The Sensorimotor Feedback Loop and Trauma

At the core of life is a permanent feedback loop between sensory perception of the environment and our response to such information through active motor impulses. Complex early childhood trauma severs or distorts the feedback loop between sensory perception and motor impulses. Clients either act out with lots of motor impulses, but have dissociated the sensory feedback loop, so internally nothing ever arrives. Or they act in, being hyper alert, “oversensitive”, but have shut down most active impulses to fly underneath the radar to stay safe.

Creative Healing Strategies for Victims of Natural Disasters

When the earthquake shook an area the size of Portugal in southeast Turkey and northern Syria, at least 56 thousand people died, 126 000 suffered non-fatal injuries and at least 2.6 million people were displaced. I was asked by the Psychology Department of Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul to speak about trauma-informed strategies to support large groups affected by a natural disaster. An event such as this earthquake is overwhelming for all involved, even the news were overwhelming to watch. And while the world by now has turned elsewhere, the aftershocks for those millions directly affected will last for years, if not a lifetime…

Recently I stumbled on a collection of studies by Dr Jess Bone, a Research Fellow in Statistics/Epidemiology in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health (UCL) and a member of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health. Bone has conducted extensive research with colleagues on the arts and well-being.

These studies include all the arts and not necessarily arts as therapy…

The Polyvagal Theory

Peter Levine and Stephen Porges both place their trauma-informed insights on understanding the polyvagal system in the body. While I found the Polyvagal Theory too medical to understand for a long time, when I attended a masterclass with Porges during the Australian Childhood Foundation Trauma Conference in 2014 he turned out to be a clear, simple and engaging speaker; finally, I understood his important research. During his masterclass Porges used the image of traffic lights to explain his Polyvagal Theory in a way that I found even children and parents can easily comprehend. It is one of the printed resources I keep on my desk and show to parents and children alike to assist them in understanding what is happening inside them. The Polyvagal Theory focuses on how the autonomic nervous system impacts on every somatosensory system in our body illustrated by traffic lights…

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