Calming the Animal Within - Trauma and the Nervous System
The brain is an amazing organism; as humans we know that there are parts of our brain that we can intentionally shift and shape through the laws of neuroplasticity. Research of the brain has shown that humans can grow and discipline a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. This part of our brain is responsible for many things including critical thinking, problem solving, regulating our emotions, and creativity. This sophisticated portion of the brain is unique to humans.
What is not unique to the human brain are the primitive portions shared by all mammals, one of which is the limbic system. This part of the brain is often referred to as the emotional center. The Hypothalamus (a structure within the limbic system) regulates the functioning of the autonomic nervous system (pulse, blood pressure, breathing, arousal in response to emotional circumstances etc.) This primitive part of our brain does not follow the laws of neuroplasticity meaning we do not have conscious control over it’s operation. It helps me to think of the limbic system as Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD puts it, as a type of “smoke detector”, alerting the organism of potential danger.
When a person experiences a traumatic event it impacts their limbic system and unlike other mammals, humans struggle to innately recalibrate and return to homeostasis. Perhaps one of the barriers to humans innately resetting their aroused limbic system is the existence of the prefrontal cortex.
Many of us humans enjoy talking; We often find value in putting words to experiences, emotions, and insights. Language is a beautiful gift that humans have been given. However, when it comes to trauma, it is housed in a speechless center of the brain. How do we calm an over-aroused limbic system and nervous system? not through words.
Let’s consider, for a moment, how we sooth a human that has a very under developed prefrontal cortex - A young child. A child that has no language is soothed through soft and loving touch, rocking, humming, smiling, closeness, playfulness, and through attunement with a caregiver. Some of us didn’t have this type of care as children and so we must in a way re-parent the limbic system; show it, through it’s speechless language, that it can feel safe. How do we do this? Some suggestions, find a stuffed animal that symbolizes your childhood and soothe the stuffed animal as if you were soothing yourself as a fearful child. Hum to yourself, rock in a rocking chair (attending to the child within). Be playful and silly, make yourself laugh at the innocence of unsophisticated play and imagination.
Experimenting with ways to soothe the limbic system is probably going to feel very foreign and foolish but it is the only way to heal the root of the disturbance - resetting the primitive brain.
Be well,
Sarah-Brooke Stiles, LCSW, PPSC
