We believe in functional mental wellness, a holistic approach to mental health. We know that there's hope for those of us who have experienced trauma, even profound trauma and that's why we created the universe is your therapist podcast, we believe whether you call it God, the universe, source, unity or love that there is something much greater than us that conspires for our good, we envision a world of healing and connection, and we teach you simple but powerful practices that integrate your mind, body and spirit so that you can come home to your highest self and your truest identity. You are not broken, you are loved, and you can heal. My name is Amy Hoyt, and together with my sister, Lena, we will take you on a journey of healing and self discovery. Welcome back to another episode of the podcast today, we are really excited to address some of the top five questions we receive from clients in our program, the whole health lab, as well as potential clients and just friends on social media. So today's episode is the top five questions about trauma that we receive. The number one question we receive about trauma is what exactly is trauma,
there are a lot of definitions floating around out there. And basically, it's having an experience that overwhelms your nervous system. But it's also having an experience or a set of experiences that alters your sense of the world and your sense about yourself. And it has to do with feeling a sense of safety and has to do with feeling worthy of love or worthy of attention. That kind of thing.
And we've hear a lot of terms about trauma. So I've heard. And of course, we talked about this in our program, but for our listeners, there's childhood trauma, there's complex trauma, there's PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. What are the differences between the different types of traumas that you hear
when we talk about childhood trauma or complex trauma, we oftentimes can get the the two phrases mixed up, or the true terms mixed up. Childhood Trauma refers to things that have happened in our childhood, that are traumatic, it can be a one time event, or it can be something that has shown up in the relationship with our caregivers. And it affects the way that we form attachments and then informs the way we connect with others throughout the rest of our life. complex trauma occurs in childhood as well. And it is referencing the idea that somebody has had a series of like events happen over and over and over again, or a set of ongoing events that happens. And that doesn't allow the nervous system to recalibrate after it like a single event trauma.
Oh, thank you. And then I know PTSD came about after the Vietnam War, that was post traumatic stress disorder that I saw in war post war research. And that comes largely out of Dr. Bessel Vander Kolk. And then I'm also aware that trauma can include a single event in adulthood, like a major car accident, or something that's very disturbing, you know, being for instance, robbed armed robbery. And so I think what's important for our listeners listeners to understand is that you can have a sustained pattern in childhood that is really dysfunctional, that's complex trauma, you can have something bad happened to you in childhood, that's childhood trauma. That's not necessarily a sustained complex pattern. You can have PTSD, where you're having symptoms after a traumatic event. Or you can simply have any event that leads to a trauma response where it alters your perspective of the world. And that can happen even in adulthood. Does that sum up what you would say is kind of how the terms are used right now?
Absolutely. And so we're not always talking about PTSD. When we talk about trauma. We're talking about having an experience or a set of experiences that has overwhelmed the nervous system. And now those experiences are stuck in our subconscious mind and they dictate our sense of ourselves or our sense of the world moving forward.
Okay, that is great. So that's our top question we get from people. And then the second most asked question we receive about trauma is nothing bad happened to me in childhood? Can I still have trauma?
Yes, we we encounter that a lot in our program, the whole health lab, some of our members have talked about how they can't recall any significant trauma in childhood. But then when we start doing the work, oftentimes what will happen is the member of our whole health lab will start recognizing that a set of interchanges with a caregiver or a belief system that gotta establish because of the behavior of a caregiver, all of those things can contribute to a sense of the world is not a safe place, and I am not okay. And I am not worthy, or lovable. And so as we continue to educate people, I think more and more people will realize that we've all had some kind of trauma. And those of us who are no longer affected by it, don't see it showing up in this the various ways in our life with a symptomology that can occur such as sleeplessness, or anxiety, nightmares, that sort of thing.
I think that a great point. The other point I'm thinking of is that we have members in our program that are there because they're they had a traumatic event in adulthood, specifically around the loss of a loved one. And that that was something that was altering their view of the world. And they wanted to seek help for that. And so when people say nothing bad happened to me in childhood, that may be the case. And it doesn't mean that whatever happened, that's altering your state of mind and your view of the world as well as your coping mechanisms as an adult, it doesn't mean those are not trauma. They could be they could not be, but that's why we also have an assessment that we do. Okay, the third most common question we receive is how do I heal my trauma? Okay,
that is something that Amy and I have been interested in, in our own journeys for years, both of us have invested over a decade, actually, probably closer to two decades, exploring this concept. And when we're talking about healing from trauma, one thing that we have been a little neglectful of in the field, is the idea that we have to involve the body in terms of healing the trauma. And so there's been a lot of emphasis in past decades on thinking about the event differently. And while that is part of healing, it does not allow the experience to be processed through the body. And it doesn't involve the experience, physical experience, and processing that and managing that and healing that. And so what we know now from research is that trauma healing requires both your body your emotions, and also it can involve our thinking about things. But we have to include the body. I think that's
a really excellent point and something that we hope, and we start, we're starting to see things shift in the field. And so for our listeners, you may hear things like getting your nervous system regulated, that's something we work on in our program. And that's something that typically is easier when you involve the body. So it can be singing, dancing, drama, meditation, yoga, there are, I mean, literally so many things that you can choose from, to work through some of the trauma by using the body. We'll also talk about things you might hear in popular culture. Feel it to heal it is a thing that I've been seeing a lot online and that is not simply let yourself cry, but also feel it in your body. Where are you feeling the stress? Where are you feeling pain, emotional pain, because it does manifest physically for us. So we love cognitive therapy. We love dialectical therapy. We love internal family systems. And we recognize the importance of bringing in somatic work through the body.
Absolutely. And I think about times that you and I have talked and what you've experienced in the last year or two in terms of healing your own nervous system, and how key some of the somatic exercises and experiences have been for healing your nervous system.
Absolutely. I mean, I've done talk Therapy off and on for 20 something years since I got sober, and had did a lot of healing. But really that massive leap where I calmed my nervous system down and have felt a complete shift in my ability to parent and to be present was when I started doing the somatic work. For me personally, it was breathwork and meditation, everyone has a different tool that they'll that they'll really resonate with. And those were the two that resonated most for me and my healing. Yeah,
I think it's really exciting. We also have a couple of questions that tend to pop up. And one of those is, what is the difference between toxic stress and trauma, you have become very involved in researching this. So you have a lot of information from all of the research and studying that you've done. Can you help us understand the difference between those? Sure,
largely, it's a difference in phrase and word what what it really is, is two different bodies of research that came about at the same time. So we have Bessel Vander Kolk. And his colleagues who after the Vietnam War, we're looking at the trauma that veterans sustained and looking at PTSD. And then they moved into looking at trauma in general. And so they use the term trauma. Then we have another group, starting in the 80s, with Kaiser Permanente in partnership with the National Institute for Health, it ran a large 17,000 person study looking at adverse childhood events, what we now know are as aces. And those 10 questions, originally, they were 10 questions asked about certain events that happened in your childhood. And they linked higher rates of those adverse events to cardiac and other health problems, specifically strokes, lung, heart and autoimmune issues. And there was a correlation that was pretty marked. That study has been repeated and replicated with the same results. And so what we have is the two different groups actually on two different coasts, ones, the West Coast ones, the East Coast, and we have trauma, and then we have toxic stress coming out of the ACES research. So if you have an easy way to think about it is they are somewhat interchangeable. Trauma causes toxic stress, because what does it what it does is without doing any sort of healing, the emotions and the the residual effects of that trauma, get stored in the body. And that leads to heart problems, stroke autoimmune, and that's what the Kaiser NIH study showed, while they focused on childhood. Vander Kolk, and his colleagues focused on post war and adulthood. And so it is, it's a really almost an interchangeable sense of terminology, if you will,
thank you. And I think about the Adverse Childhood effects, and there's not one of them on there that can't contribute to trauma. Just because you've had those happen doesn't necessarily mean that you had trauma, but you definitely are going to have a nervous system that's more stressed.
And the nervous system that is stress leads to heart problems, autoimmune problems, etc. So we really do need both pieces of that puzzle.
That's great. Thank you for acknowledging that and pointing that out.
Yeah, well, yeah, we have one more question that we get asked quite a bit. And this is how does trauma and toxic stress show up in relationships?
Yes, I love this question. Because what happens when we've had traumatic experiences, or we've had a situation that has contributed to toxic stress is that emotionally we have less capacity, to handle differences, to handle misunderstandings, and to engage in healthy connection. And if we don't understand that, then we miss the idea or the fact that what has happened to us in the past regardless of the exact event, if it's created a shift in our belief about ourselves or the world that absolutely will show up in our relationships. And it's so interesting that so many times depending on how our early childhood connections were formed, that We end up accidentally repeating this dynamic without any conscious will or choice. And so people will oftentimes say, I can't figure out why I keep ending up with these guys that behave a certain way, or I can't figure out why I'm ending up with women who show up this way. And when we understand that is a subconscious process that where our connection and our drive for connection and our drive for safety have been kind of mixed up, then we don't actually have enough awareness to recognize what's happening. And we have a really hard time breaking that cycle. And the idea of being aware and having insight and knowing that this is not our fault, it's not our fault that we pick partners or significant others that show up in dysfunctional ways. It's not our fault, we show up in dysfunctional ways and relationships. And the beauty is, though, it's not our fault, we are the only ones who have power to change and heal that and doing our own work internally. And healing our nervous system and calming down the nervous system will always benefit our relationships with others, regardless of what those relationships are.
Absolutely. And you know, as you're speaking, I just keep thinking about why any of us seek help. And if we were not in relationships at all, whether it was at work or with family or chosen family, I know I wouldn't have sought help. So it's my relationships and the strain that my own past left on relationships, that helped me to seek help. And I know that that's something we've seen with our clients in our program is that it's not necessarily that they're in our program, because their original trauma is what they're grappling with. It's because the residual effects of the trauma, which is you know, maybe they're explosively angry or so sad, or I'm not able to make active choices. They're dealing with those things in current relationships. And that's, that's what's really kind of pushing that sense of urgency that they want to heal. Yeah,
very well said. Okay. Well,
thank you so much for joining us. If you have any additional questions we would love to hear and we can always do a follow up episode on the next top five things we get asked about trauma. But thank you so much for joining us, and we will talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you want to go deeper on this subject or any other subjects we've covered in the podcast. We are so excited to be launching our signature membership program at mending trauma.com This is a trauma informed mental health membership where we combine clinically effective practices courses and mentoring while putting you in the driver's seat. We teach you how to heal your trauma with the latest research combining mind body and spirit we want to walk you through a healing journey while also empowering you if you have felt this episode is helpful. We would absolutely love if you would go to Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your pods and give us a review. We'd also love it if you would share it with someone you think it might help tag us on social media at mending trauma.com Or at Amy Hoyt PhD, we would love to reshare and also if there's anything we can do to help we would love to hear from you email info at mending trauma.com Give us your suggestions or topics you want to hear about. We would absolutely love to be of more service to you. We're so excited because we have so many good episodes coming up in season two, and we can't wait to go on this journey with you
