Adele, a dear friend of mine from our Caroline Myss retreat days, is also a fellow psychotherapist and healer. She writes a blog on spiritual/psychological issues on The Heralded Penguin, Making Sense of An Upside Down World.

The below link brings you her article which I found especially apropos to what’s happening in the mental health field and why it limits total healing, especially for those who are survivors of trauma.

Mental health deals with the mind and emotions. Trauma affects the whole body, something that some of those in the field are just starting to discover.

As I’ve written before,  trauma changes the body chemistry because there is a very physical reaction to it. The part of the brain that registers trauma is the instinctual part – the amygdala – our flight/fight cycle. What happens  is that survivors are not able to complete this cycle, so they stay stuck in the feeling of powerlessness. The physical/emotional release that comes with its completion, bringing the physical and mental body back to stasis, remains unfinished.

After working with a multitude of survivors, I have observed that when they are able to complete that cycle in my office, there is such a release, and, then, that particular memory does not reappear. That has led me to believe that  the flashbacks and nightmares, ergo the post-traumatic syndrome disorder (ptsd),  might be a way the body is trying to get back to completing the cycle.

However, when this happens, the survivor experiences the same physical/psychological symptoms and doesn’t know what is happening. Therefore, the cycle again does not get completed and he/she is frozen in those all too familiar feelings of helplessness.

It is only healing methods that integrate both mind and body that are realizing success in helping the survivor complete the cycle, thereby reducing and/or eliminating ptsd.

In using qigong to bring the survivor into a meditative state, that somehow accesses the subconscious, relaxing the survivor enough to go through and complete the process. In that state, the survivor simultaneously gets in touch with the psychological and physical symptoms to complete the cycle.  The mental health field must merge with the physical health field to find the answers to healing trauma.

On a personal note, Adele helped me to heal from ptsd when I didn’t even know I had it, since my symptom shows up as the “immobility or freeze response”, rather than the ones more commonly known – flashbacks and nightmares depicting the all too real scenes from past trauma, most of which one wants desperately to forget.

I am speaking from a client and professional perspective when I say that survivors can do a lot in helping themselves through meditation, qigong, etc. However, there comes a point when one needs professional help.

I am fortunate to have found Adele to help me.  She lives and works in Connecticut, but also takes phone appointments. I cannot recommend her enough.

My dear friend, Adele, this post is for you. Thank you for sharing your work with me and so many others.

http://theheraldedpenguin.com/mental-health-needs-a-booster-shot/
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