As psychotherapists, we are entrusted with the delicate task of guiding clients through the often turbulent waters of trauma. Yet, the complexities of healing trauma when a client has sensory processing difficulties can present unique challenges for both clients and clinicians. What if we could equip ourselves with a deeper understanding of these intricate connections and develop a comprehensive toolkit for fostering healing?
Trauma, Sensory Processing, and the Nervous System
Linda Thai, LMSW, a renowned trauma therapist and educator, illuminates the profound interplay between these seemingly disparate elements:
“Between 5 and 15% of individuals have a sensory processing disorder…There’s a high correlation between sensory processing disorder and anxiety disorder…There’s a high correlation between post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary sensory processing disorder…” (read the full transcript below)
Thai’s words underscore a crucial truth: trauma doesn’t merely reside in the mind; it’s deeply embedded within the nervous system. Sensory sensitivities, often heightened by trauma, can trigger flashbacks, anxiety, and dysregulation. Understanding this connection is paramount for effective therapeutic intervention.
Navigating the Landscape of Complex Developmental Trauma
Clients who have experienced complex developmental trauma, often stemming from early relational wounds, present unique challenges. Their nervous systems may be wired for survival, with competing needs and adaptations that manifest as emotional dysregulation, interpersonal difficulties, and a heightened vulnerability to sensory overload.
Thai introduces Janina Fisher’s TIST model and the drama triangle as valuable frameworks for understanding these complex dynamics. The TIST model helps therapists identify and address the different “parts” of a client’s personality that may have developed in response to trauma. The drama triangle sheds light on the interpersonal patterns that can emerge, such as the victim-persecutor-rescuer dynamic, which can hinder healing.
Healing Trauma by Regulating the Nervous System
Enroll in our FREE webinar with Linda Thai, LMSW: Befriending the Nervous System: Strategies for Trauma, Sensory Processing, and Developmental Wounds
In this transformative webinar, Linda Thai will share her wealth of knowledge and experience, guiding you through a comprehensive approach to healing trauma and sensory processing challenges:
- Understanding Sensory Profiles: Learn to assess and honor each client’s unique sensory sensitivities and preferences, tailoring interventions to their specific needs.
- Cultivating Safety and Co-Regulation: Discover the power of creating a safe and predictable therapeutic environment where clients can explore their experiences without fear of overwhelm.
- Mastering Nervous System Regulation: Acquire practical tools and techniques for helping clients regulate their nervous systems, such as grounding exercises, breathwork, mindfulness, and somatic practices.
- Addressing Developmental Wounds: Explore trauma-informed approaches that delve into the underlying relational wounds, fostering healing and integration.
- Integrating Body-Based Therapies: Discover the profound impact of body-based therapies, such as Somatic Experiencing and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, in releasing trauma from the body and restoring a sense of safety and well-being.
- Cultivating Resilience: Empower clients with strategies to build resilience and navigate life’s challenges with greater ease and confidence.
Join Linda Thai, LMSW, for a FREE webinar
Join Linda Thai, LMSW, for a FREE webinar
Bottom-Up Strategies for Trauma Stabilization: A Phase-Oriented Approach
During the webinar, Linda will show you:
A road map detailing a 3-phase, sequential (but non-linear!) process that starts with safety, stabilization, and coping skills.
The creative use of various treatment modalities and interventions.
When and how to address specific symptom sets with your modalities.
How to plan and navigate your professional development to maximize client outcomes.
Embark on a Journey of Transformation
This webinar isn’t merely a lecture; it’s an invitation to embark on a journey of transformation – for both you and your clients. By deepening your understanding of the intricate connections between trauma, sensory processing, and the nervous system, you’ll gain invaluable insights and practical tools to elevate your practice and create a profound impact on the lives of those you serve.
Don’t miss Linda Thai’s FREE webinar: Befriending the Nervous System: Strategies for Trauma, Sensory Processing, and Developmental Wounds
This is your opportunity to learn from a true pioneer in the field, a therapist who has dedicated her life to unraveling the complexities of trauma and empowering others to heal. Join us as we delve into the transformative power of befriending the nervous system and discover a new paradigm for trauma therapy.
Linda Thai: Strategies for Trauma Stabilization (training excerpt transcript):
“Between 5 and 15% of individuals have a sensory processing disorder, and we all have sensory profiles. And many of us also experience sensory processing differences and challenges that don’t fit the diagnostic category of a disorder. And yet, we have challenges and differences. Fifty percent of individuals with ADHDers have sensory processing disorder, and 75% of autistic folks. There’s a high correlation between sensory processing disorder and anxiety disorder, given that sensory sensitivities put a child or an adult at risk of experiencing anxiety. And there’s a high correlation between post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary sensory processing disorder, meaning that traumatic memories become encoded as sensory awarenesses that become embedded in implicit memory, like trauma-related hashtags or trauma-related issues.
And so, this is where I hold that space of ‘I don’t know’ with a client, and yet, to be able to meet the client, to facilitate sensory satiation, and to prevent sensory overwhelm and burnout, developing a working alliance. So, we have challenges here. And this is for working with complex developmental trauma, specifically that when there’s been a lot of interpersonal traumatization at the hands of caregivers. And so, that’s where we’re working with competing needs, competing adaptations for survival. ‘I want to flee, but I want to get close. I want to control you in order to take care of you. I want to control you so that I can punish you.’ And so, we’re actually holding space for long-standing feelings of mistrust and betrayal, where clients alternate right between parts or the adaptations within a part, demanding and withdrawing, pleading for and rejecting, charming and defiance, and ghosting, grandiosity and self-loathing, entitled rage and helpless rage.
And this is where Janina Fisher’s test model can be ever so helpful. And I want to share with you the work of the drama triangle with the neglectful bystander and the unresolved wounds of the inner child, where we can get caught up in a client’s drama triangle inadvertently. It happens to all of us. It’s okay. And yet, there can be four main patterns that are identified that Davies and Fry identified specifically working with survivors of CSA, which can replicate itself in our therapy relationship: the unseeing, uninvolved parent, and the unseen, neglected child, the sadistic abuser and the helplessly, impotently enraged victim. Right, this is the aftermath of what happens when we don’t have a coherent sense of self.
Yeah, and coherence is a phrase that’s used in the attachment world that when there’s good enough attachment, we develop internal coherence. Yes. And so, in a way, all of this is actually phase one work because we’re navigating some pretty treacherous terrain. And so many of these self-regulation techniques, techniques that I use for myself when I’m with clients so that I can be very conscientious about what and when and how because we can only move as fast as the speed of trust.”
