In her groundbreaking book “Trauma and Recovery”, Judith Herman emphasises that recovery has to begin with establishing safety.
Her three stage model of trauma recovery includes
1️⃣ Safety,
2️⃣ Remembrance and mourning, and
3️⃣ Reconnection.
“Safety always begins with the body. If a person does not feel safe in her body, she does not feel safe anywhere.” Here, co-regulation of the dysregulated autonomic nervous system in a safe and trusting relationship is key.
These experiences of safety in a trusting relationships however are a challenge for trauma survivors: “The paradox and challenge of psychotherapy with trauma survivors is that it requires a trusting relationship as its foundation, yet with people whose trust has been profoundly violated, building trust must be a goal rather than a precondition of treatment.”
This paradox process takes time, entails a lot of back and forth, and the necessarily encountered ruptures need repair within the therapeutic relationship. Trauma therapy means long-term treatment. “Obviously, everyone would like to have a brief, simple, inexpensive treatment that is also effective”, remarks Herman, “but wishing, alas does not make it so.”
It takes time, but it is possible to overcome toxic shame, intolerable feelings and to finally develop deep and fulfilling connections with others. “Witnessing the lives transformed in this process of recovery is what enables us old-timers, the practitioners of ‘plain old therapy’, to keep on going on”, concludes Herman.
📖 Judith Herman: Trauma and Recovery.
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