Trauma Training Tip The Kidney and Adrenal Gland are contained in a fascial “sac” that integrates them into a single functional unit. One important job they play together is to signal our response to danger or life-threat. Life-threatening experiences in infancy, or intense or ongoing threats in adulthood may cause this signaling center to get stuck “on”. Enduring high arousal consumes Jing and causes high morbidity and mortality rates in trauma survivors. Patients who did not experience feeling safe while immobilized as infants or young children, with e.g. hugs, playful wrestling and cuddling, may be very challenged by not being …

The Kidney/Adrenal system is responsible for Signaling Threat, the subject of the Second Module in the Restoration & Balance After Trauma series. Building resiliency in this system will help survivors restore their capacity to feel safe again, recognize threats more accurately, reduce their morbidity and mortality and enhance their vitality. The whole body is alarmed when the Kidney’s signal of life-threat penetrates the pericardium and reaches the Heart. With repeated alarm, the Kidney loses its capacity to regulate fear. Survivors are tossed between hyper-arousal and collapse – their Jing is consumed and their Shen is disturbed. Exploring Shao Yin – Kidney/Heart dynamics in this integrative, East meets West context …

Trauma Training Tip: As the weather becomes colder, trauma survivors who have repeatedly needed the freeze response to help them cope with life threatening situations may experience more vulnerability. Freeze, also called collapse or dissociation, is a physiologically brilliant and life-saving solution in certain circumstances.  When too much electricity is flowing into our home, a circuit breaker shuts off the power to prevent it from burning to the ground. Similarly, when life presents an overwhelming challenge, we may freeze to prevent our heart/mind from imploding. While the freeze strategy is brilliant in the short term, the damage that ensues when it …

Trauma Training Tip The Self-Protective Response is initiated by the Po, the spirit of the Lungs. When we hear a twig snap, if our Po is intact, a message is sent to the orienting functions of the Liver via the K’ecycle. We narrow our focus, orient our sense organs towards the sound, and are instinctively animated to respond to this felt sense* of threat. We don’t have time to consider whether, where, when or how fast we should move – we respond instinctively. That capacity for instinctive responses is the gift of the Po. There is a slight sympathetic arousal – which …

Trauma Training Tip Touch the skin and touch the world for your patient! Touch is our first sense.  It is our first and most primal communication.  Many people live without sight, hearing, smell or taste — but no one can survive without touch! Our skin is a boundary organ.  It is a relatively global tissue — bones and muscles have a beginning and an end — but our skin surrounds us. When we touch with attention on the skin, we touch our patient in a global way.   We can inadvertently activate a memory of boundary violation if we are unaware of the …

Trauma Training Tips Did you know you have a brain in your guts?This visceral brain informs us about our comfort in relationships and helps us make nourishing attachments. You actually do “know it in your guts” when you meet people. In life-threatening conditions, all our Qi goes to mobilizing a flight or fight response; we shut down our digestion temporarily. Repeated early traumatic stress may result in chronic shut-down of digestion – or a freeze response in our viscera. As adults it will be hard for our Spleen qi to transform food into qi; we may have trouble assimilating trace …

Trauma Training Tip Both Eastern and Western medicine appreciate the critical importance of connective tissue in wrapping around, penetrating in, and connecting with all organs, muscles, bones, and cells. The impact of high velocity injuries on the connective tissue is global.  Adhesions, scars, and loss of flexibility in the connective tissue can give rise to localized pain and restricted movement; and brace and/or collapse in the connective tissue may contribute to the debilitating pain of fibromyalgia. Chinese medicine brings an additional dimension to this exploration.  It says that our Yuan Qi – the Qi that we each received at our conception — …

Trauma Training Tip The physiology of the Heart Protector is even more amazing than you ever knew! The kidney/adrenal system signals threat. Its first resource is connection along the K’o cycle to the Pericardium. We are pack animals and are safer when we can make eye contact and relationship with our tribe. If our capacity for connection has been undermined by abuse or trauma, we will be less able to seek help when threatened. We may not ask for help when caught in the ocean’s undertow. We may mis-read facial cues and assume threat rather than curiosity from a co-worker. …