Posted by lucie lu on November 17, 2008, at 21:54:14
In reply to Re: Is this another way therapy rewires brains?, posted by Dinah on November 17, 2008, at 17:46:53
Daisy, awesome post! Somehow I knew you'd come through with something wonderful on this topic. But that was so on target.
It's funny that you mentioned the "sensitive" bit because my T and I have talked a lot about how things like temperament affect responses to the environment. He has painted scenarios like (I am paraphrasing), "imagine a sensitive, high-energy, empathic and emotionally intense child. She may need more than the usual active parenting - guidance, empathy, understanding, help with learning to handle her strong emotions, numerous sensitivities, and high activity level. Such a child will be especially devastated by caregivers who are unable e.g. due to substance abuse, to connect with her and give her the help she needs. This child may also experience considerable distress simply from the emotional tone or atmosphere (e.g. sensing general unhappiness of family members) of a dysfunctional home than another, less sensitive, child would. The high-sensitivity child is at greater risk for traumatization, even by relatively lower levels of stress, because of the magnified effect stress has on her developing nervous system. He has emphasized on numerous occasions that while events of the past undeniably do matter, they can take a back seat to how a given child perceived them, e.g. emotional response, at the time. And that's where temperament comes in, because the effect of such stress on the highly-sensitive brain can rewire it similarly to that associated with more severe trauma in another.
poster:lucie lu
thread:862771
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20081104/msgs/863713.html