Somatic Tao

SE FOR SHOCK vs DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA

Many people do not understand or still refuse to accept that Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing, (SE), is effective for Developmental Trauma. Sure, it is true that Peter Levine's SE was originally developed for working with situations of single event/Shock Trauma. But this was more a product of timing than anything else. When SE came about, Developmental Trauma hadn’t yet been identified let-alone understood. In short, when SE came on the scene, there was only one version of trauma officially, medically recognised – that of Shock Trauma.

IN SHOCK TRAUMA it is far more likely that:

• before the shock event the nervous system already had ability to self-regulate “well enough”;

• after the event the nervous system remained overly reactive; with

• a reduced ability to self-regulate.

IN DEVELOPMENTAL TRAUMA the threat happens:

• repetitively over a prolonged period of time;

• when the nervous system is at its most vulnerable;

• when the nervous system has no ability to self-regulate;

All means that the only way to survive such onslaught is for the nervous system to adopt the dorsal vagal state of freeze.

THE KEY MESSAGE:

• Resolution of Shock Trauma requires renegotiation of reactivity

• Resolution of Developmental Trauma requires renegotiation of freeze

WAYS TO WORK:

When working with Shock Trauma, the therapist needs to work:

• step by step with cycles of increasing activation levels;

• to steadily increase the nervous system's Window of Tolerance for the internal mobilisation required to promote reorganisation back to health.

When working with Developmental Trauma, the therapist needs to work:

• step by step with cycles of deepening energy, ("energy wells");

• to steadily decrease the freeze;

• to steadily increase the nervous system's Window of Resilience for the internal mobilisation required to promote post-traumatic growth towards health.

SAME BASIC PRINCIPLES

Either way, whether we are working to increase the Window of Tolerance for Shock Trauma or the Window of Resilience for Developmental Trauma, the basic principles of using SE are exactly the same, i.e., paying attention to “TRIPODS” which stands for:

• Titration

• Resource

• Integration

• Pendulation

• Organisation

• Discharge

• Stabilisation

TO CONCLUDE

Shock Trauma happens due to increased nervous system reactivity in the presence of reduced effectiveness of self-regulation. Developmental Trauma happens because the nervous system has no ability to self-regulate. Instead, to contain the sympathetic/emotional energy it is unable to process, the nervous system ties itself into a complicated, frozen knot. That means working with Shock Trauma versus Developmental Trauma involves different starting points: renegotiation of reactivity versus renegotiation of freeze respectively.

Working with the complicated, frozen knot of Developmental Trauma also requires skill, expertise, patience and time, (hence working with deepening energy or “energy wells” is taught in the third/Advanced year of the three year Somatic Experiencing Professional Training). But with all these ingredients, SE can absolutely be helpful for Developmental Trauma.

Click on the images below to view all.

BEN's CONNECTION TO DISRESPECT

A child's disrespect of their parent is rooted in the parent's misattunement to that child's needs when the child was very young and vulnerable.

It is not biologically sensible, nor in evolution's best interest to respect someone who doesn't seem to attend to your most basic life supporting needs. This is the root of disrespect in our families and in our societies. Disrespect is sown by BEN, (Babyhood Emotional Neglect; for more information on this see 's FB post on 24th June 2024).

As we know: "The Body Remembers", (Babette Rothschild) and "The Body Keeps the Score", (Bessel van Der Kolk).

Credit for infographic: Dance with me in the Heart

Most systems in our civilisation - from family all the way up to government - are broken and perpetrators of systemic abuse. Whether that abuse be subtle, insidious and difficult to detect such as emotional neglect or blatant outright violence. Ability to survive and succeed in such broken systems requires degrees of fragmentation of psyche. And so such broken systems favour those with varying degrees of psychopathy.

Childhood trauma damages society – why aren’t our leaders recognising it? Prioritising child protection is both the right and smart thing to do.

CEN? NO! MEET BEN!

CEN? What is CEN? CEN stands for Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN), a term first coined by psychologist, Dr. Jonice Webb Ph.D., who wrote the first ever book on the topic: “Running on Empty”, published in 2012. In her book, Webb refers to CEN as:

“the failure of parents to respond enough to a child’s emotional needs.”

CEN is further described as:

• a care giver’s inaction rather than action, (where the latter would be the case in instances of abuse and mistreatment).

• the care giver’s inability to identify, acknowledge, or react suitably to a child’s emotions

• self-compounding. Because, such inability of the caregiver is not evident, noteworthy, nor memorable to the victim… Because, it is hard to recognise something that isn’t there.

In fact, CEN is now frequently referred to as the invisible ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience, [1]), and is becoming a popular focus of therapy talk. And, whilst this is a great step forward and true recognition of Webb’s valuable contribution to our understanding of childhood trauma, I feel CEN, as a term, is inadvertently promoting the one thing it is striving to bring awareness to – namely that of neglect. Let me explain why.

CEN refers to childhood, which technically means from 3 to 11 years of age. So, CEN as a name implies emotional neglect only affects children or begins to create impact from aged 3 onwards. This is absolutely not correct. The most profound impact of emotional neglect is actually experienced when we are at our most vulnerable in our life; when we are most dependent on an Other to meet our every, basic, life supporting need. This means we are most vulnerable when we are:

• in utero;
• a neonate;
• an infant, (0 to 1 year old); and
• a toddler.

i.e., we are most vulnerable in our BABYHOOD not our childhood. We are far more vulnerable in our first three years of life than from aged three onwards.

So, our caregiver’s failure to respond to our emotional needs during our babyhood will be far more impactful to our developing nervous system than in our childhood. How very ironic then that CEN, as a term referring to emotional neglect, appears to neglect the time of life most deeply affected by... emotional neglect.

If we are to truly minimise the impact of emotional neglect in our society, it is my view that we must update our understanding of the relevance of age. We need to understand that babies too are massively affected. With this in mind, I would like to propose a much more informed and updated term: meet BEN, Babyhood Emotional Neglect.

BEN inherently provides awareness of the necessity to respond to emotional needs as early as possible in a person’s infant life. It puts the spotlight on the negative impact of emotional neglect on the very youngest in our society. I also like the fact that it’s a person’s name – makes it very human, where humans are supposed to be the most emotionally connected species on the planet.

Finally, if CEN is the invisible ACE, then BEN needs to become recognised as the invisible ABE, Adverse Babyhood Experience, [2]). Hence, I would invite the pioneer of ABEs - Veronique Mead at Chronic Illness Trauma Studies - to explicitly include it in her list.

PLEASE introduce people to BEN.
PLEASE speak about BEN.
PLEASE help everyone to recognise BEN.
PLEASE help make BEN noteworthy.
PLEASE help make BEN memorable.

Because knowledge of BEN is one of the first steps in reducing risk of growing up with:

• nervous system dysregulation;
• an anxious, avoidant or disorganised attachment style;
• inability to manage emotions;
• living in a state of functional freeze; and
• being at a higher risk of both physical and psychological ill health later in life.

And, remember you first heard about / here; courtesy of Somatic Tao 's passion for raising awareness of the root cause of disease in our modern society.

[1]. https://www.cdc.gov/aces/about/index.html
[2]. https://chronicillnesstraumastudies.com/abes-introduction/

NEGLECT EXTINGUISHES OUR SPARK

NEGLECT isn't just the presence of bad input. Rather...

NEGLECT is the LACK OF NEEDED INPUT.

NEGLECT is a lack of emotional and relational "safeness".

NEGLECT shows up in a person as:

• passivity, silence, stillness;
• being self contained;
• lacking ability to reflect on emotions, (their own and others);
• lacking capacity for narrative;
• difficulty or inability to experience or show pleasure.

NEGLECT means:

• giving off signals of not needing others;
• others lack inspiration to connect;
• fewer relationships;
• becoming unnoticed and forgotten . because our nervous system is wired to move away and avoid the silent and/or still. Because, in more primitive times, silent and/or still were likely indicators of disease or death.

Hence the NEGLECTED GET NEGLECTED.

Such is the profound effect of NEGLECT on our spark for life. As poignantly illustrated in the video below 👇

When we lose our spark, all we need is a little help

SE in the ancient Taoist text the TAO TE CHING

Translation of Tao Te Ching verse 54
by Dan Danner

Notice in particular the last 8 lines
🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤

One who is good at building does
Not uproot that which he has constructed.
One who is good at holding what
He has captured in his arms does
Not let his quarry escape his grasp.
Sons and grandsons never cease
Making sacrifices to ancestors.

Regarding this skillfulness,
Cultivate it in yourself,
And your virtuosity will be genuine.
Cultivate it in a family,
And that family’s virtuosity will be
More than sufficient.
Cultivate it in a village,
And that village’s virtuosity will be longevous.
Cultivate it in a nation,
And that nation’s virtuosity will be abundant.
Cultivate it in all under Heaven,
And all under Heaven’s virtuosity will be universal.

Thus,
Use yourself to observe yourself.
Use the family to observe the family.
Use the village to observe the village.
Use the nation to observe the nation.
Use all under Heaven to observe all under Heaven.

How do I know the world is so?
By this.

March.
Month of spring.
Month of new beginnings.
Month of graduation of new SEPs in brand new countries:

Top - Melbourne, Australia, March 2015
Bottom - Budapest, Hungary, March 2024

CONGRATULATIONS!

Very privileged to be part of the SE Training Assisting Team for both 🙏

WHEN WILL ME/CFS BE RELATED TO EARLY LIFE ADVERSITY?

Tonight on UK Channel 4 News, Sean O Neill was interviewed regarding his late daughter Maeve and how in October 2021 she died suffering ME, (otherwise known as CFS or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). The interview focused on how the UK government and the medical profession are still failing ME/CFS sufferers.

Despite the UK Government Health Secretary promising radical action for ME sufferers in May 2022, (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sajid-javid-promises-radical-action-for-patients-debilitated-by-me-9bkq6qf5g), nothing has changed... even in the face of increased incidence of CFS since the pandemic. N.B., there are now estimated to be 1.5 million sufferers of Long COVID in the UK and 65 million globally.

The level of ignorance in the medical profession regarding what causes ME/CFS and how to treat it is still astounding. There seems no appreciation of the condition being underpinned by very early life adverse events such as trauma in utero, traumatic birth, separation from or lack of attachment to the primary care giver and the like - events that Veronique Mead calls ABEs, Adverse Babyhood Events, (https://chronicillnesstraumastudies.com/abes-introduction/ . There's also more information about Veronique's research in the post below this one).

The topic of treatment of ME/CFS and Maeve O Neill's tragic situation feel very close to my heart:

1) I personally suffered CFS in 1993-1995. I later came to realise my work conditions had inadvertently recreated the relational dynamics of my birth trauma - a cluster of ABEs. That recreation proved far too stressful for my nervous system and immune system. I fell ill with an apparently innocuous upper respiratory virus and then just couldn't seem to bounce back, (n.b., I was a high achiever who played a lot of field hockey). My recovery was informed by Dr David Smith, a GP who was associated with the ME Association at that time

2) The story of Maeve O Neill mentions the Royal Devon and Exeter, (RDE) hospital. This is the county hospital of Devon, south west England, the place where I grew up and my family have lived for six generations.

As a somatically trained trauma therapist, I frequently see, hear and work with people who present with fatigue, depression and inability to live their full life. And... nine times out of ten, the person has a history of ABEs. Knowledge of the same in the western medical profession would be a massive start in delivering the "radical" action ME/CFS sufferers are still waiting for.

The article about Maeve's story can be found here:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/my-daughter-couldnt-be-saved-but-theres-hope-for-other-me-patients-j7lbgg68k
However, the majority of the article sits behind a pay wall - not at all helpful. So, I have copied and pasted the text below if you wish to read the whole article.








HEADLINE: My daughter couldn’t be saved but there’s hope for other ME patients

ARTICLE: The announcement of an action plan for tackling myalgic encephalomyelitis is a genuine breakthrough. Sajid Javid and his team have set Britain on the path to become the world leader in confronting this cruel, misunderstood and neglected disease.

For me it is the most bitter of bittersweet moments.

In the early hours of October 3 last year, my eldest daughter, Maeve, died aged 27 from ME.

This intelligent, creative, courageous young woman lived half her life with a truly awful disease. Bit by bit, ME stole away her youth, her promise and her independence.

She struggled not just with the debilitating, disabling effects of ME but also with the disbelief, apathy and stigma of the medical profession, the NHS and wider society.

In her last months she was bedridden, unable to move, too exhausted to eat and barely able to speak. She was still, however, full of bravery and insight and there were occasional flashes of dark humour as she faced her death.

“This is a f***ing horrible way to die,” she whispered one night.

Maeve endured three gruelling admissions last year at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and there are many, many questions about how that institution approached her illness.

There are questions about the attitude towards someone diagnosed with ME, about the treatment offered and those that were denied. Mostly I question whether, if she had arrived at that hospital with the same acute symptoms but a diagnosis other than ME, the medical staff would have treated her differently.

I hope at least some of my questions will be answered by an inquest into Maeve’s death to be held later this summer.

I believe Maeve (like many people with this illness) suffered discrimination because there is a deeply embedded prejudice about the disease which permeates all levels of medicine and beyond. In 2016 Maeve was told she would be subject to a rigorous assessment to see if she was sufficiently disabled to claim £76.90 per week in benefits.

The orthodoxy has been that ME is a behavioural or psychological condition. Several esteemed royal colleges lobbied hard last year against changes in treatment guidelines which define ME as a “complex, chronic medical condition affecting multiple body systems”.

Maeve was the only child of my first marriage. The first signs of ME emerged when she was around 13 years old. I remember picking her up one day from school in a state of some distress; she had become dizzy and fainted while cross-country running in a PE lesson.

What is now called “post-exertional malaise” — a flare up of symptoms after activity or exercise — is becoming recognised around the world as a tell-tale sign of ME.

She battled on through her teens, achieving excellent A-level grades, but decided not to go to university because she wanted to concentrate on getting well.

Maeve was forced to rely on her own resources. She researched ME in great depth and was extremely knowledgeable, but she was unable to cure herself, and medicine (with the exception of a few special people) was unwilling and unable to help.

It seems harsh to say but I think she would have been better off in the hands of the NHS if she had had cancer — and I say that as someone who has been living with cancer for 12 years.

In the year she turned 16, I was diagnosed with leukaemia. Suddenly conscious of my own mortality I took her to New York for a father-daughter trip, carefully pacing ourselves as we explored Manhattan.

Looking back I’m glad I made her pose for that cheesy photograph in Times Square and our week in the city was one of the things she recalled in her final birthday card when she told me to “relive the good times”.

It is hard to fathom that while I have benefited from new drugs and exciting research, she was forced into an isolated life, cut off from friends and family, dependent on her dedicated mother for care and company.

In March last year she and I were both in hospital around the same time. I was having state-of-the-art keyhole surgery to remove cancer cells from my abdomen. My treatment was swift, skilful and effective. By contrast Maeve presented as acutely ill — extremely weak, in pain, unable to digest food and in danger of malnutrition — at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital only to be told there was nothing that could be done for her.

Within hours of that admission, she was bundled back into an ambulance and sent home. Her mother was told to “prepare for the worst”.

Maeve later texted to say the doctor “has his head so far up his own arse they should cut it off and leave it there”.

Maeve never wanted to die. She had hopes and ambitions. She read widely and rejoiced in the label “bluestocking”. Despite the relentless advance of her illness she painstakingly wrote the first draft of a smart and funny crime mystery set on Dartmoor in the 1920s.

One of the main characters endured a lonely life after the death of her husband. The description of that loneliness seems to me to be Maeve describing her own isolation living with severe ME: “The great grief she carried for the irretrievable loss of others but also of her former self was a wound that could not heal. It took a great deal, not exactly of effort, perhaps of skill, to maintain the right level of consciousness to make her continued existence bearable.”

For those still living with ME, the hope held out by yesterday’s announcement will make life more bearable. For my beautiful girl, it is too late.

My daughter couldn’t be saved but there’s hope for other ME patients The announcement of an action plan for tackling myalgic encephalomyelitis is a genuine breakthrough. Sajid Javid and his team have set Britain on the path to b

ADVERSITY LEADS TO BIOLOGICAL AUSTERITY

Chronic symptoms are often our biology speaking of the last straw that broke the back of our neurophysiology. The body and mind have essentially become very energy depleted due to extended efforts to maintain life despite the presence of significant internal imbalance and hindrance. The allostatic load becomes too heavy to carry. The system has to economise at best and do without at worst. Working with austerity becomes the way to support life.

Veronique Mead has done an enormous amount over the last decade to build awareness of the link between adversity and biological austerity, not only in the public domain but also in the medical professions. If you suffer chronic illness such as fatigue, fibromyalgia, migraine, autoimmune diseases to name a few, then check her website. She has many great resources to read and share with your family and your medical professionals.

Trauma and Chronic Illness: 19 Characteristics that Can Make Sense of Symptoms (Summary of the Science) - Chronic Illness Trauma Studies Links between trauma and chronic illness. It's NOT psychological. The research shows how it's not your fault or all in your head. Types of trauma and risk

SELF LOVE ... FOR THE DAY OF LOVE

For many, St Valentine's Day isn't a day full of love at all. Instead it's a painful reminder of ...

❤️‍🩹 feeling alone
❤️‍🩹 feeling unloved
❤️‍🩹 feeling unlovable
❤️‍🩹 feeling defective
❤️‍🩹 feeling broken

All the above experiences, perceptions and beliefs can be the fallout of early life emotional neglect and/or having narcissistic parent(s). In order to survive the heartbreak of such sub-optimal conditions of connection and relationship, our nervous system showed its love deep inside - by wiring us differently. We became either:

- a version of self that was self sufficient and self reliant; or
- we learnt how to fawn and people please.

These versions of self seemed to work well for a while. But as time went on, and our relational needs changed, our adopted selves began to interfere with our ability to have quality relationships in our adult life. In fact, sometimes our adopted self was/is so strong that we struggle(d) to have relationships at all.

So, on this Valentine's Day, why not send some love to those parts of self still carrying the heartbreak of your early relational life.

FOOTNOTE: The image below shows how the symbol of love can be found anywhere in anything. How love can be seen in all Five Energies of the Universe. How love is actually in all aspects of the Tao!

DRAGON'S DEN, EAR ACUPUCTURE & CFS/ME

People in the UK might have watched a recent episode of Dragon’s Den, (aired on BBC 1 on 18th January), where a non-acupuncturist was awarded funding for ear seed acupuncture.

To many, the Dragons' award of funding to a business of "self-administered ear seeds" implied that the business owner was cured of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) through the use of self-administered ear seeds. Such an implication is very unhelpful. Whilst ear acupuncture may indeed be used as an adjunct to body acupuncture for conditions such as CFS, at present there is insufficient evidence to draw conclusions about the benefits of acupuncture and CFS.

For those interested further, the official and comprehensive response from the BAcC, (British Acupuncture Council, the main Regulatory Body of acupuncturists in the UK), can be found in the link below 👇
https://britishacupuncture.org.uk/6SFW-YN1I-238509F1CF19E3F829D3PA0FBCD2E20AB8004A/cr.aspx

CHILDREN'S BOOKS ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH

Seventy seven in fact. YES!
A list of 77 books.
77 of the best books for helping kids understand emotional and learning challenges.

Thank you to the writer Karen Cicero.

77 Children's Books About Mental Health - Child Mind Institute Explore our favorite children's books on everything from ADHD to trauma. Help your kids understand the emotional and learning challenges they may be experiencing.