ARYLENE MURPHY
Consultant Psychotherapist, Counsellor, Author, Motivational Speaker
Facilitator & Trainer
I set out on my own journey of recovery when I embarked on a rehabilitation treatment program for my addictions to alcohol and drugs in 2006. Since then, I have discovered that my misuse of substances was directly related to the trauma of being sexual abused throughout my childhood.
Today my work is dedicated to sharing my knowledge & understanding around how we, as survivors, live with the distressing & dysfunctional impact of unresolved traumas from our childhoods. And how, with the right intervention and care, we can go on to achieve what we once believed was beyond our fortuity and freedom.
What is Trauma?
The word 'Trauma' is, in fact, derived from the Greek for 'Wound'
“Trauma” has been defined in medicine as a circumstance in which some part of the body has been suddenly damaged by a force so powerful that the body’s natural protections are unable to prevent injury and the body’s natural healing abilities are inadequate to resolve the injury without medical assistance (Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, 2000).
Sigmund Freud (1920/1955) was the first to define the term “psychic injury” by analogy to physical injury. Freud described psychic trauma as an event that “penetrates a kind of mental skin designed to protect a person from excessive external forces; trauma [is] essentially a ‘breach in an otherwise effective barrier’ ” (Brewin, 2003, p. 4). The breach is the result not only of the strength and impact of the external force, but of the inability of the organism or affected area to deflect, absorb, neutralize, or compensate for the injury.
Following this analogy, we describe PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA as a circumstance in which an event overwhelms or exceeds a person’s capacity to protect their psychic well-being and integrity.
It is a collision between an event and a person’s resources, where the power of the event is greater than the resources available for effective response and recovery. Deterioration in functioning occurs, and intervention or resources beyond those that are required for recovery.
Psychological trauma, like physical trauma, represents a complex relationship between an event and a response. The objective characteristics of a potentially traumatic event can be quantified, ie we can measure its strength or power, but the IMPACT of the event cannot be determined without taking into account the resources and vulnerabilities of the particular individual who sustains the injury.
