0:00

Imagine being the kind of leader in your organization, in your business,

0:04

in your community, in your own life who stays calm, grounded

0:07

and fully present even in the most challenging conversations,

0:11

truly hearing others and guiding clients or teams From Reactivity

0:15

to Resilience At a time when burnout and overwhelm are at an all

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time high, people are craving this kind of leadership. And it all starts with

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a regulated, adaptable nervous system. If you're

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a coach, a therapist or an organizational leader ready to elevate your

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practice, join us for a free online workshop, Rewire

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and Building Resilient Leaders with Applied Neurosomatic

0:37

Intelligence. It will be January 15th at noon Central with

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me and with one of our lead NSI educators, Matt Bush.

0:45

In this session we're going to go beyond understanding how your nervous system works.

0:48

You'll learn how to work with it directly to calibrate responses

0:52

and build capacity to lead with resilience. Plus, we'll stay after

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LIVE to answer your questions and share details about the next cohort of

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NSI. You can sign up now@neurosomatic.com we would love to see you there

1:05

and connect with you live. A replay will be available after the

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workshop. You just have to register@neurosomatic.com

1:16

welcome to Trauma Rewired, the podcast that teaches you about your

1:20

nervous system, how trauma lives in the body, and what you can do to heal.

1:23

I'm your co host Elizabeth Kristoff, founder of Brainbase.com, an

1:27

online community where we use applied neurology, somatics and

1:31

emotional processing for behavior change and resilience. And I'm also

1:34

the founder of the Neurosomatic Intelligence Coaching Certification Program,

1:38

ICF accredited course that helps therapists and practitioners

1:42

bridge the gap from the body to the brain. Brain and I'm your co host

1:46

Jennifer Wallace, a neurosomatic psychedelic preparation and

1:49

integration guide. And I help women prepare their bodies and nervous

1:53

systems for psychedelic experiences and big peak

1:56

somatic experiences for a deeper healing process.

2:00

And I bring neurosomatic intelligence into that journey

2:04

when we work together. And I'm also one of the educators for the

2:07

Neurosomatic Intelligence Coaching Certification.

2:11

So this season we're exploring the underpinnings of trauma and

2:14

nervous system health in mental and physical health outcomes

2:18

and important components of understanding this

2:21

concept is the connections really exploring how our memories

2:25

shape our physiological and emotional experiences of the

2:29

present world. So today at a high level we're going to look at how

2:32

memories are stored in the brain, how this impacts nervous system

2:36

function and more deeply, how Memories are stored somatically

2:40

in the body and the nervous system, maybe even cellularly.

2:43

So we've defined complex trauma on here many times as when

2:47

a series of events leaves us with an inability to

2:50

integrate and regulate into the present moment.

2:54

And this lack of presence comes from a real time

2:58

trauma reaction, like dissociation, threat,

3:02

panic, freeze, that occurs in the now when our

3:05

system is triggered or overwhelmed by the stimulus that's coming in. And then

3:09

it moves us reflexively into this protective response, an

3:13

F response, an emotional experience. So in that way,

3:16

trauma lives in the now because it's a patterned

3:20

reaction that is occurring in our body and our brain. But that patterned

3:24

reaction, it comes from somewhere. So trauma is created by the

3:27

past experiences and memories. And that shapes how our brain

3:31

filters information, decides what is safe or unsafe,

3:35

and even impacts our level of brain function,

3:39

because the brain really is patterned on prediction.

3:42

It's like an anticipation machine. It's always readying itself for the next

3:46

moment, deciding safe or unsafe. And the type

3:50

of priming that we have as people with complex trauma

3:54

can make us vigilant based on what's happened before. And

3:57

then our filters are shaped by the past, and that molds how we

4:01

see the present. And so that's very different from future planning in

4:05

the prefrontal cortex. It's the reaction that lives in the

4:09

now, shaped by our memories and impacts our sense of safety, our ability

4:13

to be present, to have accurate information coming in from

4:16

the environment, from our internal and external senses.

4:20

And so we really want to talk about that today. Talk about the brain,

4:24

the memory, and then dive into that somatic component as well.

4:27

Yeah, for sure. And I think before we go into somatic memory, because that

4:31

is just so deep. And so there are so many ways this

4:35

memory encoding and retention can be shaped and changed

4:39

by trauma, especially during our development. While our

4:42

brains are wired to remember experiences important to

4:46

survival, under some circumstances, survival may

4:49

be assisted by forgetting, Right? As

4:53

children, we depend on our adult caregivers, our

4:57

primaries, our parents. And it can be

5:00

to the advantage of our survival to forget

5:04

traumatic experiences that we could have had to, had to

5:08

survive. And the value of having to preserve

5:12

our attachment bond, right, our real survival, it's just

5:16

more adaptive to forget the abuse as a way

5:19

to preserve the relationship when the abuser is someone that the victim

5:23

is dependent on in their lives. And so it's

5:27

kind of standard, if you will, or normal is not

5:31

a word that we typically like to use, but disruptions in

5:34

memory that can be adaptive. And if trauma and

5:38

caregiving emanate from the same source

5:41

than disruptions in our memory. Like that's a pretty

5:45

standard normal output. Yeah,

5:49

I think we're going to get into the whole neurotag component of

5:53

memory, which is super interesting and that the hippocampus is. It's part of our

5:56

limbic system and so it has all this interplay with all these other

6:00

limbic and emotional structures. And before we dive

6:03

too deep into that, I just want to talk a little bit about traumatic memory

6:07

so that we can be thinking about that as we're learning about some of the

6:11

neuro of memory. So when we're talking about traumatic memory,

6:15

that's generally referring to those implicit memories that you

6:18

mentioned stored more as physical sensations rather

6:22

than an actual narrative memory of the past. It's

6:25

an experience that is like immediate. It's

6:29

that threat response that's happening. So traumatic memories tend

6:33

to arise more from fragmented

6:36

splinters of memory where it's

6:39

indigestible sensations, emotions, images,

6:42

smells, thoughts. It's not this clear cognitive

6:46

memory. And they're implicit because they can be evoked

6:49

by all kinds of situational cues. Something in the environment, a vocal

6:53

tone, a birthday, an anniversary, like all of

6:57

these things can bring up those implicit memories. And trauma can

7:01

lead to blocked explicit processing and

7:04

enhanced implicit processing. So it's less the cognitive

7:08

memory and more of the implicit process. And traumatic

7:11

experiences limit our hippocampal function because

7:15

of cortisol production. And that impedes the

7:19

consolidation of these explicit memories. And it activates, just like you were

7:23

talking about, Jennifer, the structures like the amygdala leading to more

7:26

adrenaline or cortisol or threat response, which then

7:30

intensifies the implicit memory, the sensations, the

7:34

emotional experience. And that can lead to more

7:38

of like a flashback experience of a memory. Intrusive body

7:41

sensations or images kind of disconnected of

7:45

traumatic events that seem to come out of nowhere. But

7:49

they're all elements of this, this blocked out neural

7:53

chunked explicit and implicit processing. And

7:56

memories are actually a neurotag. They are

8:00

emotional, physical and cognitive. They have all of those

8:03

three components to them and it's like a little web.

8:07

When we recall a memory, it isn't like we're just thinking about it. We aren't

8:11

just like opening a filing cabinet, pulling that file out on the

8:14

cabinet desktop and then neutrally taking it

8:18

in. When we recall a neurotag or a memory,

8:21

it activates the physical, emotional. And

8:25

when we recall a neurotag or a memory, it reactivates

8:29

the physical and the emotional pieces of the experiences as if

8:33

we're Living it again in real time. It recreates

8:36

them every time that they are recalled. And we don't actually

8:40

pull the file out. We are rebuilding

8:44

into it. We are expanding the file. Yeah, this,

8:48

to me, is super interesting, because it's not like I'm

8:52

just seeing a memory on a screen. This information

8:56

is going out into all different parts of my brain, and they're actually

9:00

processing it as new information, as a new experience

9:03

coming in. Because since memory is not stored in just one

9:07

particular area of the brain, we have all these different parts that

9:11

get activated when the memory is recalled. We have auditory processing. We

9:15

have movement centers. Parts of our visual processing are

9:18

activated. And so if trauma impacts our brain development

9:22

or if we have processing deficits in any of these areas,

9:25

you know, issues with our visual processing or auditory

9:28

processing, that could affect how we recall a

9:32

memory and increase the threat load when that memory is recalled.

9:36

And so there's a lot happening in our brain, and depending on how

9:39

many parts of a memory we recall, we may

9:43

reach that activation threshold where we create the

9:47

whole survival neurotag response. So maybe one

9:51

little bit of sensory stimulus or one little part of a memory wouldn't be

9:54

enough to create that whole reaction. But when I have enough

9:58

pieces of it, the whole survival neurotag

10:01

gets pulled to the surface, and I'm experiencing

10:05

that whole reaction. And that's what happens when

10:09

we myelinate a threat response, and we use it again and again and

10:12

again. As we have this, you know, in the beginning, talking about

10:16

us being multidimensional and memory being multidimensional, it's like,

10:20

if we're going to tackle our trauma, we have to go about that in

10:24

a multifaceted way as well. And we're talking now

10:28

about one of our favorite things, and that's about emotional

10:31

processing and our emotional landscape prior to

10:35

doing cognitive work. It also impacts how we recall

10:38

memories. Remember that there are two parts of the hippocampus, the

10:42

top and the bottom. And when we're encoding more positive memories, that

10:46

superior portion, which is closer to the frontal lobe, is more

10:49

active. When we're recalling negative experiences, the

10:53

bottom portion, which is closer to the brain stem, the

10:56

survival part of your brain is more active. So

11:00

that's going to make a big difference. These are not just functional

11:03

differences. They are a different part of the hippocampus totally in

11:07

itself. And in the research, we can see that in the

11:10

recall of these memories, when someone has their frontal lobe

11:14

activated and they are in a positive state of mind, then when they

11:18

retell a bad Memory, something from the past it might not

11:22

recall as such a bad memory. It could be a little bit more neutral, but

11:25

get neutralized. So doing tools for the frontal lobe activation and

11:29

nervous system regulation prior to processing memories makes

11:33

it more possible to work through them and have a different experience.

11:37

And then the opposite would also be true if someone is put

11:40

into a negative emotional state and then positive memories

11:44

are recalled, they're not as positive, they're not going to feel as

11:48

happy. So think about when you've experienced an

11:51

emotional flashback and you reflect on life. Everything

11:55

seems bleak, everything is dark, and even the

11:59

things that could have been experienced as joy in your life.

12:03

Yeah, I think underlying a lot of this is important to

12:06

understand the emotional component of memories. Right.

12:10

And we're going to dive a little deeper into the science here again,

12:14

because there's actually two parts of the hippocampus. So there's the

12:17

superior hippocampus, which has more to do with our declarative memories,

12:21

like facts or figures or observable information. And

12:25

then there's the inferior, which is just back part, superior front part,

12:28

inferior back part. And that has more to do with our emotional memories and our

12:32

emotional states. And the top portion, this is super interesting,

12:36

the top portion is only active at its highest level when

12:40

our prefrontal cortex is also active and running the show

12:43

when we're in our higher order thinking systems. So when you have

12:47

more like frontal lobe and pre cortex or prefrontal lobe

12:51

activation, you get more superior hippocampus

12:54

activation. So in that time, if your higher order thinking systems

12:58

are online, you have better recollections of facts and

13:01

figures. You can memorize data, you can study, you can learn. But when

13:05

we're in a threat response or limbic escape or amygdala

13:09

hijacking, the lower portion of the hippocampus is

13:12

more activated and that's more emotional memory. And at

13:16

that time, our factual memory might suffer, but you remember

13:20

how you feel on a physical and emotional level.

13:24

So the top part of the hippocampus shuts down, for

13:28

lack of a better term. But the bottom part is encoding the emotional

13:31

memories that's so active. So as we try to learn or study

13:35

or just live life, we might have poor recollection

13:38

of the facts, the figures, the details, but have a

13:42

strong memory about the emotions. And you

13:46

could think of this as like, if you have an argument with someone, you might

13:50

remember a lot more about the feeling inside

13:53

and the response in your body and not really

13:57

remember what they said, like the actual facts of what was said. And so

14:01

that can get really distorted as you recall heightened

14:05

emotion and more threat response

14:08

situations. And then we also talked about this in our complex

14:12

trauma and brain development episode. And I talked about the time I had a big

14:15

emotional flashback over the holidays and my body curled in on

14:19

itself and I was really reacting and it was just

14:23

like I was excited experiencing a memory from the holiday

14:27

time that it was a very strong memory, but there

14:30

was nothing cognitive about it. It didn't have to do with the facts of

14:34

what was really going on at all. It was a feeling, it was a reaction,

14:38

it was an emotional flashback. And so that means

14:41

like that whole neurotad is activated and my

14:45

brain's lens of the world changes. And now my

14:49

memories were shaping how I was experiencing that

14:52

present reality, that time with my family. And this was recent, but

14:56

felt and was even moving in a way like

14:59

I would as a child experiencing some of those big

15:03

emotions. And that's one of the reasons why memory really matters.

15:07

It's really a reflexive response also too, because

15:10

it is in some ways if the body is remembering something,

15:14

even though you might not have a cognitive memory of it and you actually might

15:18

not have had that memory laid. So understanding

15:22

your body, which we're going to get into, is just so

15:25

important. And the understanding of somatic memory has

15:29

really helped to shape me as a spaceholder.

15:33

And for someone who does work in altered spaces of

15:37

consciousness has been really. It's been really life

15:40

changing. It's a really new way of

15:43

understanding, of trusting ourselves. Right? Of

15:47

deepening that relationship with the body in this whole new way. When

15:51

you understand somatic memory and what your body is communicating to

15:54

you and developing that trust of what's real coming

15:58

from your body and being able to hear that, to

16:02

respond to it and to validate it in a lot of ways

16:05

is really powerful. You have it where it's

16:09

like directly from this vision, it looks like it's like the top of

16:13

it is going right into your mouth. Is that the way that you have it?

16:17

You want to have it so that. Yes, say things with

16:20

peas. I know it best through psychedelic

16:23

experiences, actually. And from witnessing a couple of psychedelic

16:27

experiences from other people. I mean, like, what does it really mean

16:31

for our bodies to remember something? Your

16:35

body has been. Your nervous system has been recording

16:38

everything that's ever happened to

16:41

you ever. And so before our memories get

16:45

recorded, we have somatic memory in the body.

16:49

And so let's get back to how I discovered

16:52

this in psychedelics, because I think the draw to psychedelic

16:56

healing Is in part, the

17:00

visual aspect of. It's what's talked about the

17:04

most. People do not talk about what we are about to get into or what

17:08

I'm about to talk about, because people don't talk about the

17:11

experiences of the somatic journey. You only

17:15

hear about the visuals. That's very hard and confusing for someone to

17:19

live out their journey in a somatic way and have no

17:23

visuals at all. In fact, I've, like, literally never heard anyone talk about this.

17:27

And so, you know, as humans are, our

17:30

vision, our visual system, it sits at the top of our neural

17:34

hierarchy. And our vision is the way that we trust

17:37

and experience. It's the way that we trust our experience and the way that we

17:41

have seen something. And when we can see

17:45

something, it makes the feeling of something more real. It

17:48

almost validates the way that we feel inside.

17:52

And so when we have to rely on our

17:55

emotions and our experience coming from our

17:59

body, relying on the feelings and the sensations coming from

18:03

the body, that is harder to trust. That is

18:06

much harder to trust. And part of our. Part of the protective

18:10

response, the patterned response, is to

18:14

protect ourselves from the emotions. And so if

18:17

we've had this long disconnect from our bodies, if we've

18:21

been someone with chronic dissociation, when there's

18:24

a pattern where it is dangerous to feel the emotions,

18:28

to express the emotions, or when there

18:32

is any danger in

18:36

whoo, is that coming up in me or what? I'm having a

18:40

reaction, right? Like, this is a real time, just for y'all out there to

18:44

hear. Like, this is a real time response in my nervous system. And

18:47

in vocalizing this, this is the very first time

18:51

no one is talking about this. I rarely talk

18:54

about my psychedelic somatic experience.

18:58

So just being full disclosure out there,

19:02

when our emotions are maybe dangerous to feel, dangerous to express

19:05

when something is unsafe, that's a major threat to

19:09

our survival, our real legitimate survival from the

19:13

perspective of our brain. And so we learn to

19:17

repress, we learn to suppress. And then that's dangerous and

19:20

threatening. Because your brain's number one priority is your safety.

19:24

And so that's not just your physical safety, it is your

19:28

emotional safety. And so to feel the sensations that

19:31

come from your body and trust that. I

19:35

mean, it is just such an important connection to develop

19:39

and cultivate. Because there's so many people out there with complex

19:43

trauma going out to heal

19:46

themselves in these deep somatic peak experiences with

19:50

psychedelics that will walk away likely feeling more

19:53

suicidal than they will feel healed because they'll have

19:57

seen nothing and not be able to connect to the feelings coming

20:01

from their bodies. And so from an NSI perspective, we

20:04

work to prepare the nervous system before we go into these

20:08

experiences. And this is why preparation is so crucial.

20:11

Integration gets a lot more play in the world, but it is

20:15

so key to prepare your body to learn

20:18

safety, to learn the cues, to get into some emotional processing

20:22

and really work to develop your interoceptive skills. Work on the

20:26

right correct toning of your, of your vagus nerve and, and we look

20:30

at all of the sensory input systems so that you are

20:34

prepared for this full experience. Yeah, I relate to

20:37

this so much because so many of my

20:41

memories are somatic only. And so as I've

20:44

done many different types of healing, I have

20:48

the experience of

20:51

processing and healing in a somatic capacity.

20:55

And that was very confusing at first

20:58

because like you said, we don't trust that

21:02

knowing that information. In the same way that I would trust

21:06

visual images or cognitive memories that I can talk about and

21:09

verbalize. I had to really develop my

21:13

interoceptive skill and hearing, my instinct, and develop a

21:16

relationship with my body where I, I trusted

21:20

that memory for that processing to be possible.

21:24

And then it was so interesting, as we were researching

21:28

for this episode, I really began to understand a lot

21:31

more why that was. And that has to

21:35

do with how we encode memories, long term

21:38

memories specifically. So our hippocampus

21:42

doesn't have the ability to form enduring memories until

21:46

we're about 4 years old. Babies and young children can

21:49

only retain short term memories, but the neural pathways

21:53

that encode those memories dissolve after a few weeks or months

21:57

and then the child forgets. And so in an immature

22:00

hippocampus like of a child, it can't make those long term

22:04

memory pathways. They don't have the genes for that expression. Which is why

22:08

young children can only remember short term memory about people

22:12

or places or things. And it kind of blew my

22:15

mind because I was like, oh, those memories

22:19

do not exist. They weren't encoded. They're

22:22

not there for me to retrieve. And I know

22:26

that nevertheless, we can be damaged by

22:30

infant experiences that we can't remember. Right. We know from

22:33

all of the stuff we talked about with attachment, children

22:37

experience conditions that they can't remember that harmed them and they're

22:41

still harmed, even though they can't remember it, they still have those different

22:44

reactions. And so we want to start to talk about like,

22:48

how do we make sense of that in terms of neuroscience? How do I

22:51

understand how these experiences still impact me even

22:55

if I don't have the cognitive Memory.

22:59

And so like what I was talking about with my, my

23:02

experiences, a lot of my biggest adverse

23:06

childhood experiences were pre verbal. And I don't have the cognitive

23:09

memory, but I do remember in my body and I relive that somatically

23:13

in pain, in sensation, in emotion. And when I'm

23:17

connected to my body, I know what happened. But it has

23:21

taken me a long time to trust that memory in my body

23:25

because without words and cognitive memories, it's hard to

23:29

make sense of. And it's been a real process to validate

23:32

my own knowing and experience. Yeah, so this is, again, we're diving into the science a

23:39

little bit. Bear with us here, but this is important

23:43

for those of us who have early childhood experiences. So short

23:47

term and long term memories are actually structurally different.

23:50

The difference involves the activity of certain genes

23:54

within those neurons of the memory pathway. So in some cells,

23:58

genes are activated and in some cells they're dormant. So

24:01

for example, some genes are active in kidney cells and

24:05

others are active in liver cells. And genes make the proteins

24:09

that perform those specific functions. So when dormant

24:12

genes are activated or expressed in the cell, then the cell

24:16

performs certain functions that it didn't perform before. And

24:20

long term memories are created when certain dormant

24:24

genes are expressed in the neurons of the memory pathway. And then

24:28

these genes produce the proteins that keep the neurons in

24:31

the pathway communicating with one another for a longer period of time, maybe

24:35

even a whole lifetime. And when neuron memories

24:39

stay connected, the information in that pathway is retained.

24:43

And so neurons in short term memory pathways don't undergo

24:47

that gene expression. These neurons have a limited supply of the

24:51

proteins that keep the neurons communicating with one another, and

24:54

proteins eventually run out and then the neurons no longer

24:57

communicate. And that's what happens when a memory is

25:01

encoded and then the pathway is erased. Let's talk about

25:05

some of the ways that these memories do live in our

25:08

body. Yeah. One way is hormones. Interestingly,

25:12

stressful situations arouse the sympathetic nervous system to

25:15

initiate the F response. Your sympathetic nervous

25:19

system activates adrenal glands to produce epinephrine and

25:23

adrenaline, which then cause physiological sens sensations to

25:26

our heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, vision and

25:30

hearing. All of this to sharpen. And it also activates

25:34

cortisol to become alert, to convert also

25:37

glucose to energy for our skeletal muscles. And

25:41

these prolonged stressful situations, they cause lasting

25:45

impacts on muscle tension that could lead to pain, could lead to

25:49

decreased range of motion or muscle use, muscle

25:52

atrophy. All of this is linked to disease. Diseases like heart

25:56

disease. All the things we know about ACE

25:59

scores, all linked to disease, and most important, the

26:02

overproduction of cortisol, which actually suppresses our immune

26:06

system. Yeah, that's all very related to

26:10

how it impacts our HPA axis. Right. Our past

26:14

experiences, especially in development, shape how our

26:17

HPA axis functions. So again, for those who haven't been listening

26:21

for a long time, HPA is our hypothalamic pituitary

26:25

axis. It's how our hypothalamus communicates with our

26:28

pituitary gland to then release stress

26:32

hormones through our adrenals. So these

26:35

experiences, they activate, they activate the

26:39

HPA axis to generate a threat response. And

26:43

that's what also leads to more cortisol production.

26:47

And if everything is functioning well,

26:51

and we also are in a safe environment where that threat can

26:54

go away and we can come out of that high stress state, then

26:58

those hormones should cycle back to the hypothalamus and stop

27:02

that reaction. So we get activated, the hormones are

27:05

released, the stress chemicals are released, and then our brain gets the signal, okay,

27:09

now resolve that and stop producing those chemicals.

27:13

But if you can't escape, you can't resolve

27:16

the stress. It's that complex trauma, that developmental water that

27:20

we're swimming in, Then you don't get

27:24

the feedback. The cortisol feedback is unable

27:27

to stop the activity of the HPA axis and it

27:31

remains in overdrive. And that can cause childhood

27:35

anxiety, depression, it causes cognitive impairment,

27:38

inflammation in the brain, destruction of the muscles and the blood

27:42

vessels with glucotoxicity. And so in childhood

27:46

especially, it's linked to these developmental issues. But this can happen throughout

27:50

our life as we stay stuck in states of chronic stress. Yeah,

27:53

in some ways it's like the experience is

27:57

remembered by the body because of the way that it

28:00

affects the development of the nervous system and the brain. Right.

28:04

I'm shaped by these childhood experiences and

28:08

then moving through the world now with a reactive nervous system,

28:12

a sensitive HPA axis, decreased opioid

28:15

receptors, all of that is remaining in the

28:19

patterns that exist in my nervous system and how it

28:22

functions. And this creates the health outcomes that we see

28:26

with adverse childhood experiences. The link between having more ACE

28:30

scores and having higher states of mental and

28:33

physical decline, or mental and physical health

28:37

outcomes. And so the brain and the nervous system

28:40

remember, quote unquote, because they're actually shaped and

28:44

created by these experiences that then drive our present day

28:47

reactions, how we process information about

28:51

the world and how we respond to stress. And so our nervous

28:55

system is patterned and now reacts to the world differently.

28:59

And so we really do have to teach it. Because, again, I don't want everything

29:02

to be so heavy and overwhelming to

29:06

people. We are. Even though this happens, we are still neuroplastic, and

29:10

we are still changing. When we know how to work with the system,

29:14

we can create that change. We just have to be able to teach our

29:17

nervous system New ways to process and express and

29:21

to create regulation and safety. And we can do that

29:25

through intentionally training and working with the nervous system.

29:29

Absolutely. And then even deeper and

29:33

more crazy and wild to think about Is that there's

29:37

this whole world of research now on cellular memory.

29:41

And traditionally, memories were thought to reside Only in the

29:44

brain. But there is a lot of credible new

29:48

research that's finding that cells throughout our body, beyond the

29:52

neurons in our brain, have capacity to store and

29:55

retain information. And this really challenges the

29:59

conventional view of memory and

30:02

expands that understanding of memory and behavior. Because

30:06

cellular memory theory says that traumatic

30:10

experiences can be stored in the cells. And when we're

30:14

unable to effectively process our experiences,

30:18

they become stored as raw forms of cellular

30:21

imprints. So unprocessed traumatic memories can manifest

30:25

in our cells. And then, because they're there, Impacting our cellular

30:29

memory, it impacts our mental and our physical processes.

30:32

And it's strange to think about

30:36

ourselves, each little individual cell Having the ability to

30:40

remember things. And it's not like the cell Has a clear cognitive

30:44

memory, Just like we don't experience that somatically,

30:47

but they have memories that drive the way that they function, the

30:51

way that they interact with one another. Yeah. Generational trauma can be

30:55

transmitted through, really, through various mechanisms, including

30:58

epigenetic changes. Meaning that trauma can lead to

31:01

epigenetic modifications. That affect stress response,

31:05

behavior, and health in descendants. Along the way, it

31:09

can affect behavioral patterns. Traumatized individuals may

31:12

develop certain behaviors and coping mechanisms that are

31:16

observed and adopted by their children. Family

31:19

dynamics, A dysfunctional family dynamic and

31:23

communicating patterns that stem from trauma can perpetuate stress

31:27

and trauma across generations. And

31:31

how about the impact on mental health? Descendants of individuals

31:35

who experience trauma May have an increase of mental health issues

31:39

Such as anxiety, depression, and ptsd.

31:42

And there's physical health effects. Generational trauma can also affect

31:46

physical health, Potentially leading to chronic diseases and

31:50

altered stress responses. So epigenetics

31:53

provides A biological framework for understanding how

31:57

generational trauma can be transmitted. Trauma

32:00

experienced by one generation can lead to epigenetic

32:03

modifications that are inherited by subsequent generations,

32:07

Influencing their gene expression and potentially

32:10

predisposing them to certain health conditions and behavioral

32:13

patterns. Yeah, I mean, there's so many ways that

32:17

trauma can be passed. One Generation to the next, just like

32:21

you were saying from. Because we pick up on those

32:24

behaviors from our primaries, because then

32:28

our primaries are operating in that state of dysregulation that then shapes our

32:31

nervous system and these epigenetic changes. And I feel

32:35

like this is so much of what we talk about, all of the ways that

32:39

the nervous system is impacted and that it comes

32:43

from our primaries and that's passed down from their

32:46

primaries. And generational trauma, it really, it

32:50

becomes our collective memory. And this

32:54

collective memory impacts our brain development, our somatic

32:57

experiences, our health outcomes, our physical health. And I feel

33:01

like so many of us right now, our

33:04

listeners, you and me, our clients, people in

33:07

nsi, this is what we're doing now. We're doing the work

33:11

of moving through and

33:15

re patterning that generational trauma

33:18

healing for generations. And as we

33:22

have talked about on here before, as we re pattern

33:26

ourselves, and there's a ripple effect in

33:30

the generations that come after us, but also even maybe

33:34

affecting back to the generations that came before us. I

33:37

feel like we also have to touch on epigenetics here because this is

33:41

a huge and important component of collective

33:45

memory and ancestral memory.

33:49

And epigenetics is really the study of changes in gene

33:52

expression that do not involve alterations

33:56

to the underlying DNA sequence. These

34:00

changes can turn genes on or off, and they

34:04

are influenced by a whole host of environmental factors

34:08

like lifestyle choices or experiences. And essentially,

34:11

epigenetics looks at how your genes interact with your environment

34:15

and how this interaction affects your health and your development.

34:18

But generational trauma, also known as intergenerational

34:22

trauma, refers to the transmission of the effects

34:25

of traumatic experiences from one generation to the next.

34:29

And this type of trauma could be both psychological

34:33

and physiological, and it impacts the descendants

34:37

of those who originally experienced the trauma.

34:41

And a lot of this comes from the changes

34:44

in the genes and the gene expression.

34:48

And it's really important too, for therapists and coaches

34:51

and practitioners to have really direct ways of working with

34:55

the nervous system to get fuel and activation to the frontal lobe, to keep

34:59

the higher order thinking systems online. Because

35:02

exactly like you were saying, our current emotional state affects how

35:06

we recall memories and previous experiences. So if we're gonna do a

35:10

bunch of belief work or cognitive processing or relationship counseling,

35:14

or even trauma processing, it is

35:17

beneficial to, before doing that,

35:20

work with your nervous system, work with your brain to bring yourself or your

35:24

client into a more regulated, positive emotional state,

35:28

especially with activating the frontal lobe. And then to also think about,

35:32

when do I want to do this work? Because if I'm in a negative

35:36

emotional state or I'm just depleted, I've been stressed out, my fuel

35:39

supply is low, I'm in an emotional flashback. It's

35:43

not the best time for me to do that work because it will create

35:47

negative experiences of the memory. Even the things that were maybe

35:51

better, like you were saying, I might then be looking at them through a different

35:54

filter and not have the same feelings of pleasure

35:58

or joy or connection or like, I don't want to go into couples counseling

36:02

when I'm in a state of emotional flashback or

36:05

exhaustion. It's not going to go well. And so to

36:09

work through the negative hard stuff will be even harder.

36:12

And recalling and exploring the good things and happy memories

36:16

will be more difficult. So there's a really practical way to work with the

36:20

nervous system around this work to make it more positive.

36:23

And so as we go into this concept a little bit further.

36:27

The limbic system is a group of interconnected brain

36:30

structures involving emotions, memory and

36:34

motivation. It includes the amygdala, the hippocampus,

36:38

the hypothalamus, and a few other regions. And when

36:41

someone experiences intense stress or threat, their limbic

36:45

system becomes highly active, triggering a fight or flight

36:49

response. Limbic escape is when your brain hits the panic

36:52

button and comes from interplay between the hippocampus,

36:55

amygdala and other structures of the limbic system. And

36:59

there's this whole social function to the limbic

37:03

system. Limbic resonance is part of that. And that

37:06

refers to direct communication between

37:10

individuals through limbic connections. It allows for that

37:13

intuitive understanding of each other's thoughts and

37:17

emotions. We talked about this all throughout season three,

37:20

exploring that social synapse, how we're communicating to

37:24

one another non verbally, but through the signals

37:28

that we pick up on that then impact how our limbic

37:32

system responds. It helps us to recognize

37:36

others as potential threats or as sources of safety

37:39

and security. And if we have developmental trauma, our limbic

37:43

system, including our hippocampus, is perceiving more

37:47

threat around social interactions because of those developmental

37:50

experiences. And this creates more limbic escape in our

37:54

relationships, not just because of physical stress, but because

37:58

of those subconscious signals. And so that is another

38:01

way that trauma lives in the now and impacts our relationships

38:05

currently. Because our memory encoding and the processing

38:09

effect that our past experiences have had on our present

38:13

day responses socially, emotionally. And physically,

38:17

it's a total hijacking. And contrary to the

38:20

widespread myth that trauma event traumatic events are seldom

38:24

if ever forgotten, much trauma is not remembered until something

38:28

happens to bring it to the mind. And both

38:31

Internal and external processes operate to keep us unaware

38:35

and to they do that to the extent that it is not

38:39

safe to disclose externally, it's not safe to

38:43

know or disclose internally, even to

38:47

ourselves. Yeah, memory repression is a

38:50

huge issue topic for people with

38:54

complex trauma. And our social context and our

38:58

power disparities as well as neurological factors

39:02

affect that encoding, our ability to retrieve

39:06

and understand our memories and the reliability of those memories.

39:10

So when I'm talking about social power, it's

39:14

like what is appropriate to talk about?

39:18

To say out loud that attachment severing that you talked

39:21

about before and that social power not only dictates

39:25

what is appropriate to say, but actually what's appropriate to

39:29

remember. Like what we have that deep belief of it's okay

39:33

to remember this. And people, for example, who experience

39:36

childhood sexual abuse often don't disclose it until

39:40

adulthood. But many never tell it at all. And a lot more of us

39:44

don't even remember it until adulthood or if at all.

39:48

But the trauma events are still there in our

39:51

body in many ways. Absolutely. If we can

39:55

get wired, if we were wired, if we have been wired, we can get

39:58

rewired and then we can have the agency of doing that

40:02

ourselves. That's why NSI is once again is just

40:05

so vital and important for everyone to understand. Like,

40:09

you can create. You're not stuck. You can

40:13

still dream the dream. Live the dreams that you are

40:17

dreaming of. Like you can create. Even if that safety means just going

40:21

to the grocery store and feeling okay about that or going to

40:24

a family dinner. Like whatever safety means for you, whatever

40:28

performance or whatever you vision in your life, like that is all made possible

40:32

in your nervous system. And to be able to

40:35

repattern, it is like the greatest agency that

40:39

one can have, honestly. Yeah, it changes how

40:43

we react and how we recall memories and

40:46

include new ones. We would not be here.

40:50

Mm, yeah. The memory of using my voice would not

40:53

be good. The memory of being seen and what it was like to feel seen

40:57

in my younger years, that wasn't safe. So it wouldn't be safe

41:01

now to be here, seen and heard if I did not do

41:05

this work through my nervous system. This podcast

41:08

is for informational and educational purposes only and should not

41:12

be considered medical or psychological advice. We often

41:16

discuss lived experiences through traumatic events and sensitive

41:19

topics that deal with complex developmental and systemic

41:23

trauma that may be unsettling for some listeners. This

41:27

podcast is not intended to replace professional.

41:31

If you are in the United States and you or someone you know is struggling

41:34

with their mental health and is in immediate danger please call 911

41:38

for specific services relating to mental health. Please see the full disclaimer