Titration explained: never rush trauma healing
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 พ.ย. 2022
- This is a re-release of one of my most popular videos. Even if you've watched it already, it never hurts to review. It is all on the concept of Titration. Something that Peter Levine, founder of Somatic Experiencing, popularized to explain very slow, titrated, nervous system work and somatic (survival stress) trauma renegotiation.
Enjoy this re-run!
- You can find the original video here: • Titration Explained: N...
- I've done a longer form special topic lecture on this topic here: • Titration. Why it's im...
Resources I mention during this video:
► Waking the Tiger by Peter Levine
www.amazon.com/Waking-Tiger-H...
► In an Unspoken Voice by Peter Levine
www.amazon.com/Unspoken-Voice...
► Trauma and Memory by Peter Levine
www.amazon.com/Trauma-Memory-...
► The Best Kept Secret In Health - Vlog
• The Best Kept Secret I...
► Feeling Trapped? Why Waking Up The Tiger Is Essential To Break Free - Vlog
• Feeling Trapped? Why W...
► 3 Things to Know when Healing Anxiety - Vlog
• 3 things to know when ...
► The importance of titrating trauma release - Vlog
• The importance of titr...
► 3-Part Healing Trauma Video Training
irenelyon.com/healing-trauma
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Please know that...
The statements on this TH-cam channel or in videos are simply opinion. Content presented or posted on this channel is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment or a professional therapeutic relationship. Content presented or posted is intended to provide general health information for educational purposes only and you should contact the appropriate healthcare professional before relying on any such information.
My website is a wealth of information, free resources, and information on how to start this work, so here it is one more time: irenelyon.com
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This is what i have to remind myself daily. Healing your nervous system is a journey and not a race. Be kind to myself and I will take the steps when I am ready!
A timely reminder. I approached this healing like everything else in my life. Full on and wanting to be perfect from the start. At 60 I wanted to be healed and start living fully immediately. Sadly but not surprisingly this approach didn’t work and in fact made me feel worse. Now I’m able to do a little but often. That in itself is huge progress. Thank you, Irene.
I'm currently going through this process with my psychotherapist who is also trained in somatic therapy and I can say from experience that titration is key to this work. I've had decades of suppressed anger and if I slowly built my way up to this point I'm pretty sure I would have assaulted a coworker by now. Each successive encounter with deeper layers of pain relieved the rage I've been carrying, by my god, sometimes it's excruciating. Working one's way patiently and methodically through the process is essential, liberating and rewarding. Trust the process and before you know it you'll be looking back and realising how far you've come.
Hi Ajax, may I ask you how does your therapist mix psychotherapy and somatic experience or practice. From your point of view, what is the methology?
Im curious I must confess. Would appreciate if you could answer. Thank you
@@ritacarpinteiro8142 She mixes traditional talk therapy, with IFS and when I become particularly emotional she asks me to focus on that feeling, identify it's location in my body, try to identify the age of the part, and generally speaking to turn inward and feeling the emotions and parenting the part(s) that's hurting. There's some polyvagal exercises that she has me doing in my own time. A lot of focus is on being present in the body (because of dissociation) and generally "softening" to the experience rather than bracing or hardening.
@@FlowerUruguay I hear you. My anger frightens me too. Especially as a man I'm considered dangerous rather than wounded and in need of help so there's a lot of reason for me to contain it. But I think years of suppressing my rage has made me an expert at holding it in and not projecting out at others.
Sometimes I release it in sessions, but in my experience, there are two things that are underneath the anger. The first is shame and the second is a feeling of violation (not having my personal sovereignty or boundaries respected). So for me, although it takes effort, I eventually descend into the painful emotions that are being covered by the anger. It's a safer emotion than shame but it's not healthier. It becomes corrosive and at least for me has made me bitter and cynical of humans.
Therapy will help you, but I also go to the gym 3-4 times a week and lift heavy weights. That might be something to try. Or cardio. I think, although I'm reluctant to claim this categorically, that healing comes down to whether we choose to feel the pain in order to process it, or we choose not to feel it. And this is where courage comes into play. This work is the most difficult and scary work I've ever done, but it's paying off. Slowly.
To Irene's point though, you will only be able to manage a small amount at a time. And to circle back to the idea of the gym, you don't start lifting 100kg on your first day. You start with just the bar, then you add 10kg, then another, and another. Then after 6 months, you're bench pressing 100kg. It's the same with this. Titration is critical.
For those moments that come out of the blue, I'm not sure what to tell you. My therapist recommends breath exercises, slow inhale, slow exhale, with the exhale being longer than the inhale. Really feel the breathing as you do it. But I'm not very good at doing what I'm told, and I just succumb to the building rage until I begin the descent I mentioned earlier and start to cry. I don't recommend doing it the way I do it haha!
Short answer: 1) try breathing exercises to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, 2) find a therapist to work through this, 3) exercise and 4) the anger is most likely covering up more challenging emotions that you need to deal with.
I hope this helps.
@@Ajax-wo3gtwhat helps you soften rather than harden to a situation? I am struggling with that so bad. What toools or tips helped you.
@@fifiearthwanderer Hi. I don't really have any specific tools/tips for you with this. But, the more therapy I've done, the easier it's been to handle the difficulties inherent to life. So I guess what's happened for me is I've expanded my capacity to handle the pain that comes with difficult situations. I could be wrong about this, but I believe that humans do everything they can to avoid discomfort, in particular emotional pain. So finding it within yourself to lean into the pain, to allow yourself to feel the pain, to be vulnerable, or another way of saying that is being emotionally courageous, is the answer I think. You're doing this for you first and foremost. It's a relationship you're cultivating with yourself. You're learning to hold yourself and comfort yourself during the process. The thing to remember is that the pain will pass. It's temporary. So is joy and pleasure. That's why the Buddhists say to follow the middle path; don't get attached to either extreme of the emotional spectrum. These feelings will come up and you allow yourself to feel them without necessarily reacting or even responding sometimes, and then they fade away. I'm sure there's some CBT tricks that could help with this, that people might offer, but I don't know any. Finally, suffering is the inability to accept what is. Railing against reality is foolish because reality always wins. And as you practice this way of thinking and responding to emotions, you get better at it.
Does this help? Did I explain myself well?
Oops! I’ve done this continuously for 10 years! I’ve been in trauma or healing trauma. I’m a Kinesiologist and they don’t teach you this in training. So I’ve been mostly self-healing full time (chronic fatigue/CPTSD/ not working) for 10 yrs. Past life, childhood etc I’m definitely in trauma and still in chronic freeze response. Even though I do somatic healing…. My whole identity has become in healing mode.
Trying to slow it down now and your videos are helping, thank you.
Thank you 🙏🏻 ❤
This is why my 10 day vipassana retreat brought all of my chronic pain back and messed me up for over a month after. I am more of a crock pot than instant pot person!
THANK YOU for putting this info out there - and for reading Peter’s content in such a calm, compassionate manner, as I’m sure he intended.
The most significant traumatic event I had happened in 1984. And the police told me that they didn’t think I looked as if I had been beaten. I was accused by Chicago police of being a liar and trying to get money from my husband. And so, I was never diagnose taken to a doctor. Nothing.
Close to 40 years and things are different now. But we still have a long way to go.
😢I'm so sorry. It is terrible to be hurt by someone you'd hope would be a partner, someone you can trust ...and then to be not be believed, is additional trauma.
The arrogance and ignorance of many in law enforcement, trying to "diagnose" and determine...is deplorable.
Many stories I've heard of police inadvertently enabling abusers, rapists, etc, due to their exceedingly blind, erroneous, "assessments".
I wish you healing and peace💫💛
Thank you! Super resonates with me on reminding myself to not be frustrated that my body’s cells still hold old pain, but to be grateful for every opportunity for it to safely come up to be flushed out by being felt with my own loving awareness. I believe and know fully that complete healing to the nervous system is possible and will happen, and your video reminds me to be patient in getting there on a physical and fully integrated level. Your video was a grace-bomb from God, 😘❤️ thank you again and many blessings to you, dear one. 🌈☀️✨
Superb video Irene, thank you so much 🙏
Yes it is having a lot of compassion and babysteps to come out.
thank you for this Irene! i remember i did titration during high school chemistry, and i really love how you explain this concepts in really simple english... thank you thank you thank you!!!
Great video - I really appreciate all of your content
I totally get this. Everytime I tell myself oh I wish I knew these things when I was 20 or 23 or 25, I always come back to myself and say there was no way my system would have handled this information back then, I would has most likely spiraled out of control thereby getting stuck for years struggling to get back to a baseline. I started this work almost 3 years ago now and even though I keep iterating between unconscious, awareness, learning and mastery for the different aspects of healing I need to do, it is healing that is sustainable. Once I am on a mastery level of something say deep shame and codependency which I am currently working on, then I can move to another issue. I totally under what titration here means. It means the changes are deep rooted and are therefore sustainable
I also want to say 'time heals all wounds' is one of the most misused phrases. What absolute nonsense. No it doesn't, not on its own anyway. It further damages the nervous system if no healing work is done which has to be on both a cognitive and somatic level. This is what works and gives us true inner peace, stability and resilience
This video came at just the right time. Thanks for sharing your wisdom and knowledge - you're helping us heal, which might be the greatest gift of all 💙🌈
Thank you x
Great reminder Irene, thank you 🙏
Thank you so much for this, Irene. 🙏
Hi Irene, thank you! Sousan
I've had migraines, insomnia, chronic fatigue, autoimmune disorder (dermatitis), anxiety for 8 years (some longer). I have cleaned up my diet (animal-based) but I don't believe I can begin to heal my nervous system whilst I'm still in an unpredictable, chronically stressed environment.
Hi Ellie. Seth here with Team Lyon. There are some ways you can make progress in that kind of environment, but you are correct that in order to fully heal your environment needs to be safe. This article of mine may be helpful for you ... sethlyon.com/sometimes-break-family/
Wow! … in 2021, in the midst of major healing, I had a dream where I was repeatedly told “ tetrahydration” but I couldn’t find any meaning for it. Could this be what I was meant to understand? Cool
Adriana Caguana, Jen here from Team Lyon. Sounds like it's a possibility!
Ok ...I get it now.
I started on the journey of healing...and is getting worse.
Somatic responses galore
Just last night I thought I'm having a heart attack.
Anger is coming to the surface in waves.
How do you titrate without a therapist?
Hello, Sophia from Team Lyon here. Very sorry to hear what's going on for you and thank you for sharing. We don't generally assess individual symptoms because of the complex nature of this work, as Irene and her team are not doctors or medical professionals, so for any physical symptoms we encourage you to consult a trained physician.
The key to improving nervous system regulation is to have at least one resource of support for settling. And to practice it and notice how it feels to have your system - your thinking, your emotional feelings and your body sensations...settle and calm. You will be more present as you experience this; more connected to everyday reality and less desperate.
Titration is a skill that can be learned. If you feel inclined to work on your nervous system I highly recommend Irene's free resources, especially the Healing Trauma free training. Everything can be found here: irenelyon.com/free-resources/ You are welcome to reach out to our support inbox for more insights and answers to your questions. I hope this helps.
Dearest Irene,
I wanted to ask if this is helpful for developmental trauma,too? I got to know that SE was created for shock trauma.
Thanks for your help. I find your videos really calming for my CPTSD.
Greetings from Germany 🩷
Hello, Sophia from Team Lyon here. Irene's teachings and courses apply to any kind of trauma. I hope this helps
SE is very helpful for developmental trauma.
so would attention be the titrant?
Attention or time can be titrated, yes.
-Mara with Team Lyon
Does this mean not working on healing trauma every day ?
Ayman, Jen here from Team Lyon. Yes, it can mean this. Allowing time for integration can be an important part of healing trauma. Titration can also look like doing something for a few moments at a time, and weaving it into your daily life.
Here's another video about titration if you'd like to learn more: th-cam.com/video/kUgkowZhmWs/w-d-xo.html
Do you need a coach to be part of the program. Is that included or separate?
@@SydneyMorganBeauty, I wasn't clear if you're referring to Irene's 21 Day nervous System Tune Up course or to her SmartBody SmartMind (SBSM) program? In either case, you don't need a coach to participate. There are actually trained nervous system practitioners who answer question about your experience as you learn. In the 21 Day NS Tune Up, this is ongoing. With SBSM, the support is available when the program is running live.
So I’m in a tricky spot right now. After pushing through some of Peter levines material too fast without allowing sufficient rest, my body is extremely numb and I have been experiencing nerve damage in my hands and feet. Two years later my body has a lot of feeling but I have a long way to go. I don’t know what to do because I still have the ability to store more Traumatic stress but I cant practice any grounding techniques because my nerves are still healing from what happened two years ago and any tapping exercises I do make my body go really numb a few hours after. I have recently been in several activating situations and couldnt use healthy aggression to stop myself from collapsing in freeze response because anytime I stay with the sensations, my body tries to discharge some survival stress. So now I feel even more frozen. Is there anything I can do to gain resilience to better cope with future situations without doing more damage to my nervous system? Thanks
Hugo Travers, I'm sorry to hear what happened to you as a result of pushing through some of Peter Levine's material too quickly. It's good to hear that you've gotten some feeling back. In situations like you're describing, it's often especially important to focus on growing nervous system capacity.
You can do this by working with a trained nervous system practitioner (and ideally one trained working with early developmental trauma), or by participating in Irene's comprehensive SmartBody SmartMind program. She designed it to education people about the nervous system and healing trauma. She also offers a more introductory self-study course called the 21 Day Nervous System Tune Up which could be a good place to start, and the comprehensive program includes more practices that can be important when have a lot going on physiologically. I'll link to a few resources in case you'd like to
Q&A w/ Irene, Seth, & Janice. Special focus on healing early & developmental trauma - th-cam.com/video/78Qix0D6eLk/w-d-xo.html
This lady deserves a gold star! My long-form interview with Kathy Kain. - irenelyon.com/2018/12/18/this-lady-deserves-a-gold-star-my-long-form-interview-with-kathy-kain/
21 Day Nervous System Tune Up - 21daytuneup.com/
Minimizing trauma to - too much too soon is absolutely not adequate. Why are people using it in that manner. At best it's a side dish or an extra explanation. Big T Trauma is often abuse. If its physical, sexual or emotional - it's not dependent on quantity or pace? Its not like it would be okey if an abuser hits someone a little less or at a slower pace? Its abuse. Its a violation of someones human rights. Why do we have them as laws, its because we innately feel when someone is _breaching our boundaries_. That's trauma! Those markers might apply on - little t trauma, which is more of an interpretation issue. I.e. someone might be afraid to speak in public because someone laughed when they stood up there and they thought it was about them - didn't know how to process it, felt overwhelmed etc.
But other than that, I reeeally liked this video.
Sounds a bit like exposure therapy.
Cute, chemistry is not quite your forte. Don't give up... you'll get there.