The flight-fight-freeze-fawn response is the body’s natural reaction to perceived danger or actual threat. These responses cause physiological and hormonal changes in the body. Our left, logical part of our brain goes offline and our instinctual part of the brain takes over. This means that flight-fight-freeze-fawn responses aren’t a conscious decision.
This can show up as:
- Digestive system being shut down
- Not being able to think/focused on escaping in efforts to protect oneself
- Change in body temperature
- Muscles tensing
- Changes in breathing
If you feel like: always on the edge, have difficulty staying relaxed, have persistent worrying, have difficultly sleeping, have difficulty staying in the present moment, dissociate, etc., therapy can be a place to learn how to manage these reactions and respond to triggers in the here and now.
Here are some ways therapy can help:
– Learn relaxation techniques: visualization exercises, breathing techniques, meditation, etc.
– Help with self care: promoting better sleep, physical exercise, etc.
– EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements or tapping) while the client attends to past memories and triggers, in efforts to decrease or eliminate emotional distress connected to the memory.
– Brainspotting is a somatic therapy that helps clients access the subcortical (non-verbal) part of the brain, where trauma is typically stored. According to the creator of Brainspotting, David Grand, “where you look affects how you feel.” Since our eyes gives us access to the subcortical brain, Brainspotting uses the visual field as a way to helps release stored memories.
– Trauma Resiliency Module(TRM) is a somatic approach that helps clients with traumatic stress reactions by learning skills to help stabilize the mind and body. Clients will learn to track body sensations and bring balance back to the nervous system.
– The Havening Techniques® are powerful tools that can be used to treat the consequences of encoded traumatic or stressful memories. It is designed to change the brain to de-traumatize the memory and remove its negative effects from both our psyche and body.
Feel free to reach out to us if you have interest in any of these therapies. We are here to help!
Healing is possible
