NEUROSCIENCE, TRAUMA &

RELATIONSHIP Tanager Place Conference

May 2018

Randall R. Lyle, Ph.D.

Mount Mercy University

“Changes in the organization

of brain function, emotional

regulation, and long-term

memory are mediated by

alterations in neural structure.

These structural changes are

due to the activation or

deactivation of genes encoding

information for protein

synthesis. Experience, gene

expression, mental activity,

behavior, and continued

interactions with the

environment (experience) are

tightly linked in a

transactional set of processes.

Such is the recursive nature of

development and the way in

which nature and nurture,

genes and experience, are

inextricably part of the same

process. (Dan Siegel)

MEMORY IMPLICIT, EXPLICIT, NARRATIVE

ATTACHMENT

Implicit Memory

No thought/All Emotion

Develops as the brain develops

therefore not accessible to

thought

Created by

attachment/distorted by failure

to attach

Attachment establishes an interpersonal relationship that helps the immature

brain use the mature functions of the parent’s brain to organize its own

processes.

The emotional transactions of secure

attachment involve a parent’s

emotionally sensitive responses to a

child’s signals, which can serve to

amplify the child’s positive emotional

states and to modulate negative

states. In particular, the aid parents

can give in reducing uncomfortable

emotions, such as fear, anxiety, or

sadness, enables children to be

soothed and gives them a haven of

safety when they are upset. Repeated

experiences become encoded in

implicit memory as expectations and

then as mental models or schemata of

attachment.

PLASTICITY

Old idea: The best you could

ever be at birth/downhill from

then on.

New idea: Never stops

changing/change can be good

or ill depending…

“Resilience is the dynamic

process through which an

individual can adaptively

overcome a stressful and/or

traumatic event(s), while

maintaining relatively normal

physical and psychological

function over time.” C. Osorio et

al

“It is important to mention that

resilience is not conceptualized

as the absence of a diagnosable

psychiatric condition but rather

a constructive adaptation to

adversity and traumatic

experience.”

“The neural mechanisms that

underlie resilience to stress are

extremely complex, involving

the interaction of neurobiologic,

genetic, and epigenetic

components, together with the

environment.”

“It should be noted that

active coping strategies,

humor, hardiness, and

extraversion can promote

resilience through fostering

feelings of mastery,

commitment, and competence

as well as the ability to help

others through bonding.”

Studies that evaluated

parental neglect and abusive

behavior toward children

during the early weeks of life

found: fewer stress

management skills, lower self-

independence, and higher

levels of anxiety and stress.

Statistically, the more

stressful and/or adverse

experiences someone

encounters in childhood, the

higher his or her risk of

developing cognitive,

emotional, and psychiatric

problems in adulthood.

CORE NEED SURVIVAL ADAPTATION STRATEGY USED TO PROTECT THE ATTACHMENT RELATIONSHIP

Connection Foreclosing connection Disconnect from body and social engagement

Children give up their very sense of existence, disconnect, and attempt to become invisible

Attunement Foreclosing the awareness and expression of personal needs

Children give up their own needs in order to focus on the needs of others, particularly the needs of the parents

Trust Foreclosing trust and healthy interdependence

Children give up their authenticity in order to be who the parents want them to be: best friend, sports star, confidante, etc.

Autonomy Foreclosing authentic expression, responding with what they think is expected of them

Children give up direct expressions of independence in order not to feel abandoned or crushed

Love-Sexuality Foreclosing love and heart connection Foreclosing sexuality Foreclosing integration of love with sexuality

Children try to avoid rejection by perfecting themselves, hoping that they can win love through looks or performance

Heller & LaPierre 2012

Stephen Porges’ Poly Vagal Model

Neuroception is a term coined by Stephen Porges to describe

how neural circuits distinguish whether a situation is safe,

threatening, or dangerous. It is an ongoing process through

which our autonomic nervous system evaluates information

from our senses about our environment and the state of our

body.

Neuroception takes place in the deep parts of the brain,

beyond our conscious awareness. It can be likened to a good

watchdog that is always on guard, allowing us to focus on

things other than survival, or to sleep soundly, and rousing

us only when intrusions could compromise our survival.

Based on neuroception, well-defined neural circuits are

activated to support the state of social engagement and

friendly behaviors when we are safe; the defensive strategies

of fight or flight when we are threatened; and shutdown

when we are in serious danger.

Descartes—I think therefore I

am. The so-called Cartesian

error was to separate the brain

from the body. Mind—

thinking, became the highest

accomplishment of the human.

Soma/body—has been

relegated to the domain of

allopathic medicine and the

closed interventions of

medication or surgery.

The polyvagal theory regarding

the function of the vagus

systems encourages us to

reunite the two and remember

that we are one.

Somatic Treatment

You cannot heal trauma by

words alone!

Interoception:

The perception of internal (endogenous)

sensations that contribute to our subjective

experience of body state.

Or

The only thing determining whether

something is interoceptive is whether it

contributes to the subjective perception of

body state.

Provides a significant portion

of the information we use to

form our experience of self

and our view of the self in

relation to others. It provides

a large portion of the self-

communication we use to

assess whether or not we are

safe or unsafe and whether an

external event or person is

pleasurable, exciting, or

threatening.

Interoception can be easily

influenced, including by

something as simple as our

mood when we are asked to rate

our pain levels: positive emotion

increases our tolerance for pain,

and negative emotion decreases

it.

Is meant to inform us in a predictive

assessment of our internal and

external environments, but it can

mislead us if this system developed

without congruent context and

feedback, in which case, our markers

for perception and meaning making

may be overly sensitive or tuned to

signals that don’t provide reliable

information.

Information gathered tend to

be experienced as factual, not

evaluative, because it comes

from what many of us call

“inner knowing” or gut feeling.

Treatment Strategies:

1. Understand the impact early trauma has, so that we can assess

their needs in the necessary context. Symptoms related to all

aspects of the self should be taken into account: psychological,

emotional, physiological, social, and spiritual.

2. Assess the client’s capacity for regulation, perception of safety, and

assessment of affiliated somatic symptoms. It is important to assess

where the client falls in his/her preexisting capacity for self-

regulation.

3. Regulation, regulation, regulation. Attention to supporting the

client’s capacity for regulation will always be a part of any

interventions when working with developmental trauma. This may

take months or even years.

4. Pay attention to defensive accommodations and the false coping

skills.

5. Support more accurate interoception. More accurate interoception is

a critical element in the client’s ability to notice their increasing

capacity for regulation, to access a felt sense of safety, to notice co-

regulation, and to more accurately notice internal experiences—and

report those to the clinician.

6. Change the narrative. This often happens simultaneously with the

previous two steps. Sometimes clients will need coaching to perceive the

differences in how they attend to their experiences, and the ways in

which various aspects of their narrative are changing.

7. Remain focused on regulation. As the work progresses, there is often

a stage when it’s time to return attention more fully to regulation.

Because the client has greater access to their ventral parasympathetic

physiology, is more able to track their internal experiences, and has a

more developed sense of safety, their capacity for regulation has often

grown to the point that returning to this focus can help consolidate the

gains made.

8. Work with more specific symptoms.

Neuromodulation:

These are techniques associated with computer (device) biological

connections enabling the individual to gain knowledge and control

of autonomic regulation or other means of changing brain function.

Neurofeedback

Peripheral biofeedback

HRV (Heart Rate Variability Training)

Pemf training

PirHeg (Passive Infrared Hemoencephalography)

tDCS (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation)

EMDR

Mindfulness

Touch

“Failure of the holding environment is experienced as failure of

the self. Infants who experience early trauma of any kind

experience the early environmental failure as if there were

something wrong with them. Later cognitions such as ‘There is

something basically wrong with me’ or ‘I am bad’ are built upon

the early somatic sensation ‘I feel bad.’”

“When children split off

significant aggressive

impulses, they see only two

possibilities: to identify as

good but powerless—acting

in—or as bad but powerful—

acting out.”

“Designated issues, whether or

not they have a basis in physical

reality, come to dominate a

person’s life, covering the deeper

distress and masking the

underlying core disconnection.”

Heller & LaPierre 2012.

Interventions such as Theraplay

where touch is often used as a

means of facilitating attachment,

connection, and security are

increasingly understood to be

essential elements of resolving and

regulating the individuals ability to

heal.

The Somatic Experiencing® method is a body-oriented approach to

the healing of trauma and other stress disorders. It is the life’s

work of Dr. Peter A. Levine, resulting from his multidisciplinary

study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology,

neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics,

together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. The

SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to

transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early

developmental attachment trauma.

Offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight,

flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve

these fixated physiological states. It provides effective skills

appropriate to a variety of healing professions including mental

health, medicine, physical and occupational therapies, bodywork,

addiction treatment, first response, education, and others.

Implicit memory, the

roots of our existence,

resides in the body.

Romania taught us that

if you feed and clean

them but don’t hold

them they will die.

Resiliency without the

body is not resiliency.

We cannot self-regulate

if we are not in touch

with our bodies.

Take aways:

In order to develop resiliency there must be struggle.

The struggle must be accompanied by support

(physical as well as emotional), compassion (suffering

with), mentoring (education of mind, body and spirit).

The silent child (adult), the yelling child (adult), the

hitting child (adult) are likely to all be asking for the

same thing.

The caregiver (healer, therapist, counselor, etc.)

probably cannot give what they do not have.

Will you see me? touch me? feel me? know me? hold me? love me?

The best treatment of all is happiness and love and joy!

Nurturing Resilience: Helping Clients Move Forward frpom

Developmental Trauma. Kain & Terrell 2018, North Atlantic

Books

Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help

Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism.

Rosenberg. 2017. North Atlantic Books.

Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects

Self-Regulation, Self-Image, and the Capacity for Relationship.

Heller & LaPierre. 2012. North Atlantic Books.