'If someone is not acting like they are in their right
mind, they're probably in their right brain.'
~ Margaret Vasquez, Traumatologist
The lady I quoted above was recently a guest on
Johnette Benkovic's show 'Women of Grace' on EWTN.
She shared some great insights regarding how people
can overcome traumatic memories in their lives. I'll try
to share some of what I learned with you.
First, it's important to understand that different
functions correspond with opposite sides of the brain.
** Note - In left-handed people the hemispheres are reversed.
• The left side of the brain deals with all things logical,
verbal, math oriented, problem solving, stores
information orderly, is linear, sequential, time is past,
present and future, tells stories in verbal narratives
with a beginning, middle and end.
• The right side of the brain is creative, artistic,
musical, emotional, intuitive/has gut feelings, stores
info in disconnected bits and pieces, time is NOW, tells
stories by acting them out.
When a person is involved in a traumatic incident the
left brain constricts. From what I gathered, it almost
seems to shut down. When you think about it, that sort
of makes sense. A traumatic event isn't logical. It's
totally out of the ordinary. In such situations, the left
brain seems to duck and cover while handing things
off to the right brain. Why? Possibly because the right
brain is creative and free flowing. During a traumatic
event those attributes would be very valuable. What is
not so good is that the event apparently imprints on
the right brain.
Since the right brain lives in the present, any familiar
stimuli in the form of sight, sound, smell or personal
interactions similar to those experienced in the
traumatic event can trigger automatic memories and
responses from a person.
Since the left side of the brain constricted during the
past trauma, the right side of the brain stored all the
negative feelings and scars associated with the event.
This can be quite emotionally crippling since the right
hemisphere lives in the NOW. The right brain has no
sense of past, present or future.
So here we are very often reliving and reacting to an
event which occurred 25 years ago! People tend to
relive these traumas because of various 'mine fields' of
stimuli they encounter each day. Due to this, traumatic
emotions and responses often come rushing back in an
almost automatic, involuntary way.
The symptoms resulting from stored traumatic
memories are:
• Left Hemisphere - Confusion, difficulty verbalizing
things or solving problems, attempting to solve
present day problems with responses from past
traumatic experiences.
• Right Hemisphere - Overly emotional, disorganized,
visual, auditory or emotional flashbacks, experiencing
present day stimuli (relationships, sights, sounds,
smells, tastes, emotions, touches) as though they
belong to past events.
To deal with this, it's important that a person become
grounded back in the here and now. Some techniques
include-Bilateral stimulation where both sides of the
body and both sides of the brain are activated by -
walking, using both hands in an activity or doing
specifically left brain functions such as math or
counting. All these actions employ the left (logic)
side of the brain which has a sense of past, present
and future. Once the constricted left side of the brain
is re-activated it results in grounding a person to the
here and now.
I've even been using this technique when I forget
things, lately. If I space out and arrive in a room
wondering what the heck I'm in there to get, etc...
I just do a little counting in my head which seems to
cause the logic side to kick back in. Before you know
it I remember the reason I came into the room.
Johnette's guest also described a scary situation she
experienced on a plane. She couldn't settle herself
down enough to do math so she tried counting things.
She counted 3 objects that were at eye level, 3 below
eye level and 3 above eye level.
Since we've all been affected by varying degrees of
trauma in our lives, it's important to realize when we
are falling back into preset patterns of behavior.
If you think you are, try the techniques I discussed
above. If you employ the counting technique, my only
advice is not to do it out loud. :-)
If you'd like more information about this subject, I'm
sure you can get DVDs of the shows from Johnette
Benkovic's EWTN show site. Margaret Vasquez was on
several shows.
Christ's peace and healing to you and yours during this
Christmas Season!
December 18, 2010 1:01PM ET
mind, they're probably in their right brain.'
~ Margaret Vasquez, Traumatologist
The lady I quoted above was recently a guest on
Johnette Benkovic's show 'Women of Grace' on EWTN.
She shared some great insights regarding how people
can overcome traumatic memories in their lives. I'll try
to share some of what I learned with you.
First, it's important to understand that different
functions correspond with opposite sides of the brain.
** Note - In left-handed people the hemispheres are reversed.
• The left side of the brain deals with all things logical,
verbal, math oriented, problem solving, stores
information orderly, is linear, sequential, time is past,
present and future, tells stories in verbal narratives
with a beginning, middle and end.
• The right side of the brain is creative, artistic,
musical, emotional, intuitive/has gut feelings, stores
info in disconnected bits and pieces, time is NOW, tells
stories by acting them out.
When a person is involved in a traumatic incident the
left brain constricts. From what I gathered, it almost
seems to shut down. When you think about it, that sort
of makes sense. A traumatic event isn't logical. It's
totally out of the ordinary. In such situations, the left
brain seems to duck and cover while handing things
off to the right brain. Why? Possibly because the right
brain is creative and free flowing. During a traumatic
event those attributes would be very valuable. What is
not so good is that the event apparently imprints on
the right brain.
Since the right brain lives in the present, any familiar
stimuli in the form of sight, sound, smell or personal
interactions similar to those experienced in the
traumatic event can trigger automatic memories and
responses from a person.
Since the left side of the brain constricted during the
past trauma, the right side of the brain stored all the
negative feelings and scars associated with the event.
This can be quite emotionally crippling since the right
hemisphere lives in the NOW. The right brain has no
sense of past, present or future.
So here we are very often reliving and reacting to an
event which occurred 25 years ago! People tend to
relive these traumas because of various 'mine fields' of
stimuli they encounter each day. Due to this, traumatic
emotions and responses often come rushing back in an
almost automatic, involuntary way.
The symptoms resulting from stored traumatic
memories are:
• Left Hemisphere - Confusion, difficulty verbalizing
things or solving problems, attempting to solve
present day problems with responses from past
traumatic experiences.
• Right Hemisphere - Overly emotional, disorganized,
visual, auditory or emotional flashbacks, experiencing
present day stimuli (relationships, sights, sounds,
smells, tastes, emotions, touches) as though they
belong to past events.
To deal with this, it's important that a person become
grounded back in the here and now. Some techniques
include-Bilateral stimulation where both sides of the
body and both sides of the brain are activated by -
walking, using both hands in an activity or doing
specifically left brain functions such as math or
counting. All these actions employ the left (logic)
side of the brain which has a sense of past, present
and future. Once the constricted left side of the brain
is re-activated it results in grounding a person to the
here and now.
I've even been using this technique when I forget
things, lately. If I space out and arrive in a room
wondering what the heck I'm in there to get, etc...
I just do a little counting in my head which seems to
cause the logic side to kick back in. Before you know
it I remember the reason I came into the room.
Johnette's guest also described a scary situation she
experienced on a plane. She couldn't settle herself
down enough to do math so she tried counting things.
She counted 3 objects that were at eye level, 3 below
eye level and 3 above eye level.
Since we've all been affected by varying degrees of
trauma in our lives, it's important to realize when we
are falling back into preset patterns of behavior.
If you think you are, try the techniques I discussed
above. If you employ the counting technique, my only
advice is not to do it out loud. :-)
If you'd like more information about this subject, I'm
sure you can get DVDs of the shows from Johnette
Benkovic's EWTN show site. Margaret Vasquez was on
several shows.
Christ's peace and healing to you and yours during this
Christmas Season!
December 18, 2010 1:01PM ET
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