Emotional Trauma

We are becoming increasingly aware of how widespread trauma is, and of the huge costs it imposes not only on individuals and their immediate communities, but also on society more generally. But what exactly is trauma? How does it affect our daily lives? And how do we heal it? In this talk, Daniela Sieff, author of 'Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma: Conversations with Pioneering Clinicians and Researchers' will address these questions, drawing on what she learned whilst working on this book. Talk given Jan 20, 2016 Kingsclere Community Library Event (c) Daniela F. Sieff, 2016 To cite this talk: Sieff, D. F (2016) Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma. Kingsclere Library, Hampshire, 20 January, 2016. Lecture. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/0RnauQqTG-g (c) Daniela F. Sieff, 2016 1 Hour. 5 mins ______________________________________________________________ Join my mailing list if you are interested in exploring trauma, healing & well-being. I currently send an e-mail every 1-2 months. It includes a combination of news, bite-sized reflections, & updates about the new books I’m currently writing. This is the link: https://sieff.pro/news

We are becoming increasingly aware of how widespread trauma is, and of the huge costs it imposes not only on individuals and their immediate communities, but also on society more generally. But what exactly do we mean by the word 'trauma'? There is a great deal of misunderstanding about trauma, and we need to develop far greater clarity if we are to work with it more effectively. Trauma is defined by the impact that painful and frightening experiences have on us and by the long term effect those experiences have on our lives, rather than by the relative content of those experiences. When experiences leave us with a deeply held conviction that our survival is at risk, our bodies and brains construct an unconscious system whose ‘aim’ is to protect us, but which paradoxically creates new cycles of trauma in ourselves and those with whom we interact. Understanding this system is crucial to transforming it. Writer and researcher Dr Daniela F. Sieff visits the RSA to explore the dynamics of trauma from an interdisciplinary perspective. Follow the RSA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RSAEvents Like the RSA on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thersaorg

Excerpt from http://www.confer.uk.com/module-attachment.html (for USA http://conferonline.org/module-attachment.html)

THE FIRST OF THIS FOUR-PART FILM EXPLORES: (1) How ‘the Death Mother ‘ represents a woman whose behaviour or feelings threaten the life of her child (or which would have threatened the child’s life during much of humanity’s past). (2) How Western culture sees unconditional maternal love as 'natural', and the Death Mother as unnatural and the result of something that has gone wrong in a woman’s psyche. (3) How this view is challenged by looking at the Death Mother in the context of human evolution and through the eyes of other cultures. (4) How the expanded understanding offered by evolutionary and anthropological perspectives can open the door to healing and change in both women who are living the Death Mother, and those individuals who have been left traumatised by encountering the Death Mother during childhood. _________________________________________________________________ Dr. Daniela F. Sieff is both an evolutionary anthropologist and a researcher of emotional trauma and its healing. She is the author of the book, 'Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma'. For more information see https://www.danielasieff.com/ For references see the article: https://sieff.ink/Death-Mother_Natures_Shadow Filmed, directed, edited by James Rattee: https://vimeo.com/jamesrattee __________________________________________________________________ This film has been uploaded in two configurations: (1) a configuration in which the entire talk is presented as a single film, and (2) this configuration in which the talk is split up into four shorter films. ______________________________________________________________ Join my mailing list if you are interested in exploring trauma, healing & well-being. I currently send an e-mail every 1-2 months. It includes a combination of news, bite-sized reflections, & updates about the new books I’m currently writing. This is the link: https://sieff.pro/news

THE SECOND OF THIS FOUR-PART FILM EXPLORES: (1) Why evolution has shaped women to alter the way that they mother their children depending on the environment in which they are living. (2) Why, in some environments, women are predisposed to feel hostile or ambivalent about their children. (3) Why the feelings and behaviour that underlie mothering have evolved to be sensitive to (a) the resources that are available to a mother, and (b) the amount of support that she has. _________________________________________________________________ Dr. Daniela F. Sieff is both an evolutionary anthropologist and a researcher of emotional trauma and its healing. She is the author of the book, 'Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma'. For more information see https://www.danielasieff.com/ For references see the article: https://sieff.ink/Death-Mother_Natures_Shadow Filmed, directed, edited by James Rattee: https://vimeo.com/jamesrattee ______________________________________________________________ Join my mailing list if you are interested in exploring trauma, healing & well-being. I currently send an e-mail every 1-2 months. It includes a combination of news, bite-sized reflections, & updates about the new books I’m currently writing. This is the link: https://sieff.pro/news

THE THIRD OF THIS FOUR-PART FILM EXPLORES: (1) Why evolution has shaped women to alter the way that they mother their children depending on the child’s characteristics. (2) Why unhealthy, weak, developmentally delayed or disabled children have been at particular risk of suffering at the hands of the Death Mother. (3) Why it is fundamentally wrong to think that because the Death Mother is an aspect of our evolutionary heritage, we should accept it. _________________________________________________________________ Dr. Daniela F. Sieff is both an evolutionary anthropologist and a researcher of emotional trauma and its healing. She is the author of the book, 'Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma'. For more information see https://www.danielasieff.com/ For references see the article: https://sieff.ink/Death-Mother_Natures_Shadow Filmed, directed, edited by James Rattee: https://vimeo.com/jamesrattee ______________________________________________________________ Join my mailing list if you are interested in exploring trauma, healing & well-being. I currently send an e-mail every 1-2 months. It includes a combination of news, bite-sized reflections, & updates about the new books I’m currently writing. This is the link: https://sieff.pro/news

THE FORTH OF THIS FOUR-PART FILM EXPLORES: (1) How toxic shame takes hold of women who are living aspects of the Death Mother. How this shame fuels escalating spirals of maternal hostility or neglect. (2) How toxic shame is woven into the identity of those who grow up under the shadow of the Death Mother. How this shame imprisons people in a ‘trauma-world’ (https://sieff.video/Understanding_Healing_Trauma_2016). (3) How an evolutionary consciousness can shift the toxic shame of both women living the Death Mother and those who grew up under Death Mother’s shadow. How the shifting of this shame contributes to a process of emotional healing. _________________________________________________________________ Dr. Daniela F. Sieff is both an evolutionary anthropologist and a researcher of emotional trauma and its healing. She is the author of the book, 'Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma'. For more information see https://www.danielasieff.com/ For references see the article: https://sieff.ink/Death-Mother_Natures_Shadow Filmed, directed, edited by James Rattee: https://vimeo.com/jamesrattee ______________________________________________________________ Join my mailing list if you are interested in exploring trauma, healing & well-being. I currently send an e-mail every 1-2 months. It includes a combination of news, bite-sized reflections, & updates about the new books I’m currently writing. This is the link: https://sieff.pro/news

Exploring maternal aggression, hostility & ambivalence with the aim of fostering compassionate understanding & change. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Maternal ambivalence and hostility, which are not always conscious – are often played out through physical or emotional abuse, and also through neglect. Other mothers can't be there for their child due to social circumstances or ill health, and the effects are similar to that of neglect. In extreme circumstances a mother’s negativity or absence will threaten the life of her child. 'The Death Mother' symbolises this situation. Western culture, which has idealised motherhood, shames mothers who feel and behave in these ways, and judges them to be mentally ill, unnatural or beyond the pale of humanity. In this film, I challenge such judgements by presenting insights from (1) anthropological studies of different cultures, and (2) research into the evolutionary history of our species. My aim is to forge a more nuanced, layered and compassionate understanding of maternal hostility and ambivalence. My hope is that such an understanding will contribute to healing shame and opening the door to change in two groups of people: first, mothers who feel negatively towards their children, and second, those who have been traumatised by growing up in the shadow of such a mother. ________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Daniela F. Sieff is both an evolutionary anthropologist and a researcher of emotional trauma and its healing. She is the author of the book, 'Understanding and Healing Emotional Trauma'. For more information see https://www.danielasieff.com/ For references see the article: https://sieff.ink/Death-Mother_Natures_Shadow Filmed, directed, edited by James Rattee: https://vimeo.com/jamesrattee _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Join my mailing list if you are interested in exploring trauma, healing & well-being. I currently send an e-mail every 1-2 months. It includes a combination of news, bite-sized reflections, & updates about the new books I’m currently writing. This is the link: https://sieff.pro/news