Unseen Scars

The psychological dimensions of health are some of my favorite to work with and yet some of the most difficult.

I’m clearly not a Psychiatrist, but the connection between psychological health and the entirety of your wellness cannot be ignored.

And yes, I said psychological dimensions… plural.

The psychological dimensions are both mental and emotional which I teach as separate as I feel they are related, but separate in their properties.

It has been said that there is a mental health crisis and I agree with this statement.

We are witnessing a world-wide purge of trauma that has been living in the undercurrents of society for a very long time.

To deal with healing the invisible scars of traumatized humans, there are seemingly not enough psychologists or psychiatrists available.

As we attempt to approach this topic from a wellness model, there needs to be the understanding that disorders and injuries may need managed with long-term therapy and medications.

These tools can be paramount in the delivery of time to modify lifestyle and re-wire neurobiology and potentially heal the brain from trauma.

Brain injury is not sequestered to physical traumas and can result from the biochemistry of psychological injury.

This means that psychological stress can create physical damage.

Psychological trauma can be a result of traumatic events within a short period of time with little-to-no processing mechanisms or adequate recovery time.

This leads to an injured and disregulated nervous system and can manifest as behavior change.

Unfortunately, what I have witnessed is a severe misunderstanding, judgement, and hyper-criticism of a person who as incurred large amounts of trauma and requires safe space to heal.

To shame or judge a person who needs trauma healing, or to direct them to toxic positivity is another bypass of the wounds that need witnessed and is the opposite of supportive healing.

This is where psychological talk-therapy or spirtual counseling is a necessity in order to objectively unpack it and actually process that which was not permitted to be felt due to the fascinating nature and protective organization of neurobiological mechanisms.

From a Functional Nutrition and wellness perspective, we are not treating the disorder, but we can work in tandem with counseling and meds and integrate nutrient foundations of neurobiology.

We can test for neurotransmitters and fill our toolbox with foods, nutrients, craniosacral therapy, and wellness coaching for simple actions that can help modulate a dysregulated nervous system.