Purpose
The Healing of Trauma as a Path to Individual—and Even World—Peace By Rabbi Donna Berman, PhD, Director of the Human Relations Program at Hartford Family Institute NATURAL Nutmeg
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MARCH / APRIL 2022
28 “We have the power to downshift—to calm and comfort ourselves and, therefore, to find peace for ourselves—and I don’t think it’s hyperbole to suggest that from there, peace for the planet as well.” —Rabbi Donna Berman, PhD
have studied body-centered Gestalt therapy at Hartford Family Institute for the past 21 years and in that time I have learned many things, though perhaps none more important than this: Nothing can happen in therapy until a client can at least touch into the feeling of safety. Why is this true? Without a feeling of safety, we remain in fight, flight, freeze, or shut down. In other words, we remain in places of protection, of vigilance, places in which we cannot let our guard down to be open and connect. While our ability to fight, flee, freeze, or shut down serves an important purpose in the midst of danger, if our nervous system gets stuck in the “on position” as a result of trauma, our ability to experience life on its deepest level becomes diminished. Essentially, there are three parts to our autonomic nervous system: shut down, the oldest part, clocking in at 500 million years old; the fight, flight, or freeze response, coming in at 400 million years old; and the newcomer on the scene, the part that creates a feeling of well-being, only 200 million years old. While the oldest parts are reptilian, the youngest part is mammalian. The older parts are about protection, the newer part is about connection. When we can calm the nervous system down, our pre-frontal cortex (as opposed to our “fire alarm” amygdala that ignites our reptilian responses) comes on-line and we are able to relax as we take in the world around us with curiosity and delight.
Is Unhealed Trauma the Real Public Health Crisis?
Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris is the co-founder of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Project in San Francisco. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
are defined as “preventable, traumatic early experiences ranging from exposure to violence, poverty, and neglect to physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse.” Dr. Burke-Harris realized that trauma causes more than psychological and emotional damage; it also makes children more prone to diseases like asthma and diabetes. There is an ACEs risk assessment that is eye-opening to take. It helps us identify and recognize our own experiences of trauma as well as see the impact of our behaviors on our children and those around us, i.e., how we can cause trauma to others. The implications of all this are immense. We are hearing it said that racism and gun violence are public health crises. What if these public health crises both result from unhealed trauma? What if the growing political polarization and villanization of “the other” it entails is a result of unhealed trauma? What if nationalism and white supremacy are public health issues, a result of unhealed trauma? What if the inclination to jettison democracy for fascism is a public health issue and a result of unhealed trauma? The good news is that if this is so, then the path to healing is clear: We must help people process and integrate their trauma.
Unintegrated Trauma Manifesting as Racism?
The work of psychotherapist Resmaa Menakem is extremely helpful here. In his book, My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, Menakem argues that unintegrated trauma is the basis for police violence against black and brown bodies. It is a result of the trauma officers experience on the job, witnessing death and destruction on a
