Episode 32. – Trauma, Trust, Treatment and Truth     September 7, 2020.

Intro: Welcome to the podcast Coronavirus Crisis: Carpe Diem!, where with God’s help you and I rise up and embrace the possibilities and opportunities for spiritual and psychological growth in this time of crisis, all grounded in a Catholic worldview.   We are going beyond mere resilience, to rising up to the challenges of this pandemic and becoming even healthier in the natural and the spiritual realms than we were before.  I’m clinical psychologist Peter Malinoski your host and guide, with Souls and Hearts at soulsandhearts.com.  Thank you for being here with me.  This is episode 32, released on September 7, 2020 and it is titled: Trauma, Trust, Treatment and Truth.  Today is a deep dive into the effects of trauma and attachment wounds on Trust.  And then we will discuss how by God’s grace and with his help we can experience God as he is, not our distorted God images, rise out of the ashes of our experiences and our injuries.  

Very specific techniques to help.

Era of Coronavirus – call to trust God and Mary.  

Reviews 

Episode 30: discussion of why we mistrust God so much, and it is because we are trying to be way too big.  Trying to make it on our own we don’t feel safe.  

We hate and fear the dependency required to be in a real relationship with God. 

On my terms, on my conditions, within my vision, within my understanding.  We’re going to meet as equals.  We are going to be partners, like equally or almost equally yoked.  God is my co-pilot bumper sticker.  Becoming small so that God can be big.

Episode 31  The One Thing You Must Have to Be Resilient.  The one thing that you need, the one prerequisite.  Absolute childlike trust

There is one thing that separates those who are resilient from those who are not.   Childlike Trust (particularly in God’s goodness and his Providence for me in particular) separate those who are resilient from those who are not.  

In both those episodes, we look at the critical period from age 0 to 24 months, when the major developmental task is to resolve the conflict between trust and mistrust.  Almost every development will psychologist points to this as the critical developmental work in this stage of life.  

We also discussed how so much of the developmental work in this during the ages of 0 to 24 months is done not by the infants or the toddler, not by the little child, rather by the parents.  We don’t expect infants and toddlers to be listening to self-help tapes and engaging in self-improvement classes.   They are far from the age of reason.  So in this issues of trust, God and Mary do the main lifting.  We allow ourselves to be changed, to be formed.  

What little children, what infants and toddlers have is a great capacity for receptivity and a freedom from self-consciousness.  They have a natural humility.  They don’t worry about their self-image so much.  They are flexible.  They use their imaginations.  They don’t fear failing.  They don’t degrade themselves when they’re trying new things.  They can be learning to walk, falling down, and laughing at themselves.  They can make mistakes, they can try things out.

No one expects perfection from a little child.

Most therapies have focused on greater maturity, greater self-efficacy, being a more effective agent in the world, growing up.

List of therapies and their goals

These therapist have trouble when there is complex trauma, especially when that trauma goes back to the first two years of life.  Recent protocols developed.  Bootstrap therapies don’t work.  Very low success rates.  

1.      Focus on complex trauma –

2.      Complex trauma: 

a.         is usually interpersonal i.e. occurs between people usually people who know each other

b.        involves being or feeling trapped

c.        is often planned, extreme, ongoing and/or repeated

d.      often has more severe, persistent and cumulative impacts

e.        involves challenges with shame, trust, self-esteem, identity and regulating emotions.

f.        Results in different coping strategies. These include alcohol and drug use, self-harm, over- or under-eating, over-work etc.

                                                                          i.      emotional dysregulation

                                                                        ii.      changes in consciousness – dissociation

                                                                      iii.      negative self-perception – shame, inadequacy

                                                                      iv.      problems in relationships

                                                                        v.      distorted perceptions of others, including abusers

                                                                      vi.      loss of systems of meaning – losing my religion REM 1991

g.      affects emotional and physical health, wellbeing, relationships and daily functioning

3.       Complex trauma is trauma that occurs repeatedly and cumulatively, usually over a period of time and within specific relationships and contexts.” Examples include severe child abuse, domestic abuse, or multiple military deployments to dangerous locations.

Single incident trauma occurs with `one off’ events. It is commonly associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Single incident trauma can occur from a bushfire, flood, sexual or physical assault in adulthood, or from fighting in a war.

Dyadic resourcing is typically a five step process: 

1.       identifying a nurturing adult resource,

2.    &n...