Trauma and Brain
During a traumatic experience, the dominant hemisphere (likely to be the left brain) which controls linear processing and language function tends to be inhibited while the non-dominant hemisphere (which controls the sensory-perceptual experience) is stimulated (Van der Kolk, 1994). Lanius et al. (2004) confirmed that people who experienced a traumatic event and are suffering from post-traumatic stress replay their traumatic memories through the sensory and imaging storage area of the brain’s right hemisphere. Thus, through generations, healers or shamans used experiences that engaged more fully the brain’s right hemisphere such as drumming, dance, and the use of symbols that appeared in the person’s dreams, art, and imagery (Jacobson-Levy, 2013) for healing.
In the absence of cultural rituals in our postmodern world, the arts may serve as an effective platform where traumatic narratives may be expressed, and where community bonds may be forged in a safe space. On the other hand, conventional counseling or talk therapy may not attain its desired effectiveness in facilitating healing since the traumatized person has likely lost most connection with the brain’s left hemisphere, and therefore may find it hard to process the situation through words. The traumatic experience is likely to be articulated in an entirely different language – the language of the nonverbal and of the enacted (Bloom, 2010). Whether it is through verbal or nonverbal expressions, many researchers and authors in the field of trauma recovery spell out the need for one to tell his or her story of the trauma. Through this, the person is able to reconcile the right hemisphere with the left. In doing so, the person can categorize, order or place the traumatic experience in a meaning that is associated with the past, and relegate it to the past as a memory (Bloom, 2010). If not, the traumatic experience will remain unmetabolized, unintegrated and continues to have an existence in the non-dominant hemisphere reality. The experience may continue haunting the person in the form of nightmares, flashbacks and behavioral re-enactments (Bloom, 2010). Until some other experiences occur to permit to permit a reordering of reality and incorporation of the trauma into a new sense of meaning, the haunting will continue and the person may develop all kinds of secondary behaviors in an attempt to cope with this continuing problem. In fact, addictions, compulsive behaviors, behavioral reenactments, anxieties, phobias, depression, and a variety of physical symptoms may manifest due to a failure to cope with their trauma in healthy ways (Bloom, 2010).
To facilitate healing and give trauma a new meaning, the arts may be a good and safe platform for one to “re-tell” his or her traumatic experience. As such, arts-based assessment may also be a relevant approach in evaluating post-traumatic growth.