Trauma, Neuroplasticity, & our Capacity for Change
What is trauma?
Trauma can be described as an impactful event that you were unable to cope with and integrate when it happened. You experienced acute distress during the event and therefore your nervous system activated fight and flight mode. Your nervous system experienced more energy (fight and flight- or survival-energy) than it was able to cope with at the time. The fight and flight energy you experienced during the trauma is stored in your body and affects how you experience yourself and the world around you today.
The trauma was either a one-time event, or you experienced the traumatic event for longer, hours, days, weeks, months or even years.
Think of your nervous system as an elastic flexible band or a slinky that stretches out when you face difficulty or emotional/physical impact. The band or slinky relaxes when there is no impact. This is the power of your nervous system. But what happens when you overstretch a slinky?
When a slinky gets overstretched, it loses elasticity and flexibility Have you ever tried to fix a broken slinky? I have… and in all honesty, it did not work that well. Fortunately, our nervous systems have superpowers that broken Slinkys don’t have …
The Good News
I mentioned that our nervous systems have superpowers that broken Slinkys don’t have. Nervous systems are never truly broken because they have the elasticity to bounce back.
Have you ever heard the term Neuroplasticity? It refers to our brains’ ability to learn, grow and change! The brain’s physical structure changes as a result of learning and growth!
This amazing ability works in our favour! Through creating neural pathways that support our well-being and growth, we can create changes that last!
Our nervous systems are wired to return to balance! Our nervous systems have the capacity to heal…
…but sometimes they need a little help to do so.
There are many different techniques for trauma healing.
Some people from the field of trauma research say that people that have healed trauma, have a greater nervous capacity compared to people who have not suffered trauma. In my work as a counsellor, I continue to be humbled by the resilience and capacity that clients who have been through much have earned.
