomfortable and things I'm not ready to address yet, but trust and believe, I do intend to continue to make embodiment and yoga a priority in my life (because after all, I am a work in progress). Although I would not say I had a traumatic childhood or life, I do have experiences that shaped me and were deeply rooted in me causing me to act out or conduct myself in unhealthy ways over the last 17 years. Despite the healing and the paramount change embodiment and breath work has brought to my life, I know I have more growth and healing to do. No matter how old we get, we will all (always) have ways in which we can grow and learn. And today, I hope that if you are someone (who took the time to read this long blog) struggling with a painful or traumatic past, that you have found this blog insightful and inspiring; and know that your life can be changed through mindful practices and/or movement in embodiment. Cheers to a better, stronger, truer YOU!

Reference:

Madeson, D. M. (2022, January 17). Postive Psychology.com. Retrieved from Embodiment Practices: How to Heal Through Movement: https://positivepsychology.com/embodiment-philosophy-practices/

How do ordinary men become mass murderers?

When we reflected on the reasons for which ordinary men can become such ruthless killers and mass murderers, I feel that there were two very important psychologists whose work wasn’t mentioned as a possible further explanation and those men are Albert Bandura, an eminent figure in the social psychology field, and Muzafer Sherif, another eminent figure in the social psychology field and in the study of conflicts.

So, how can they be useful to the topic at hand?

Albert Bandura, when discussing moral standards found that it’s not enough to be well educated and morally just, in order to act morally. There’s an in-between which can be crucial to the way a person acts towards another (Celia Moore, 2015). He defines this concept as moral disengagement. Which is a cognitive mechanism by which someone, who has actual moral standards, can step away from them and act immorally without the feeling of distress that usually follows such acts. Moral disengagement is divided into eight specific mechanisms:

• Distortion of consequences
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Advantageous comparison
• Displacement of responsibility
• Moral justification
• Euphemistic labeling
• Dehumanization
• Attribution of blame

I’ll now offer an example for each of those mechanisms.

When talking about the distortion of consequences one might of someone who doesn’t control the use of the water they use because “nothing’s going to happen, this is not going to change the climate change crisis”, whereas diffusion of responsibility often comes in the form of “I shot those innocent people, but so did all my fellow comrades”. Whenever you split your responsibility with somebody else, your guilt lessens, and the more the people you split it with, the less the guilt.

An example of an advantageous comparison is “at least I was quick with killing them, others would have taken them their time with it and maybe even tortured them”.

Then, there's the one that most of the perpetrators of horrors against the Jew people used: displacement of responsibility, which we read in “it wasn’t my fault, I was just following orders”.

Moral justification is another tricky one, not uncommon during wars “I killed them to protect my people, so if I kill them first they can’t kill us”.

Euphemistic labeling comes near the distortion of consequences mechanisms, in this case, you dismiss your action as something not even worth blame, such as “I just merely insulted them, it was nothing”.

Dehumanization is one of the most dangerous mechanisms, fairly common during wars in general, and fundamental during the genocide of the Jew people: when you don’t see the other person as a human anymore, but as a mere object, or nothing more than an animal, you can easily become ruthless because you tell yourself that rules don’t apply anymore. You don’t feel guilty or horrified because you’re not really killing anyone, they’re just bugs, rats, snakes, they’re poisonous plants that need to be eradicated. When you don’t see one’s humanity, you don’t see the one thing you always share with everyone, the one thing that makes us all the same and that is the most dangerous thing.

And, finally, attribution of blame is pretty much self-explanatory. “They deserved this, they did this and brought all this upon themselves” (Celia Moore, 2015).

Sherif, on the other hand, becomes useful in explaining to us how easy can become to see someone as an enemy. A concept we already saw with Zimbardo’s experiment. We, as human beings, have a need to identify with something, in someone. We are our experiences, our relationships, and our roles in society. And we like to think the best of ourselves, regardless of our confidence, we’re like to think that between two groups, even if randomly chosen, our is the best, because that group, if we’re in it, automatically becomes part of ourselves and of how we define ourselves, so if that’s the best group there is, we’re the best.

Briefly put, the Robbers Cave experiment is set in a summer camp. Twenty-two eleven years old boys, with a similar background, were invited to a summer camp. For a while, they all slept in the same, big house, and relationships were allowed to prosper, friendships rose. After a few days, the boys were split into two groups, chosen randomly, and placed in two different camps. After a while, the two groups were put in competition with each other, using games in which they could confront one another. Almost immediately after, the competition and friction on the playfield escalated into mean and vengeful acts, which then escalated into violence. There was nothing that was dividing these groups, no morals, no race, no religion, no social-economic background, and yet, they started hating each other (Muzafer Sherif, O. J. Harvey, B. Jack White, William R. Hood, Carolyn W. Sherif, 1954/1961).

Sherif offers a further explanation of how conflict can literally birth out of thin air. And yet, Hitler did way more than just separate the groups. He yes, put these innocent people aside from society, but he also had laws created against them, he made sure people were indoctrinated against them, the regime taught people to hate them, to fear them. This only amplified the hatred, the mistrust in them, just because someone told them to.

I hope this can be useful to further consider other factors that can come into place when such horrific and tragic acts are committed.

References:

• Moore, C. (2015). Moral disengagement.  Current opinion in psychology, (6), 199-204.
• Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J. (2013). Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment. Literary Licensing.

Denial, the Harmful Resilience

Humans are very resilient, in many different ways. Some of those ways are not necessarily the healthiest. We have this “Keep on trucking” attitude that usually contributes to us overlooking major issues. Therefore we can easily underestimate the individual or generational effects that trauma has on us. “Regardless of how trauma is introduced, the direct and indirect exposure can alter how the brain process information and facilitate behavior (Dr. Rousseau 2021).” The effects of trauma are apparent when looking at our weakest links; our children and unborn children. “Trauma in pregnancy has dramatically increased in the past 25 years and is now the number one cause of non-obstetrical maternal death in the United States. With major trauma, there is a 40 to 50% risk of fetal death.” (D. M. Krywko, F. K. Toy, M. E. Mahan, J. Kiel. 2021)

The unhealthy resilience in adults can cause them to band-aid their harm rather than heal it, therefore continuing to ignore the severe effects of trauma, subsequently causing more harm. It seems we are stuck on a Merry-go-round of trauma, fuelled by denial. Comparable to infants, adults usually do not die physically from trauma, but the effects are dire. More than 17,000 people in the US have died as of May 28, 2021, from gun-related violence. There were 44,834 total deaths by suicide in 2020 according to the CDC and exedra.

The same occurrences that cause adult trauma can cause trauma to an unborn baby “in utero.” and the same deadly effects can occur to both yet we choose to continue ignoring them. One would argue we need to prevent in utero trauma, another will argue that crime rates need to decrease. One will state that poverty needs to be addressed in order to lessen the trauma, and another will argue for a budget increase to police training. All of them would be correct. Writing this blog, I am realizing there is no one topic I could possibly bring to your attention that hasn’t been spoken of to death. There are many brilliant individuals who have thought of trauma prevention, healing trauma, bringing our judicial and mental health systems closer together in order to both prevent and heal trauma, exedra. Yet we find ourselves in the same place asking the same questions years later. So I end this blog without presenting more data to support a topic I may or may not actually have knowledge of. I will not distract you with insignificance. I leave you with a question. What are we missing in order for actual change to happen?

Paper or Plastic?

References:

Pregnancy Trauma

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430926/

Rousseau, D. (2021). Module 3: Neurobiology of Trauma. Boston University Metropolitan College: Blackboard.

Suicides fell in 2020, early CDC data shows

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/suicides-fell-in-2020-early-cdc-data-shows.html

THE IN UTERO EXPERIENCE TRAUMA BEFORE BIRTH

https://www.communityservices.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/1549761/The-in-utero-experience-web.pdf

The US has had 225 mass shootings in 2021 so far. Here's the full list.

https://www.insider.com/number-of-mass-shootings-in-america-this-year-2021-3

Van der Kolk, B.  2014.  The Body Keeps Score:  Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin Random House.  New York.