Episode 28 - Awareness of Trauma Responses

The twins discuss Dr. Nicole LePera (@The.Holistic.Psychologist on Instagram)'s definitions of common trauma responses and suggestions for healing, how different ones show up in their lives and how learning of these responses helps us all, even if we don't have them. 

Takeaways

• There are different types of trauma responses that help us cope with challenging or difficult situations.
• A person isn’t all or nothing and not defined by their responses but having self-awareness can help us find healthier ways of coping.  In time you’ll figure out how to change the behavior you don’t like.
• If your goal is to heal yourself, you need to dig deep into why you are triggered and understand why you react the way you do but this type of shadow work can be daunting but is essential for healing.
• Changing too fast isn’t effective; change naturally must be gradual, like a healing wound.
• There are 4 types of trauma responses (coping mechanisms).  You don’t need to have experienced horrible trauma to display one or more of these responses.
• Freeze Response, Fawn Response, Fight response, Flight Response. (see link below for more info on each one).
• A person can have a combination of responses depending on their life experiences.
• Be gentle and kind to yourself while you focus on healing yourself.
• Labels like good or bad, right or wrong, don’t have power in themselves.  We give them power.  You have the right to drop a label any time you choose.
• You don’t owe anyone an explanation for why you say no, why you do what you do.
• Remember:  You decide what you think about. You are the one that decides what you think of yourself and whether you give your power away or not.  
• If society is telling us to hate/like something, you don’t have to also unless you really do hate/like that thing.
• These healing journeys take a long time - read different things to learn about yourself, try new things.

Links

• Posts on Trauma responses can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/the.holistic.psychologist/
• Holistic Psychologist depiction for each response: 
• https://www.instagram.com/p/CbWEXMoF05-/   
• Fawn Trauma response: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTw_nUglQW7/
• Freeze Trauma response: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTxcHeoPw_y/
• Fight Trauma Response: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTzwkg-p5t1/
• Flight Trauma Response: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTzg_HnFrhY/

Socials

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bloomingvoicespodcast/ 
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/VoicesBlooming
• Email - bloomingvoicespodcast@gmail.com
• Website - https://www.bloomingvoices.com/