Triggers and Trauma

Since everyone experiences triggering situations to varying degrees in their lives this is a topic that is worthy of having at least a basic grasp on, so let’s start by first looking at trauma since they go hand in hand….

There is a mis-perception that trauma is always a major and obvious life event such as a violent attack, sexual abuse or car accident and the like.

But what if I told you that it can also be much more subtle? like a child getting lost in a shopping mall, or putting a hand up in class and being laughed at, or an infant being left to cry it out to sleep. Trauma can also be something that didn’t happen, examples are emotional neglect, lack of support or lack of parental attunement to a child’s needs.

Honestly there is so much more I could add here but for the purposes of this blog I’ll keep it on the short side.

The key here is that trauma isn’t so much what happened to us, it’s the emotional and nervous system overwhelm we experienced because of what happened.

In that moment there was no safety and no one to help regulate our emotions, or make sense of the situation, so the emotions weren’t able to reach completion, causing an imprint or memory in our bodies and nervous system.

At the time we experienced these overwhelming situations beliefs are formed in the unconscious mind, examples: I am not good enough, I am alone, I am unworthy, or a deep seated fear of abandonment, rejection or judgement etc. Now that emotional imprint is what creates a trigger from that point on in similar situations.

The associated beliefs are then carried through life creating a distorted way of viewing certain situations and can greatly impact all areas of life.

The point being that when a person has overwhelming emotions about a current situation or event, aka we’re triggered af, the nervous system reacts by going into fight, flight or shutdown mode, and what so many people don’t realise is that most often this is the pattern that was set in childhood, which is repeated again and again as an adult.

And the reason it can be so difficult to overcome our triggers is that we think our current situation is the cause of what’s upsetting us and we focus on that. In reality if we can trace our triggers back to the root, that is when true healing can happen, and because safety was the thing that was missing when we first experienced the trauma, safety becomes one of the most important elements of healing.

Thankfully as adults, we can learn to resource ourselves and grow our capacity to be with our triggers and intense emotions as they arise.

We can learn to bring ourselves more into the physical sensations in the body and get less hooked by the mental stories that inflame the emotions and keep us stuck in blame.

We can begin to move through the limitations of our outdated belief systems and feel more empowered to live in an authentic way that feels good to us.

Understanding how the body and nervous system work under stress, it makes sense that when we want to heal we need to pay close attention to the body and its stored messages and memories.

I focus on helping clients create a container where they feel safe to dive deeper and uncover the origins, process the emotions and close the trauma loop.

This process allows people to more easily let go of the negative thought patterns and behaviours that no longer serve them. It is going so much deeper than just talking about a problem and using willpower to fix it. By getting to the root of the issue the old patterns are able to naturally fall away.

It creates an environment of self awareness, self compassion, self acceptance and self leadership which is vital to begin to live as your truest most authentic and beautiful Self.

If you would like help understanding your triggers, and where they came from, you can book a session with me using the link below;

An initial session can take up to 90mins, so please leave yourself plenty of time.

It may be helpful to book a time when you can have space after your session, for integration and quiet reflection afterwards, particularly if this is your first session with me.

Thank you for joining me 🙏🏻🦋

We are made of love, it’s just a matter of removing all that is in the way of that.