Concepts

Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR)

Frank Corrigan's brainstem-level psychotherapy that targets pre-affective orienting and shock responses before cortical narrative processing.

EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — a phased, evidence-based trauma therapy that uses bilateral stimulation to reprocess pathogenic memory networks.

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

Richard Schwartz's parts-based psychotherapy: the mind is a system of protective and wounded parts around an undamaged core Self capable of leading healing.

Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT)

Bruce Perry's developmentally informed clinical approach that sequences interventions from brainstem regulation upward through relational and cortical work.

Somatic Experiencing

Peter Levine's body-oriented approach that discharges thwarted survival energy by tracking sensation and pendulating between activation and settling.

Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)

ICD-11 diagnosis following prolonged, inescapable trauma — PTSD symptoms plus persistent disturbances in self-organization: emotion regulation, self-concept, and relationships.

Developmental Trauma

Chronic adversity during childhood — abuse, neglect, disrupted attachment — that shapes neurodevelopment and produces symptoms distinct from adult-onset PTSD.

Intergenerational Trauma

Transmission of trauma effects across generations via epigenetic, attachment, and social pathways — the descendants of survivors carry measurable risk.

PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder — a diagnosable condition of intrusive re-experiencing, avoidance, negative cognition/mood, and hyperarousal after trauma.

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

The branch of the peripheral nervous system regulating involuntary physiology; its sympathetic and parasympathetic branches organize trauma survival responses.

HPA Axis

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis — the neuroendocrine stress system releasing cortisol; chronically dysregulated in trauma survivors.

Adaptive Information Processing (AIP)

Francine Shapiro's model underpinning EMDR: unprocessed traumatic memories remain stored in dysfunctional, state-dependent form and drive present symptoms until reprocessed.

Amygdala

Subcortical structure central to threat detection and fear conditioning; hyperactive in PTSD and drives implicit trauma responses.

Attachment Theory

Bowlby–Ainsworth framework describing how early caregiver relationships shape internal working models of self, others, and safety across the lifespan.

Dissociation

A disruption of the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception; ranges from mild detachment to structural dissociation of the personality.

Dorsal Vagal Shutdown

Polyvagal state of collapse, immobilization, and numbing mediated by the unmyelinated dorsal vagus when threat is inescapable.

Dysregulation

Loss of the capacity to keep affect, arousal, or behavior within adaptive limits — a core mechanism across trauma disorders.

Polyvagal Theory

Stephen Porges's theory that the mammalian vagus nerve mediates three hierarchical response states — ventral safety, sympathetic mobilization, dorsal shutdown.

Structural Dissociation

Van der Hart, Nijenhuis & Steele's theory: trauma splits the personality into apparently normal (ANP) and emotional (EP) parts, in primary, secondary, or tertiary form.

Toxic Stress

Prolonged activation of the stress response in the absence of buffering relationships; the ACE study links it to lifelong physical and mental illness.

Triphasic Model

Judith Herman's three-phase treatment framework — Safety and Stabilization, Trauma Memory Processing, Integration and Rehabilitation — the international standard.

Ventral Vagal State

Polyvagal state of social engagement and calm connection mediated by the myelinated ventral vagus — the physiological signature of felt safety.

Window of Tolerance

Dan Siegel's model of the arousal band inside which the nervous system can integrate experience; trauma narrows it and pushes people into hyper- or hypoarousal.