What is trauma?
Trauma is a situation or an event that a person or an animal simply cannot cope with, leaving them in an extreme state of fear; it can be an accident, a fight, risking death, extreme pain and maim,a natural catastrophe like an earthquake of a flood, mistreatment,rape, torture, humiliation, physical or mental harm. In the moment of the trauma, because the being was unable to flee the situation, the trauma could generate a psychological dissociation and even multiple personalities ( mainly in humans). The person in question produces another personality which will replace the ego/self in the extreme situation.
Two very famous human cases that generated books: “The three faces of Eve” and “Sybil”(1)
What we see is a dissociative disorder in various degrees.
Dissociation, according to Dr Colin Ross (2)is the opposite of association “Anywhere in the Universe (in any system or sub-system), 2 things can either be associated (connected, interacting, linked together) or they are dissociated (out of relationship, they are not interacting). Ex: Dissociation constancy in physical chemistry. Dissociation is a disconnection. «So, when you are dissociated from yourself, you are disconnected from yourself; Which can be from your identity, from your feelings, from your motor or sensory functions, your memories and all kinds of different parts of yourself.» « Second thing is also a technical term in cognitive psychology : Dissociation in memory (conscious and unconscious) and you can have information stored in your unconscious mind, not having direct conscious access to it, but it is affecting your behavior ».
In animals,for example, we can notice a perfectly healthy dog, for instance,a rescue, who does not let anyone touch his back parts ( back legs,tail, butt), he turns frantically the head and can even bite whoever tries to touch him or her.
In humans, the first most famous case was the case of Anna O. Her real name was Bertha Pappenheim; ” The case of Anna O (real name Bertha Pappenheim) marked a turning point in the career of a young Viennese neuropathologist by the name of Sigmund Freud. It even went on to influence the future direction of psychology as a whole.
Anna O. suffered from hysteria, a condition in which the patient exhibits physical symptoms (e.g. paralysis, convulsions, hallucinations, loss of speech) without an apparent physical cause. Her doctor Josef Breuer succeeded in treating Anna by helping her to recall forgotten memories of traumatic events. During discussions with her it became apparent that she had developed a fear of drinking, when a dog she hated drank from her glass. Her other symptoms originated when caring for her sick father. She would not express her anxiety for his illness but did express it later, during psychoanalysis. As soon as she had the opportunity to make these unconscious thoughts conscious her paralysis disappeared. Breuer discussed the case with his friend Freud. Out of these discussions came the germ of an idea that Freud was to pursue for the rest of his life. In Studies in Hysteria (1895) Freud proposed that physical symptoms are often the surface manifestations of deeply repressed conflicts. However, Freud was not just advancing an explanation of a particular illness. Implicitly he was proposing a revolutionary new theory of the human psyche itself.” (Wikipedia)
The relation of psychological symptoms and physical symptoms is present in animals and humans , alike. These traumas get stored in our unconscious mind and it is only through therapy that they can be healed.
What have I observed during Animal Conversations?
What struck me most is the similitude of traumas of humans and their animals. One of my first cases was a horse who supposedly tried to kill his owner, a lovely lady from the United States, let’s call her A. A was very worried that she should sell her horse, because sometime he was behaving erratically and dangerously. Being new in Animal Communication, I was afraid to take the case, but being formed in Psychology and being a Freudian, it seemed that the most natural thing to do would be a psychoanalysis of both, as A was telling me that she could not cope with difficult situations, either. Me, being in Greece, I would talk to her by mail at night. I told her to tell her horse, in her own voice, what she went through, when she was a child. He, in the morning, would tell me what he went through in his past…Slowly, we started to realize that they had gone through the same kind of trauma. The horse admitted that he did not want to kill her, he was only afraid she would send him to the horrible place he was before (Amish Auction). The psychoanalysis lasted many months but the horse ended up living with A for many happy years. She even put him in a pasture near the house and she could observe him during the day, from her kitchen. She would describe to me how happy he was.The connection which came from that psychoanalysis was extremely deep and replaced that schism/dissociative disorder from before. It was a therapy for him and for her.
“There is no coming into consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious .” Carl Jung
What humans think
Many humans think they can heal a traumatized (psychologically) animal just with love and food, but that is not true. If it was that easy, humans would not spend millions with doctors and medicine. The reaction of animals, many times, fool humans who rush in translating it into something “cute”. Many times, when an animal has anxiety or a worry, he can behave erratically like: scratching himself, growling, leaving the scene, pulling the leash, crying, etc…The human is fast into translating the behavior into something he can “understand”-“the dog is lazy”, “the dog is crazy”, “this cat is wild”. Not only there is not communication between these two species in these moments, as the misunderstanding just makes the situation worse.
The classical way of dog training: beating the poor animal into submission or the electric collar, would just make the situation worse. Frustration would be high, from both sides.
As Penelope Smith says, humans do want the best for their animals or they would not look for professional help. It is up to us,animal communicators, when we take a client, to evaluate the capacity of cooperation of the human, if he is open to change himself, and put some effort in the therapy.
Tellington TTouch was a big help, for me and humans, into encoding and translating animal behavior for humans who lived with the animal in question. The five Fs, for instance (Fooling around, flight, fight , freeze and faint) is easy to teach to people and empower them to recognize difficult moments for their animals.
How unresolved trauma generate slavery
We really have to study the causal factors of our lives, “why the things are the way they are”. If I want to change my own life, if I want to be a good functioning person and after project it and co-create with the world for a better society, I must know myself. Patanjali had already said it in the very ancient book: “Sutras, by Patanjali”.
We are living in a suffering chaotic human condition because the majority of humans are living in a world of unresolved trauma and they are projecting this negative energy back in the world.
Trauma provides the perfect vehicle to program specific behaviors. The animal or human reacts to certain situations with a conditioned behavior to avoid confrontation Human and Animal behavior is generated out of emotions produced by past experiences.
We become slaves of:our emotions, medicine, society and our own traumas; we lose control of our behavior. When Animal communication and therapy occurs, there is a deep healing process that educates and enriches the lives of those two beings.
Animals as soul siblings
Nothing in this world is pure coincidence- “as above so below”. Everything is arranged for us, humans-animals, to learn the best way possible; to be our best in each incarnation and to progress to become a helper in this symbiosis. Universe reminds us that we are co-creating all the time with our: family, friends, animals, plants, co-workers.
(1)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eIfVw6Bm60
(2) https://www.rossinst.com/about-dr-colin-ross
