A powerful, informative lecture on self compassion and care of the brain.

[thetruth]

Hi,

This may have been shared previously but it cant be shared enough. I dug it out for a friend today and began to watch it. It is loaded with helpful insight and supportive knowledge regarding our brains and the conditions that nurture brain development, even brain recovery after traumatic life experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GKVMILwzdY

[Kizzie]

    Tks for this link - important for us to understand how/why the brain and body respond to trauma and what we can do about it.  Love his sense of humour and the twinkle in his eyes!

[thetruth]

   Tks for this link - important for us to understand how/why the brain and body respond to trauma and what we can do about it.  Love his sense of humour and the twinkle in his eyes!

Hi Kizzie,

Yes he does have a twinkle in his eyes and he sneaks in a good sense of humour too. I love how he breaks down how the human brain operates in simple terms that help you see that the way your brain works means you are normal, not defective- truly understanding this is key after being the victim of stress, abuse, injustice, neglect, trauma, all those lovely things that can only be inflicted by fellow human beings. We are in the trouble we are in because our brains are normal human brains that have been subject to damaging experiences, not because we have dodgy brains. From this understanding we can at least then try to care for our brains going forward.

C.

[Kizzie]

I tweeted the link out on Twitter too - good to spread the word about the physical effects of relational trauma as far and wide as we can so we don't hide and feel ashamed and different.  We need to think of ourselves as injured at the hands of others - survivors of crime on par with physical injuries (e.g. stabbing, shooting, assault, torture...), and deserving of treatment, services and support.   

[thetruth]

I tweeted the link out on Twitter too - good to spread the word about the physical effects of relational trauma as far and wide as we can so we don't hide and feel ashamed and different.  We need to think of ourselves as injured at the hands of others - survivors of crime on par with physical injuries (e.g. stabbing, shooting, assault, torture...), and deserving of treatment, services and support.   

Oh absolutely Kizzie--- 'relational trauma', now there's a useful term. I had 4 years of it at work and then my GP helped the employer say he was innocent and my difficulty was just that I was emotionally unstable. My GP assisted and became complicit in the relational trauma that he didnt want to acknowledge had taken place.

Do you have any good links to info. on relational trauma as a concept?

[Kizzie]

It's a term I use to encompass the ongoing individual trauma we experience at the hands of us via abuse/neglect so not used by many at the moment (although Pete Walker talks a lot about relational healing - see http://www.pete-walker.com/pdf/relationalHealingComplexPTSD.pdf and http://www.pete-walker.com/pdf/vulnerable_self_disclosure.pdf. )

"Complex Trauma" is what's used in MH circles although it is relatively new and not accepted by all.  In my experience many researchers and some clinicians are stuck on PTSD and don't differentiate between ongoing trauma caused at the hands of others (abuse/neglect) and shorter term trauma of war/disaster/crime.  Relational trauma does this but isn't an official term used by many just yet - it's something I am advocating for so that we become known as a distinct group with a distinct diagnosis.  I will be speaking in March at a trauma summit about this and as a Co-Chair of the ISTSS Complex Trauma Special Interest Group I am working to get members to distinguish those of us who experienced ongoing relational trauma  as a separate (and very large) survivor group much like soldiers and emergency workers with PTSD are identified. It's a work in progress.