As a psychologist passionate about understanding stress and trauma and their association with illness, I was very excited to attend the Action Trauma Summit in Belfast, which took place on June 17th and 18th June. With guest speakers ranging from the godfather of trauma, Dr Gabor Maté, to Internal Family Systems creator and therapist Dr. Richard Schwartz, to Dr Stephen Porges, professor of psychiatry and creator of Polyvagal theory, I knew I was in for some world-class inspiration in mind-body research and practice.
Early on the Tuesday, an 80 yrs. young Gabor Maté entered the stage of the packed and excited conference room. A slight, but powerful man, he started by highlighting the litany of research supporting the influence of emotions on our physiology: women exhibiting symptoms of PTSD are more likely to have ovarian cancer; children with high levels of stress are more likely to suffer from asthma and men who have suffered at the hands of abuse in childhood are found to be three times more likely to have a heart attack, even with risks independent of lifestyle habits. Though of course genes and lifestyle play a part, emotional stress and social isolation, he believes, can trigger certain genes and undermine our immune system. Childhood trauma manifests in autoimmune conditions as it increases cytokines and inflammatory processes. “The source of pathology is beyond the individual” he states, pointing to a culture that doesn’t support wellbeing as it suppresses our true nature and ability to express ourselves, emotionally.
This all very much resonates with me personally, having my own autoimmune journey and healing through stress and trauma work. Focusing on body sensations, emotions, and memories instead of the intellectualized narrative I’d created, likely what Dr Richard Schwartz refers to as ‘protectors’, helped me heal from chronic fatigue, pain, and frequent illness. I’m also interested in understanding trauma as my work involves research and intervention design for employees at risk of high stress and vicarious trauma that may also have an impact on their health long-term.
So how can the mind-body perspective help these employees (Content Moderators) with ongoing risk of trauma? If trauma can only be healed when it’s in the past, how can we support moderators when exposure to potentially traumatic is ongoing? According to Maté, healing occurs when we can come back to the present, conscious and embodied – not mesmerized by past trauma. However, we see many moderators use dissociation as a way of coping with viewing endless graphic and disturbing content daily. As seen with children in Gaza, Maté says, they have no help, they cannot fight or flee, so they tune out. It is necessary for their survival. Yet, tuning out becomes embedded in the nervous system and comes with a cost to our health. This prompts me to consider that moderators at the end of their moderating career should engage in trauma processing, to allow them to move from dissociation to more presence and embodiment, now that the occurrence of trauma ‘events’ should be in the past.
However, in the meantime, how can moderators find moments of safety as they currently work, to bring back homeostasis in the nervous system, without going to the source of possible ongoing trauma? How do we support without triggering? This brings me to another fascinating demonstration at the conference of the newly innovative Polyvagal music, designed by Dr Porges along with music composer Anthony Gorry. They have created music based on what they call an algorithm of specific tempos and rhythms that calm the nervous system by mimicking natural, resting biorhythms of the heart, digestive system, and various organs. And I must say, listening to a sample for 20 minutes had a profound physiological effect on both myself and visibly the audience. I felt very grounded, safe, and content in a way I had never experienced before. I am excited about the potential of this new form of music which is currently undergoing 13 research trials in the US. What if Content Moderators had access to this form of therapy on wellness breaks or were available to ‘switch off’ after work, taking them from nervous system activation and dissociation to a state of safety, thus enabling restoration and recovery?
Conclusion
This brings me to my conclusion: more research is needed to test somatic body-based approaches and Polyvagal theory and music, especially amongst a cohort constantly exposed to potentially traumatic content. As Maté asserts “Trauma is not the event, it’s what happens inside of you as a result… the behaviors, beliefs, the wound, the impact on the nervous system, the physiological reactions, how you see the world.”
The costs are multifaceted, and the research is lacking. Though somatic-based work has seen impressive results in clinical practice, it has yet to be rigorously tested in randomized controlled trials, to the degree that, for example, a treatment like mindfulness is now. However, in an online, media-based world where we are exposed daily to stressful and traumatic scenes of war, violence, and unrest, particularly when working in content moderation, we need tools to be able to soothe and restore our nervous system, to be able to come home to the self and make it a safe place to be, to find our inner state of peace, amongst the chaos.
For more information about the authors see:
Dr Mate’s audio and books available here
Dr Richard Schwartz Internal Family Systems available here
