Pre Verbal Trauma

[shimmerz]

After having had a very serious operation at 4 days old and reading of how back in 'my day' they gave children paralyzing agents and no pain medication while being operated on, it came to my attention that there is a special way of treating what is called pre verbal trauma. Does anyone know anything about this? The information I have found is very limited. Thank you kindly.

 

[Hashi]

Hi shimmerz,

I've had craniosacral therapy, which was for other trauma but also trauma immediately following birth (I nearly died, was given a complete blood transfusion and was isolated in intensive care). It's a somatic therapy - there's no talk involved.

I had ongoing trauma as an infant and then as a child. "Pre verbal" is a tricky one for me because I learnt to speak much later than most children but I suppose in general it means up to the age of about two? I'm wondering if new-born trauma is different from later - even other infant - traumas. Could you say something about what you've read and what you think about it?

I'm taking a break from therapy at the moment but at some point I need to go back and work on childhood trauma - both verbal and pre-verbal. I'm really drawn to the idea of using a sand tray, and I think that ties in to the pre-verbal time. I don't think that would do much towards the new-born trauma though - my sense of that is that it's really only the craniosacral therapy that could help with that because it works directly with cell memory and the central nervous system.

 

[bell]

Interesting, @Hashi, that you mention craniosacral therapy and pre-verbal trauma, I have a feeling I should look into it then. Although I know research varies as to whether or not it is possible for birth trauma to cause PTSD (or if it is things later that cause it), I do wonder how much being born 3 months early and having various ops, treatments, being in an isolette with limited touch really has to do with my PTSD.

I've found this post to be rather interesting, along with Link Removed by a NICU nurse.

Sorry that this doesn't answer your original question, @shimmerz, but may be of some help somehow? I'm also looking into approaching my lingering PTSD symptoms (as thankfully most of them have been quieted down immensely thanks to having this for so damn long and learning how to deal with it and therapy) more somatically and with more yoga to see if that helps me attune more to what's going on inside my body that is pre-verbal.

Also, I know from the beginning of therapy, that initially tackling pre-verbal trauma is hard as hell. I spent a lot of time lying on the floor like a starfish letting waves of pain and fear and frustration and anger and confusion wash over me as I began to work through it. Mega hard, yet very worth it in the end (although I'm not totally through with it yet).

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I think that you should look into the work of Dr Louis Tinnin and Intensive Trauma Therapy in Morgantown, WV, USA. Dr Tinnin knows a great deal about pre-verbal trauma. I processed my birth trauma while in session with him.

 

[shimmerz]

Pre-verbal trauma is something I experienced through repeated abortion attempts that led to my twins death and an operation to remove what was 'left' of her. After that I was abused and moved twenty different times between foster homes until adopted at the age of two years old. Yes, I have read that pre-verbal trauma is dealt with very differently. I have heard that it is not until the hippocampus comes online that we can form explicit memories.

@Hashi, I as well did not speak until long past the time that was considered normal. Many of my trauma reactions have me go completely mute but oddly enough I can write or type. I wonder if this is an indicator that what my body is playing out at the time reflects this time where I didn't know words.

I have googled on this subject just recently and I have read that this type of trauma is dealt with in a very different way. My understanding is that trauma that can be expressed in words is processed and dealt with to some degree using the higher brain whereas pre-verbal trauma is dealt with using the subconscious or even the unconscious parts of our brain.

@bell I thank you for the links. I will look at this later as I am a bit overwhelmed by my research lately. This is really hitting home for me so I must digest bit by bit and I find that there is little known about this so sorting through all of the theories on this - well, I was hoping for some experiences of others as I have learned to trust that more than theorizing and studies in an area that very little experiential information is available. Thank you so much for your input.

 

[shimmerz]

@Solara thank you so much. I will do so.

 

[bell]

Thanks for sharing the recommendation of Dr. Tinnin, @Solara. :) I had a quick Google, and [DLMURL="http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-1380863511/sexual-assault-and-birth-trauma-interrelated-issues"]this article[/DLMURL] is freaking me out a little, but in a good way. Something happened when I was assaulted that sent me into such a tailspin that didn't make sense, and this makes some sense to me.

@shimmerz, I found working on the pre-verbal trauma worse than working with my other traumas, because it was more foundational. Be easy on yourself as you work through it.

 

[Hashi]

Dr. Tinnin... this article

This article makes a lot of sense to me. When having craniosacral therapy I had some experiences/feelings relating to immediately-after-birth trauma that were identical to experiences/feelings relating to sexual assault. Not the examples Tinnin gives though. Which would also make sense, because my birth-related trauma was about the medical treatment immediately after, not the birth itself. The sexual assault was different in nature from what he describes too.

In my case, neither was to do with being crushed but both were to do with being handled. I was very aware of the similarities when these came up. Same with the dissociation/splitting. I was aware of the same feeling of trying to fly away.

For me, that reinforced my feeling that craniosacral therapy was the right thing for me to do for all my trauma generally. I didn't have to identify and isolate particular events or memories to work on, as with EMDR - to me that's bringing too much cognition into it plus it risks opening a Pandora's box while working against our natural safeguards rather than with them. For some aspects of healing, I also feel that talk therapy requires us to intervene too much with thinking and analysis when something else is needed.

Craniosacral work bypasses that and is on the level of the system's natural healing ability. The system orchestrates it, not our minds. In the same way that the system naturally orchestrates the healing of a cut on the hand, and knows what to do when. I was very aware of it working on things that I didn't even remember. I realised that from some of the reactions that are part of the healing process, that I had no idea what they represented.

(Talk therapy and other psychotherapy have helped me also, but in different ways and not with the birth-related stuff other than helping me accept my history and some of the strange experiences of healing it.)