[Trauma Tip #6] How long does it take to heal trauma?

A common question my team and I get is this: "How long does it take to heal trauma?" In this Trauma Tip video I dive into this question and why it is important to re-frame this question a little differently. Enjoy and be sure to leave a comment below!

Resources I Mention In The Vlog:

► Educate The Chaos || Regulation Before Relaxation

► How to come out of a chronic freeze response after repeated stress & trauma

► [Trauma Tips #2] Get to know your (many) nervous systems

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Thank you for being here!

1. Leave a comment and let me know how this video impacted you. Feel free to leave a question (my team answers them each week!)

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Please know that…

The statements on this YouTube channel or in videos are simply opinion. Content presented or posted on this channel is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment or a professional therapeutic relationship. Content presented or posted is intended to provide general health information for educational purposes only and you should contact the appropriate healthcare professional before relying on any such information.

[sammathews]

This video has really helped me put things into perspective. Thank you for making great videos like this!

[dianaboughner]

💖Thank you for this. I learn and learn. I grow and grow in understanding. Changing habits and staying in the body is much more difficult but I'm on it to the best of my ability and now with the understanding that putting a time frame for 'healing' is not what this process is all about.

[megant]

Thank you Irene. I'm 22 months into seeing a SEP and starting SBSM in April last yr. I'm just coming out of freeze now and there is lots of hope and I know I will get there. Don't give up, yes it's very difficult at times but wonderful too.

[MEFbeelove]

Thank you, Irene! The education you provide is very empowering. I appreciate it so much. It helps me a lot to be able to use logic based in understanding the nervous system to support a healthy lifestyle. Since I have been learning about the polyvagal theory of Stephen Porges, the work of Peter Levine, and your work as well, I am focusing on cultivating life experiences that put me in Ventral Vagal activation as frequently as possible, such as spending time with others who are caring, supportive and accepting of me. It really is revolutionary to put into perspective the framework of the nervous system to provide guidance for deciding how to navigate life. Game changing!!!

[Allanwify]

I started 5 years ago with meditation, Its been a long journey and it is ongoing.
Lately I came by this Somatic Experience by Peter Levine and the lightball turned on, immediately I resonniced it was the missing link and I started therapy.
I still meditate daily, almost out of medicine og see my therapist on a weekly basis.

[НатальяВасильевнаЗолотарева]

It was very useful and inspiring. Thank you for explaining everything clearly!

[BenjaminButton]

I think your misunderstanding why people are asking how long it takes to heal trauma. Suffering isn’t enjoyable and people would like to know roughly when the suffering is no longer suffering. I know it does not end over night but when someone suffers they need hope so they don’t feel like they are going to be like this forever. So by saying it doesn’t end is kind of rough approach. The least you could of said was “you feel better the more you do it”

[nikkilittle]

I get so overwhelmed when trying to figure all of this out. Its difficult to learn when dysregulated.

[davewolf]

As a Christian who has endured so many traumas and suffered through so much, I can tell you that my Creator Jesus Christ has been working to turn me into the man that God wanted me to be, had I of grown up in a healthy household, in a healthy school, in a healthy world. The thing with this is, is that there IS an end. The striving is real, yes, but as you are aligned with the true self, the self that God made you to be, that ONLY God can reveal to you, yes trials and devastations may come, but as you begin to recognize the person you were always intended to be, the healing is lasting, the revelations are permanent. You are not deigned to constantly have to try to keep coping, once the wiring is corrected, it does not need to be continually re- corrected.


This is hard to explain, but the revelations God has given me has destroyed decades of hopeless torturous turmoil and fear and confusion, with a millisecond of awareness "Oh, that is why I do that." and then the problem begins to solve itself and your entire being begins to reorient so that you do not have to struggle with it any more, it goes from being an eternal mountain to a tiny pile of dirt you easily step on. I think Irene you are giving people who are suffering a bit of hopelessness "You have to do this FOREVER you will never be healed!" It is very discouraging and makes one not even want to begin with in the first place.


But I am watching your videos and I am applying it, also through the light of the enemy, the demonic, Satan, who do you think it is that hurts our spirit man, the man we are trying to feel? That can be a scary thought but Satan is powerless and cowers before the Creator, he only has power we give him. Sometimes we have to go through hell to come out of the flames with buckets of water to douse other people who are suffering. I thank you Irene for the videos and your insight.

[LavenderLori]

I watched your video about releasing your anger that was sparked by the ants in the air bnb. You released a lot of anger over that and I couldn't help but wonder how I ever could heal all the childhood traumas (and mine is that emotional abandonment type). I think about the many individual events that come up every time I deal with one and feel defeated. I think I am getting hung up on it. I've actually realized from watching your videos that I've naturally gravitated to the healing modalities you speak of, and I am feeling clearer, and less self sabotaging...but how on earth can I ever clear all the past trauma?

[francesprendergast]

I have chronic pain following a heartbreak 5 years ago and have tried so many different modalities of healing. I've been with a therapist (mix of talk therapy and SE) that I really trust working on this plus horrendous relationship anxiety (me being the avoidant one) for almost 2 years, and my pain is at exactly the same level. My partner is extrodinarily loving and supportive, but most of the time I'm in reactivity (blanket states of anxiety, depression, shutdown, agitation, rage) and rarely experience calm and connection. Is it normal for things not to have shifted in this amount of time? I'm not expecting transformation, but I did expect that there'd be indications I'm on the right path i.e. more frequent calm connection in my relationship, less intense and less frequent pain (it's still there 99% of the time), improved mental health, more energy. Instead, what seems to happen is that things improve a tiny bit (e.g. a good day with my partner, a day of going out and doing more, living more) followed by weeks and months of worsended symptoms.

[Watercolordragon]

Thanks. I’ve been releasing trauma for 2 years. What is your opinion about spiritual teachers that trascend de ego with self enquiry and treat the trauma like identification with memories, body etc. I find myself that if do that I finish disociating but not letingo. Is not until i feel the darkness that i clean myself. But i have so many pockets of dark matter😅

[noamgarfinkel]

hey irene
waht do you think about
organic intelligence by steve hoskinson ?

[thawillyfish]

So if it may get more intense and it's never really over why should we want to release our trauma? Not trying to be cheeky at all!

[briana]

Unfortunately, somatic experiencing is a very expensive therapy. What do you suggest for those who cannot afford it?

[iseeyouurloved]

12:50 onwards Irene mentions “not keeping yourself in victim mode” almost as a throwaway, as one of the prerequisites. Isn’t this sometimes difficult to do though? Maybe I’m not sure what it means to keep oneself in victim mode. Particularly when remembering trauma or developmental trauma. Does it mean to think of ourselves as strong and healing?

[syntheticmemories]

The thought of it is just terryifing. Honestly, no one wants to do this infinitely, everyone wants to resolve their trauma and live from their spontaneous and free essence. I don't see what is the point of this work being forever, besides it sounds poetic. I'd rather live with a bit of trauma still within me than being trapped in an infinite loop of never actually coming there.

[joycenoel]

What if your trauma didn’t come from childhood? Back in November I had a brain coiling done. Surgeons say the surgery itself didn’t cause the anxiety.