The Science behind Childhood Trauma: The Effects of  Childhood Trauma on Your Body and Mind

Childhood Trauma has a great effect on our body and mind. It has an effect on the development of the right hemisphere. Many psychological issues are related with the right hemisphere and right orbitofrontal cortex. Empathy, digesting emotional experiences, trust, an affective theory of mind, and evaluating social signals are all things they’re in charge of. In the early phases of life, the right hemisphere develops quickly and is dominating. The right hemisphere ‘reads’ social signals, which are then processed and related to our self-perception. In this way, our ‘implicit I’ (sense of self) is located in the right hemisphere, which is associated to emotional meanings, nonverbal and social communication, attachment, intersubjectivity, empathy, and self-image.

The brain grows in a hierarchical manner. Only when a child is in a safe, engaging relationship with a parent or caregiver can he or she develop normally. The elements for optimum brain development and a positive sense of self are a secure attachment, engaging responsive parenting, and the fulfilment of developmental needs. A person who is exposed to traumatic events early in life is at danger of having negative consequences for the development of his brain, other body systems, and his ability to interact and associate with others. These changes in brain structure and function, as well as changes in social interaction, prepare an individual to live in a dangerous world. The degree and scope of the trauma will very certainly be reflected in the individual’s adult functioning. So, when traumatic experiences hits our brain, we store those memories and each time we experience something close to it, we get trigger and  we either fight, flight, freeze or fawn.

Adults who experienced childhood trauma frequently experience stress, fear, anxiety and disorientation. Their brain either runs in a hyperactive, stimulated mode or shuts down in order to relieve stress from their past. They are either energetic and reactive, or despondent, detached, and numb. They’re either awake and worried, or they’re blank, unconnected, and preoccupied with themselves. They cannot learn from new experiences in those states, even if the experiences are beneficial and restorative.

How to Heal Childhood Trauma

Understanding and processing

Trauma takes a toll on our mind. At first, we begin by dismissing the event, and then refusing to accept. The first step that a coach should take to help a client with a traumatic experience is to help them understand and process the traumatic past experiences. The individual must begin the process of childhood trauma healing by acknowledging the event that the person is not responsible for.

Establishing safety

The individual’s initial responsibility is to establish safety, which he or she must sustain throughout the phases of joining, engaging, creating an alliance, and relationship building with their environment. The objective is for the individual to feel safe. It’s critical to feel safe enough to access the default mode network, the part of the brain dedicated to self-reflection and relational thinking.

Coaching

Coaching can help you come out of emotional trauma. By identifying the traumatic patterns in your life, coaching can help you learn how your previous trauma is affecting your current life. A coach can assist you in starting a conversation with your split inner parts in order to uncover messages and create a process that allows your inner parts to express their emotions and share information. Thus coaching can help in trauma recovery.

Attachment

A coach’s role is to provide a safe environment for the client to explore. Coaching clients with traumatic background requires a lot of attention. It is emphasised that the coach must embrace and assist the troubled client, and his primary aim should be to increase the individual’s well-being. A coach is empathetic, sensitive, and attentive. He urges the individual to examine his current and past ideas, feelings, and actions.

Grounding

Trauma causes people to lose touch with their bodies. Grounding and centering reintroduces us to the resources that are already present in our bodies. It’s critical to re-establish your connection to the earth as well as your body’s centre of gravity, which is where movement and feeling begin.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practise of devoting undivided attention to becoming completely aware of one’s thoughts and feelings in order to have better control over how one responds to them. Mindfulness is a way of looking at things that combines our ability to see ourselves with our natural sense of compassion for ourselves. As a result, it’s your ability to look at oneself objectively and accept yourself. The development of this beneficial process of introspection improves recovery enormously.

Sense of Self

The last stage of healing through childhood trauma is to develop a sense of self. It often happens that traumatic experiences causes a damage to a sense of self, where we forget our emotions and our self. Reestablish the sense of self so that you can get in touch with your true self and true meaning.

Surviving Versus Thriving

Recovering from childhood trauma can be a surviving versus thriving race. Learning to cope with unpredictably changing inner emotional weather is an important part of recovery. The Surviving Thriving continuum is maybe the ultimate facet of all things. It may appear like life is nothing more than a fight to live before we enter recovery. However, as our healing improves, we start to feel like we’re thriving. These feelings may begin with feelings of optimism, hope, and confidence that we are on the mend. Then, because recovery is never all forward movement, the bottom inevitably drops out. We’re back to feeling like we’re just scraping by, which is so unfair. To make matters worse, we are completely oblivious to the fact that we have been spared from death. We polarise back onto the surviving end of the continuum after another flashback. We’re locked in the abandonment mix’s nervous and deadened feelings.