Toddler Trauma: Somatic Experiencing®,
Attachment and the Neurophysiology of Dyadic Completion
Joseph P. Riordan (SEP, MAPS);
Dr. Abi Blakeslee (SEP, CMT, MFT);
Dr. Peter A. Levine.
you can download the original research here
Abstract
“Aleppo’s orphans replay their trauma with war games in the rubble” - Hollie McKay foxnews.com (December 30, 2016.)
A combination of Somatic Experiencing (SE) and Play Therapy can be effective interventions for post-surgical traumatized toddlers, using Rescue Role Play in a behavioral sequence to achieve neurobiological “completion” of autonomic, survival imperatives that have been thwarted through the experience of traumatic overwhelm.
Comfort-Seeking (CS), i.e., the toddler’s autonomic behavior of safety-orienting and runningto their Primary Attachment Figure (PAF) for soothing at times of threat arousal, is a phylogenetically ordered, neuro-motor, survival imperative (Levine & Frederick, 1997; Porges, 2011) that completes the toddler’s incomplete survival response (Levine, 2010; Levine & Kline, 2007) and renegotiates neuro-integration from primitive, lower brain, survival structures reconnecting with prefrontal social engagement systems (Siegel, 2012), thereby restoring whole brain neural integration and neurobiological homeostasis in the toddler’s nervous system. When CS is followed by PAF-Somatic-Attachment-Soothing (SAS), the toddler’s nervous system can regulate into Quiescent Attunement (QA), a state related to Quiescent Immobility (Porges, 2016; Kozlowska et. al., 2015) where attuned, secure-attachment in the Traumatized Attachment Dyad (tad) is restored, a phenomenon described as Dyadic Completion (DC).
Conclusion
Dyadic Completion combined with Levine’s (2010), SE treatment for early childhood trauma (Levine & Kline, 2007), offers a modality consistent with modern attachment theory (Siegel, 2012; Schore, 2013), current neuroscientific theory (Porges, 2011, 2016; Schore, 2012; Siegel, 2012), and established child play therapy, validating the importance of secure attachment (Ogden, 2015; Tronick, 2007) and behavioral completion in Rescue Role Play to address early childhood trauma. SE-Dyadic Completion offers important considerations in both the prevention and occurrence of post-surgical, Toddler Trauma and resolution of TA, TAD, DTD and Childhood PTSD.