Stress affects everybody at different points in their life. Some stress is necessary and also welcome at times. It helps to provide focus when we must prepare for an important meeting, sit an exam or prepare for a change. When the event is over our body returns to safety and feelings of calm. We return to a regulated state. If a person has experienced trauma this process does not easily happen.
“Life is full of stress, wherein your body can go back to feeling safe and calm, but trauma refers to stress so extreme that you can’t return to baseline. When it is over you continue to feel that is happening right now and the body continues to carry the event with you.” –Bessel Van Der Kolk – 2021
Psychological trauma is an individual’s experience of emotional distress resulting from events that threaten or overwhelm our feelings of safety and include feelings of powerlessness. Trauma can be categorized as small ’t’ and big ‘t’ traumas.
Small ‘t’ traumas are events that exceed our capacity to cope and cause emotional dysregulation. These disturbing events are not inherently life-threatening but can leave a person feeling helpless or hopeless. Some examples of small ‘t’ traumas might include financial worries, divorce, or interpersonal conflict.
A big ‘t’ trauma is explained as a significant event that leaves the individual feeling powerless and possessing little control in their environment. Such events could take the form of a natural disaster, terrorist attack, sexual assault, combat, or a car accident.
These events can become stuck in the body and leave a person in a state of dysregulation until such a time as the event can be processed. This can vary in time range and depends on a myriad of factors. For some people who experience trauma very early in life and have never experienced, or experienced very little support and safety, a state of dysregulation can become the norm and something they can remain in indefinitely, without conscious awareness of why they might be experiencing anxiety, depression or somatic symptoms.
“Trauma is an invisible force that shapes our lives. It shapes the way we live, the way we love and the way we make sense of the world. It is the root of our deepest wounds” – Gabor Mate
Window of tolerance
Daniel Siegel founded the concept of the window of tolerance. It describes when we are in an optimal emotional state or that our nervous system is regulated. There are two alternative states we can be in, hyperarousal and hypoarousal.
In hyperarousal, we may experience symptoms such as anxiety, panic and anger. This is a high-energy state of being. In contrast, Hypo arousal is when a person shuts down. Its presence can be described as depression, withdrawal, and dissociation.
Our window of tolerance is what allows us to move functionally throughout our lives and in our relationships. When we are within our window of tolerance we have access to the part of our brain, prefrontal cortex and executive functioning, which allows us to organise tasks, plan, stay focused and regulate our emotions.
When we are outside of this window, we lose access to these skills and may take panicked action or no action at all. We may engage in self-harm behaviours that affect our relationships with ourselves and others around us.
As mentioned above we all experience stress at different times of our lives and can all find ourselves outside our window of tolerance. This is natural. The goal is not to remain within our window at all times but rather to have sufficient internal and external resources that will allow us to return to a regulated state when the stress has passed or the traumatic event has been processed to completion.
Healing from trauma
Healing our traumatic wounds is possible. We can widen our window of tolerance and make it easier for us to return to baseline once a stressor has passed. Recovery can only take place within safe relationships, it cannot be done in isolation.
“The core experiences of psychological trauma are disempowerment and disconnection from others. Recovery, therefore, is based upon the empowerment of the survivor and the creation of new connections.” – Judith Herman, 1992
Finding a therapist who practices in a trauma-informed way, creating a safe relationship that fosters growth, resilience and healing can be a key element for a lot of people. This along with identifying connections outside of therapy who will support you on your journey is essential. These relationships will include trust and transparency, empowerment and choice and collaboration to name a few.
Some effective modalities of therapy that have shown positive outcomes for individuals are EMDR (eye movement desensitisation reprocessing), Sensorimotor, Somatic techniques and Polyvagal Therapy. All of these modalities will focus on establishing a relationship built on safety with a focus on building internal and external resources to empower an individual to take ownership and reclaim their life in a healthy, boundaries way.
Written by Niamh Byrne, BA(Hons) Counselling & Psychotherapy, MIACP. PCI Associate Lecturer.
References
Barbash, E. (2017). Different Types of Trauma: Small ‘t’ versus Large ‘T’. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/trauma-and-hope/201703/different-types-trauma-small-t-versus-large-t
Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and recovery. Basic Books.
Mate, G. (2024). Retrieved from: http://drgabormate.com/the-wisdom-of-trauma/
Van Der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score. Penguin Random House.
Wright, A. (2022). What Is the Window of Tolerance, and Why Is It So Important?. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ie/blog/making-the-whole-beautiful/202205/what-is-the-window-tolerance-and-why-is-it-so-important#:~:text=The%20Window%20of%20Tolerance%20is%20a%20term%20coined,zones%3A%20the%20hyper-arousal%20zone%20and%20the%20hypo-arousal%20zone