Lesson Summary

Welcome to the trauma recovery skills course, the fourth and final section focusing on distress tolerance skills. The course aims to provide tools to help individuals calm their nervous system when triggered by past traumas. Trauma is described as an injury to the brain that impacts nervous system functioning, contributing to trauma responses that may affect safety and security in relationships. In this section, the goal is to reduce the likelihood of trauma responses by recalibrating the nervous system.

• Triggered thoughts and emotions can lead to fight or flight responses, especially in individuals who have never felt safe.
• Recalibrating the nervous system can make it easier to use skills learned in the course to break down trauma patterns.

The instructor, Grace, a licensed mental health counselor with expertise in addiction recovery, attachment issues, and trauma recovery, shares personal experiences of surviving trauma and the healing process. The section focuses on tools to help identify trauma symptoms in the body, various trauma treatment methods, and dialectical behavioral therapy distress tolerance skills for managing physical trauma responses and avoiding destructive behaviors.

• Teaching how to identify trauma symptoms in the body
• Reviewing different ways to treat trauma
• Teaching DBT distress tolerance skills to address physical trauma reactions
• Providing guidance on managing trauma responses and preventing their recreation

The course recommends completing previous sections on deconstructing trauma, relationship skills, and emotion regulation skills to fully integrate the learning. By combining these sections, individuals can better understand and address the impact of trauma on their lives. Start the journey by watching the first video to begin learning and developing these essential skills for trauma recovery.