My Response to an Article about Trauma
Hey! I am really excited to share that I was published! I responded to an article published by a company (with offices in Austria and California) that I really like and they asked me if they could publish my response! YES! I said. So I thought I’d share it with you too!
Below is their initial article and then you will find my response below that. Cool eh! 😀
ARTICLE FROM VITAFIELD
Shaking It Out: A Functional Way To Deal With Trauma
© 2022 Frequencell Inc. All rights reserved.
Dear Lisa,
Before we can shake out trauma, we must first deal with a principal dogma associated with the condition: psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy is a spectacularly inefficient way of dealing with trauma simply because trauma doesn’t primarily reside in the brain, nor is it chiefly psychological. The bulk of trauma resides in muscle, bone, and tissue as a persistent electromagnetic charge that most animals (say, the zebra, after evading a lion attack) “shake off” within minutes of the traumatic event. This type of release is permanent.
Not so with humans.
Our parents teach us to suppress the instinct of “letting it all out” already in early childhood. We can feel rejected, scorned, shamed, or abandoned (i.e., attacked) by behavior that, for our parents, is relatively innocuous and then told to put a lid on it when we react emotionally.
Containment, suppression, and self-control are the dominant forces that ferment long-term trauma in the body – a standard feature of the “civilized” world.
The real problem is not the off-beat electromagnetic charge in the tissue but the cascade effect it causes for our mind-body-spirit.
Because of trauma, the body tends to remain in sympathetic nervous system dominance (fight-freeze-flight) and therefore constantly “drip” excess stress hormones into the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis – keeping us jacked against threats rather than focused on joy or purpose.
Life gets stuck in the “struggle” mode.
Blood circulation favors the extremities rather than the center – the gut and the gastrointestinal tract – which houses some 100 trillion bacteria with critical mission parameters, including neurotransmitters production, hormone balance, and the immune system.
This is how seemingly benign trauma that persists over decades – untreated or unacknowledged – can slowly undermine some of the most critical functions in our life, make us depressed, less resistant to disease, and hormonally unstable. We turn to addictions (chemicals, behaviors) as a suppression mechanism.
Too often, a relatively innocuous childhood event can cause a butterfly effect on our life trajectory.
The good news is that it’s never too late to discharge.
Life is a miracle, and it’s always ready to open up to a new version of you if you’re open to the challenge.
The key is connecting with the body, using breathing protocols focusing on the heart space. When we practice the art of centering daily, we can gradually connect with past trauma and start to bring up the images and emotions associated with that charge.
No, you don’t need to become a meditating yogi for this. Go out in nature and let your eyes carouse the horizon as you feel the sensations. Once the emotions emerge, acknowledge them.
Then let them go.
You can shake them off, too, once they start to surface. Just be uncivilized once in your lifetime, and scream at infinity. Or the tree. Or your neighbor.
We are not trying to give you the impression that releasing trauma is a cakewalk, but the reality is that it is a lot less complicated than most people can imagine once they start to connect with themselves.
When you recognize the charge, the emotions and feelings it gives rise to, simply observe without judgement. These vibes have nothing to do with “me” – it’s a program. Then let it go. Recognize that you don’t need it anymore, it has no influence over you.
You may have to do this once or a few times, it’s individual for everybody. Go with what your body tells you, it knows best.
Depending on the person’s focus, trauma therapists who use Vitalfield applications also recommend BALANCE and PINEAL GLAND Cells.
If you are dealing with addictions – food, alcohol, drugs, behaviors – and recognize that they are a way to suppress the inability to calm down, start with BALANCE.
If the primary issue is more profound and is manifesting at a hormonal level, causing depression and anxiety, we recommend starting with the PINEAL GLAND set.
As always, we stand by our 30-day risk free trial. If you have questions or need guidance on which FrequenCell may work best for you, reach out to concierge@vitalfield.com.
Ask us questions. We’re here to help!
In health and wellness,
The FrequenCell Team
www.VitalField.com
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MY RESPONSE
A few weeks ago, our newsletter on the topic of trauma sparked a response from one of our valued subscribers and customers. We received Lisa’s permission to share her perspective as a Trauma Informed Coach & Nervous System RESET Practitioner (Qualifying):
Hi there,
I respect the work Vitalfield does and love your products. I recommend them often. I also understand the intention of your article but I feel you have misrepresented psychotherapy. It’s “talk therapy“ that is ineffective at releasing unresolved trauma in the body, not psychotherapy at large.
I realize talk therapy has been a cornerstone of psychotherapy for many years however, psychotherapy has grown over the past 10 plus years and includes such modalities as EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Brain Spotting, Expressive Art Therapy, Nervous System RESET and many other body based, somatic practices to help discharge trauma in the body.
So although your intentions are good in the attached article, I feel it is important to make that clarification as seeing a Trauma Informed psychotherapist who offers body based practices with an awareness of polyvagal theory is essential for someone who has trauma and is seeking support.
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Another point that should be made is that trauma work takes time. It’s a slow process, one where titration is key. And you can’t just “shake it off.” The discharge process can be very activating for some so body based practices, sensory explorations and neural exercises need to be accessed to determine if they are activating or settling for each individual. It’s not a one size fits all process. For some people breath work is activating and could agitate their nervous system while for others it’s settling. Closing one’s eyes can also be scary for some people so sitting in meditation could be retraumatizing.
A trained professional needs to support their client to slowly determine which somatic practices bring them closer to a feeling of safety by tracking each one. From there a program that is catered to their unique needs can be created. Once this is in place and they have a tool box of resources that support their nervous system and help to settle it, then one can slowly begin to discharge the unresolved trauma. Without this in place, someone could be retraumatized if they only discharge and don’t have a set of somatic practices that help their body down regulate and return to a feeling of safety and settling.
Thanks for the great work Vitalfield continues to do.
Much,
Lisa Cipparone
Nervous System RESET Practitioner (Qualifying) |
RYT- 500 | Energy Healer |
www.LisaCipparone.ca
