Looking for free interoception resources?
Check out our FREE printables that will help you in your interoception journey.
Yes, please! Count me in!
When a person experiences trauma, they can have a muted inner response, an intense inner experience, or a mix of the two. Interoception and trauma are linked because when a person experiences trauma, it changes how they can interpret their body signals.
These traumas can affect all people in interrupt their interoception, but neurodivergent people tend to suffer from these traumas more often.
Why do neurodivergent people suffer more often from interruptions to their interoceptive awareness? They navigate a “typical-focused” world that lacks the support they need. Because of this, many neurodivergents have formed trauma responses to everyday stimuli not considered within the framework of what many consider to be traditional.
For people who experience sensory differences, their external world can feel overwhelming, unsafe, and threatening. Sounds that might seem benign to someone without sensory differences, like a snow blower or a car horn, for example, can cause a trauma response in those with sensory differences. They may also mask their differences, which adds trauma.
Social trauma can come from bullying or feeling isolated, which are things that disproportionately affect neurodivergent people. Feeling different from others, or being perceived as different from others, can be traumatizing, leading creative, unique thinkers to feel they are not good enough or become distressed.
Neurodivergent people tend to suffer in settings where they are forced into compliance and normalization approaches. Straying from the “behavioral norm” is not widely accepted, though some new programs exist to promote acceptance. This forced compliance can be traumatic for neurodivergent people.
Neurological trauma occurs when neurological-based variances, like an inability to communicate effectively, cause a person to become overwhelmed and feel uncertainty in everyday settings. Being unable to communicate their needs, wants, or desires can lead to feeling misunderstood or unsafe, a form of trauma.
Feeling misunderstood, unheard, and unaccommodated by healthcare providers can lead many neurodivergents to feel traumatized. These providers tend to treat the specialized needs of neurodivergent people with standard, cookie-cutter solutions that often do not accommodate neurodivergence well.
Our Unsafe, Unheard, and Misunderstood course offers practical, evidence-based approaches to nurture healing from past trauma and help prevent future trauma from occurring.
For some people, trauma disrupts many aspects of life, including the interoception experience. You don’t feel comfortable or regulated when you experience difficulties responding to the body’s physical and emotional needs. If a therapist does not incorporate interoceptive approaches into trauma therapies with clients, then there are difficulties for the client in caring for all their body’s needs. Becoming aware of how the body feels can help you get to a place where cognitive strategies found in traditional therapy methodologies can make sense to your neurology.
When you experience traumas and seek help, it’s important to approach your healing from a level you can understand. The same can be said when we work with a client; it’s always best to meet them where they are and to provide support from a level that meets their needs. Our sequential approach has three levels to meet people where they are at and help them feel supported and regulated.
Co-regulation is the starting point of our framework. Promoting feelings of safety and regulation in our clients can help them refocus on their inner feelings and focus less on outside distractions like:
Before moving on to Level Two, it is imperative that our client feels safe and regulated. Ask them questions to help them reach this point. How can you support their regulation and help them feel safe in their everyday life?
With level two, we want to focus on connection. Your client should be able to focus on the following:
Once clients can connect with themselves more easily and understand their bodies’ feelings, we can naturally progress to level three.
Begin working with level three activities once the client can understand their body’s inner sensations and what those sensations mean for them. Level three is about:
It’s important to move through these levels at a pace with what the client needs. If our client does not seem ready for level three, stay with level two until there is evidence that they are prepared to move to this level. Introducing the client to a new level too quickly might limit or stall their progress, so go at their pace.
The nervous system responds to traumatic stress differently in everybody. Its effect on interoceptive abilities can make supporting traumatized learners more challenging. Our interoception and trauma resources can help! Register now and start learning how to utilize interoception in trauma healing.
