Resparking from flatness: new thoughts on shut-down states after trauma and neglect

ABSTRACT

This paper delineates various forms of ‘desparked’ shutdown, such as in learned helplessness, trauma and dissociation, and extreme neglect. It examines how overwhelming experiences are at their root contracting, involving a numbing down and a turning away from life. It suggests that recovery always requires experiencing a new sense of safety and trust, and that from there one can experience a reboot and respark into life. It suggests that while safeness is always central in work with trauma, courage is also necessary, especially to push through defences that might have been outgrown.

KEYWORDS:

• Trauma
• neglect
• danger
• numbing
• dissociation
• freeze

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Graham Music

Graham Music is a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Centre and an adult Psychotherapist in private practice. Formerly Associate Clinical Director of the Tavistock Clinic’s Child and Family Department, he works at the Portman Clinic as a forensic psychotherapist and his clinical experience has for decades been mainly with trauma. He has developed and managed a range of services working with the aftermath of child maltreatment and neglect. He supervises and teaches nationally and internationally and has a particular interest in linking cutting-edge developmental findings with therapeutic practice. His publications include Respark: Igniting hope and joy after trauma and depression (2022), Nurturing Children: From Trauma to Hope (2019), Nurturing Natures (2016, 2010), Affect and Emotion (2001), The Good Life (2014) and he co-edited From Trauma to Harming Others (2021).