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Day 2 . Life is turned upside down ( continued )
TO THE TRAINER
PART II : THE TRAINING
KEY POINT
Aim . To clarify the nature and expression of trauma .
The story illustrates
• How the body reacts to a traumatic event .
• Reactions in the five focus areas .
Responses to threat
When we meet danger , we have a hierarchy of defences that we use to protect ourselves . They are biological and automatic . Animals respond to danger in the same way . Our first reaction is actively to defend ourselves : to flee or fight . Our nervous system becomes highly active . The muscles are filled with blood and mobilised for action ; breathing is short and stays in the upper part of the body .
If we cannot flee or fight our way out of a situation , we adopt passive forms of defence . We freeze and submit .
When a traumatic event is overwhelming , and one is trapped , helpless and feeling intense fear , it is common to be haunted by the intensity of the experience . That is because the experience is so overwhelming that it overrides our capacity to integrate the event .
TEACHING INSTRUCTION .
It is important to understand the trauma reactions that most people are likely to experience after severe or life-threatening events . These reactions are not signs of insanity , but are nevertheless experienced as very shameful . They are natural , common and predictable responses to extreme violence .
When women experience the feeling that they can no longer control what happens to them , no longer control their lives or defend themselves , this too is a survival response , a normal or expected reaction of self-protection .
Figure 3 . The Butterfly Woman Immediately after the trauma .