Trauma Training Tip Winter – a season for deep rest and thoughtful contemplation. Its organs are the Kidney and the Bladder. The Kidney’s emotion is fear. Its tissue is the bones. Its sense organ is the ears – it supports our capacity to hear even what we are afraid to hear. It also stores our genetic potential or essence (called the Jing in Chinese) and thus plays a critical role in the transformation of the impact of ancestral or inherited traumatic stress. The Kidney provides the power for us to take action when the Adrenal Gland, which sits on top …

Trauma Training Tip The skin and body hair correspond with the Metal. In presence of threat, our skin wakes up with “goose bumps” and the hair on the back of our neck may stand up. Our skin is our largest organ, our fundamental armor and our essential container. It keeps the outside world out and the inside world in. Our skin’s role in the Self Protective Response is to alert us to something new in our external environment. It has richly sensate experiences about the nature, location, quality, and kind of touch it likes or dislikes. In fact, it is …

Trauma Training Tip Autumn. The air becomes crisp and clear. The loss of light inhibits chlorophyll production — and allows the inherent beauty of the leaves to show. Like the trees that show their splendor, we too are supported to see and know our value — and own essential, gem-like nature. The Metal Element’s organs are the Lung and the Colon. It represents both the beginning and the conclusion of the cycle of creation. We measure the beginning and ending of a life with the Lung’s function — it carries our “first” and our “last” breath. The Lung houses the …

Trauma Training Tip The “flesh” is the tissue associated with the Earth Element in Acupuncture and Asian Medicine. While our skin communicates sensations from the outside world, our muscles communicate sensations from our inner experience. If we have an experience of a failure of self-protection – our muscles will hold that story. What we believe and how we feel about that failure will be stored in our muscles. They may be braced or collapsed, or feel weak or invisible. They may experience “unexplainable” pain. They can lose their capacity to control the amount of energy necessary to effect a particular …

Trauma Training Tip August. We enter the 5th season in the Lunar Calendar – Late Summer. The air is thick. Our bodies may feel dense and heavy. It is the season of the Earth Element, and the Stomach and Spleen. In the context of the self-protective response, the Stomach and Spleen are responsible for “digesting the gristle” and “harvesting the lessons.”  When we experience a life-threatening event, our organs of digestion are temporarily shut down so all our energy can go to our muscles and joints to mobilize our fight or flight response. It can be challenging to “digest” or …

Trauma Training Tip This month, I would like to explore the complex dynamics of shame in trauma physiology. Shame has a profound influence on the Heart in acupuncture and Asian medicine – and the function of the Ventral Vagus nerve in neurobiology. Its function is to create contraction. You may have never heard someone say that shame has a pro-social component. Shame is actually part of our survival physiology. Its job is to shape behavior to comply with cultural norms. We are pack animals. We need to belong to a group to survive, we need to learn the rules, and …

Trauma Training Tip The Heart is the primary organ of the Fire Element. Its job in the self-protective response is to tell us, “it’s over,” “we survived.” A calm, regulated, nearly invisible heartbeat communicates a sense of restored equanimity in the kingdom of the body. It gives us the capacity to manifest the Heart’s gift of propriety and provides a sense of peace in our Heart as well as our mind. If we suffered a sense of threat – and thus chronic cardiac hyper-arousal – as an infant, or repeated experiences of life-threat as an adult, our Heart Qi can …

Summer time. A very special time of year. Flowers are giving way to fruit. It is a time of fullness and growing maturity. The sun is at its height. The energy of the heart is its most vibrant. The Fire Element mirrors the relational, parasympathetic function of the ventral vagus nerve. The ventral vagus supports us in resolving conflicts in the context of relationship. It provides that relational “brake” on that “fight or flight” sympathetic response to a sense of threat. When it is functioning well, we can: Disagree and remain in relationship Sublimate primal urges to bite, kick Resist …

Trauma Training Tip Spring is a season of dramatic movement – bulbs and seeds lying quietly under the soil emerge quickly and colorfully – carrying metaphors of new possibilities, fresh starts, and manifestation of potential. The Taoist sages found resonance in these qualities of Spring and named the season for the Wood Element and the Liver and the Gall Bladder as its organs. Our benevolent Wood Element is always available to protect and defend us – and those we love. The Wood Element mirrors the function of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. Acupuncture and Asian Medicine (AAM) …

Trauma Training Tip In honor of Women’s History Month, I dedicate this month’s newsletter to the many people working, thinking, and helping us all to understand, transform, and act on overcoming gender-based violence and creating healthy communities for women, girls, and those who love them. According to the American Psychological Association, “women are twice as likely to develop PTSD, experience a longer duration of posttraumatic symptoms, and display more sensitivity to stimuli that remind them of the trauma.” One thesis for why women are so vulnerable is that they are at greater risk of sexual assault — and sexual assault …