Instinct, Defense, and the Development of Complex Trauma
Pierre Janet (1859-1947) once wrote, “Traumas produce their disintegrating effects in proportion to their intensity, duration and repetition.” (1909) He was the first in a long line of clinician theorists who have attempted to explain what happens to the human condition as a result of enduring repeated, ongoing neglect and all manner of abuse.
Not All PTSD Is Created Equal
Pierre Janet (1859-1947) once wrote, “Traumas produce their disintegrating effects in proportion to their intensity, duration and repetition.” (1909) He was the first in a long line of clinician theorists who have attempted to explain what happens to the human condition as a result of enduring repeated, ongoing neglect and all manner of abuse. And though contemporary understandings have made PTSD a commonly recognized acronym, a majority of mental health professionals grapple with efficiently treating the complexity that PTSD often involves. Why? The simple answer is that not all PTSD is created equal. Here’s an illustration: Surviving the fallout from a fiery car crash (having previously enjoyed a trauma-free upbringing) is quite different from surviving the latest trauma of a fiery car crash given the backdrop of an abusive, neglectful and chaotic upbringing.
The roots of psychological disintegration that Pierre Janet so elegantly outlined for us come from an instinctual, desperate attempt to survive perceived threat. Humans (at any age) will do whatever is necessary to survive when escape from perceived threat is impossible. Infants cry instinctually in an attempt to get attention, so their physical survival is maximized. And when aggressors are much larger, the primacy of the fight instinct is abandoned for fleeing as the best way to cope. And when fleeing is not an option, what’s left is to submit and comply with the powerful other’s demands; submittal with analgesia (the body goes limp and internal endorphins are released) is the last survival strategy by instinct. These automatic survival processes are designed by nature to segregate traumatic experiences, especially severe and chronic ones. This process helps the survivor to most efficiently focus on daily life despite their trail of traumatic experiences.
The success of survival from chronic, perceived threat comes at the price of a disintegrated psyche via traumatic learning.
Traumatic learning is very difficult to undo because it holds strong survival value. Here’s an example: A child learns to wall off the realization that the parent who molests her late nights is the same parent smiling and making small talk at the breakfast table the next morning. This child cannot escape the molestations and must carry on a “normal” relationship with that parent. This girl who submits to and experiences the molestations may be remotely aware (or even unaware) of the one who makes small talk with her molester-parent at the breakfast table. This is but one possible effect of traumatic learning processes that are born out of an instinctually defensive purpose to survive.
How Do We Begin To Help Our Clients?
So where do we start as clinicians with treating such complex trauma? We start with gentle kindness, with friendly curiosity. We hold space for our clients’ confusion, their knowing and not knowing about what their past experience holds. And when the time is right, we reaffirm whatever the client had to do in order to survive was alright. That’s where we begin, and that’s where we stay as long as is necessary.
When we, as clinicians, understand these instinctually defensive roots of traumatic response, we can help our traumatized clients begin to stabilize their daily living and to build customized skill sets that address what is needed to eventually confront the realization of their traumas. Out of this process, our clients will eventually make sense of their trauma in terms of who they intend to become—not only as survivors, but also as thrivers.
Click the button below to learn more about how the treatment of PTSD can be achieved through EMDR Therapy.
Photo by Camila Quintero Franco on Unsplash
Thinking About Becoming EMDR Trained?
The EMDR Center of Southern California (ECSC) is accredited by EMDRIA, and we take pride in offering a comprehensive, state of the art EMDR Basic Training. Participants can rest assured they will be given all the knowledge, practice exercises and consultation re effective treatment of their actual clients. ECSC will help you take your clinical skills to the next level.
Thinking About Becoming EMDR Trained?
Some may think, “The learning curve seems so steep to be an EMDR Trained therapist from an EMDRIA accredited program! How is all this effort going to pay off anyway?”
Buyer Beware
First, what you need to know is that standards for training and best practices in EMDR Therapy are regulated by the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA). So please, Buyer Beware! Marketed widely in the United States are so-called EMDR Therapy trainings which are unaccredited and claim that clinicians can learn and easily apply EMDR Therapy after just two days! In fact, so many clinicians who have taken these non-accredited EMDR trainings have dropped using what they were taught out of frustration because their clients’ symptoms didn’t improve!
Since EMDR Therapy is a complete treatment paradigm with its effectiveness backed up by decades of solid research showing its reliability and validity, all EMDIRA-accredited trainings expose participants to the comprehensive method of EMDR Therapy. Here’s the clincher—not all EMDRIA-accredited Basic Trainings are the same. Many EMDRIA-accredited Basic Training programs do not offer consultation feedback on participants’ actual client cases within the classroom experience. Instead, this vital portion of Basic Training is outsourced and basically is a hidden, additional fee for participants who must guess at whether their Consultant will actually assist them effectively to learn the comprehensive EMDR Therapy! Yikes!
ECSC Is Here To Lend A Hand
The good news is that the EMDR Center of Southern California (ECSC) is accredited by EMDRIA, and we take pride in offering a comprehensive, state of the art EMDR Basic Training. Participants can rest assured they will be given all the knowledge, practice exercises and consultation re effective treatment of their actual clients. ECSC will help you take your clinical skills to the next level.
Our ECSC Participants Learn:
1) how to effectively assist their clients to reorganize their thoughts around traumatic experiences
2) how to let go of the emotional burden connected with the traumatic memories
3) how to embody new, more positive self-beliefs as a result of having effectively addressed traumatic memories.
As you have already probably been thinking, riding the learning curve of how to do EMDR Therapy effectively involves much effortful thought, paced and supervised practice exercises, and application to client populations with expert consultation. The learning atmosphere during EMDR Basic Training is crucial. At ECSC we have the most excellent staff. They are supportive and compassionate, patient, and encouraging of your learning style. Learning the comprehensive EMDR Therapy paradigm is undoubtably a worthwhile challenge, and within our learning environment that is maximized for your trajectory of excellence you will achieve your goal of mastery to become an EMDR Trained therapist!
If you are interested in signing up for our upcoming EMDR Basic Training, click below to read more about it and to register.