Compassion and Trauma in Therapy

Sep 26, 2024

Compassion and Therapy Summit Lecture Notes

Introduction

  • Speaker: Dr. Clarissa Seagrand (host), Dr. Dan Siegel (guest)
  • Topic: Compassion and healing trauma within Dr. Siegel's interpersonal neurobiology framework.

About the Speakers

  • Dr. Clarissa Seagrand: Assistant Professor at Naropa University, focusing on mindfulness-based transpersonal counseling.
  • Dr. Dan Siegel: Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, Founding Co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, and Founding Editor of Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology.

Key Concepts

Definition of Trauma

  • Trauma is an experience that overwhelms our ability to cope.
  • Types of Trauma:
    • Developmental Trauma: Occurs during childhood involving neglect or abuse (physical, sexual, verbal, emotional).
    • Adult Trauma: Events like accidents that have a different impact due to timing and duration.

Integration and Trauma

  • Integration in Interpersonal Neurobiology: Combining many disciplines into one framework, promoting differentiation and linkage.
    • Differentiation: Specialization or uniqueness.
    • Linkage: Connection without losing uniqueness.
  • Importance of Integration: Balances chaos and rigidity; impaired integration can cause trauma, affecting mental health.

Clinical Examples

  • Signs of Rigidity: Tight muscles, difficulty speaking fluently.
  • Integrative Practices: Focusing on breath to achieve balance in the autonomic nervous system (parasympathetic and sympathetic).
  • Window of Tolerance: Range of tolerance for emotional stress; trauma can narrow this window.

Autobiographical Memory and Trauma

  • Narrative Coherence: How trauma affects narrative output and memory.
  • Implicit vs. Explicit Memory:
    • Implicit Memory: Feels like present experience.
    • Explicit Memory: Facts and autobiographical context, develops after 18 months.

Therapeutic Approaches

  • Mindfulness Interventions: Shown to promote neurological growth and repair trauma effects.
  • Clinician's Role: Presence, attunement, resonance, and trust to expand client’s window of tolerance.

Personality and Trauma

  • Patterns of Developmental Pathways (PDP): Nine patterns that reflect how trauma affects personality through temperament.
  • Temperament Factors: Sensitivity, intensity, response to novelty, and subcortical motivational networks (agency, bonding, certainty).

Compassion in Therapy

  • Compassion as Integration: Kindness and compassion are visible forms of integration.
  • Clinician as a Source of Compassion: Helps clients widen window of tolerance and resolve trauma.

Conclusion

  • Integration & Compassion: By resolving personal traumas, individuals gain pathways to leadership and healing on both personal and collective levels.
  • Concept of Mwe (Me + We): Recognizing the interconnected nature of self for planetary healing.

This lecture covered the importance of compassion and integration in therapy, emphasizing mindfulness and understanding trauma through a comprehensive framework of interpersonal neurobiology. Dr. Siegel provided clinical insights and practical examples to illustrate the role of therapists in helping clients achieve integration and healing.