Hello, and welcome to the Tricks of Trauma Program.
My name is Dr. Barbara Ziegler, and I will be your inspirational, life changing coach.
Trauma is a very sensitive, heavy, and emotionally wrought subject, as it causes deep psychological wounding. It hurts, it festers, it infects, and it scabs. Then we pick away at it, and reopen our wounds, in a cycle that keeps repeating itself over and over again. A pattern that we may see and ask ourselves, why does this always happen to me?
Then we ignore the pain, repress it, pretend that it doesn’t exist, and go out into the world presenting our best face. Whilst doing whatever we can, to appear as young as possible, as we even try to erase our laugh lines. Then we disassociate ourselves, from what we really feel, and put on our brave face. In other words, we stay focused on what we look like on the outside, and hope and pray that no one can see how hurt and vulnerable we are on the inside. A persona we create, to be able to function, and move through life, but that sadly is not who we truly are.
For many of us, it is very difficult to deal with what has happened, due to the ongoing emotional pain, or blocked memories so we perceive there is nothing to deal with, or because we have fallen into a coma of helplessness. We simply can’t let go, heal, and genuinely forgive whatever happened to us, or even ourselves. And we suffer much guilt, depression, shame, and anger, as it is constantly lurking below the surface of our awareness. And many of us endure our entire focus, you know, our entire life, in this state of being.
There is also much opposing energy that many of us express which is a result of trauma, in which we become more and more frustrated, anxious, even aggressive. And the more we deny ourselves, the more our body responds to all our stress. And as these feelings continue to boil for a period of time, the toxic energy of all this stress has to go somewhere. And it does. Quite often it can erupt as a physical disease or dysfunction.
Why? Because our trauma, and our issues resulting from our experiences, have not been addressed. And this is very, very common today. We have more illness and diseases in our world today, than we have ever had in all of our past historical eras and civilizations.
Many people feel that the only way they can assuage their pain, is to blame whoever and whatever happened to them. Then they are sucked into the victim vortex, and they seemingly can’t find their way out. It draws them into a whirlwind of self destruction, emotional pain, blame, defense, and the appearance of an inescapable place of never being enough. In other words, they no longer see their choices, and so become a perpetual victim. I was one of them.
All these things that have happened to you, and you feel helpless to do anything about them, keep you stuck in your suffering, leaving your life colored as if in a monochrome reality of black and white. There are no vibrant colors to come alive anymore, to lift you out of your darkness, and return you to the brilliant world of techni-colour. The world that you were born as, before you experienced trauma.
When we injure our body, let us say we break an arm, we go to the hospital and have it looked after. The doctor looks at it, takes some x-rays, determines the extent of our fracture and damage, and fits a cast to support it while we heal. We seek help because we are in pain. Our arm hurts. We have been injured. We go to a hospital. And this is a very wise thing to do.
On the other hand, when we are psychologically injured, and since there is no blood, pus, bruising, or swelling, as the injury is to our psyche, why don’t we seek help, support, and find a way to understand and heal what has happened to us, from this type of injury?
By the time I reached my early forties, I had experienced a tremendous amount of trauma throughout my life. I remember that the only way I could describe how I was feeling on the inside, was as if I was put in traction and bandaged in a mummy cast. My battery was completely dead, and I could not function. And at the time, I didn’t know what I know now, but it did drive me to begin my journey to heal my trauma and to figure this all out.
I could find no support, as no one I knew could acknowledge the scope and extent of what I was going through. After all the mummy cast was invisible, and on the outside, I looked just fine. They had no compassion, therefore no understanding of the multiple traumas I had endured and how they were affecting me. I was flat lining, and I felt I had nowhere to go for help.
I knew that a trip to a psychologist was not going to get to the bottom of the whole issue, and I had a burning desire to understand why I was in my predicament. What I could not understand was why I was being trivialized, told to suck it up, pull it together, that I made my bed and to go sleep in it, and a loser for not being able to do so. So, I do understand how difficult it is to get help, and to overcome trauma, but you can do it, and I will share with you much information on how to do so in the Tricks of Trauma Program.
And because we don’t have trauma centers in our world today, that truly understand and have compassion for its heart wrenching consequences, and how to effectively deal with it, I knew that the current institutions could not help me figure this all out. Instead, I would probably get labeled, medicated, diagnosed with a disorder, my perpetrators imprisoned with no road to redemption, and even stigmatized by what we all have endured. Every victim inadvertently wounds others from their pain, and becomes the perpetrator, as I will explain later in the Tricks of Trauma Program.
And in severe trauma, many victims see themselves as nothing more than a glass vase, that has shattered beyond repair, rendered without value, to be thrown away into the garbage. And this idea of being worthless, becomes very much attached to their identity, which is not who they truly are. It is a belief that they have formed about themselves, and it is very difficult to tell them that they have been tricked, because it is not who they are.
We are not what we do, what happened to us, how many possessions we have acquired, what we look like, or how much success we have attained. Yet in our current societal constructs, this is how we are taught to identify ourselves, and therefore allow whatever that is to determine how we feel about ourselves.
Then you can add to that the element of shame many of us carry from trauma, which is quite prevalent in our world today. And shame always stems from guilt, a suffocating den of denial to remain hidden in, that slowly eats away at you from the inside. We also have to realize that those who are employed in our current social support systems, have very little awareness or education regarding trauma. And most individuals who work in these systems are under the influence of trauma themselves. So where can we go for help?
Well, the good news is there are many new avenues, healing modalities, support groups, and things you can do to assist in your personal healing. Did you know that singing, kinesiology, Reike, group sessions where you can share your stories and learn from each other, all help to heal trauma? There is so much we can do to assist each other in alleviating trauma, that I am super excited to share with you.
And all this suffering is so unnecessary, as we can come to terms with our past, our emotional anguish, helplessness, and find our way out of the victim vortex we have created, that resulted from our psychological wounds. A place where we can feel safe to express what we feel, and what we endured. That we can learn how to change ourselves, and bring about our self healing and resulting transformation. How? By evoking our compassion, by coming out of hiding and isolation, by gathering with others who have also been through trauma, and learning the tricks or tools to navigate ourselves again, and we can move through this part of our journey together.
We can take an x-ray of our situation, and look at what has happened to us. And I will share with you much information to help bring understanding as to why this is happening in our world. It is not your fault. No one is to blame. In the Tricks of Trauma Program, we will look at your x-rays of trauma, and assess what needs to change, what needs to be realized, seen from a different perspective, and begin to heal our psychological wounds. Then we can remove our metaphorical casts, and feel like we are on top of the world, once again.
This program is designed to help you to understand trauma, to see how it influences you personally, and therefore to help you to become aware of how it has impacted your life. In the early episodes, I will lay out these influences, the learned behavior that results from trauma, the continuing effects of the Shockwave of World War 2, and many tricks you can use, to begin alleviating your emotional pain. And once you begin to understand that perhaps you have experienced trauma, and that it is clouding over your life, I truly hope that you will rejoice in knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and the sun is shining there.
It is also designed to assist in returning you to your genuine, authentic self, that can emerge from the rubble of your past, and come to the realization of how strong and powerful you are. That you are not just trying to survive what happened to you, but moving into the position of thriving in your life. To blossom like a beautiful flower emerging after the warm spring rains, as a cold and relentless winter fades into a new season. A new beginning. A new way of being.
As I begin to release the episodes of the Tricks of Trauma Program over the coming weeks, I welcome and encourage you to write to me, and share your experiences. What happened to you that was or is traumatic, what is happening in your life that you perceive you can’t change, what are you struggling with, what can’t you come to terms with, what is it that is holding you back from being the best me you can be.
Perhaps it is trauma from your childhood, when you were in school, the military, dealing with hospitals and illness, sexual trauma, domestic violence, gas lighting, even the recent pandemic. Whatever it is that you are suffering from, I would love to hear from you, and assist you to move into a new way of being with yourself.
And as we examine your trauma x-rays, I will illustrate how we can take the tricks of trauma and apply them to your experiences, so you can begin your healing journey, and transform your reality to the one you always wanted and imagined. And if your letter is chosen, I will create a new episode on your personal subject, so that many others can be helped by your experiences too, and together we can heal our psychological wounds, one person at a time.
Remember when you address and heal your trauma, you will regain your self confidence, you will be your natural self, you will know that you are perfect just the way you are, and that you are absolutely worthy. In other words, you will move into your own personal freedom and empowerment.
Please note: if you are currently in a situation of being physically abused, it is imperative that you plan your escape, leave, and find safety.
And the Tricks of Trauma Program is intended for your own personal exploration, growth, and expansion, and it should not be considered as a replacement or substitution for professional, medical, or psychological advice.
So, stay tuned, and subscribe, as I will be releasing the first episode of the Tricks of Trauma Program, in the next few days.
Until next time,
Take self care.
Introduction to The Tricks of Trauma Program