Trauma Training Tip It’s Spring here in the Northern hemisphere. The season of the Wood Element and the Sympathetic Nervous System. There’s a yang aspect to the Wood – aggressive, protective, and when it lacks a relational brake – violent and rageful and without social intelligence. Polygon data is generated by Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons There’s also a yin aspect to the Wood. The Liver Blood is moist and juicy. It helps keep our tendons and ligaments pliable and soft. It gives us a place for our mind to rest when it is …

Trauma Training Tip It’s Spring in the Northern hemisphere. The season of the Wood Element in Chinese medicine – and the Sympathetic Nervous System in the West. Lots of “fight or flight” in our world right now – some on behalf of those perceived as more fragile, some in defense of our own safety and well-being, and some blind rage. A healthy Wood Element, a healthy Sympathetic Nervous System, is able to mount protective, defensive responses that are commensurate with the level of threat being experienced. Sometimes we need a tack hammer and sometimes we need a sledge hammer. A …

Trauma Training Tip In honor of Black History Month, I would like to lift up the work and vibration of Joy DeGruy, MSW, PhD, author of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. Dr. DeGruy is a nationally and internationally renowned researcher and educator.   Her research focuses on the intersection of racism, trauma, violence, and American chattel slavery. She has over thirty years of practical experience as a professional in the field of social work. She conducts workshops and trainings in the areas of intergenerational/historical trauma, mental health, social justice, improvement strategies, and evidence-based model development.  From her …

Trauma Training Tip Like many of us I suspect, I spend some part of each day longing to somehow contribute to a greater capacity for diplomatic solutions to the violence in the Middle East. The history of trauma and threat and the ongoing loss of life that is both overwhelming the region and providing fodder for more and greater dysregulation in its future citizens is overwhelming. The burden of traumatic stress on the bodies, minds, and spirits of all of us who care for life and long for peace gets heavier and heavier every day. The arc of trauma in …

Trauma Training Tip Photo by Riccardo via Pexels It’s Winter in the northern hemisphere. It is the time of the Water Element, the Kidney, the Bladder and all their resonant correspondences – our bones, our discernment of fear and of safety, our capacity to create distinctions between discomfort and fear, our tolerance to hear even what we are afraid to hear, and the depths of our acquired wisdom and the wisdom of our ancestors. The Water’s function in the Self-Protective response is to Signal Threat. There’s a lot of threat being signaled in the Middle East. The arc of trauma …

Trauma Training Tip Feeling overwhelmed by the suffering in our world? When we are habituated to either a braced or a collapsed state in response to feeling threatened, we lose access to our brain’s frontal cortex. We lose access to the more thoughtful, creative, problem-solving – and compassionate, empathetic, and understanding parts of ourselves. We become impulsively reactive. We are unable to pause . . . .  and we may be unable to sleep, digest our food easily, and become prone to however our body responds to stress – headaches, belly aches, auto-immune flare-ups, etc. This is true for us …

Trauma Training Tip We have entered Fall, the season of the Metal Element, the Lung and Colon organs. Its job is to receive the “pure Qi of the heavens” in the Lungs and to “let go of the drainage of the dregs” in the Colon. It is both the most etheric of all the elements, and the most responsible for our “felt sense” or somatic experience of our world. It is critically important to the Self Protective Response (SPR). The SPR is initiated by the Po, the spirit of the Lungs. When we hear a twig snap, if our Po is intact, a message …

Trauma Training Tip We are closing out on Late Summer and will firmly enter Fall this month. The Late Summer is characterized by heavy fruits on the vine; heavy, dense and damp air; loud insects; and the sweetness of the harvest. When the air turns clear and light, the harvest is essentially complete, and the cicadas quiet, we will have moved into Fall and the Metal season. The growing season is over, death as a necessary part of life moves into our experience of nature and life. The Earth informs our sense of our embodiment. It has a special relationship …

Trauma Training Tip Photo by Dương Nhân vía Pexels We have entered the Earth season, Late Summer, a 5th season in the agrarian cultures of the world, including China. No more fruits will be set, but they will ripen and sweeten. It’s the best time of the year to eat – peaches, melons, tomatoes, zucchini are all abundant – sweet and tasty – and there to harvest for the coming months. Our Taoist ancestors taught us that a healthy life is supported by living in harmony with the energy of each season. We can use the seasonal expressions to support our …

Trauma Training Tip There is an organ in Chinese physiology called the Pericardium. Western medicine understands it as a largely inert structure, a sack that holds the heart. The Chinese also call the Pericardium the “Heart Protector” or the “Circulation-Sex” Official. It functions like a pair of gates, opening to let love move freely in and out, and closing when it is not safe for the Heart to be open. It is responsible for “ruling the subjects in their joys and pleasures,” the circulation of both blood and joy, and supporting vibrant sexual expression. When our Kidney/Adrenal system experiences fear …