| Trauma Training Tip |
 I want to talk about shame and traumatic stress. We all hate to feel shame – it’s not a popular subject! However, shame is a necessary part of our biology and socialization. Healthy shame helps parents teach their children to inhibit anti-social impulses and learn the norms of behavior for the “tribe” they were born into. This type of shame focuses on the behavior and not the person, it has a repair built into it. “We don’t throw sand into our friends face – this would be a good time for you to apologize to your good friend” or “we don’t pick our nose with our fingers, here, you can use this tissue”. Shame creates a powerful contraction in our Ventral Vagus/Heart spirit. It needs to be powerful because it is so critically important for our survival that we learn the rules that make us a welcome member of our community. Toxic shame is something altogether different. It walks right alongside traumatic stress and similarly creates this powerful contraction in our Heart spirit. Toxic shame focuses on the person and not the behavior; it offers no avenue for repair. It says “you did this, you are a bad person, you have no place in our family or community”. It is often used by perpetrators to silence and disempower those whose lives are lived outside the dominant power structure. People who are raised in highly authoritarian family structures are particularly vulnerable to the impact of toxic shame. Its’ powerful contraction functions to take us into a freeze response with high tone dorsal vagus overwhelming our capacity for relationship and regulation found in our Ventral Vagus nerve. Suddenly our brain stem is doing the thinking that our frontal cortex was made to do. We collapse socially and physiologically. We lose our voice, we forget what we believe in, lose our sense of our own value –and can drown in self-doubt. This toxic shame is built into our culture and serves to keep the status quo in charge. One example is the impact of shame on the voices of white women. White women are taught to uphold the patriarchy, to not contradict the voices of white men and to remain silent in the face of conflict. Speaking out, giving voice to truths comes with the risk of being ostracized or silenced. Too often, we don’t speak as a result and our silence becomes a collusion with socially dominant sexist or racist world views. Whether we are a white woman or a member of another social group who walks outside of the dominant White Male power structure, it may be helpful when we experience shame to reflect on who or what is being served by our silence? What would speaking our truth feel like? Can we try it out first with someone we trust as a trial run? Can we transform the power of toxic shame to silence us? It is critical that we as healers not collude with our patient’s experience of shame. Toxic shame requires relationship and transparency to be transformed. Bringing forward some reflection on experiences of shame and helping it transform with invitations for somatic mindfulness may help unhook a current experience of shame that is over-coupled with experiences in our family history or this larger political context that is actually longing for transformation. |
| Alaine’s Two Cents |
 The TCMAcademy hosts a series they call “Sharing the Wisdom” where they are bringing education on Chinese Medicine to the European Community. I was delighted to be the guest of Kevin Durjin on an East-meets West approach to trauma resolution — and hope for our world. |
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| Clinical Curiosity |
Where is your clinical curiosity carrying you? Q. Thank you so much for what you shared about the Diaphragm System on the PelvicAdemy webinar series. I was especially moved by how simply and gently holding the kidneys/adrenals can bring a sense of safety/relaxation to the body in the demo you did. I have a quick question for the curve/diaphragm at the back of the head above the neck and below the skull. We spoke about how the respiratory diaphragm can affect the pelvic diaphragm and I wonder what might release tension in this curve at the back of the head? A. I like how you think! Applying principles to different body spaces. However, I would be hesitant about going directly to the curve at the back of the neck. You would be very close to the brain stem where all the impulses for fight/flight/freeze live physiologically. The principle of titration would suggest that you work more distally until there is some measure of essential regulation in the body. The risk of hyper-arousal would be too great to start here. In the context of diaphragm work – I would start with the respiratory diaphragm and look for movement in the shoulder diaphragm first off. This will move up and down the body (as we saw in the second model in that webinar). In time it may move up to the neck and find some release of the brace that remains there. It of course depends on the basis for the neck tension. So – can’t say too much more without being with this person and engaging with them. For those of you who didn’t attend the Pelvicademy series, you can find out about getting the recordings by emailing pelvicademy@gmail.com. Send me a question and I’ll share in this corner next month! |
The Tao of Trauma – Now Available in Audio Reviews of The Tao of Trauma are really helpful for exposing others to this body of work and healing for our world. If you have read it – and are willing to share your experience with the world – please submit a review on Amazon here; on Goodreads here; or on Books-A-Million here. Thank you! Upcoming Trainings with Alaine Duncan  Alaine D. Duncan, M.Ac., L.Ac., Dipl.Ac., Somatic Experiencing Practitioner Revolutionize Healing From Traumatic Stress: Integrating Chinese Medicine with Neurobiology Hosted by the TCMAcademy – https://www.tcm.ac This 14-hour course will serve as both an introduction to this East-meets-West approach to trauma resolution. It includes four 1.5 hour long asynchronous videos and two 4-hour synchronous classes. Here’s the structure: Asynchronous Videos 1: Orientation, History and Context for studying the traumatic stress response. 2: Exploring Western Physiology of Trauma: Polyvagal Theory. 3: Cultivating Interoception in body, mind and spirit. Helping the Qi to return. Treatment Planning. Interviewing Your Client. Needling Techniques 4: Principles of Practice. Ethical considerations for working with survivors. 2 4-hour synchronous workshops, held via Zoom #1 – Exploring Eastern Physiology of Trauma: The Five Elements and the Self-Protective Response. April 30, 2021. #2 – Building Capacity. Noticing arousal. Embodying regulation. Epigenetics, Community Arousal and Regulation in the Kidney-Heart Axis. May 7, 2021. Here’s more information and registration link: Register Now |