[LISTEN] Understand how the brain reacts to a traumatic situation

Clinical Psychologists Jeanie Cavé says new studies show that trauma is a brain phenomenon, not a mind event.

Every day people experience shocking or upsetting incidents that cause psychological damage.

Spaking to Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh standing in for Eusebius McKaiser, clinical psychologists Jeanie Cavé says trauma can result in emotions and psychological experiences, but the actual trauma occurs and must be treated at the level of the brain.

She explains how the amygdala, a little almond-shaped structure in the middle of the brain, arrests all other brain functions for the purpose of survival.

What we are understanding now about trauma is that is doesn't have to involve actual death and an actual physical threat that it can be caused by a variety of different life events that the brain, not the mind, deems a threat to survival.

Jeanie Cavé, Clinical psychologist

What we are understanding now about trauma is that it is a brain event, not a mind event. Not how we feel about the event but how our body reacts to the event.

Jeanie Cavé, Clinical psychologist

Listen to the full interview below...

This article first appeared on 702 : [LISTEN] Understand how the brain reacts to a traumatic situation

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