Neurobiological reactions to trauma - Dov Wills, LMHC

Trauma alters how the brain works. The beautiful part of this is that the brain is also highly resilient (called neuroplasticity). Understanding and utilizing the neurobiology of what happens in the brain help us in our healing process.

Neurobiology helps us understand how our responses to trauma are our ways of protecting ourselves. Everyone's responses to trauma are different and largely out of our control. There is no right or wrong way to respond to trauma. Some reactions could include fear, sadness, pain, flashbacks, difficulty focusing, self-blame, guilt, shame, dissociation, shutting down, avoidance, emotional numbness. Four common automatic responses are fight, flight, freeze, and fawn. These are the brain's way of protecting us. The lesser known of these is freeze and fawn, which is when the nervous system is activated and the person is not able to fight or flee. Fawning refers to accommodation, where the person’s brain and body respond by going along with the violence or initiating interactions as a way to minimize further violence. Trauma survivors who experience freeze or fawn are often confused as to why they responded in that way, but neurobiology of trauma reminds us that all of these responses are normal and part of our brain’s and body’s survival mechanisms.