What is a Healthy Autonomic Nervous System?
Why Does a Healthy Nervous System Matter?
What is the Effect of Trauma on the Health of the Nervous System, Particularly When it Occurs to an Infant & Young Child?
Who is Tracking the Health of the Nervous System…
…in Babies & Children?
…and Adults?
There is so much to say about this topic and this has become a flourishing science since the 1990’s — in 1990 president George Bush declared it the “Decade of the Brain.” Developments in the understanding of neuro-science are impacting therapeutic models in psychology and medicine.
Simply stated, a healthy Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is one which is flexible and resilient in the ever changing states we experience between relaxed, settled states of safety and healthy responses to manageable stress and danger. The health of the nervous system affects physical health, immune function, motor function, capacity to settle/regulation, ability to learn and attention. A flexible responsive nervous system responds accurately in the present moment — able to settle and relax, engage in dynamic energetic activity and in difficulty, seeking help or engaging in flight/fight response when I danger…. And then back to settled state, particularly with support of others, when challenge/danger has passed.
In the development from conception to infancy through childhood into adulthood, attentive and responsive parents (and guardians) are aware of, acknowledge, reflect and empathize with the child through the feelings and responses of lived experiences. A child who feels protected and safe and connected and attached to parents, develops an internalized resilience in the face of difficulty, knowing that they can withstand and then move forward from those challenges. They have the capacity for joy, play, curiosity and creativity both in relationships and alone.
Trauma, particularly early, during the time of conception, pregnancy, birth and the baby’s first two years, can interfere fundamentally with how we are wired; thus affecting mental, emotional and physical function (including immune function, motor function, capacity to settle/regulation, ability to learn and attention). Because our experiences before the age of two are pre-cognitie and pre-verbal parents and guardians, and eventually ourselves as adults, assume post-traumatic anxiety, anger, dissociation, freeze, shock states, disorganization, etc are somehow inherent to who we are and not just natural responses to overwhelming experiences. Many people are able to recognize trauma in disasters, war, violence, famine, etc. but not as aware that events like sudden loss of loved ones, depression of parent and many standard modern birth and infant rearing practices (including the routine procedure of circumcision) can leave a lasting life-long imprint. With the flourishing field of many teachers, social workers, medical and mental health professionals (even Oprah Winfrey) becoming interested in the effect of early trauma, many innovative methods for evaluating children and adults are emerging, developing trauma-informed approaches to healing and learning.
With the health of the brain and nervous system being so central to the wholistic well-being on so many levels, the questions are:
“Who is tracking the changing states, particularly in babies who don’t have words to tell us what is happening for them?”
“If we understand those states, what can we do to support babies and children?
Answering those questions begins with understanding “what do babies need?” And “what do children need?” Both in modern western medicine and the mental health field we are just beginning to acknowledge and understand the importance of meeting the emotional needs of the infant in responsiveness and physical nurturing/contact as foundational to the development of healthy sense of self on all levels. (For more on this you can read Allan Schore: What is the “Self”?) Solutions range from education and mental health support for parents wanting to conceive and pregnant, educating birth and medical/mental-health professionals, the ability to identify and track non-optimal nervous system states in parents and infants/children at many stages and developing systems and protocols for addressing issues at the root causes. For example, at birth we have APGAR scores for infants to evaluate many physiological markers of the child but there is generally no or little attention given to stress levels, distress and shock.
Fortunately this is a growing field of study and understanding and in the culture (and world) at large (even in TV, movies an other media) more attention is being given to the emotional experience of people of all ages. This innovation ranges for more attention being given to support programs of children from 0 to 3 as well as strategies to evaluate and identify children (and adults) with trauma to therapeutically address this in a wholistic way. Check out Nadine Burke Harris’ TED talk on “How Trauma Affects heath Across a Lifetime.”
At this point I want to turn to my work and offerings to this end. If you browse my website and receive my newsletter you can see my offerings that address the needs on many different levels:
Public on-line parenting classes, particularly for parents planning to conceive, pregnant or with infants and toddlers.
Presentations or workshops for teachers, birth and health professionals or groups of parents
Two-week summer Intensive in Bellingham, WA and Professional Training in Massachusetts
Private sessions with families with infants, children and teens to support intentions for health and challenges
Private sessions with adults
Group work for intentions of health and integrating and transforming early trauma in the Womb Surround process Workshops
I feel great passion in sharing the information and understanding about healthy conception, pregnancy, birth and post-birth as well as real ways for health and healing for those experiencing the effects of trauma. If you don’t see what you’re looking for in what is offered in my schedule, I’d be happy to come up with a program for individual and group needs.