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The Traumatized Body: Using the Symptoms to Develop the Solutions

Carol B. Low, PsyD

There are myriad intricate ways in which certain physical symptoms and disorders are connected to a history of trauma in the client. This workshop explores the spectrum of such disorders, often referred to in trauma literature as functional disorders of dysregulation, including complex regional pain syndrome and other chronic pain disorders lacking a clear medical cause, migraine, irritable bowel, cyclic vomiting, and other dysregulations of the GI system, autoimmune disorders, cardiac arrhythmias, and pseudo-seizures.

These physical symptoms presented by trauma patients are often refractory to appropriate medical intervention, and exhibit improvement with trauma-informed psychological intervention. We present data confirming specific relationships between trauma, dissociation, and physical disease applicable to certain diseases and define a model for understanding diseases that potentially fit these concepts. The experiential portions of the workshop demonstrate how to develop and carry out a treatment plan in which the symptoms inform treatment of the whole person, rather than the disease, integrating psychological, medical, and somatic modalities. Medical interventions must support the possibility of health while reducing the emphasis on eliminating symptomatology; psychological treatment interprets the symptoms as vital information regarding the needs of the system, utilizing hypnosis and hypnotically informed language, boundary setting exercises, and sensory motor works; and somatic educational modalities such as the Feldenkrais Method®, a body-centered intervention help anchor psychological achievements as clients improve body awareness and more fully integrate their physical and psycho-emotional selves. Case studies and demonstration and rehearsal of specific techniques will help to consolidate the exploration of this complicated topic.

This workshop presents an etiological theory and symptom-informed treatment protocol for a complicated set of medical disorders with their roots in trauma. It is expected that participants will have a new perspective on this class of disorders and begin to be able to reformulate their standard of care to include this knowledge, thus achieving a faster and more complete remission of symptoms in complex trauma patients with disorders of dysregulation. We as professionals in the use of clinical hypnosis already know that working with the patient's symptoms rather than against them offers a remarkable opportunity to learn from our patients. In these specific puzzling medical issues, taking our skills to a new level and integrating medical, psychological, and somatic services offers hope to many patients previously refractory to treatment.