Healing Traumatic Wounds from Childhood


We are just beginning to understand that psychological trauma from emotional, physical and sexual abuse in childhood is epidemic in our society. We know the extent of the problem, and that trauma is trauma, no matter how it happens. For example, a child living in an anger-filled or incestuous home may have all the signs and symptoms of the traumatized Vietnam veteran. We know too that the cause of the lasting distress may be largely physical, resulting from permanently altered neurology and biochemisty.

The human organism is designed to survive life-threatening situations by automatically responding with the fight or flight adaptation. Once this alarm system is alerted, everything in the body is geared up for survival for the next few minutes. The heart pumps blood furiously to the muscles. All unnecessary functions shut down. The mouth goes dry as digestion stops. Bowels and bladder want to empty to make you light for running or fighting. Reproductive activities stop, as does growth. The immune system stops working.

This is wonderfully adaprtive in the midst of a war zone or when you are being chased by a tiger. The problem arises when the war zone is in the home or in a setting where fighting and running are not useful. When a small child's fight or flight adaptations are constantly being fired, the developing brain may suffer lasting damage.

The traumatized person continues to have an exaggerated startle response. The Vietnam veteran still reacts as if he is in the combat zone. Nightmares, phobias, seemingly groundless fears and an exaggerated reaction to any stimulus which triggers the memory of the original terror continue to trouble the trauma survivor.

One of the most damaging lasting effects for persons traumatized in chidlhood is the difficulty in establishing appropriate trust in relationships. When trust has been betrayed by those on whom the child depended, it is very difficult to learn to trust appropriately again. Survivors of childhood trauma tend to trust the wrong people, if they trust at all. Their ability to accurately sense abuse and betrayal is lacking.

Focusing is an ideal way to heal from childhood trauma. For the first time ever, the survivor is safe to explore her own reactions and feelings in the presence of another human. The therapeutic relationship provides the respect and neutrality, along with a non-manipulative interest in the client's inner process. For survivors of dysfunctional families this is a novel experience. Within the therapeutic relationship the client is encouraged to explore her feelings and thoughts, something that would never happen in an abusive family. The client even gets to articulate his experience - a very different experience from the "dont' think, don't feel and don't talk about it" rule of the dysfunctional family.

But even Focusing Oriented Psychotherapy cannot fully address the physical damage left by trauma. For this we can turn to EMDR. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a new therapeutic technique which changes the way the brain stores traumatic memory. It was developed by Francine Shapiro when she discovered by chance that her own traumatic thinking was dramatically changed when her eyes began voluntarily to move rapidly side to side as she thought about her own trauma.

This chance experience has now evolved into a highly effective treatment for trauma in which thousands have been trained as clinicians. It is totally compatible with our way of working as it is client-centered and views the client's body as dong the healing in the presence of the skilled therapist. For EMDR as for Focusing, the body is always trying to move toward health.

Focusers suffering from the effects of childhood trauma can be optimistic about getting results very quickly from EMDR. A list of those trained in EMDR may be obtained from the EMDR Institute, P.O. Box 51098, Pacific Grove, California, 93950-6010. Of course, ideally, you would find a Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist who has also been trained by the EMDR Institute.

In my own practice as a Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist I will sometimes set aside a few sessions for EMDR to deal with traumatically held memories. If I were not trained in EMDR, I could still refer my client for a few sessions to someone who is. When a client has been sufficiently prepared, EMDR works very fast. Three to six sessions may be enough work for the client who is already working in therapy to move foward previously resistant traumatic issues. Then the client would return to his usual work with his regular therapist.

My own clients who have become familiar with EMDR often say something like: "I'm stuck here. Do a little EMDR to get me moving." Then once they have got past the stuck place (which is stuck physically in the brain), we resume our usual way of working.

I hope this short article will be useful to some of you. This has been a very brief overview of a complicated subject - how trauma gets stuck in the brain and how, in my opinion, we can deal with it most effectively. If you would like a fuller discussion, you might want to read my longer article in the current volume of The Focusing Folio (Vol. 16, no 3)

"Respecting the Blocks", The Focusing Connection, Vol. XVI, No.2, March 1998.