1. Addiction: There are many types of addiction, but the most detrimental one that works against trauma healing is substance abuse. If you are under the influence of drugs or alcohol to deal with your past, you will have to get sober before you begin to heal your trauma. You will not be able to heal your past if you constantly numb yourself with substances. There are many effective ways to get sober, such as residential or outpatient treatment centers, AA meetings with the help of sponsors, or private doctors or therapists who can help you. Once you are sober, you can start healing the underlying issues that caused you to turn to substances.
2. Self-abandonment: This includes all the ways you may not be taking care of yourself—not exercising, not eating in a healthy way, not looking after your personal hygiene, working in a toxic work environment even though you could get a better job, being in relationships that are detrimental and abusive, putting other people’s needs ahead of your own as if they were more important than you.
3. Dissociation: This is when your consciousness leaves your body and you feel spacey and disoriented in
some way. You may be able to have a conversation but not really remember the details, or you may be
able to drive but then take the wrong exit and don’t remember how you got there. You may be at work
but not really present.
4. Eating disorder:
People suffering with an eating disorder (ED) often hate their bodies. They don’t like
how their body looks, feels, and moves, etc. They see their bodies as a burden, and their main focus is
wanting to change its look. They do everything in order to avoid feeling their body.
5. Chronic pain: This could be the result of extreme tension or dissociation from the body.
Dr. Karol Darsa has over 20 years of clinical and administrative experience in trauma and mental health disorders. Dr. Darsa, founder of The Reconnect Center will present Reconnect’s philosophy of integrative trauma treatment. The participants will learn about gentle, body-based processes which help heal and reconnect the mind and body. These clients typically experience dis-regulation due to traumatic events, developmental trauma, or emotional disorders. For more information go to http://reconnectcenter.com or call (310) 713-6739. The Center is located at 881 Alma Real Drive, Suite 311, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. Contact Dr. Darsa at [email protected]