Healing as “recovery.” (Part VI)

Healing as “recovery.”
Welcome to Part VI of the series exploring the question, “What does it mean to heal trauma?” This pathway for trauma healing sprouts from Judith Herman’s three stage model of recovery, described in her book Trauma & Recovery. These stages move through safety first, to then grief and mourning, followed by acceptance and a return or reintegration into one’s “normal” aspects of life (Herman, 2015).

Within the Western clinical model, her treatment approach has been considered innovative in that it asserts that both individual and group-based approaches are necessary for trauma healing. In fact, the group-based approaches have been central to her idea that healing must occur in relationship, therefore any intervention or treatment that seeks to heal trauma must include relational experiences.

She and her colleagues have also published a number of studies focused on various group-based approaches and their efficacy in treating trauma. Most of these studies have been quantitative in nature, and evaluate efficacy by measuring impact on symptoms.

If we are asking the question, “What does it mean to heal trauma?” and then offering the idea of healing trauma as recovery, I think it is only natural to then ask, “What is being recovered?” In my opinion, Trauma & Recovery does not answer this question directly, and either leaves it open ended or otherwise undefined. My critique of this may be unwarranted, as it is possible that this is intended to allow space for survivors to define their recovery on their own terms. However, I will argue that within the field of healing trauma, this potentially lands one in the space where one’s ideas of healing, in this case of healing as recovery, opens people to be at odds or even working at cross purposes when there are different understandings at play. Again, my concern here for the undefined, or just for the unaware usage of terms without clearly articulating the intent, is that it can result in unclear expectations and even adverse experiences for survivors.

My own interpretation of this healing-as-recovery approach is similar to what I stated earlier: there was a prior and more desirable state which was lost as a result of experiences which resulted in the symptoms of trauma. A survivor’s efforts then, and the responsibility of the interventions and treatments, are directed towards the recovery of that previous and more desirable state. Something was lost, and we want to work together to find it again.

This is easy to imagine within the framework of Polyvagal Theory. If trauma causes one to lose their sense of safety in the body, then recovery might be conceptualized as regaining or restoring one’s sense of safety in the body. If one was overwhelmed in an experience of sexual violence, and one’s sense of agency and sovereignty was violated, then recovery could be the restoration of one’s sense of agency, power, and choice. If one’s relationships were disrupted or destroyed as a result of the trauma, then recovery might be the restoration of (safety within) these various relationships.

One can certainly make the case that there is an advantage of leaving the definition of “recovery” open-ended is that it allows for all of this to be considered valid within the experience of the survivor towards their healing. It is often the case that all of the above are true – that trauma results in a loss of a sense of safety in the body, that one loses their sense of choice and power, and that one experiences damage to relationships. Therefore, healing includes the recovery of all these things. In addition, if we regard healing as recovering the sense of wholeness, then we may arrive at a sense that healing-as-recovery is restoring one’s sense of wholeness through the process of repairing and restoring the integrity of all these various aspects that are impacted and compromised by trauma.

Part VII continues this series of “What does it mean to heal trauma?” through the thread of healing as “integration.”

REFERENCES FOR 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.