Tools for Healing: Trauma Response and Collective Healing
“Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.”
-Angel Kyodo Williams
At the Rape Recovery Center, our framework stems from feminist-multicultural therapy which focuses on anti-oppression and anti-racism practices. We know that systems in this country were created and continue to be enacted that bring about violence, separation, and trauma in communities, particularly communities of color. This month we want to provide information on the trauma response that is held in bodies, as well as provide some practices on how to bring awareness to your body and the body’s response to racism, oppression, and violence.
Trauma and healing are not just private experiences. Trauma is a collective experience, therefore our healing must happen both on an individual level and as a community. We are currently being asked to heal on a collective level and step into discomfort as we need to actively change systems that further traumatize people. When trauma is present, it is critical that we understand the body’s process of connection and settling. It is about slowing ourselves down, grounding ourselves, and getting closer to feeling the pain that is stored in our bodies.
When trauma occurs or we are triggered by present day events, humans respond in many different ways. It is completely normal to feel any and all of these experiences. This list is not exhaustive but as you read this please notice how your body responds to the information.
Physical reactions: aches and pains (headaches, stomach aches, nausea), easily startled, sudden sweating and heart palpitations, changes in sleep patterns, appetite, interest in sex.
Emotional reactions: shock, fear, anxiety, grief, disorientation, hyper-alertness, hyper-vigilance, irritability, restlessness, outbursts of anger or rage, worry/rumination, feelings of helplessness, emotional swings, depression, feelings of shame and guilt, disconnection from self, numbing of emotions.
Behavioral reactions: diminished interest in activities, social isolation, minimization of lived experience, avoidance of anything related to trauma, difficulty concentrating or remembering, self harming behaviors.
Relationship reactions: concern that your feelings may overburden others, detachment from family/friends, feelings of detachment, difficulty trusting, feelings of betrayal from others, loss of sense of fairness or order in the world, disconnection in relationships.
Our bodies and brains respond to trauma as it is an event or a lived experience that brings about fear, danger, and our animal instincts to survive which disrupts our nervous systems. Our senses are heightened and reactions are intensified. Dr. Dan Siegel, a trauma specialist, coined the term, “Window of Tolerance.” Our Window of Tolerance describes how our nervous systems respond to distress. As you can see from the image below, our nervous systems respond in hyper-arousal, neutral or in the window of tolerance, and hypo-arousal. To bring awareness to our trauma response, we must engage in somatic practices that support the slowing down and feeling the discomfort of whatever is happening to us in the moment.
Renowned therapist and activist, Resmaa Menakem LICSW, speaks about racialized trauma and somatic awareness and practices that are critical for collective healing and change. In his book, My Grandmother’s Hands, Resamaa invites readers to understand their own historical trauma and ancestral trauma that is stored in our bodies. He states that although we may have inherited trauma, it does not mean it is our destiny and change can happen as we become more aware of ourselves and the discomfort that we feel.
He speaks to “clean pain” and “dirty pain.” “Clean pain is the pain that mends and can build our capacity for growth. It is the pain we experience when we don’t know what to do, when we are scared, and when we step forward into the unknown anyway, with honesty and vulnerability” (Menakem, R., 2017, pg. 19). Experiencing clean pain enables us to engage in our integrity and when we can move with it, metabolize it, we can grow. “Dirty Pain” on the other hand, is the pain of avoidance, blame, and denial. When people respond from their most wounded parts, become cruel or violent or run away, we experience dirty pain” (Menakem, R., 2017, pg. 20). When we avoid pain and discomfort, we also create more of it for ourselves and for others.
To heal collectively, we must be willing to engage and feel clean pain. To experience clean pain, it is critical to slow down, drop into our bodies, and learn how we are responding to our present moment. This does not mean that we need to be perfect or we need to be calm all the time, but it is important to understand the history of our responses so that we can engage in our lives with presence and vulnerability.
We invite you to engage in a body centered practice to begin the work of collective healing. This practice is from Resmaa’s book where you can find many others.
Take a moment to ground yourself in your own body. Notice the outline of your skin and the slight pressure of the air around it. Experience the firmer pressure of the chair, bed, or couch beneath you-or the ground or floor beneath your feet.
Can you sense hope in your body? Where? How does your body experience that hope? Is it a release or expansion? A tightening born of eagerness or anticipation?
What specific hopes accompany these sensations? The chance to heal? To be free of the burden of racialized trauma? To live a bigger, deeper life?
Do you experience any fear in your body? If so, where? How does it manifest? As tightness? As a painful radiance? As a dead, hard spot?
What worries do you accompany the fear? Are you afraid your life will be different in ways you can’t predict? Are you afraid of facing clean pain? Are you worried you will choose dirty pain instead? Do you feel the raw, wordless fear-and perhaps, excitement that heralds change? What pictures appear in your mind as you experience that fear?
If your body feels both hopeful AND afraid, congratulations. You’re just where you need to be.
(Menakem, R., 2017., pg. 24).
Resources:
Menakem, R. (2017). My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Central Recovery Press.
Courses and Practices on Racialized Trauma
On Being Podcast: Resmaa Interview