Nervous System Responses To Narcissistic Abuse

Trauma & Narcissism Redefined

Caroline Strawson

Narcissisticabuse, Health & Fitness, Narcissist, Self-improvement, Education, Recovery, Mental Health, Trauma

4.8 • 701 Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2021

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, I will explain in depth what the Ladder of Tolerance is, how it works and how we use it in my Narcissistic Trauma Recovery Program™. We will explore how our nervous system functions, hoping to remove some of the guilt and shame that narcissistic abuse imprints on us. I will share some of my own traumatic experiences as a child that made me blend with my protective parts and turn into a perfectionist, self-harming, and people-pleasing person.

What You Will Learn In This Episode:

- The Ladder of Tolerance and how can we use it to understand our nervous system response to abuse

- What is post-traumatic growth, and how it can help us recover from narcissistic abuse

- What it means that we must be taught to be in the top part of the ladder, and what happens when we are not

- Why healing from narcissistic abuse does not happen only on the cognitive level, and what other things we must work on to heal completely

Our nervous system is constantly moving up and down the ladder. When we feel safe, we are at the top, and when we feel anxious, nervous, or threatened, we are at the bottom. In many cases, there is no real danger and still, we think our life is on the line. What triggers that response is usually self-worthiness wounds we drag from traumatic experiences from our childhood. We need to take a closer look at those wounds, get curious about them and find out their origin, so we can learn to heal them.

Resources:

- Join my Narcissistic Trauma Recovery Programme™ https://go.carolinestrawson.com/heal-the-trauma-of-narcissistic-abuse

- Join my Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/thriveafternarcissisticabuse

- Connect with me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carolinestrawson/

- My website: https://www.carolinestrawson.com/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the narcissistic trauma recovery podcast. I'm Caroline Strawson and I'll be sharing with you
0:09.5	awareness, understanding and education about the devastating effects of narcissistic abuse to help you thrive.
0:16.4	I want you to know that I've been exactly where you are and I believe you. And this show is all
0:22.8	about taking you from trauma to transformation. Hey there. My name is Caroline Storison and
0:32.8	welcome to my channel. I'm a trauma-informed therapist and coach specialising in helping you heal the trauma
0:39.3	of narcissistic abuse. Now, I use a real integration of therapy and coaching to help my
0:45.6	clients and within my community of things like internal family systems, brain spotting,
0:50.8	EMDR, rapid transformational therapy, and even positive psychology, you might think,
0:56.0	well, why would you bring positive psychology into narcissistic abuse? Well, I'm a big believer in
1:00.6	something that we call in positive psychology post-traumatic growth. And post-traumatic growth is
1:05.8	actually growth, even because you've had the trauma. So you go on and leave an even better, more joyful,
1:12.7	connected life because of the narcissistic trauma that you have been through. Because it's an
1:18.1	opportunity for us to start to understand why. Why am I in that relationship with a narcissist?
1:23.9	Or maybe you have narcissistic parents. Why do I feel the way that I do? Because that
1:29.3	activation that you feel in your body when you're in those narcissistic relationships is not your
1:35.1	fault. You weren't born like that. And for me to explain those trauma responses in why we feel
1:41.7	the way that we do, really we need to understand how our nervous
1:45.4	system works. Now, our nervous system, or in particular, our parasympathetic and sympathetic
1:52.2	nervous system is all about our fight, flight, and freeze. You've probably heard of those
1:57.4	terminology before, haven't you, fight, flight, and freeze. Well, it's very much,
2:01.3	those are trauma
2:02.1	responses within our
	...

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