Arielle Schwartz video: Working with Complex Trauma

Over all her years of helping clients with complex trauma, Arielle Schwartz has noticed something these individuals frequently have in common: they discount their experience.

Fires, floods and earthquakes are easily accepted as traumatic.

Far less widely recognised is the impact of repeated and perhaps much more subtle events – experiences that gradually accumulate over time, shaping our autonomic nervous systems, shrinking our worlds and eroding our sense of self.

Clients often have a hard time connecting their debilitating somatic symptoms to ongoing experiences of discrimination and injustice, for instance, or early experiences of emotional neglect.

And when clients have become fearful of their own feelings, unpicking the overwhelm of their symptoms from the subsequent phobic avoidance can be trickier still.

This makes it all the more vital that we, as therapists, don’t overlook the signs of complex trauma, that we don’t underestimate the impact, and that we don’t sidestep the need for deep relational exchange.

In the free video above, Arielle shares essential insights and skills for working with complex trauma – including the difference between trauma, complex trauma and what is commonly termed PTSD.

We learn what psychological and physiological symptoms to look out for, including dizziness and irritability, and the importance of distinguishing between high arousal and low arousal symptoms.

We discover why self-blame is so common in complex trauma, and how this can compound symptoms.

We hear about the role of predictive processing in trauma responses, and how cultivating cognitive dissonance can help clients to heal.

And we find out one of the biggest reasons why Arielle believes trauma therapy gets ‘shut down’ – as well as what we can do about it.

In this compelling one-hour conversation, we also benefit from Arielle’s in-depth and intensely compassionate understanding of the effects of early childhood neglect – including how it primes the nervous system for dissociation, and can lead to the protective response of learned helplessness.

“One man I worked with for a long time, when he experienced a disconnect with another person, would sit in his armchair, fall asleep, and go into what he called nothingness,” shares Arielle.

“What we learned in our work together was that his mother had post-partum depression. His experience as an infant was one of, ‘There’s nothing I can do that can get through to you’, and the only resort was to disconnect…”

Watch this free video for support in your own therapeutic encounters with complex trauma, and to help your own clients find a path to validation, safety and connection.