Trauflexive* Breathing

By Michael Grant white

*A word I coined referring to traumas reflected in the breathing. 

TRAUFLEXIVE^tm BEHAVIOR
Insights towards guided and self directed trauma resolution.

It is a fairly well understood amongst many people that study the breath that "anything you can breathe through long enough and in a balanced way loses its grip on you."

*Indicating the possibility of a traumatized breathing reflex. Trauflexive breathing can be observed by the quality of inhales, exhales and pauses in the resting phase plus breathing balance during stress. Also by the chest measurement addressed in our Breathing Kit 4 week Breathing Skills program.

When any of the following issues present themselves, it is recommended that the breathing be attended to at the earliest opportunity. 

• Abrupt mood swings, e.g., rage reactions or temper tantrums, shame
• Amnesia and forgetfulness
• Attention difficulties with various names for them
• Attraction to dangerous situations
• Avoidance behavior (avoiding certain circumstances and phobias)
• Chronic fatigue or very low physical energy
• Constriction
• Depression, feelings of impending doom
• Difficulty sleeping
• Diminished interest in life
• Dissociation (including denial)
• Exaggerated emotional and startle responses
• Exaggerated or diminished sexual activity
• Exaggerated startle response
• Extreme sensitivity to light and sound
• Fear of dying, going crazy, or having a shortened life
• Feelings and behaviors of helplessness
• Feelings of detachment, alienation, and isolation-''living dead''
• Feelings of helplessness
• Frequent crying
• Frequently stressed out)
• Hyper-vigilance (being ''on guard'' at all times)
• Hyperactivity
• Hyper arousal
• Immune system problems and certain endocrine
• Inability to love , nurture, or bond with other individuals bond with others
• Inability to love, nurture, or bond with other individuals
• Inability to make commitments
• Intrusive imagery or flashbacks
• Mental ''blankness'' or ''spaceyness''
• Nightmares and night terrors
• Panic attacks, anxiety, phobias
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Psychosomatic illnesses, particularly headaches, neck and back problems, asthma, digestive, spastic colon, and severe premenstrual syndrome.
• Reduced ability to deal with stress and to formulate plans

Psychiatrists, cognitive and somatic psychotherapists will add additional or varied modalities as they become more familiar with the breath and breathing. Reichian therapy, Rebirthing, Radiance Breathwork, Vivation and Radix are forms of high intensity breathing that may or may not be appropriate depending how the energy is handled by the person traumatized.  

Much care is necessary to process the memories and feelings in a safe and manageable manner.  Insights from Chi-Gung (they refer to this erratic energy as chi deviations) and voice/singing coaching plus my own personal experiences and the experiences of many others lead me to believe that the long way is often the best way.  The short quick fix of cathartic breathwork too often overloads the energy circuits of the body and while it seems to resolve past emotional experience does rarely allow for the grounding and centering needed for the day to day stresses of life as well as the maintenance of therapeutic progress. Although with the support of an experienced counselor/therapist it can be processed and "breathed through". 

That implies to me that techniques need to be utilized that incorporate all relevant styles of  breathwork, advanced breathwork, breathing work, Chi Gung, pranayama, Yoga, voice training, nutrition, ergonomics, and environmental influences so that the client/patient can be guided into safe and long lasting balance and internal power.

I repeat that in the case of severely traumatized people, there most often need be high skill levels generally reserved for the professional therapist.

All traumas are a major doorway to bliss.
Gay Hendricks Ph.D.  I personally have not found that to be true but I am hoping it is.

But I have observed that some people can, with proper (even over the phone) guidance into the healthy and balancing aspect of the way they breathe, that they can be able to resolve some of even the most horrendous experiences, by themselves, in their own time. The high energy used  by the cathartic breathwork school would never work in this regard as the restimulation would confuse or overwhelm the solo breather, take them out of the "incident" needing resolution and perhaps cause overcompensation and resistance to further breath work or breathing work (God knows that must happen quite enough in the therapeutic environment anyway, why increase the odds of its occurrence?). 

But teaching the client to GENTLY breathe through their resistance on their own, can be tremendously empowering to that person. Of course some of the Cathartic school teaches this as well but I have seen too much abuse from the lay examples to feel confident in recommending many of them as professional.

I agree with George Leonard and Michael Murphy as implied in "The Life We are Given" and Jesus ("teach a person to fish" etc) that self determinism is almost always the key to lasting results. Daily practice of proper breathing that engages the 7 chakras or "segments"-(Reich) is where I believe we should direct everyone for balance, grounding, and accelerated emotional stability. The therapeutic environment should be used for breakthrough work, spiritual principles, practical solutions  and to train, monitor and re-enforce daily breathing practices.  

I have used mostly gentle but consistent techniques and exercises and have purposefully avoided the high intensity "Cathartic" styles.  I am trained in them (Radiance and Rebirthing and have received over 150 Reichian sessions) and I rarely use them. I believe, to be safe and "first do no harm"  they should be solely for the purpose of the professionally trained therapist.  AND, in as much as the unbalanced breath can result in emotional confusion and overall convoluted energy management,  I feel strongly that the professional therapist should know how to develop the breath in the fastest, safest, most grounding and centering way possible.  This is largely why I have developed the Optimal Natural Breathing Somatic Education System.  

Anyone, including therapists, may do in-person, group or phone consulting where I train you to receive one's deepest breathing related insights, work through stuck energy that is often called  trauma, and or strengthen your connection with your deepest essence and higher power. I highly recommend them. 

Here is an excellent web site addressing spanking and various forms of abuse. http://www.nospank.net

From a newsletter subscriber
As I was thinking about trauma I suddenly realized why optimal breathing work can be so releasing, beyond expectation, why a simple thing like your strap can be so effective.  It's about more than oxygen.  I believe these things have the capacity to open up awareness in the somatic sensory channels, perhaps to realign reflexes to restore a more responsive and balanced sensory-motor response, that can be kindled in other body parts and systems when given a chance.  With somatic awareness we are given a chance to consciously choose a healthy CHOICE, rather than defaulting to a "mental" choice.  In reading your list of ways to augment healthy breathing on page 95 I began to wonder if Relaxation, Self-esteem, Energy etc. have the ability to "allow" the return of healthy breathing mechanics, gently so as to not set off defensive behavior, as well as support the healthy behaviors.  This assumes there is some awareness of what healthy mechanics might look and feel like, and that there is no interference with PTSD.  But my greatest insight was that by bringing breath awareness, one is developing somatic awareness, which is huge in itself to bring somatic awareness to other parts of the body for many types of "stress" healings. Peter Levine has some excellent articles on PTSD on his website www.traumahealing.com .  His article entitled Trauma - the Vortex of Violence, has a wonderful discussion on the power of somatic release.  He talks of the importance of achieving release of powerful instinctual energies to arouse a "felt sense" of innate physiological resources, and then gently, uncoupling the fear from the "immobility response"  so that traumas can be consciously renegotiated with minimal risk of becoming re-traumatized.  Re-enactment, as done in the past leads to further trauma.  Have you found yourself uncovering unsuspected trauma in your work? ABSOLUTELY. A study he cites (1994 Archives of General Psychiatry, which is conservative) reported 50% of the American adult population meets the formal diagnostic criteria that denotes serious psychiatric illness.  So many therapists still assume releasing tension is more a mental matter of "letting go", when truthfully our society is so "mental" , the mental is causative in suppressing access to somatic sensing and experiencing.  Even talented somatic educators I have studied or worked with get trapped here. "