Start Fresh in 2026 by Improving Your Mind/Body Connection
Everyone has experienced trauma in their lives-whether it is little t or big T depends on its impact on the person’s life. In the world of psychological trauma, clinicians view this phenomenon not as the event itself, but the body-brain-nervous system impact resulting from the event. This makes it different from the medical model, which often treats the physical (body) for the “trauma” (event) only. van der Kolk (2014), in the book The Body Keeps the Score, noted that “trauma has emerged as one of the great public health challenges of our time… with direct and indirect impacts.” And a WHO (2024) report revealed that at least 70% of the world’s population has experienced trauma.
Definitions of the term trauma have evolved over the years since its first appearance in the DSM-III in 1980, and was linked singularly to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), limited to direct exposure to catastrophic events of war, torture, assault, natural disasters, and plane crashes. Today this definition has expanded to include more varied and personal factors, which can be directly or indirectly linked to trauma. Per the DSM-5, PTSD is caused by experiencing a single event, a repetition of the same event, or multiple events and its symptoms are grouped into four broad categories including intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in mood or thinking and changes in physical and emotional reactions. Trauma, however is not just limited to direct exposure.
Secondary Trauma Stress (STS) (indirect exposure to trauma with similar symptoms as PTSD), is often used interchangeably with compassion fatigue, burn out, or VT. The moniker used normally depends on the setting and who is exposed to the trauma. Figley, a pioneer in the trauma world, shed light on this phenomenon and explained that many persons may experience secondary trauma stress simply by indirect exposure to the trauma. Therefore, a therapist or medical personnel working with a client, a person witnessing a crime, or listening to a family member recounting details, a peer detailing being abused, a teacher who is teaching a student who suffers from PTSD, a wife/husband listening to their partner recount the horrors of war, the list is endless. Professionally this is viewed as an occupational hazard, but for everyday folks like you, this can be insidious, with symptoms imperceptibly creeping up on you.
This is where our trauma-focused practice, Live.Balanced.Life, LLC, can help. We offer an eclectic approach grounded in culture-specific interventions to help improve the mind/body connection. The goal is to help clients rewire their brains, which get hijacked by the traumatic event(s).
Live.Balanced.Life.LLC is located at 6339 Ten Oaks Rd., Suite #300, Clarksville, MD 21029. They can be reached at (410) 639-5245 or at livebalancedlifellc@gmail.com. Visit livebalancedlifellc.com for more information.
