WHAT IS TRAUMA AND HOW CAN BCST HELP?
Trauma can be defined as anything that overwhelms our nervous system and resources. We can be overwhelmed by one big event or an accumulation of smaller events. To face trauma our nervous system has 3 survival mechanisms: fight/flight and freeze. Meaning, you would gather all the energy and resources to fight the perceived threat, run away from the perceived threat or go into a state of freeze. If the outcome of either of the responses is positive, you are able to get back to homeostasis or balance in the body easily. But if the outcome of the response doesn’t go favorably, the body stays stuck in that threat way longer than it has passed. This could be months or years. And this state of being stuck stays physiologically in all the body systems - almost like an emotional scar. Time passes, but the body remembers and so when many months or years later a similar situation resurfaces, the response or reaction both physically and emotionally is the same like when it happened for the first time.
When we are overwhelmed, we rely on very primitive responses that are hard-wired into our physiology. The body makes decisions more quickly than our conscious thought. Our thinking and understanding lag behind what is going on in our bodies.
Trauma makes one feel isolated, unsafe and disconnected/dissociated from their body. In trauma, one loses touch with the stories our body is trying to tell us. Losing a sense of our body, being and feeling unstable, unclear and non-perceptive. Dissociation is particularly connected to the experience of feeling helpless.
Having clients reconnect with their body, sensations, with the natural world in present-time gradually and safely is a clinical priority. Not much healing can occur if the person is not embodied. BCST helps clients their system orient to safety in the present time and down regulates the fight-flight or freeze response. Patterns of our experiences get imprinted in our bodies and bringing awareness and choice to our habitual responses and our deepest imprints is a huge part of BCST.