Posts from the ‘Emotion Regulation’ Category

Apr 13

Healing Past Relational Trauma with Wholehearted Presence

The swirling busyness and restless energy settled and a profound stillness permeated the room, enveloping the group like a soft feather blanket. Sitting in silence and sensing the body was unfamiliar territory for most of the two-dozen workshop participants. After all, for many of them, the body had long-been associated with shame, self-judgment, discomfort, and trauma. Yet, there they were, courageously bringing compassionate awareness to their embodied experience, one moment at a time. Opening to the life that had been refused, again and again, until that moment.¹

This is a description of the first day of the first REAC²H workshop, which was conducted with a group of female survivors of childhood maltreatment. REAC²H is an acronym that stands for Restoring Embodied Awareness, Compassionate Connection, and Hope. It is an innovative approach to healing past relational trauma by cultivating present-moment awareness and self-compassion. The workshop was designed by Dr. Jon G. Caldwell, DO, PhD after years of research and clinical work in the fields of traumatology, attachment theory, affective neuroscience, and contemplative practices.

The REAC²H workshop was specifically designed to help individuals who have experienced “relational trauma”, which encompasses various kinds of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse that occur in the context of close relationships. Relational trauma has meaningful effects on the attachment system – an innate, biological system that facilitates interpersonal connection to adaptively shape human development. Thus, relational trauma and the resulting disturbances in attachment can have profound effects on a person’s developmental trajectory across the lifespan.

Apr 1

How We Relate Predicts How we Meditate: Attachment Style is Linked to Mindfulness

During a recent trip to Los Angeles California, I was aroused from early morning slumber by an eerie sensation of movement. As the veil of sleep was pulled from my mind, I gradually registered the meaning of the shaking bed beneath me and the groaning structures above me: earthquake! A shot of prickly energy ripped through my gut and landed in my chest, quickening my heart. Adrenaline sharpened my senses and time seemed to slow as I instinctively made my way to the patio door. I looked out onto the street, half expecting to see creviced sidewalks and toppling buildings. Instead I saw people nonchalantly walking their dogs and sipping their morning coffee.

Despite the apparent banality of the event for local Angelenos, the earthquake was a hot topic at the airport among people unaccustomed to earth-shaking awakenings. As I waited for my flight, I found myself listening to a conversation between two newly-acquainted women.

The first woman excitedly asked the other, “Did you feel the earthquake this morning?” Leaving no room for a response, she went on, “Wasn’t that something! I mean, have you ever experienced such a thing? I didn’t know what to do – I jumped up and ran around in my nightie like a chicken with its head cut-off!”

The second woman, pulling back a bit from the shared space, cocked an eyebrow and flatly replied, “Didn’t bother me much really. This is L.A. after all – comes with the territory I suppose.” Shifting in her seat uneasily she scanned the terminal while drumming her fingers on the chair’s armrest, “Have you seen a trash can?”

The first woman took hold of the other woman’s arm, causing her coffee to quiver and nearly spill, “I just kept thinking, ‘What will I do if this hotel comes down around me? How will people find me? What will my husband do without me? I mean, he can barely make spaghetti!”

The second woman slowly unhinged her arm from the first and with a shrug said, “I guess if it’s your time, it’s your time.” Slipping out of the chair (and the conversation), she stood up and wandered away while casting a comment over her shoulder, “Never a trash can when you need one.”

As a social scientist, I was fascinated by this exchange. You might be wondering what we can possibly glean from this brief conversation between two strangers? Well, I believe that their interaction can tell us something about their attachment tendencies and their capacity for mindfulness. As it turns out, these two constructs, attachment and mindfulness, are linked by how a person expresses and regulates emotion. Let me explain.

Mar 22

From Islands to Landmasses: Gradually Increasing a Sense of Safety within the Body

As I try to understand the effects of psychological trauma, often it’s the body that tells the story. This was certainly the case with Jennifer (as I will call her). During our first meeting, she entered my office with a veneer of aloofness, but her eyes told a different story; they were darting about, quickly scanning me and my office for any signs of threat. She sat lightly and uprightly on her chair, legs ready to spring into action. Her breathing was shallow and quick, and was probably matched by her racing heart. Her eyes hungrily snatched-up any movement inside and outside my office – always on the prowl for signs of danger. Hers was the body of someone who didn’t know safety and probably hadn’t known safety for a long time.

During our second meeting, Jennifer and I talked about what it was like for her to always feel as though she was on “red-alert”. We talked about her constant scanning of the environment and what that felt like in her body. She described a wad of tightness in her belly that was almost always there – a persistent bodily reminder that she must never let her guard down. Her body was constantly ready to attack or to escape. Read more

Mar 10

Paying Attention to Rising Waters

Alongside green acres of alfalfa, a twisting river cut through the farmland on which I spent much of my formative years. In the summers, after the chores were done, my friends and I would spend hours on the river swimming, skipping rocks and catching fish. (At this point in the story, you may be tempted to whistle the theme song to “The Andy Griffith Show”… but I must protest – I’m not that old. If you’ve never heard of that show… well then, maybe I am that old!)

The water level on the river was controlled by an upstream dam, according to the needs of the farmers in the valley. At times, we could cross the river without getting our shorts wet. But at other times, the river would swell quickly, creating swift currents and daunting whirlpools under the river’s main bridge. These whirlpools were something of legend and lore among children in the area – there were wild stories of men, women, children, and even animals disappearing into these whirlpools, never to surface again.

One lazy summer afternoon, my friend and I were floating downstream on driftwood logs that we found on the shore. We were so busy talking and splashing that we failed to notice that the river was rising rapidly. In fact, by the time we became aware of the water’s alarming elevation, we were already moving downstream at a pretty good clip. Fear washed over both of us as we realized that the now-turbulent currents were too strong for us to leave the relative safety of our driftwood and make it to shore before reaching the whirlpools. Without saying a word to each other, we both decided to ride it out. Read more

Feb 28

Recovering From Early Social Adversity: Valuable Lessons from Adopted Orphans

During my first meeting with Rebecca (as I will call her), I asked about her family history of mental and emotional difficulties, which can tell me something about her genetic susceptibilities, and about her early life experience with caregivers. These two elements of the evaluation often provide critical information about the unique way in which nature and nurture contribute to human development (see my previous article on this topic).

When I asked Rebecca these questions, an unforgettable look flashed across her face that was part shame and part longing as she explained to me that she was adopted and had no “valuable information” to offer on these topics. All she knew was that she had been adopted by an American family from a Romanian orphanage at the age of two. In fact, to her surprise, this little bit of information proved to be extremely valuable as we tried to better understand how her challenges in adulthood were related to her early childhood experiences. Read more

May 8

Attachment, Emotion Regulation, and Resiliency

Often, during the first week of treatment at The Meadows, people will skeptically inquire, “Do experiences in childhood really continue to affect my life as an adult?” While social scientists and mental health clinicians have been exploring this question for decades, other fields of science and medicine have been slow to recognize the effects of childhood adversity on adult health and wellbeing. However, this trend may be changing, in part due to a very influential study by a group of researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that are examining the long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on various health outcomes in over 17,000 members of a managed healthcare organization in California.

In general, the results of the ACE study¹ show that adverse childhood experiences (e.g., abuse, neglect, abandonment) are relatively common and are associated with higher rates of early initiation of tobacco use and sexual activity, adolescent pregnancy, multiple sexual partners and STD’s, intimate partner violence, alcoholism, illicit drug use, depression, and suicide attempts. Of course, this resonates completely with our clinical experience and treatment model at The Meadows. However, these investigators also found that adverse childhood experiences are related to elevated rates of liver disease, autoimmune disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, ischemic heart disease, and lower levels of health-related quality of life.

These compelling data suggest that childhood maltreatment is associated with a variety of mental, emotional, social, and physical health problems in adulthood. In fact, results such as these have led some people to elevate childhood maltreatment to the level of a “public health threat”. Yet, as indicated by the conceptual model used in the ACE study (see Figure 1), there are considerable gaps in our scientific understanding of the mechanisms and mediating pathways connecting adverse childhood experiences to the host of deleterious outcomes mentioned above.

Attachment theory has proven to be a useful framework for understanding how early relational experiences influence developmental pathways and adult functioning (see earlier article on attachment). Over fifty years ago, John Bowlby (the “father” of attachment theory) studied adverse childhood experiences in delinquent and homeless children and found that a warm, continuous, and secure attachment relationship between caregiver and child was of critical importance, not only because this biologically-driven bond enhances survival and reproductive fitness, but also because it establishes the foundation for successful social-emotional development and resiliency throughout the lifespan.