session 2 - chapter 1+2 ALEXANDER

CHAPTER 1

trauma a distressing experience or set of experiences that threatens a person’s actual safety or perceived sense of felt safety to such a degree that it exceeds an individual’s capacity to cope in healthy ways

what is trauma? video

  • trauma is a deeply distressing or disturbing experience affecting sense of safety and wellbeing

  • becomes more difficult to deal with over time; inability to cope

  • various types of trauma

  • distinct changes in mood, atttiude, and behavior, fixated on events that were the causes

prevalence of childhood trauma

  • 17000 adults tested, and more than 60% indicated that they had at least 1 ACE

  • rates of childhood adversity correlated with: diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic lung disease, substance abuse, tendency for violence or suicide

  • higher the ACEs the more negative health outcomes

  • younger students are more at risk for trauma than older students; more damaging at younger ages

  • once traumatized, children are 2-7x more likley to experience being retraumatized

effects on the brain

  • downstairs brain: develops in utero and active at birth

    • brainstem the doing part of the brain that regulates breathing, heart rate, and influences our level of alertness

    • limbic area the feeling part of the brain

    • cells that mediate our responses to threates or stressors

  • upstairs brain: the thinking part of our brain

    • the cortex develops over time based on experiences, not fully developed until mid 20s, higher order thinking skills

  • hippocampus: memory

    • implicit memory - body sensation, emotions, perceptions, behavior

    • explicit memory -

  • amygdala:

effects of trauma on arousal

  • brain isn’t just in our heads, nerves connect our brain to every part of our body

  • neuroception neuro circuitry rapidly decides whether a situation is safe, challenging, dangerous or life threatening and directs us to respond accordingly

  • regulated arousal - calm and alert

  • hyperarousal - whole body stress and increase in energy and alertness

  • hyposarousal - whole body stress that shuts us down

    • extreme hypoarousal - results in fainting or feign death as the body shuts down in nervous system collapse

  • flooded arousal - an extreme state of fear or rage

  • FIGHT

    1. aggression towards others

    2. violence towards inanimate objects (i.e. throwing things)

    3. verbal aggression (yelling, cursing, screaming)

    FLIGHT

    1. eloping from the classroom

    2. making excuses to get breaks from the classroom

    3. hiding or covering their face to “escape” the situation

    4. choosing to disengage

    FREEZE

    1. tightening up (clenching fists)

    2. unable to speak

    3. getting teary eyed

CHAPTER 2

  • trust building cycle

    • baby has a need, baby cries, need met by caregiver, trust develops

    • baby has a need, baby cries, need not met, mistrust develops

  • attachment

    • secure base - when needs are consistent met, we feel more confident to explore, knowing we have a safe place to return to

    • attunement - parents ability to read their child’s cues

    • coregulation - the adult helps sooteh dysregulated states

    • break and repair - when attunement breaks, child and parent come back together

    • limit setting - can create breaks in attunement

  • impacts of positive early attachement

    • youth approach other without defensiveness

    • experience joy in interpersonal connections

    • read nonverbal communication

    • make sense of their social world

    • regulate interpersonal conflict while maintaining balance between prosocial and defensive actions

  • attachment issues at school

    • children with histories of ambivalent attachement show high levels of anxiety and uncertainty

  • attachment trauma repeatedly experience trauma at the hands of trusted caregivers in the early years of life

    • continue to impact the child, may be the result of early childhood illness

    • children may be charming, dishonest, aggressive

  • severly traumatized youth may have shame, need to control, desire for too much or no physical contact, poor communication skills, friendly and charming with strangers, lack of empathy

  • brains have incredible plasticity and can develop new positive neural links in the brain and body