The History of Trauma Treatment Intervention and the Movement Into Creative Arts Therapy

Trauma And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Explained

Trauma is understood as an event, or series of events, that involve a real or perceived threat of death, serious injuries, or physical and sexual assaults. According to the DSM V, trauma does not include intense stressors such as divorce, loss of a job, or other psychosocial factors that may impact the daily functioning of individuals or the collective (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). While these psychosocial factors are important to note when working with clients and it’s important to mitigate the scary or stressful events in their lives, the definition of PTSD and trauma is defined as the former, for the purpose of this chapter. The new model of PTSD as delineated by the DSM V redefined trauma as the complex somatic and psychological response to fear or danger in relation to events such as war, death, torture, domestic violence, interpersonal violence, and sexual abuse (Scrine, 2021). Using this new definition, treating individuals with PTSD or trauma exposure includes regulating the sympathetic nervous system, repairing the locus of control and rebuilding post trauma resilience. This will create a balanced view of the world through healing, wellness, and growth (Scrine, 2021). It is evident that many factors of PTSD and trauma are directly linked to societal structures such as racism, sexism, religious biases, and other macro level issues in society.

The impact of trauma can be muti-layered, especially when multiple traumas occur to an individual or a collective. There are many forms of trauma that lead to PTSD, which include chronic, acute, complex, and collective traumas. Chronic trauma is the prolonged exposure to one type of trauma, such as long-term domestic violence; acute trauma is short term exposure, or one trauma, occurring in a short period of time, such as a car accident; complex trauma is when many traumas occur over the course of one’s life, such as long term domestic violence, a car accident, and a natural disaster; and collective traumas can impact many groups of people around the world, such as experiencing slavery, poverty, and natural disasters.

The mind, the body, and the essence of the individual who experienced trauma is shifted when they suffer from PTSD. Trauma can lead to lesions on the brain, the hyperarousal of the nervous system, and a shift in perspective of what is deemed safe and unsafe in the world (Rosen Saltzman et al., 2013). This can lead to a shift in thinking due to “the before,” “the during” and “the after a trauma” perspective. The human brain has difficulty making sense of how to move forward with life if things can be, or feel, so dangerous (Spiegel et al., 2006). “The before” refers to one’s life before the trauma occurs, “the during” refers to how one feels while trauma is occurring, and “the after” is how one feels and behaves after the trauma is over.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a direct result of failure of the brain to process the traumatic event in a healthy way (Spiegel et al., 2006). When a trauma occurs that leads to PTSD, it is generally a shock or something that was not expected; this shock in turn leads to hyperactivity in the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the occipital cortex of the brain. The over-activity in the amygdala causes an intense fear response towards the events that are occurring during the time of a trauma; the hippocampus causes memory flooding which leads to one feeling over stimulated with fear related emotions after the trauma; the occipital cortex causes a flood of visual information to be sent and stored in the brain leading to flashbacks and nightmares post trauma. On the other hand, Broca’s area of the brain, which is involved in speech and putting words to thoughts or memories, is underactive (Spiegel et al., 2006). This is the perfect storm that can lead to an influx of memories and feelings and a lack of words to describe them. This can cause the traumatized individual to feel locked inside his/her own mind. This mimics the feeling of being triggered, after the trauma is over.