Massage For The Trauma Patient Might Be Problematic
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Written by Su Fox
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008 |
Massage For The Trauma Patient Might Be Problematic
A traumatized person's
brain and hence mind, operates differently from one who has not been
traumatised. The perception of massage is mediated through the nervous
system. It follows therefore that the experience of massage for a
person who has suffered trauma may be quite different from someone that
hasn't. Massage may not be relaxing for the traumatised person.
Let's be a bit more specific here. Trauma, like stress, has become an
overused and devalued word, as in 'I'm traumatised! My Ipod is broken!'
Involvement in a genuine trauma such as a road traffic accident, a
shooting, a house fire or a burglary, does not necessarily mean that a
person becomes traumatized.
Many people recover with time, rest and the supportive presence of
family and friends, without suffering ill health or ongoing mental
distress. They get their minds back. But some people who've been
through trauma don't recover and develop PTSD. (Post traumatic stress
disorder). They don't get their minds back. Their brains and central
nervous system (CNS) functioning are altered.
Simple and Complex Trauma:
Babette Rothschild is a leading expert on trauma. She divides trauma
into 2 main categories. Simple trauma is the effect of either a single
or unrelated series of events that happens to an adult whose life
experience up to that point has be relatively ordinary. The CNS of such
a person is stuck in fight or flight.
Complex trauma is concerned with chronic abuse and/or chronic neglect
that happens early in a child's life when the brain is still
developing. What happens in this case is that the usual pathways of
information flow are reversed. Instead of transmission from the top
downwards i.e from the cerebral hemispheres to mid-brain and
hypothalamus to brain stem, it flows the other way. The normal route
fails to develop and so the bottom up pathway form brain stem to
hypothalamus to cerebrum is switched on permanently.
For those with complex trauma, the relayed information from the sensory
and proprioreceptors, stimulated by the action of massage, makes its
arrival at the cerebral hemispheres, that part of the brain where
meaning is registered, but it fails to have any impact on the autonomic
nervous system or the hypothalmic-pituitary axis (Alan Schore).
Relaxation Can Be Undesirable:
It's like the brain has got itself stuck in the general adaptation
syndrome, except that in addition there are a host of dysfunctional
thought processes going on that relate to the trauma. These include and
inability to relax. The person suffering trauma may fear lowering their
mental defenses in case something undesirable happens. There may be an
inability to switch off from the event. There may be flashbacks. There
may be intrusive thoughts.
Massage is always thought to be desirable, but the physical relaxation
it brings induces mental relaxation. This may not be what the trauma
patient requires.
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