Bessel van der Kolk on three Ways Trauma Can Change the Brain
Get the latest strategies on treating trauma and the brain in the short course "The Neurobiology of Trauma" with Bessel van der Kolk, MD, Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD, Dan Siegel, MD and more: https://www.nicabm.com/program/brain-...
There are three core ways that trauma can change the brain. Bessel van der Kolk, MD, says that you can see these differences in the brain between clients who have PTSD and those who don't. These brain changes can leave clients more susceptible to being triggered while making life seem more menacing.
One of the changes that happens after trauma is seen in the threat perception system. Some people will see danger where others do not. It's important to keep in mind that this isn't happening in the cognitive part of the brain. But rather, it's a core perception process that resides in a very primitive part of the brain.
When trauma changes this area, it can turn into a fear-driven brain.
Another part that gets altered is the "filtering" system that helps you distinguish between relevant and irrelevant stimuli. Clients with a traumatic history who live with PTSD can find it very difficult to ignore messages and signals that don't get picked up by others. This can in turn make the person seem very unfocused and disengaged from ordinary situations.
A third section of the brain that shows the effects of trauma is in the midline structures. You can see this in the way the person experiences a sense of self. This sense can get blunted in people who have been traumatized, which is often a defensive response. As a way to cope with the painful sensations of the body, some people will also self-medicate.
The problem is, when you dampen that internal response to yourself, you also dampen the response to pleasure, excitement, and connection.
Once we understand the three key ways that trauma and PTSD can impact the brain, we can adapt our interventions to help clients heal quicker.
For more resources on working with the issues caused by PTSD check out our short course "How to Work with the Impact of PTSD on the Brain and Body" with Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD: https://www.nicabm.com/program/trauma...