Healing as “integration.” (Part VII)

Healing as integration.
Welcome to Part VII of the series exploring the question, “What does it mean to heal trauma?” This brings us to our next consideration of the healing of trauma, healing as integration. This exploration is rooted in Dan Siegel’s framework of interpersonal neurobiology (“IPNB”), which I introduced earlier in this series.

Within IPNB, health is integration. One’s sense of health or wholeness is directly linked to the degree of integration they are experiencing at any given point in time. Thus, in order to heal, one must focus efforts on integrating.

Before going further down this pathway, the framework of IPNB is one in which the idea of healing is on a spectrum, and is also dynamic. One’s sense of wholeness and healing is dependent on one’s given state of integration (Siegel, 2012). Thus, shifts in integration will impact one’s sense of wholeness, and since integration is a dynamic process – we are always integrating, as opposed to arriving at a final destination of being fully and completely integrated – there will always be changes embraced by and within the model itself.

So we are stepping away from the idea of moving from a point A to a point B, moving away from the idea of a previous and more desirable state and working towards a definitive arrival state, and instead riding the waves of life, surfing with life, balancing in such a way as to ideally experience states of greater integration more often that states of lower integration.

Healing in IPNB could be a survivor achieving greater and greater integration, thus realizing a greater sense of wholeness, while also allowing for (integrating) the dynamic ebb and flow of life – even when it comes to experiencing the symptoms of PTSD – in a way that no longer pathologizes the experience of PTSD, and perhaps in some cases drops the “D” in “PTSD” in favor of a view that sees that symptoms are a natural outcome of overwhelming experiences. Because of these overwhelming experiences, one might see their efforts as being including and integrating these experiences as true, and also not the whole of who they are, thus allowing them (symptoms) to be as they are without letting them define or control one’s life. They are present, they may be unpleasant or undesired; and yet they are given space, accepted as part of the truth of one’s life.

This dynamic process can be connected to Siegel’s notion of integration as “differentiation and linkage.” In a state of greater integration, one appropriately differentiates oneself by understanding that trauma is not the whole, but just a part; and, by accepting these parts as true, they are also appropriately placed and appropriately linked within the larger whole of one’s life experience.

THE WHEEL OF TRAUMA
Here I will relay a metaphor that was shared with me by a survivor of sexual trauma. They talked about trauma as a wheel. When their sexual trauma initially occurred, it was as if their life became one wheel, like their entire life became balanced on this one wheel, like a unicycle. Because it was the only wheel, it dominated and controlled the direction of their life, and exerted influence in every facet of their experience. As IPNB might describe this experience, they were vulnerable to frequent states of chaos and rigidity.

As they gained some distance – mostly due to the passage of time – from the event itself, they began to realize slightly greater control and choice, to the degree that it began to feel like it was not the only wheel, and more like riding a bike. The frequency of states of chaos and rigidity began to reduce as their “window of tolerance” expanded. Since there were just two wheels, the trauma wheel still exerted a significant amount of control and impact.

Over the years, and through their efforts in therapy, through their spirituality, and other resources, they have now gained what they describe as the experience of an 18-wheeler. Again, in their experience the trauma wheel is still there, but it is no longer dominating all of life. It is an important wheel, but so are the 17 others in their life. When it needs attention, it is given attention. When it needs rest or repair, they give it what it needs. However, they no longer feel that it is the most important wheel in their life, and have room for plenty of others that are enriching and co-existing with the wheel of trauma. The trauma wheel remains – in their opinion, it always will – but they have integrated it, differentiated and linked it, with the other wheels in their life, and feel whole through their inclusion of all the aspects that make up their “person.”

Part VIII continues this series, exploring healing in relationship.

REFERENCES IN THIS SERIES

Aurobindo, Sri. (1990). The Synthesis of Yoga. Lotus Press.

Badenoch, B. (2018). The Heart of Trauma (First edition ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

Banerji, D. (2016). Seven quartets of becoming (Second impression ed.). Nalanda International.

Blackstone, J. (2018). Trauma and the unbound body. Sounds True.

Damasio, A. R. (2019). The strange order of things : life, feeling, and the making of cultures (First Vintage Books edition, February 2019. ed.). Vintage Books.

Freud, S. (2010). Civilization and Its Discontents. W. W. Norton & Company.

Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery. Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

Larson, G. J. (1969). Classical Sāṃkhya (1 ed. ed.). Motilal Banarsidass.

Levine, P. A., & Frederick, A. (1997). Waking the tiger : healing trauma : the innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. North Atlantic Books.

Levine, P. A., & Kline, M. (2008). Trauma-proofing your kids : a parents’ guide for instilling confidence, joy and resilience. North Atlantic Books.

McLaren, K. (2010). The language of emotions. Sounds True.

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Heal. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved November 23, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heal

Miller, A. (1997). The drama of the gifted child : the search for the true self, revised edition. Basic Books.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory : neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation (1st ed. ed.). W.W. Norton.

Porges, S. W. (2017). The pocket guide to polyvagal theory : the transformative power of feeling safe (First edition. ed.). W. W Norton & Company.

Siegel, D. J. 1. (2012). Pocket guide to interpersonal neurobiology : an integrative handbook of the mind (First edition. ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

Siegel, D. J. 1. (2018). Aware : the science and practice of Presence, the groundbreaking meditation practice. TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Solomon, M. F., & Siegel, D. J. 1. (2003). Healing trauma : attachment, mind, body, and brain (1st ed. ed.). W.W. Norton.

Van der Kolk, Bessel A. 1943-. (2015). The body keeps the score : brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.