Time to Clean Out Your Locker--The Hurt Locker.

• Author: Pabst, Kirsten

For the past several years, my office has been actively involved in a facilitated program we call Secondary Trauma Group. Each "wave" of participants learns the latest on the neurobiological effects of exposure to trauma and secondary trauma and then spends several months developing skills to neutralize the negative effects of work-stress and build resilience.Throughout the course, each person collects tools they find particularly useful. Of all the tools we discover, the most widely adopted and used is the Window ofTolerance, or WOT.

THE WINDOW OF TOLERANCE

The window of tolerance, developed by Dan Siegel,a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, represents our ability to notice our stress levels and then self-regulate. This window has three zones: Hyper-arousal, Optimal and Hypo-arousal and we tend to bounce between them as external circumstances--like trials and things--happen to us. Somatic tools--or body-based activities--can bring us from hyper-arousal or hypo-arousal into the present and closer to the optimal zone within the window. Like building muscle, with practice we can increase our ability to regulate our position within the "window."

THE SCORE KEEPER

The world's renowned trauma expert, liessel Van der Kolk, Ml), considered the pioneer of contemporary work in trauma, is credited with modernizing our understanding of how trauma (and stress) affects our bodies. In his acclaimed book, The Body Keeps the Score, Van der Kolk explains the profound negative effects of stress, anxiety, and trauma, and shows how the body is literally "keeping score" of our mismanagement of stress. He promotes processing and healing from trauma as the highest form of self-care, which contributes to longevity and helps us avoid many recurring pains, diseases, and ailments.

Van der Kolk teaches that the key to processing traumatic stress is noticing how it manifests physically and then physically engaging in activities that allow it to pass. For example, Van der Kolk recommends somatic exercises for people experiencing PTSD, like yoga, breathing, even bouncing a ball.

BUT FIRST... MICRO-TRACKING IN THE BODY

A prerequisite to being able to adjust one's position within the window is noticing when and where your unique physical body harbors stress. Some people feel acute stress or anxiety in their gut; others in the head; some in the middle of the...