Overcoming Trauma and PTSD Associated with Physical Spaces

This article is reposted from the Pepperdine university website. It was posted May 15, 2019 Here is the link to the story: https://onlinegrad.pepperdine.edu/blog/ptsd-trauma-physical-spaces/

Just two weeks after one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, 3,000 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to class. Roughly 95 percent of students returned to the campus where they witnessed 17 classmates shot to death and 14 others seriously injured.External link:open_in_new The first week, they were eased back into a school routine with half-day schedules, and were greeted by therapy dogs, mental health counselors and heavily armed police officers. Candles and teddy bears were placed in the seats of students whose lives were claimed by the gunman.

For many of those students, and those of the 102 other schools that experienced gun violence in 2018,External link:open_in_new school will never be the same. It will forever be associated with this traumatic incident. Although the building where the tragedy occurred remains closed, students who spoke about the incident one year laterExternal link:open_in_new say they continue to experience recurring dreams about the shooting, feel nervous when they hear loud sounds in the hallways, have panic attacks, and are simply not able to make it through the school day.

Traumas can be brought on by any emotionally disturbing or distressing event, and each person recovers uniquely because they process the event through their own lens of personal experiences. For some, returning to a space where trauma occurred can evoke intense emotional and physiological reactions, so avoiding it may seem like an intuitive safeguard from further harm. 

“People avoid other people, places or things that remind them of trauma, which is a result of feeling powerlessness, hopelessness and terror,” said Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis, faculty member with the OnlinePsychology@Pepperdine program.

However, avoiding those spaces may not be healthy in the long term, especially for those who are obligated to visit these places regularly—like a workplace or a campus—because it inhibits survivors from leading a full life. Working with a mental health professional to reenter physical spaces associated with trauma can be an important part of healing from the experience.

To read the full article: https://onlinegrad.pepperdine.edu/blog/ptsd-trauma-physical-spaces/

5 Reasons Gardening Can Help to Heal TraumaWe need a path to the garden.

This article is reposted from Psychology Today. Posted March 28, 2021 . Here is the link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/speaking-about-trauma/202103/5-reasons-gardening-can-help-heal-trauma

Whether gardening means potting two plants, planting vegetables in a sunlight space, planning a garden of hope with others, or clearing the debris around some emerging crocus, gardening offers healing.

While gardening has always been considered a valued pastime, there is increasing evidence of the physical and mental health benefits. The results of a 2016 meta-analysis of research examining the effects of gardening found a range of positive impacts from increases in an individual's life satisfaction, vigor, and psychological well-being, to reductions in stress, anger, fatigue, and symptoms of depression and anxiety.

Why Gardening Is Healing in the Aftermath of Trauma

When you consider some essential characteristics of gardening in counter-position to trauma’s impact on the core self, it seems that gardening may be a unique source of restoration and healing. Consider these reasons:

1. From Vulnerable to Verdant

In face of a traumatic events, be it illness, the loss of a loved one, violent assault, or devastation from the pandemic, we feel a profound sense of helplessness. We are robbed of a familiar self who knows how to problem solve, move, help, and protect those we love.

In the garden, there is some relief from the sense of helplessness because there is less risk in daring to make something happen.

We don’t go into the garden to reset a sense of purpose or power. Rather, enjoying what is often a reprieve from self-blame, despair, or tears, we find that plants and flowers are gentle companions. They embrace us and allow us to engage without judgment. They even grow with partial plastic seed packs still attached. The garden resets the possibility that our touch can make something positive bloom again.

2. From Trauma Time to Nature’s Time

Traumatic events disrupt our continuity of time. The pandemic stole precious time from everyone and decimated predictable routines. First responders had no time. Isolated seniors felt trapped in what seemed to them endless time or borrowed time. We all struggled to operationalize the mantra of "one day at a time."In the garden, nature keeps its own time. A crocus blooms in a pile of broken tree limbs after the storm, the daffodils show up on time—even when things seem askew with the world. A young woman tells me that the wild blue flowers that show up in her garden each summer remind her of her mother and the close feeling of being near her. Whether conscious or not, gardening starts to loosen the way trauma locks us into painful times.

"To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” —Audrey Hepburn

3. From Negative Sensations to Nature’s Sensations

Given that we respond to traumatic events with the human survival responses of fight, flight, and freeze, trauma experts like Bessel van der Kolk and Peter Levine suggest that we suffer because we cannot “shake off” the body’s readiness for danger, or the traumatic memories carried in flashbacks, tactile sensations, or sensory reactivity to reminders of the event.

The physical exertion of gardening allows the body an opportunity to redirect hyperarousal, to experience movement, heavy breathing, and even perspiration for good reason. The stimulation of the senses by the fragrances, visual beauty, and physical touch inherent in gardening are powerful antidotes to the negative sensations that re-terrify and fuel avoidance of life after trauma.

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.” —John Burroughs

4. From Lost to Found in Nature

Trauma expert Robert Stolorow tells us that basic to the experience of psychological trauma is a “dreadful sense of estrangement and isolation” that compromises connection and recovery. Central to this sense of estrangement is a lost connection with self.In the garden, there is the opportunity to find and restore self, by losing oneself in the moment. Instead of feeling isolated or alone one is in a "flow state" also known as being "in the zone." It is the mental state in which a person is fully immersed in an activity with positive energized focus. Much as the runner finds himself on a new road or the artist loses time in the world of her creation, getting lost in gardening equates to a connection beyond consciousness, the chance to experience a self beyond pain and loss.

"I like gardening. It's a place I find myself when I need to lose myself." —Alice Sebold

5. From Assaulted Belief to Nature’s Transformation

While spirituality serves as an important resource for many after trauma, others feel that what has happened calls into question their belief in God. Some, who feel their belief has been assaulted, are bereft of their usual source of hope and soothing at a time of need.

In the garden no organized religion has ownership. What people feel from being steeped in nature is often described as transformative of heart and soul. For some, such transformation feels sacred. Whether it transforms or inspires, being with nature often rekindles or redefines belief.

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.