Causal Mechanisms of Emotional Trauma-- A Bodily Injury or a Parasitical Attachment or a Frozen Paralysis

INTRODUCTION

Emotional Trauma has been causally connected to depression, anxiety, addiction, isolation, separation, psychosis, and other psychological conditions. Trauma experts often see a logical connection between emotional trauma and these conditions. However, trauma is not the sole cause of all depression, anxiety, or other disorders. We need to be clear that nervous system trauma is a condition unto itself even if its symptoms include anxiety, depression, etc.  

Unfortunately, we often ignore or disregard the causal mechanisms of emotional trauma. I am not referring to ignoring or disregarding an event or events leading to the trauma. Events are the precursors that set into motion the causal mechanisms. Our focus is on the psychic, physiological, or spiritual mechanisms that occur after the traumatic event. And yes, some of these mechanisms seem to be more associated with one type of event than another.

Emotional trauma mechanisms are unique from the causal mechanisms of other psychological conditions. You can have anxiety and depression without having emotional trauma. Likewise, you can suffer emotional trauma without suffering anxiety or depression. Treating one is not always treating the other.

If we are treating withdrawal from life, are we treating trauma? Not necessarily! If we are treating anxiety, are we treating trauma? Not necessarily! It is important to distinguish the treatment of emotional trauma from its symptoms masked as other psychological conditions. To treat them as one and the same is to miss the treatment mark.

Certainly, there are overlaps. We know that some of the primary treatments for anxiety may also help emotional trauma. However, if emotional trauma has its own separate causal mechanisms, treating those symptoms as simply a general anxiety condition can be taking one incomplete bite out of a bigger mechanism. One bite is not enough. Responsibly treating emotional trauma requires treating the dynamic, causal mechanisms of trauma itself.

Realizing this distinction, I will present three causal mechanisms of emotional trauma that are presently in vogue and used at the Greenbrier Academy for Girls. I will use three metaphors to illustrate the unique differences in these mechanisms. Remember that metaphors are not explicitly technical, concrete descriptions of emotional trauma.  

Let us metaphorically think of emotional trauma as having the causal dynamics of a bodily injury, or a parasitical attachment, or a frozen paralysis. In doing so I wish to communicate general ideas and concepts, not detailed neuroscience breakdowns of trauma. Different treatment protocols are required for each of the three causal mechanisms. Reviewing the different interventions is a subject for another article.

The metaphors of causal mechanisms are somewhat like theories. They can explain how and why something works. In this case, we want to understand how trauma is created, how it creates symptoms, and how it is perpetuated. That understanding enlightens us about how to approach the treatment and healing needed. Without that understanding, we are just chasing symptoms.

Metaphors and theories are not just ivory tower musings or clever literary trappings. They are the undergirding of “in the world” and “here and now” action. They provide the insights and meanings for the how and why we engage in life events. They are the bottom lines leading to rational behavior.

None of the causal mechanism theories can be absolutely proved true by empirical processes. However, reason and research bolster their credibility. Quantitative and qualitative research along with logical reasoning persuade various practitioners to choose one or more of these theories for their clients.

Causal mechanisms include explanations for preventing emotional disorders not just treating them. Of course, the implementation of a therapeutic intervention is not just a mechanical process. Understanding the causal mechanism of an intervention helps the facilitator to implement and emphasize those elements of the intervention that “make it work”.

Creating an individual treatment plan that includes various types of interventions requires understanding the dynamics of the dis-orders being treated and the dynamics of the interventions. Understanding the causal mechanism of a disorder, helps the practitioner know how the disorder was created and how it is perpetuated. Correspondingly, understanding how the causal mechanisms of an intervention works allows the practitioner to rationally evaluate if the intervention is a good match for the client. Otherwise, the choice of an intervention is random or chosen because of its reputation. Just because a “method” has a good reputation, ala ‘evidence-based’, does not mean that a therapist knows how to make the method work.

In summary, conceptualizing causal mechanisms is useful for psychotherapists including eclectics. Below is a list of causal mechanisms related to emotional trauma. You may believe one of the causal mechanisms is more reasonable than the others. Or, you may determine that all of the causal mechanisms could be operative without rationally canceling out one another. In any case, understanding the causal mechanisms connecting the trauma and the interventions will aid preventing and treating emotional trauma.

METAPHOR ONE: EMOTIONAL TRAUMA AS A BODILY INJURY

Injuries break, tear, and disrupt things. To injure something requires a force that is powerful enough to impact its structure.  We have all suffered an injury or two, from skinned knees, cuts, and scrapes, to more serious injuries like broken bones, third degree burns, damaged corneas, and lacerated livers.

Some injuries seem to heal by themselves like a scab covering a scraped elbow. Other injuries require serious medical help like surgery for a broken hip to facilitate healing. Then again, injuries at a cellular level may occur without our knowledge and heal without our awareness.

Treatment of an injury requires understanding the dynamic forces causing the injury. That implies more than understanding the “event or events” leading to the injury. For example, broken bones are injuries, but we cannot assume that all broken bones are caused by blunt forces like collisions or falls. Other forces may be at play such as cancer, bone marrow disease, or bacterial infections.

What would happen if the cancer related causes were ignored and the broken bones were exclusively treated as a collision or fall? Just resetting the bone break may be useful, but if the cancer or bone marrow disease is not treated, a causal mechanism is not treated. As a result, you can expect more broken bones and worse. Injuries may have similarities, but each injury should be treated according to its causal mechanisms.

Let us metaphorically look at emotional trauma as an injury to the brain and nervous system. In doing so we will identify the causal mechanisms and possible treatments. What are the forces that initiate the nervous system injury, and in what unique ways do these forces act on the nervous system? We will take a look-see.

        Example One: Emotional Trauma as an Injury to the Brain’s Hippocampus Function and Disruption of Time Awareness

An important Hippocampus function is to facilitate a chronological order of memories. That requires a conscious memory of times, places, and events as they happen. This creates a flow of events allowing a person to understand how events are connected to other events. For example, we may remember the day of our graduation, what we wore, who was there, what was said, and what we ate. The graduation is situated in a sequence with other memories of finals, job interviews, and paying tuition. This sequencing with other memories allows a person to consciously and explicitly connect the dots of life events.

We all need a rationale for what we are experiencing, a narrative understanding of how and why events are unfolding.  The Hippocampus is associated with creating these conscious, explicit memories and their connections to other memories.

What happens if we cannot connect the dots? We have no coherent narrative. If memories are disconnected, and are not part of a sequence we consciously remember, then disruptive confusion follows.

Significantly, a single, random, disconnected memory brought to consciousness can be perceived as a present event. It is not presently perceived as part of a past narrative. It is perceived as the here and now. If that event is traumatic, like guns and bombs going off, imagine how that affects one’s ability to function in the here and now. We could be experiencing frightening, traumatic events over and over again as if they were happening in the present. We call that flashbacks. That is a phenomenon connected to emotional Trauma, particularly PTSD.

What is the causal mechanism of this metaphor? The nervous system operates with two distinctive types of memories. We touched on explicit memory above. As mentioned, the Hippocampus is a major player in creating explicit memories. A second type of memory is implicit. These memories are connected with the more primitive parts of the brain. Implicit memories of an event are the perceptions, emotions, bodily sensations, behaviors, mental models, and priming, that occur almost simultaneous to the event. By the way, priming is setting up what we need to do as a result of the event. A priming might be instantaneously looking for shelter as a bomb explodes.

Significantly, implicit memory can operate without participation or connection to the Hippocampus and therefore without a connection to an explicit memory.

When healthy and uninjured, the explicit and implicit memories are connected. When disconnected, chaos can result. An implicit-only memory does not have an explicit memory to situate the memory in time. Therefore, the memory can be tagged as a present experience. The result could be feeling the bodily sensations and priming to find shelter in the present in spite of being safely situated.

An explicit memory can be consciously retrieved by specifically recalling the parts of an event without the emotions and sensations of the event. Implicit memories cannot be consciously retrieved. They seemingly come and go randomly, being triggered by who knows what. Feeling anxious or depressed can sweep over a person suffering emotional trauma for no apparent reason. That is a common, disconcerting symptom. The sensations are associated with somatically represented implicit memories.

The causal mechanism of this emotional trauma metaphor is the separation of explicit and implicit memories. What force caused the separation? Our bodies have mechanisms to ward of most stresses. However, “over the top” levels of stress can cause the body to release excessive stress hormones that can disrupt the Hippocampus functions. This force disconnects explicit memories from implicit memories. The disconnection creates a unique emotional trauma injury.

How does this metaphor help us develop appropriate and effective treatments for emotional trauma? Logically, we want to heal the injury. We want to reconnect the Hippocampus function with other brain parts and restore the connection between explicit and implicit memory. Anxiety, depression, and addiction may be secondary symptoms of this injury. However, just treating the depression itself will not necessarily heal the memory disconnections. We need to specifically treat the injured disconnections to remove the symptoms.

A specific treatment protocol developed by Daniel Siegel is designed to reintegrate these parts of the two memory systems. He calls it “Mindsight”. Imagine a type of focused, inward attention that permits us to see the processing of our own mind. This treatment regimen requires learning to track internal emotional and physical states. The process is somewhat complicated, and we need not go into the particulars for our purposes. It springs from a new field called “interpersonal neurobiology”.

The skills of Mindsight allow one to see inside the mind, to accept it, to let it go, and finally to transform it. Essentially, a new lens of reality is created.

If we adhere to this metaphor of emotional trauma, we need the specific skills and protocols necessary to treat the causal mechanisms. In this example, we need the skills of Mindsight.  General “therapizing” will not cut it.

A theory/metaphor creates the playing field and the rules. The game plan of treatment is specifically created for that field and those rules.

        Example Two: The “Polyvagal System”

According to this metaphor, emotional trauma disrupts the function of the vagus nerve which is the tenth cranial nerve. This nerve has a pervasive influence on heart and other organ functions. The vagus nerve system is injured, or in other words disrupted, when an “over the top” traumatic experience occurs. Like an electrical overload, important bodily systems are disrupted when the vagus nerve system is overloaded. Think of blowing a fuse. The system’s functions are offset.

Notice that it is not just the vagus nerve itself that is injured. Its system of connections and functions are injured and offset.

Examples of these disruptions are hyperactive brain circuits, excessive secretion of hormones, left brain-right brain integration, the brain’s alarm system, and the embodied feelings of being alive. When these systems are offset, symptoms like anxiety, depression, addiction, relational disconnections, mirror neuron dysfunction, insomnia, and flashbacks, occur and are perpetuated until the systems are healed and reset. The causal mechanism is the vagal system’s dysfunctional, defensive response to a perceived traumatic experience or sequence of experiences.

The force creating the energy comes from within the nervous system and not the event itself. The vagal system is not injured by a fall or collision; there is not a blunt trauma from an outside source creating a disconnect. The energy is created from within the nervous system itself. In a desperate effort to cope with a perceived threat, the system panics and overloads the vagal system with too much energy. That extra energy causes the damage and offsets critical bodily systems.

The Polyvagal System theory or metaphor is the brain child of Stephen Porges and embraced by noted scientist Bessel A. van der Kolk. They propose specific interventions to specifically heal the vagus nerve and its related systems.

Let me reiterate that the emotional trauma interventions are not general anxiety, depression, or addiction remedies. They were specifically designed to heal bodily systems that have been damaged and offset. Some of their interventions are used in other theoretical models. However, Dr. Porges developed interventions that he believed are most effective in healing and resetting what he calls the Polyvagal System.

Historically, these nervous system injuries and system dysfunctions were considered purely medical conditions. The appropriate treatment was therefore medical, which primarily consisted of medications and surgeries. The Polyvagal Theory disrupts this paradigm by proposing that the nervous system can heal and repair itself through experiential exercises. These include yoga, eye exercises like EMDR, theater, drumming, neurofeedback, and meditation. Of lesser importance are medications and talk therapies.

A primary reason for this experiential protocol is the proposition that emotional trauma is primarily a right brain phenomenon and not so much the left brain. The right brain primarily guides emotions, intrinsic memories, sounds, and other kinesthetic sensitivities. The left brain functions more in the cognitive/reasoning arena. Why is this distinction important?

Progressive brain imagining and diagnostic technologies have shown that trauma is first registered and processed in the right brain. Before the logical left brain comprehends and responds to a traumatic event, the right brain has already been imprinted by the trauma. That includes a conclusion about the risks of the traumatic event and its potential consequences. Hormones are released and other nervous system protocols are set off to defend against the perceived threat. The left brain is late to the party. The nervous system damage and injuries are already happening as the left brain tries to catch up.

The right brain does not respond well to talk therapies that are logical and reasonable. The right brain responds to bodily stimuli and emotions. That means that yoga, drumming, and somatic interventions can assist healing when performed with therapeutic intention and artistry. These interventions focus on physiologically healing specific nervous system components. The emotional trauma is pinpointed.

In summary Dr. Bessel van der Folk says that, “the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present...and to let the past go.” The body and its systems need to live in the present without the sense of imminent danger. The experiential interventions reset the bodily systems that were offset by the “blown fuses”. The emotional trauma victim can return to normal.

METAPHOR TWO: EMOTIONAL TRAUMA AS A PARASITICAL ATTACHMENT

Obviously, emotional trauma is not some blood sucking creature that embeds itself in your skin or colon to drain your life energy or deposit a dreaded disease. Do not picture emotional trauma as a deer tick or a hookworm. (That could be   traumatic.) However, rational metaphors exist depicting emotional trauma as having some of the characteristics of a parasitical attachment.

 Parasites are defined as organisms that attach themselves to a host and get their food at the expense of the host. Significantly, the parasitical attachments often create dis-orders, and the parasite is difficult to remove. I want to focus on three parasitical characteristics; the attachment, dis-orders, and problematic removal. And yes, the metaphorical parasitical attachment is an emotional trauma.

       Example One: Imprinted Beliefs

In this metaphor, we create our own parasitical attachment as Imprinted Beliefs. They have a metaphorical life, and we are their creators. These destructive beliefs attach themselves to the brain and nervous system. They entrench themselves deeper and more intractably into the subconscious mind than other beliefs. Finally, these destructive beliefs create dis-order in the mind and the body. They are difficult to find and to remove or change. If not changed they can cause havoc for years and years.

What is the causal mechanism? Origination occurs when we suffer what we perceive to be a traumatic event or series of events. The event or events do not create the parasitical belief. Our perceptions of the events create the belief. We do this by interpreting the meaning associated with the event. This meaning turns into a full-blown critical belief. A critical belief is one that affects our perceived identity and how we connect to the world. When the belief is negative it begins to suck out life energy and breeds emotional and bodily disorders like anxiety, depression, and suicide.

A traumatic event is not self-defined. Our implicit perception of the event defines it as traumatic or not. For example, I remember a student of mine who at four years old, became lost in a city while riding his tricycle. His parents and the police searched for him all day and into the night. He was finally discovered riding frantically down a sidewalk. He was exhausted and terrified. We discovered that he interpreted this emotionally, turbo charged event as meaning two things. First, he should not trust anyone, not even his parents. They allowed him to get lost. It was their fault. Second, he had to look after himself first in all things. In other words, he must avoid relationships that placed others’ needs ahead of his own. These were not beliefs explicitly conceived after consideration. The beliefs were spontaneously, implicitly created within the event. Over time he conjured up explanations to validate the beliefs in other contexts. He bolstered the beliefs over time. They became more resistant to change.

Those are critical beliefs about his identity and how he fit into the world. The turbo charged emotion of feeling hopelessly lost was the energy that emotionally imprinted the beliefs into his mind and turned them into metaphorical parasites. These beliefs over the years led him to aloof and contentious relationships with his parents and predatory behavior towards other people. They sucked the relational energy out of him. The parasitical beliefs had to be changed before he gave himself permission and energy to change his identity and relationships. That is an example of an emotional trauma as an imprinted belief metaphor. The parasitical attachment was the meaning he associated with the event.

What are the dynamics of this causal mechanism? Some experts would call this parasitical attachment, a “long term potentiation belief”. What is that? How does a belief become long term potentiated? The four-year-old was emotionally turbo charged during and somewhat after the event. Those emotions discharged a lot of energy into the brain and nervous system. Theoretically, this energy overload affected his memory and belief about why and how the event was created.

Scientists have not discovered a particular neuron that is connected to a specific belief. Instead, various neural connections seem to be involved in creating a memory.

In this case the four-year-old’s traumatically enhanced memory caused among other things, a thickening of dendrites and a multiplicity of neural connections to the memory. These physiological responses in the brain and nervous system exceeded what normally happens in creating a memory. Essentially, the turbo charged energies created a memory on steroids. Metaphorically, the memory was big, powerful, and deeply entrenched. It became a parasitical like attachment.

Consequently, his negative beliefs became more entrenched through other experiences that could he interpreted as “don’t trust anybody” and “look out for yourself first and foremost”. His mind looked for affirmation of the negative imprints. The beliefs became entrenched “biases”. They were reinforced with the passage of time and other experiences.

 Imagine a life of living out the behaviors inspired by these two negative beliefs. Imagine how the beliefs could lead to various anxieties, depression, hopelessness, loneliness, anger, and an addictive need to medicate the emotional pain. Metaphorically speaking, these parasitically formed beliefs can be life controlling and life destroying.

To effectively treat emotional trauma conceived by this metaphor, subconscious beliefs connected to the event have to be identified and changed. These beliefs are neurologically connected to the event. They were triggered as an interpretation of the event.

 The general treatment of anxiety or depression connected to the emotional trauma will not get the job done. However, changing neurologically connected beliefs may relieve other fundamental causes of anxiety or depression.

Identifying the causal mechanism of emotional trauma leads to the creation and implementation of interventions for that causal mechanism. For emotional trauma grounded in beliefs and meanings, powerful interventions reaching the subconscious mind are required.

Emotional traumas are sometimes exclusively associated with big events like deaths, violence, sex abuse, or chronic emotional abuse. However, we learn from the four-year-old lost child, that other less obvious events can create emotional trauma and entrenched, negative beliefs.

Finding these events and the creation of specific long-term potentiation beliefs is tricky. Because the trauma and beliefs are created more in the right brain, a rationally oriented left   brain search of life events, times, and places may be misleading. I have even seen therapists create false beliefs in clients through reviewing life events and advocating specific ones as the source of emotional trauma. That can be a waste of time and even dangerous.

The only person who knew what the four-year-old believed was the four-year-old. His belief had to be extracted from his subconscious left brain and not hypothesized or speculated. Working with the wrong event and the wrong belief or meaning can be therapeutically impotent.

What needs to be tracked to find the event are emotions, bodily sensations, and other right brain phenomena connected to the event. How does one “track” by using the victim’s right brain. It is a learned skill often untaught in conventional curricula. Effective neurological tracking will open an intrinsic memory pathway to the critical event and reveal the dynamics of how the beliefs or meanings were formed. Extrinsic memory can thereafter be engaged.

Once discovered, somatic right brain interventions are most useful in changing the belief. Effective interventions include reimprinting, brain spotting, resource brain spotting, synesthesia, perceptual positions, conflict integration, transderivational searches, uncovering assumptions and presuppositions, art therapy, drumming, artfully guided meditations, and body work such as therapeutic massage and acupuncture. These interventions can in concert help find and change or modify the parasitical beliefs.  Symptom relief can begin thereafter.

        Example Two: Epigenetic Beliefs

The field of epigenetics gives us another causal mechanism for the creation of emotionally traumatic beliefs. Epigenetics presents a metaphor where a separate person’s emotional trauma can be passed on to someone else. To many people, this is a novel if not shocking idea. Can we inherit or assimilate someone else’s trauma and suffer physiological and emotional symptoms from their trauma? Epigenetics suggests that the answer is yes. How so?

I will mention two sources for the creation of these beliefs. One epigenetic source is ancestral, and the second epigenetic source is present relationships. These beliefs operate similarly to the belief metaphor I previously reviewed. The parasitical attachment metaphor for epigenetic beliefs applies in the same manner as for “in the present” events and their consequent beliefs.  

Let us take the ancestral example first. Epi refers to “above”. Genetics of course refers to the genes that store the architecture of our anatomy and personality traits. Historically, it was believed that our genes alone determined our physiology, and our emotional make up. In other words, the genetic architecture of our identity would manifest itself whether we liked it or not. Exceptions might occur if the genes were somehow damaged or physically changed.

However, neuroscientists have learned that genes unfold themselves through a specific process. Significantly for our metaphor, we note that the genes must be triggered to manifest their architecture. However, they cannot trigger themselves. They are not “self-emergent”. Instead, the genes react to outside environmental influences. That means the genes must have the intelligence to interpret the meaning of vast outside influences and then decide whether to trigger the gene or not.

For example, someone could have a cancer gene, but it may or may not be triggered. Protective measures can be taken to prevent the triggering. If exposure to certain chemicals, radiation, prolonged release of cortisol, or eating certain foods could trigger the gene, then protective measures could be taken to avoid those triggering influences. Cancer could be avoided by avoiding the triggers for the cancer related gene.

The scientist, Dr. Bruce Lipton, reasons that beliefs are environmental influences that can affect the triggering or non-triggering of a gene. In other words, our beliefs can act as environmental factors that affect our genes. Knowing how to control our beliefs can protect our physical and emotional health.

He goes a step further by proposing that our genes even carry ancestral beliefs in some energetic way. Those ancestral beliefs can be triggered in us, and we thereby inherit those beliefs. They become our own subconscious beliefs. The beliefs seem to be right brain oriented. The left brain has no explicit memories of times and places where ancestors suffered emotional trauma.

A pattern of emotional illness or weakness can sometimes be seen in family generations. This may be a consequence of ancestral, emotional trauma being passed down through the generations. It is the metaphorical, multi-generational parasite.  

Lipton proposes that these multi-generational beliefs can be changed and emotional trauma healed. This benefits the person inheriting the beliefs and also future generations who would not inherit the trauma and beliefs.

We have discussed interventions for changing beliefs created through emotional traumas. All of those interventions are useful and operable for epigenetically caused beliefs. However, we cannot ignore the unique epigenetic, causal mechanism. That would be the mechanism of passing on beliefs from one generation to another. Recognizing this need, interventions have been developed to intervene in ancestral originated beliefs.  

Right brain interventions such as guided meditations and age regression therapy are used. Also, age old, indigenous interventions are used in the form of therapeutic ceremony. Some practitioners also create spiritual interventions consistent with the person’s belief system. Lipton strongly endorses these spiritual interventions.

Advocates of the epigenetic metaphor use interventions that specifically interact with the ancestral, causal mechanism as they understand it. General therapizing without theoretically understanding how epigenetics works is irrational. That may also be a breach of ethics.

The second prong of the epigenetic metaphor involves the influences we experience from those people around us. Let us look at parents influence first. Here is a strong quote about parental influence from Lipton’s book The Biology of Belief.

“In humans as well, the fundamental behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes we observe in our parents become ‘hard-wired’ as synaptic pathways in our subconscious minds. Once programmed into the subconscious mind, they control our biology for the rest of our lives…unless we can figure out a way to reprogram them.”

We can imprint the positive and negative beliefs and emotions from our parents. These beliefs when critically negative can be a causal mechanism of emotional trauma. Subconscious, belief- oriented interventions are required to change these unhealthy  beliefs and emotions.

Let me share another quote from Lipton’s book about how groups we associate with affect our genes, beliefs, and emotions.

“Living organisms, it turns out, actually integrate their cellular communities by sharing their genes. It had been thought that genes are passed on only to the progeny of an individual organism through reproduction. Now scientists realize that genes are shared not only among individual members of a species but also among members of different species. The sharing of genetic information via gene transfer speeds up evolution since organisms can acquire ‘learned experiences from other organisms.”

What does that have to do with the metaphor of parasitical attachment? The dynamics of emotional trauma can be metaphorically transferred like a virus from others to you. Traumatic symptoms can be developed from beliefs embedded in this transfer. Be careful who you hang with! Be aware of what others around you are communicating overtly and energetically. Be with healthy people whenever you can.

Happily, epigenetically derived beliefs assimilated from others can be changed by using the interventions already discussed. A majority of people have experienced various levels of emotional trauma with attached beliefs. Just know that according to this theory or metaphor that emotions and beliefs can be transferred to others. Can be is the operative verb. Transfer is not determined or inevitable.

This genetic or energetic transfer may be why clinicians sometimes take on the symptoms of clients.  However, we can protect ourselves and heal ourselves from these subconsciously shared or transferred beliefs. We are not determined to suffer because of our past or present relationships.

Example Three: Energetic Attachments

Emotional Trauma’s causal mechanism is often conceived to be an energetic attachment. How does that work? During a traumatically perceived event, the nervous system generates explosive amounts of energy as postulated in the Polyvagal theory. However, the energetic attachment’s causal mechanism is different than the Polyvagal description. Rather than relying on the explanation of physiological injuries to the nervous system as the causal mechanism, the energetic attachment metaphor proposes that this explosive energy can be trapped in the psyche and the body. Normally, this energy is dissipated and released directly after a traumatic event. However, when it is stored, the excess energy can cause symptoms like age regression, flashbacks, depression, and others previously mentioned.

There are a few theories holding energetic attachment as the causal mechanism of emotional trauma. A straight forward example of the mechanism is called the Emotion Code. As proposed by Dr. Bradley Nelson the theory is rather simple. In his book, The Emotion Code he says this. “Trapped emotions actually consist of well-defined energies that have a shape and form. Although they are not visible, they are very real.”

Although these energies have not been clearly discovered empirically, there is enough persuasive and suggestive evidence for some practitioners to embrace this metaphor. Literature is full of anecdotal accounts and logical inferences supporting the theory. Additionally, new technology recording electro-magnetic energy emanating from the body gives added credibility.

The “Human Energy Field” has been written about extensively by a cross current of theorists, from Hindus to neuroscientists in as many as 97 diverse and separate cultures. Energy is perceived differently by various theorists, varying from empirically measurable electro-magnetic energy to the human spirit as energy. I will mention later a couple of metaphors or theories from age-old indigenous cultures who embrace emotional trauma as stored energy.

If stored or locked-in energy created during a traumatic event is the causal mechanism, the remedy is apparent, release the energy. Treatment methodologies are based on various ways to release this energy from the body, psyche, or spirit.

The Emotion Code proposes that the stored energy is electro-magnetic. Dr. Nelson has developed protocols for releasing this energy by combining focused emotional states with small magnets attached or passed over parts of the body. Electro-magnetic energy is affected by magnets. We see this theory applied to athletics where magnets and copper are attached to the body by physical therapists to reduce pain and inflammation. In Dr. Nelson’s theory, with the proper mindset the magnets interact with the stored electro-magnetic energy and release it. Consequently, emotional trauma symptoms are reduced or eliminated.

 Other protocols of releasing energy include the Tapping Solution as well as acupuncture. Acupuncture is based on “energy meridians” covering the surface of the body that are connected to various organs and physiological systems. Acupuncture treatments are often used for physical ailments but emotional relief is often cited by recipients.

       Age-Old, Indigenous Metaphors of Energy Attachments

For centuries and even millennia ancient cultures have used the energy attachment metaphor to heal physical and emotional ailments. We often view out-of-date, old methods, or theories as a bunch of superstitions and childish fantasies. However, as we gain greater technological sophistication and intellectual humility, we discover why some age-old theories and practices are useful. Reason suggests that practices enduring for centuries must have some positives or they would have died. We are beginning to understand through our own modernistic theories how these practices have generated healings.

One of the most respected emotional trauma experts, Dr. Peter Levine, has insight about the ancient, indigenous treatments of trauma. Speaking specifically about “soul retrieval” and community support, he said, “This approach is alien to the technological mind. However, these procedures do seem to succeed where conventional Western approaches fail. My conclusion is that significant aspects of shamanic practice are valid. When it comes to trauma, we have much to learn from the ways these traditional people practice their medicine…One important difference, I believe, is that each of us has a greater capacity to heal ourselves than the shamanic approach would suggest.”

A powerful causal mechanism for healing is the natural regenerative powers of the body. Creating contexts to trigger these regenerative powers can be found in many fields of medicine and psychology. This phenomenon can sometimes be referred to as the placebo effect. Levine identifies age-old ceremonies structured to successfully loose these self-healing powers. He says, “…these so-called ‘primitive’ healers catalyze powerful innate healing forces in their patients. An atmosphere of community support enhanced by drumming, chanting, dancing, and trancing creates the environment in which this healing takes place.”

He is not suggesting that we in the western world naively   adopt these age-old practices. Instead, he suggests that we study these practices and identify common causal mechanisms that can assist our modern treatments of emotional trauma and use them appropriately.

There is much to learn from the ancients. Malidoma Some and Alberto Villaldo are current, well known authors describing some of these practices and theories. They are healers in their indigenous communities as well as accomplished academicians in the western world.

“Soul Loss” is a condition describing a consequence of emotional trauma. The theory is that significant parts of the self can be lost or stolen away during traumatic events. When these parts are separated, the self is incomplete, and the soul part must be retrieved to allow healing of the whole self. This diagnosis is common in South and Central America.

Specific procedures are used to retrieve the lost parts, and with community support healing is accelerated. Western recognized procedures such as drumming, metaphor, and guided imagery are tools of “soul retrieval.

Another age-old metaphor is injury to the “spirit body” or “luminous body”. This light body is said to surround the physical body and interact with it. The luminous body can be injured from emotional trauma. The injuries may take different forms that are inexplicable in traditional, western thought. Energy based practices like “illuminations” are used for these healings. The physical body can then be healed as well.

Spiritual healing of emotional trauma is also a common protocol. Ancient and modern cultures have different ways of calling on the Great Spirit (God) and/or ancestors to spiritually intervene in the healing process. Obviously, in our western culture we have spiritual interventions such as prayer and the 12 Step programs among others. In age-old cultures ancestors play an important role in daily life, and the ancestors are believed to be involved in healing.

The luminous body metaphor is connected to chakras that are part of many cultures’ healing practices. Chakras are said to be funnels of energy that rotate one way on one side of the body, and as they move through the body, they rotate in the opposite direction. When chakras are somehow injured their energy is diminished, the very energy that enervates the body and soul. Cleansing the Chakras in different ways is another example of “energy medicine”.

The causal mechanism of emotional trauma in these age-old metaphors are trauma induced, maverick energies that afflict the physical body and the luminous body. Emotionally traumatic events set off these energies, and their age-old remedies have generations of anecdotal stories validating their effectiveness. The healings seem to occur through the causal mechanisms of actual energy movement, luminous body restoration, placebo, and spiritual interventions. Working with energies is the common denominator.

The history of these ancient practices can be found in the works of Mircea Eliade, an acclaimed Hungarian historian of the 20th century. Modern scientists are now witnessing some of these anecdotal results as well as hearing about them second hand. A fascinating example of energetic healing can be found in  Harvard community psychologist, Dr. Richard Katz’s first-hand experiences among the Kalahari Kung people recorded in his book, Boiling Energy. 

EXAMPLE THREE: EMOTIONAL TRAUMA AS A FROZEN PARALYSIS

First of all, what is a “Frozen Paralysis”? It sounds rather redundant. Paralysis is defined as being without movement. A frozen state includes the phenomena of being stuck. Immobility is the common denominator. I will explain an emotional trauma metaphor where paralysis and frozen are appropriate descriptors.

Almost all mammals including humans have three instinctive responses to a traumatic event. These responses are desperate efforts to cope with overwhelming threats. An event creating these trauma-induced responses is called “shock trauma”. “Developmental trauma” occurs when traumatic events continue over time. Children are the ones who most often experience developmental traumas such as neglect, constant criticism, sexual abuse, and physical abuse. These repetitive events compound trauma over time. What are the three instinctive responses to traumatic events?

FLIGHT-FIGHT-FREEZE! That is what we automatically do during a traumatic event. We normally do them in order; flee first, and if that does not work then fight, and if that does not work then freeze. A freeze during a traumatic event is like a paralysis, an immobility. The victim goes numb and is unable to move. The positive intention is to camouflage or to submit in hopes of escaping injury or death. How does this apply to the causal dynamic of emotional trauma?

The freeze or paralysis response is the causal dynamic of emotional trauma and its symptoms. How so? Normally, after a traumatic event, the body discharges the super charged energies created to escape or avoid the event. Animals including persons are often seen in a frozen, dormant state after a traumatic event. Slowly, their body begins to respond by shaking, vibrating, and even yawning. These post-event, bodily processes release the accumulated energy in this natural way. It is a normal, necessary, and healthy process. However, when the energy creating the frozen response is not released from the body, emotional trauma begins. The freeze response is paralyzed and does not occur spontaneously or naturally.

Freeze/paralysis is a right brain, emotion-based process. A normal release of the frozen energy is a bodily response, a physiological mechanism. Therefore, in this metaphor, facilitating bodily sensations that release the dammed-up energy leads to healing. This is similar to the parasitical attachment metaphor.

As mentioned earlier, we can suffer an emotional trauma without explicitly remembering the event. How does a person know if they are suffering from emotional trauma? Be aware of emotions that seem to swell up out of nowhere. Notice how the body experiences these emotions as thoughts and sensations. When the emotions or bodily sensations feel too intense, especially if they feel like rage, terror, submissiveness, or helplessness, then emotional trauma may be the causal mechanism. Often, compulsive or inhibited sexual behaviors are symptoms.

Scientists like Peter Levine emphasize that the causal mechanism is not the triggering event. The mechanism is the residual energy that is trapped in the nervous system rendering havoc in our bodies and spirits. The healing process of releasing this energy takes time, a thawing process to get us back to our dynamic equilibrium. During this “thawing” the healing can turn into emotional growth and mastery. The context of healing emotional trauma can lead us to self- improvements we may be unable to reach otherwise.

What is needed is not so much a definition of trauma but the recognition of how it feels. What does the havoc created by the frozen energy feel like? What sensations change as healing progresses? Self-awareness is a necessary element of healing.

Levine describes a treatment protocol specifically focused on the causal mechanism, the frozen energies. His recommended interventions are not the usual psychiatric and psychological treatment methods. The emphasis is more on the body and the subconscious mind than left brain psychotherapy. Levine calls it Somatic Experiencing in his book, Waking the Tiger. He finds it unnecessary to dredge up old traumatic memories and relive them, because they are often re-traumatizing and they do not act on the causal mechanism. They may even get in the way of the body’s natural healing process.

He recommends a quiet, safe, and protected place for healing. Animals seek similar places for their nervous system healing. Community support is needed for normalizing and healing the symptoms. (Community support may have a positive epigenetic component.) Resistance to healing can be caused by inappropriate use of prescription drugs, frozen fears, or sheer willpower. Focusing on the past can also dam up the body’s resources to heal itself in the present.

Somatic Experiencing may include fetal trauma and birth trauma as well as common events such as witnessing violence, certain medical and dental procedures, surgeries, anesthesia, and prolonged immobility or hospitalization. These events are often connected to personal choices in hopes of positive results. Nevertheless, these emotional traumas need bodily release just like a triggering, random event does.

Levine proposes treatment protocols that are similar to the Polyvagal processes. They are body focused and slow moving. Dramatic, fast paced, intense interventions are not recommended. His hope is that healing and recovery is a personal growth experience, a transcending of the person.

A review of interventions for all 3 Causal Mechanisms is the subject of another article.