Three Key Components of Healing: A Trauma Specialist’s Perspective
As a trauma specialist with a strong background in neuroscience and a body-based approach to healing, I often share my perspective on healing with patients to help break down a process that may initially feel daunting. Today, I’d share this perspective with you.
This is a distilled way of explaining the healing process when it comes to trauma, whether it be acute or complex (more on that distinction here). These components don't necessarily follow a particular order- they're interconnected and rely on each other. Think of them as three legs of a stool; when all three are strong, you have a stable foundation for lasting change.
Component One: Healing Trauma on a Neurobiological Level
The first key component is helping your nervous system stop hijacking you. Any trauma survivor knows the feeling of being completely overwhelmed and losing control over their emotions or physical reactions. This experience occurs when our limbic system, where our trauma is stored and survival modes are activated, takes over the nervous system.
Simply put, our reactions tend to fall into one of two categories based on the stimuli in our environment (what we see, hear, smell, feel) and our personal histories. Those categories are "I'm in actual danger" or "We're all good." The more extensive your trauma history, the more likely your brain will falsely perceive stimuli as a threat. After all, our brains err on the side of caution when it comes to survival. If there are lots of scary memories ready to be triggered, your brain is likely to thrust you into survival mode- most often, totally unnecessarily.
During therapy, we work on a neurological level to reprocess these memories and clear out that traumatic history from your nervous system's storage center, the limbic system. This significantly lessens the chance of hijacking. Sure, you might still have reactions at this point in the process, but the goal is for them not to overwhelm you- to feel more like a 1, 2, or 3 out of 10 than an 8, 9, or 10.
Component Two: Accessing Your Clear, Calm Self
This means learning to decipher between a true potential threat- whether physical, social (like your relationships or reputation), emotional, or even financial- versus something that's not an actual threat and perhaps just some benign reminder of the past.
When survival mode isn't hijacking us any longer, we have much better access to our reasonable minds. You've got your body, which experiences all kinds of sensations- a knot in your stomach, heartbreak, tension, heaviness, heat, or that frozen feeling. And then you've got your Self- the generally clear, calm consciousness that some might describe as their spirit, soul, inner knowing, or wise mind. This Self can observe your body and even guide you.
This awareness, which we help you to build during therapy, becomes critical when assessing whether your body is reacting to some random stimulus that reminds you of your past- for example, how someone furrows their brows, a certain tone in someone's voice, a particular color, or even the scent of something that happened to be present during a traumatic memory, or if there's an actual here-and-now threat.
Building the ability to access and use your Self-led mind allows you the necessary wherewithal to ask: "Am I really trapped in a toxic relationship, or am I just worried they’ll treat me like my last partner did? Am I actually very sick, or just experiencing healthy anxiety? Did I truly do something wrong and shameful, or am I being overly self-critical?" Practicing this discernment between past and present, the fears and the reality, between a triggered reaction and genuine intuition, is essential for healthy decision-making.
Component Three: Knowing What to Do Next
The final component is building the ability to use that information to make reasonable, healthy decisions about what to do next. If there is an actual threat, you need to take pretty immediate action to protect yourself- often through fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses. But, if you're not in real danger, you need to soothe your body, which can't always tell the difference between past and present.
Essentially, you’ll learn how to speak the language of your nervous system and be able to select which form of somatic care it needs to turn off the survival mode, preferably as quickly as possible. You're not only going to feel better but also stay safer by conserving all that energy and alertness for actual threats. This is when your toolbox of nervous system regulation techniques becomes invaluable.
Throughout therapy with me or my team, you’ll learn an array of somatic techniques and become well acquainted with which your body responds best to. The goal here is to help you feel confident in your ability to regulate your own nervous system.
Your Path Forward
Healing isn't linear, and these three components don't happen in isolation. Some days you simply won’t react to previous triggers and feel masterful at self-soothing when needed, other days your nervous system may be exposed to a trauma stimulus we haven’t worked on yet, and become reactive. That's not failure- that's the natural rhythm of healing.
Remember, your nervous system developed these protective patterns for good reasons and reacts with good intentions. As you learn to update your brain to a safer environment and become acquainted with your body’s language, be patient with yourself. You're not trying to shut down your body's wisdom; you're helping it become more accurate and proportionate to present-day reality.
I wholeheartedly believe you have everything within you that you need to heal. Sometimes you just need someone to offer both a gentle push forward and a soft place to land while you transform your life. Your healing matters, and you're worth every bit of effort it takes to reclaim your sense of safety and wholeness.
Written by Dr Megan Mansfield (PSY31497), Clinical Psychologist and trauma specialist. If you’re ready to begin your journey or have some questions about the process, schedule a time to talk with Dr Megan here.