Traumatic Stress Response
What does Post-Traumatic Stress look like?
Small 't' Trauma
 

• Small 't' disturbances are frequent exposure to intense situations that activate shame, guilt, sadness, loneliness, rejection, humiliation, rage and abandonment

• Trauma occurs when exposure is frequent and intense in childhood, severely disrupting attachment to other humans in regard to feeling safe

• Long-term frequent and intense exposure can lead to complex PTSD

• Unresolved small 't' disturbances may or may not fully debilitate us, but they accumulate over time, eventually causing difficulty in life

• Like any other system, our nervous system can fail under prolonged stress. As a result, it takes less and less to trigger the body's stress response because the nervous system is more often than not too close to peak levels of tolerance

• Consequently, our ability to correctly interpret what is and is not threatening is impaired.

• Small 't' traumatic stress can to one degree or another present as fight, flight, freeze and dissociation. When this happens, a person is considered more often than not to be in hyper (fight or flight) arousal or hypo-arousal (freeze dissociate)

• Multiple emotionally intense exposures cause changes to the areas of the brain that regulate fight, flight, freeze, or dissociation

• While many people would consider a trip to the grocery store or mall a normal social experience, a person with prolonged emotional stress in childhood would find this same event very uncomfortable and even threatening

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Big 'T' Trauma

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• Big 'T' traumas are life-threatening events over which a person has little or no control

• This can result in damage to the brain's ability to correctly interpret what is and isn't threatening

• Big 'T' events are:

  • exposure to war/natural disasters​

  • domestic violence

  • impending threats without those events actually occurring

  • motor vehicle/workplace accidents

  • exposure to critical incidents such as those experienced by police, fire, ambulance and child protection workers

• Unprocessed big 'T' traumatic events cause a greater intensity of intrusive thoughts, images, memories, emotions and body sensations

• Multiple exposures to traumatic events cause changes to the areas of the brain that regulate perception and the release of adrenaline (speed) and cortisol (strength)

• Traumatic stress can present in the form of dissociation, freeze, flight or flight

• When big 'T' trauma occurs, it too causes a person to more often than not experience fight, flight, freeze or dissociation

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Recognizing what's happening

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• We either don't recognize there is a problem because we've become used to the stress and no longer consider it problematic, or we do recognize something is wrong and avoid it

• Isolation is a way of avoiding too much activation

• Defensiveness (fight response) is a reaction to a perceived threat in the absence of one

• Avoidance (flight) is an attempt to avoid reminders of the event

• Frequent trips to the doctor for aches and pains and autoimmune responses are beginning to occur with more frequency

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Recognizing the stress response in reaction to Traumatic Events

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• The brain learns and stores information in a different way during emotionally intense interpersonal experiences and/or life-threatening events

• The degree of intrusion of unpleasant information depends on the intensity of the event (shame, guilt, powerlessness, hopelessness, humiliation, loss of control, impending death and grief)

• The unwanted intrusion of thoughts, images, memories, emotions and body sensations after the fact are the brain's way of trying to rerun the event to avoid injury or death in the future

• When we are traumatized, old protection mechanisms activate without conscious effort (ex. think of pink elephants. Now try to get that thought out of your mind...we can't do it! This is evidence that our brain can do things we don't want it to)

• Exposure to disturbing events disrupts our ability to make sense of how we think and feel about what is happening and accurately perceive space and time

• Our thoughts, i.e. 'I have no control; I'm not safe; I failed (I'm a failure); I should have done something; I can't stand it' etc. are rapid and not easily interpreted, often occurring as feeling states

• The brain has difficulty keeping our thoughts, images, memory, emotion and body sensations as an organized, coherent narrative

• As a result, the memory remains fragmented, unprocessed and "stuck" in the body

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Flashbacks

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• Flashbacks are the brain's way of replaying the traumatic event in order to find a solution to the disturbing experience

• Flashbacks can be in the form of thoughts, images, emotions and body sensations

• Flashbacks are examples of how things are fragmented and stuck in the body

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The Brain is a Body Organ

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• The brain needs the same attention as all other body organs when it is unwell

• Stomachs and lungs are body organs; if they ail, we see a doctor 

• The brain is a body organ but we don't think of it the way we do about other parts of our body

• Shame, guilt, powerlessness, hopelessness, humiliation and grief are activated by traumatic stress which makes it very difficult to seek help. We need to push past these self-imposed boundaries and find our way to good mental health

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EMDR: A Clear, Client-Friendly Explanation

Adapted From: Shapiro, F. (2001).  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures.  Guilford Press/New York

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EMDR therapy is a structured, research supported approach that helps the brain reprocess and heal traumatic or overwhelming experiences. Instead of talking in circles about what happened, EMDR works directly with the memory networks in the brain and body so that the past stops feeling like it’s happening right now.
At its core, EMDR helps the brain do something it naturally knows how to do:
take a disturbing memory that is stuck in a raw, unprocessed form and move it into a calm, integrated, “this is over” state.
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1. Why traumatic memories get “stuck”
When something frightening, painful, or overwhelming happens, the brain shifts into survival mode. In that state:
•    The right hemisphere (which handles emotion, body sensations, images, and threat detection) becomes dominant.
•    The left hemisphere (which handles language, time, logic, and meaning making) goes offline.
•    The experience is stored in a fragmented, sensory form — flashes of images, body sensations, emotions, sounds, or impulses — instead of a coherent story.
This is why people often say things like:
•    “It feels like it’s happening again.”
•    “My body remembers even when my mind doesn’t.”
•    “I know I’m safe, but I don’t feel safe.”
The memory is not stored as a normal past event. It’s stored as a threat that feels current.
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2. How EMDR helps the brain “unstick” these memories
EMDR uses a combination of:
•    Focused attention on the memory
•    Bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, or sound)
•    A structured eight phase process that keeps the work safe and contained
This combination activates the brain’s natural memory reconsolidation system — the same system the brain uses during REM sleep.

During EMDR, the brain is able to:
•    Access the traumatic memory
•    Keep one foot in the present
•    Reprocess the memory in a more integrated, adaptive way
The memory doesn’t disappear. Instead, it becomes a normal memory — something that happened in the past, not something that is happening now.
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3. What “reconsolidation” means (client friendly version)
Every time a memory is activated, the brain briefly opens it up like a file on a computer.
If nothing changes, the file closes the same way.
But if the brain receives new information, new emotional context, eye movements (bilateral stimulation), the memory can be updated before it is stored again.
This is reconsolidation.
In EMDR, reconsolidation allows the brain to:
•    Link the traumatic memory with healthier, more adaptive information
•    Bring the left and right hemispheres back into communication
•    Release the body’s stored survival responses
•    File the memory away as something that is over
Clients often describe this as:
•    “It’s still there, but it doesn’t have power anymore.”
•    “My body finally got the message that it’s over.”
•    “The emotional charge is gone.”
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4. How EMDR works with the right brain and the body
Trauma is not just a story — it’s a sensory and bodily imprint.
The right hemisphere stores:
•    Images
•    Emotions
•    Body sensations
•    Nonverbal meaning
•    Threat responses
When trauma is unprocessed, these pieces remain unlinked — like puzzle pieces scattered on the floor.
EMDR helps by:
•    Activating the right brain fragments
•    Keeping the left brain online (through eye movements) so the experience can be understood
•    Using bilateral stimulation to help both hemispheres communicate
•    Allowing the body to complete survival responses that were interrupted
As the memory reprocesses, clients often notice:
•    The image becomes less vivid
•    The body sensations decrease or disappear
•    The emotional intensity drops
•    New insights or meanings emerge naturally
•    A sense of distance or completion develops
This is the brain integrating the memory.
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5. What EMDR feels like for most people
Clients often describe EMDR as:
•    “My brain is doing the work for me.”
•    “It’s like watching the memory lose its charge.”
•    “Things start connecting in a way they never have before.”
•    “My body finally relaxes.”
•    “I can think about it without going into panic.”
The process is not about forcing anything.
It’s about letting the brain resume a healing process that was interrupted by trauma.
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6. What EMDR does not do
EMDR does not:
•    Erase memories
•    Hypnotize you
•    Make you forget what happened
•    Force you to relive trauma without support
Instead, EMDR helps the brain complete what it couldn’t complete at the time.
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7. What EMDR does do
EMDR helps people:
•    Feel safe in their bodies again
•    Reduce or eliminate trauma triggers
•    Stop reliving the past
•    Build new, healthier beliefs about themselves
•    Respond to life from the present instead of survival mode
The goal is not to “get rid of” the past — it’s to free you from being controlled by it.
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8. A simple metaphor for clients
Imagine your traumatic memory is like a box that tipped over.
The contents spilled everywhere — images, emotions, sensations, meanings — all mixed up and overwhelming.
EMDR helps you:
•    Pick up the pieces
•    Understand what they are
•    Put them back in the box in the right order
•    Close the lid
•    Place the box on a shelf where it belongs
The box is still part of your story — but it no longer spills into your daily life.
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9. Why EMDR is so effective
Research shows that EMDR:
•    Reduces the emotional intensity of traumatic memories
•    Decreases body based symptoms
•    Improves emotional regulation
•    Strengthens adaptive beliefs
•    Helps the brain integrate fragmented memory networks
In other words, EMDR helps the brain do what it was always meant to do:
heal.

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Adapted From: Shapiro, F. (2001).  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures.  Guilford Press/New York

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