What trauma-informed means
Trauma-informed care recognizes that trauma is not a personality flaw or a story to be reasoned out of, it is a physiological adaptation. The nervous system learned to protect you from a genuine threat. That protection becomes a problem when the threat is gone but the nervous system keeps responding as if it is not.
Bessel van der Kolk's research demonstrated that trauma leaves measurable biological markers: altered cortisol patterns, reduced hippocampal volume, and disrupted communication between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. Talking about trauma does not automatically resolve these biological changes. The body must be included in the healing.
The Window of Tolerance
Daniel Siegel's Window of Tolerance describes the zone of nervous system arousal within which a person can process experience effectively. Too little arousal (hypoarousal, dissociation, numbness, collapse) and the person cannot engage. Too much (hyperarousal, panic, fight, flight, freeze) and the person cannot regulate. Healing requires working within the window.
For people with trauma histories, the Window of Tolerance is often narrower than average. Psychedelic ceremony involves high-intensity emotional and sensory experience. Without a trauma-informed framework, that experience can re-traumatize rather than heal. Ceremonia's protocol works to widen the window before ceremony through somatic practices, nervous system education, and preparation, and to keep participants within it during the experience through trained facilitation.
Screening and safety
Not every person is ready for psychedelic ceremony, and not every trauma history is compatible with the group retreat format. Ceremonia conducts medical and psychological screening before accepting participants, including review of psychiatric history, current medications, and recent mental health events.
[CONTENT GAP: confirm contraindications and screening protocol with Ceremonia's medical reviewer before publishing]
Key references
- van der Kolk, Bessel. The Body Keeps the Score. Viking, 2014.
- Levine, Peter A. Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. North Atlantic Books, 1997.
- Siegel, Daniel J. The Developing Mind. Guilford Press, 1999.