Trauma and Fragmentation
Trauma and fragmentation reflect and cause one another. When a person experiences severe trauma, their identity, including personality and emotions, goes through a process of fragmentation. This is when the body divides traits and feelings, and groups them into smaller sections, keeping some of them hidden until a safe space for expression is provided.
The key to tackling trauma and fragmentation is to find ways to make the individual fragments work as a whole once again.
What are Fragments of Self
Fragments are these aspects of ourselves that didn’t get to express their wants, desires, or needs because they didn’t feel it was safe to do so, so they partially detached from the core of the victim and became suppressed. Having said that, this does not mean they’re completely gone.
Triggers can bring fragments to the forefront, causing incomprehensive emotional reactions. As fragments and the self-learned to work and operate as separate entities, the rational self becomes unavailable. When people get stuck in a reactive pattern, it means that, most likely, the irrational impulsive fragment now leads to behavior and responses.
People with disintegrated fragments of self are not in control over their actions – their (younger) trauma-affected self is. There is no outside force that can remove power and influence from strong fragments, but the individual can work on identifying their fragments and try to overpower them by re-integrating rational thought.
Process of Recovering Trauma And Fragmentation Assessment
When encountering fragmentation in a trauma patient, the therapist needs to take on a different approach:
Identifying different fragments
Identifying the time when they split off
Finding what each fragment needs
The expected result from therapy for overcoming trauma and fragmentation integration is for the person to acknowledge those instances where their fragment took over control. It usually results in some eye-opening “aha!” moments, as well as both physical and mental release. As with any therapeutic approach, the easiest way for a person to change is to fully understand their patterns. Awareness of the presence of fragments also reduces their power to overwhelm the body and mind, as the patient can now recognize when their fragments pop up and address them appropriately.
A therapist can give fragmented individuals tools on how to address fragments, with identification being the first step. The second one is to gain a deeper knowledge of the timeline after identification: When did this first happen? Why didn’t you feel safe back then? How has this impacted you?
The third step is to identify the needs that were unmet when the fragments developed, and how those needs can be assessed in the present moment. This will allow the fragments to reintegrate with the rational self without disrupting the balance.
Reintegration is a slow and painful process because all fragments need to be first re-assembled in a safe space (which therapy is for many patients), and then they can subsequently learn how to keep them at bay when going out into the world and the unknown.
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To Wrap Up
Trauma and fragmentation are both results of an emotionally-overwhelming experience that left the individual with a sense of having no safe space. Through triggers related to the trauma-inflicted self, an individual can split their personality and emotions and divide them into rational and irrational pieces.
Through therapy, trauma victims can learn how to integrate their fragments into a whole and then learn how to use the tools given by their professionals and imply them to their life in the outside world.