Stress, trauma, and recovery

This past weekend I was able to attend a community workshop called "Pathways to Healing". The workshop brought speakers, from a variety of backgrounds, both from Canada and the U.S, to Moose Factory. The workshop is held annually and is intended to help the community overcome past struggles and increase its resiliency.

I was fortunate enough to hear Darryl Tonemah speak. Darryl is an aboriginal health psychologist from the Tucarosa reserve in New York. Along with three undergraduate degrees, he has a master's in community counseling, and a Ph.D in counselling Psychology and cultural studies.

What grabbed my attention immediately about Darryl was his incredible story telling ability. I've only experienced a few times in my life someone who is able to engage you so deep in story that you find your palms sweating, and you are ready to jump out of your seat. Darryl was one of those story tellers.

Darryl's talk focused on stress and trauma, and its impact through the life cycle.

He presented stress as something that forces you to act, it is not necessarily a negative, but it just means you can't do nothing. Looking at stress in this way, it can actually be viewed as a very positive thing. You can't grow, learn, or love without it!

He then defined trauma as an event that overwhelms our ability to act. It is an event where we have no control over the situation, and is so difficult to process that the brain and body protects itself by shutting down. The problem with this response is you don't always return to normal afterwards.

Darryl began his discussion of trauma looking at its impact on pregnant mothers. He talked about a study that followed the children of mothers who were pregnant in the New York City area during the Sept. 11, 2011 terrorist attacks. The study followed the children 10 years  following the event and found they experienced worse physical and emotional health outcomes, than children who weren't in utero during the attacks. The trauma felt by the mother is turn felt by the fetus, through the various chemical changes that occur. The mind-body relationship is an amazing thing.

What I learned most from Darryl's talk was how difficult it is to recover from a traumatic event, and when you don't have adequate support to help you process, then trauma can last a lifetime.

If trauma can perpetuate from one generation to the next, how do you try to recover as a community?

It is certainly not something that will fade in time. That is what Pathways to Healing is trying to address, and I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity to attend Darryl's presentation.

 JK