What is Trauma?

Trauma can be defined as any unresolved autonomic nervous system response. It’s about the nervous system’s response to an event, not necessarily the event itself.

Trauma has many different aspects, but essentially it boils down to emotion that is too much to be dealt with in the moment of the causative event, and which subsequently affects the body-mind organism of the person affected. It is surely positive that there is much more recognition of trauma in our society than previously; the alternative is an identification with its effects as if they are an irreducible part of our being, rather than a temporary malady which can potentially be healed.

Feeling that ‘I’m just broken like that and there’s nothing I can do’, compared to ‘I can recover from the PTSD which is currently affecting me’: the former implies a profound powerlessness, while the latter acknowledges the agency of the individual to come through the situation, maybe even with an increased wisdom on the other side.

We can however, become fixated on the concept of trauma itself and try to avoid it at all costs, claiming to be traumatized at the slightest thing (see Jonathan Haidt’s work for more on this). Life is itself, inevitably traumatizing, and it may be the best approach to learn to accept a certain amount of trauma as part of living, while becoming more expert in letting go and allowing ourselves to heal.

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Entheogen-assisted Healing

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