Welcome to the Trauma and Resilience
Resource Area!
Here you will find additional information about our zones and nervous system regulation, body-based practices that support self-regulation, and protective resources that support healing and resilience.
The Trauma and Transformation series covers four topics, and focuses on four foundational skills.
The Topics
Trauma
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Resilience
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Self-Regulation / Zone Shifting
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Protective Resources
The Skills
Recognize: understand and utilize the wisdom signals of the body
Release: release or transform unwanted feelings or sensations and shift from a reactive state to a receptive state (shift your zone)
​Receive: releasing trauma or stress from the body creates new space in which you can receive more love, kindness, creativity, empowerment, and intuitive wisdom and guidance.
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Reconnect: connect with yourself and/or with supportive family and friends through your favorite activities.
Trauma
Trauma is both simple and complex. The simplest definition of trauma is stress that gets stuck in the body. Our bodies intuitively know how to release stress - we have a natural impulse to yell, cry, shake, shudder, rock back and forth, or perform some other kind of physical expression. If the stress is fully released, then the stress cycle is complete, and our bodies return to a rest-and-connect state.
When the stress cycle is not completed, the chemical and electrical energy remains stuck in the body and becomes trauma. Over time, this impacts our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. ​ Trauma becomes more complex when we look at the reasons the stress cycle wasn't completed. Humans are creatures that make meaning. We attach significance to everything from hair color (blonds are dumb) to the type of car someone drives (Subarus are liberal), to hobbies and career choices (knitting is effeminate and science is nerdy) and to the nature of reality itself (all spiritual, religious and philosophical traditions.) Our meaning-making can be a strong protective resource, and it can also be a restrictive filter which limits the way we see ourselves or others.
In this western culture, we have attached negative meaning to many of our natural stress releases. As we grow up, we are taught to suppress these natural impulses because we don't want to be seen as weak, foolish, embarrassing, or even mentally unstable.
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In this cultural environment, we suppress our natural impulses and block the stress cycle from becoming complete because:
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We weren't taught about the stress cycle or how to complete it
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We're afraid of being considered weak, foolish or unstable
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We don't have trusted people who tell us its normal to release stress in this way and support us without conditions
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This can further complicate the stress cycle by increasing our sense of powerlessness or overwhelm. The more overwhelmed we feel, the less likely we are to complete the stress cycle and reconnect with our protective resources. This not only writes the stress deeper into the body, it often also deepens the negative stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what our worth is.
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Resilience
Simply put, resilience is the ability to complete the stress cycle despite external circumstances or negative inner stories like self-criticism or shame. As an inner quality, it gets stronger the more we know, like, and trust ourselves. Resilience is at its deepest when our fundamental sense of authority and security comes from within us, rather than from other people or circumstances.
Resilience is supported by three main types of protective resources: inner resources, personal resources and social resources.
Our Nervous System States
Learn more about your nervous system states (aka The Zones) and how you can shift from a reactive state to a receptive state.
Your Intuitive Self
Learn more about why your intuitive self can be one of your greatest protective resources, and how to deepen your connection to your own inner wisdom and guidance.
Techniques for Shifting Zones
A list of simple body-based techniques that can help you shift your Zone from reactive to receptive.
Protective Resources
Post-traumatic growth and resilience are deeply supported by protective resources; inner, personal and social.