Trauma stored, subverbally

The Imprints of Trauma on us

“Even after we become language-endowed some wounds are imprinted on regions of our nervous systems having nothing to do with language or concepts; this includes brain areas, of course, but the rest of the body, too. They are stored in parts of us that words and thoughts cannot directly access—we might even call this level of traumatic encoding ‘subverbal’.”

I’ve started to read Dr. Gabor Mate and Daniel Mate’s book, The Myth of Normal.

In the first twenty pages, readers are reminded of the imprints of trauma on young and impressionable minds.

In recounting his own experience, Gabor notes that near beginnings of life there can be “kind of physio-emotional time warps, preventing” us from “inhabiting the present moment.” Such are the imprints of trauma.

Therefore, these traumatic memories can be hard to access, especially since if we don’t have memories that we can recall related to the trauma, that they are imprinted and underlying and we are unaware that they exist.

I think this is true of our memories and foundations from infancy to age 3 or 4, or even beyond, if we have repressed memories.

I also wonder about how intergenerational trauma and epigenetics, sometimes called our emotional inheritance, also play significant roles in leaving lasting impressions of trauma on our minds.

But to me, the hope lies in this—

Trauma and wounds don’t just reside in our body, but in our bodies, our energies, even right down to our DNA.

Therefore, with somatic healing and body release work, we can access the trauma.

In other words, we don’t have to recall the memories in order to work through them.

I reflect back on the biofield tuning sessions that I did, feeling indescribably sad, the tuning forks giving off a very somber tone, in their deep reverberations.

My biofield tuner asked me if I had memories associated with this—

I did not.

She said it was not surprising because it was infancy, or around 2 or 3 years old.

All I can tell you is that I felt such sadness and grief, that it overwhelmed me.

I felt like a small child. I didn’t know what was happening or why. I only knew that I felt scared. Fearful. Terrified, Upset, very sad and unsafe.

I wonder—what did toddler Danielle experience to leave that strong of an impression on my mind and psyche? To show up in my energy field and needing help working through it?

Such a strange experience, not being to pinpoint, to understand what happened or to tie to a memory when the emotions were so poignant, so powerful.

I only know that I felt indescribably sad at that time.

Then lightened and free after the session, after having a tune-up.

Mystical, elusive, difficult to explain.

Woo-woo?

Perhaps.

And yet, how effective can psychotherapy or talk therapy—CBT or DBT be when there can’t be memories tied to certain events or behaviors.

It’s a bit mind-blowing to consider the many ways in which events have formed us that we can’t recall.

The engravings of trauma, the imprints and their effects on us, can be very very grave.

Trauma-healing is hard work but oh vitally important, as we consider or even try to entertain all the thoughts of how they have affected us.

And not just ourselves, but our reactions, our relationships, behavioral problems that arise later in life in interpersonal interactions.

Mind-blowing.