Stopping the Trauma Cycle: Mind-Body Healing Strategies

Aug 30, 2024 09:30AM ● By Carrie Gauthier

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Trauma can strike anyone at any time. Loss, heartbreak, abuse, violence, displacement, accidents, disasters, health problems—the list of possible traumas is endless. According to the National Council for Behavioral Health, 70 percent of adults have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lives, and more than a third of youth exposed to community violence experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Trauma is a factor in most behavioral health and substance use disorders. While trauma may be part of our lives, it does not need to define who we are or how we enjoy our lives. Healing from trauma can take time, but it is within reach.

Physical and Mental Health Effects

Left untreated, trauma or repeated trauma has a wide range of short- and long-term effects on physical and mental health. Trauma increases stress and keeps the fight-or-flight response on elevated alert, resulting in the release of chronically high amounts of cortisol into the body. Initial reactions may include exhaustion, numbness, sadness, anxiety and dissociation. Excessive cortisol increases the risk of serious health conditions such as heart disease, digestive problems, muscle tension, headaches, sleep issues, weight gain, irregular periods, anxiety, depression and cognitive challenges.

Cycle of Addiction

Trauma is a common precursor to addiction, because individuals often turn to substances as a coping mechanism for their emotional pain. The use of drugs or alcohol gives trauma sufferers a reprieve from their chronic stress by producing pleasure and reducing negative feelings, and may even slow their central nervous system. Untreated, trauma can lead to a vicious cycle where one condition feeds the other.

Integrative Approaches to Healing

While medications such as antidepressants and antipsychotics can be effective in treating trauma symptoms, they may fall short in addressing the root cause. An integrative approach to trauma healing adds evidence-based therapies to tackle the underlying causes and promote long-term recovery.

Integrative Psychiatry

James Greenblatt, a board-certified functional and integrative psychiatrist and founder of Psychiatry Redefined, believes in a broader view of psychiatric care. “For example, if our patient is suffering from depression and we were to tell them they should exercise because it’s the best antidepressant we have, that could come off as incredibly insensitive, ruin our chances of gaining their trust and add to their feelings of helplessness and isolation. Alternatively, if we show them how to recover their motivation and energy, that is the way to begin the relationship.”

“Our bodies are different, and our genetics are different. How we react to stress and trauma are different too. I start with lab and genetic tests to see if there’s something I can optimize biologically. Then we supplement any nutritional deficiencies to restore their functionality and increase their energy. These tests also partially help inform the way we design the complementary healing modality plan. This is the piece that gets missed a lot,” says Greenblatt, adding that he tests depressed patients for a vitamin B12 deficiency, which may contribute to depression, anxiety and even psychosis.

Finding a Safe Place

Children are particularly susceptible to trauma, and an adverse childhood experience (ACE) can pose lifelong impacts. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 64 percent of adults say they have had at least one ACE, and 17 percent say they had four or more by age 18. ACEs can rob kids of the magic of childhood, disrupt their development and lead to maladaptive behaviors in adulthood.

Aimie Apigian, a double board-certified physician in preventative and addiction medicine and founder of Trauma Healing Accelerated, started her work with attachment and trauma by working with adoptive families to help their children with attachment insecurity. She explains that childhood traumatic experiences can result in “underlying mistrust—literally wiring a child’s nervous system, brain and body for survival—and overwhelm connection, security and safety.”

Somatic therapy is one modality that Apigian integrates to assist individuals on their trauma healing journey, helping them connect with their bodies, learn to understand its messages and resolve stored trauma. Apigian explains that just 10 minutes of sequential somatic exercises over 21 days can restore a sense of safety. “For each person, the specific improvement or the degree of improvement will be different, but there will be an improvement as soon as we shift our biology into one of safety rather than of danger.”

By following an essential sequence to safely address stored trauma through somatic exercises, Apigian says people “experience 30 percent less depression, 30 percent less anxiety, 30 percent fewer digestive issues, 30 percent improvement in energy and a 60 percent increase in their feelings of safety. The essential sequence has to start with creating a felt sense of safety, then a sense of support and then opening up while pacing our process. It is such a powerful way to empower them for their lifetime.”

Reaching Our Inner Child

Inner-child work can help develop a dialogue to reach the place where we hold past emotions, memories, beliefs, hopes and dreams. “I tell people when they’re starting this journey, if they put their hands on their belly above and below their bellybutton and just let the hands be there, that will calm down an aspect of us so that it begins to feel safe. It’s called the basic self,” says Dr. Lin Morel, a trauma management specialist and founder of Beyond Words Group. “It’s an aspect of our consciousness that is roughly 5 years old, if you were to give it an age. So it gets very fearful, and if it’s not loved, it will act out.”

According to Morel, embracing the basic self can help people out of some of the darkest corners of trauma. No stranger to childhood and adult trauma herself, she empowers her patients with the W.I.N. protocol (willingness, intention, neutrality), which offers them a fresh approach to handling challenges while developing their intuition and regulating emotions as a neutral observer.

Mindful Self-Regulation

There is growing evidence that mindfulness-based practices such as meditation and yoga aid in shifting focus from the negative to the positive aspects of experiences. These techniques calm the nervous system and empower individuals to take control of their narratives and foster resilience.

A 2017 review of 10 controlled trials involving meditation interventions of mindfulness-based stress reduction, yoga and mantra-repetition programs with nearly 650 trauma sufferers was published in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. The researchers concluded that meditation was effective for treating PTSD and depression symptoms as compared to the control groups.

A 2022 systemic review of 149 records and 11 peer-reviewed articles published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that those that practiced yoga had an increased sense of self-compassion, felt more centered, developed coping skills, had a better mind-body relationship and improved their relationships with others. Participants also experienced a feeling of safety in yoga classes that included others recovering from trauma.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is a mind-body practice that uses a trance-like state of deep relaxation to treat psychological and emotional disorders. Guided imagery, progressive relaxation and suggestion therapy are used to explore thoughts, feelings and memories that may be hidden from the conscious mind. Self-hypnosis techniques are also taught for ongoing support, empowering individuals to continue their healing outside of therapy sessions. A 2016 meta-analysis published in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis concluded that hypnosis is effective in alleviating PTSD symptoms.

“A miracle, simply, is a shift in the mind. Once you find the root cause of the problem in the mind and bring that to consciousness, we’re shifting from ego to true self, from fear to love, from illusion to truth,” says Matthew Brownstein, executive director of the Institute of Interpersonal Hypnotherapy. “Through hypnotherapy, that shift is actually remarkably easy. You can shift as quickly as I can snap my fingers. So, basically, when you change your mind, everything changes. When a decision is made, it stays in place until you choose again.”

Carrie Gauthier is a writer in the healing arts with interests in clinical and transpersonal hypnotherapy.